From the Archives: The Battle For George Sisler’s Soul

In 1910, 17-year-old phenom George Sisler signed a contract with Akron of the Ohio-Pennsylvania League between his junior and senior years of high school. Sisler was a minor, however, and his father Cassius demanded that Akron void the contract. Sisler enrolled at the University of Michigan and began playing ball for the Wolverines. In September […]

1925 All-Star Game: Junior Loop Shames Nationals In 19 to 5 Beating

JUNIOR LOOP SHAMES NATIONALS IN 19 TO 5 BEATING Heilmann and Hale Contribute Four-Baggers in Fierce Assault RUETHER SUSPENSION UPHELD PHILADELPHIA, July 14.—As if the legion of walking wounded among American League players wasn’t large enough, junior circuit czar Ban Johnson dealt another blow by refusing to reinstate Washington Senators southpaw Dutch Ruether to good […]

Through the Eyes of a Patriots Fan: The Infield Fly Rule and the Somerset Patriots

The Infield Fly rule is defined in rule 2.00 by describing it, and then later on to explain the reason(s) the batter is out is stated with rule 6.05e.   I have been coaching for many years, starting with the T-ball level up to Babe Ruth League.  At one time I was also responsible for assigning […]

Fox’s 3 Consecutive Walk-Offs May Be a First, But Albers’ Brilliant Debut Shares Top Billing

It does not happen this way often when two ultra-heroic events divide attention about deadline time.  When it does, one deals. Jake Fox made the first bid for attention when the Somerset, NJ (Atlantic League) designated hitter collected walk-off hits in three consecutive games.  We do not know if it has ever been done before, […]

Reminiscent of Dramatics of Five Years Ago, Independent Baseball Has Two Major League All-Stars

Independent Baseball will never have the marketing impact of the powerhouse major league franchises when it comes to pushing for All-Star votes, but it still will have some bragging rights when the game’s marquee names gather for their annual mid-season classic at Citi Field in New York next week. For one thing, the American League […]

iOOTP12 for Apple

iOOTP12 for Apple (sorry, Android fans, you’ve got at least another year to wait before partaking) is the Kate Upton to OOTP13’s Sofia Vergara: whereas the latter has endless curves, you sure as hell won’t mind spending hours with the slimmer, compact version. Kate (uh, I mean, iOOTP12) is well worth the price of admission, […]

The Big Hitter Of The 50’s Decade, Musial

During the decade of the 1950s occurred what american baseball analysts named a “rise of the hitters”. Running the racial integration, joined organized baseball with all the figures of importance included the Caribbean, guaranteeing the presence in major league baseball of sluggers as Mays, Aaron, Banks, Minoso, Clemente or Frank Robinson who, along with Williams, […]

OOTP 13: Perhaps The Best Sports Simulation Game Ever

To paraphrase the words of the portly Simpsons character Comic Book Man, Out of the Park 13 is perhaps the “Best Game Ever” when it comes to sports simulations. Proclaiming OOTP13 as such doesn’t give the game enough justice. As awe-inspiring as last year’s edition was, producer Markus Heinson and his band of creative baseball […]

The Most Egregious Cy Young Award Snubs of All Time (at Least on Paper)

I recently listed the most egregious MVP snubs of all time and thought it was time to give the pitchers a little love (although not the ones who were awarded a Cy Young they didn’t deserve based on my WA2RB formula).  Rather than plagiarize myself and explain my thoughts and formula, you should head over […]

Independents May Have Most Major Leaguers Ever in ’11

Well-Traveled Hurler DeLaRosa Helps Independents Edge Closer to All-Time High for Most Major Leaguers The door has swung completely open for Independent Baseball to claim perhaps its most important achievement before the season ends.  This could go down as the summer when the greatest number of players made it to the major leagues.  After all, […]

Childhood and Wally Bunker

The year 1964 when I was 7 years old, was a landmark for me.  In February of that year, I saw the Beatles for the first time on my grandmother’s 13″ black and white television; a set so full of vacuum tubes and other hardware that it weighed as much as our big screen TV […]

It Is the Turn-Around Series in Atlantic League Finals

Like any other championship series time, there is no shortage of angles to the Bridgeport-York set starting Wednesday to decide the 2010 Atlantic League champion. The obvious approach to the best-of-five championship set that begins in York is that this is two teams hungrier than normal for a title.  After all, the Revolution, who host […]

Touring the Bases With…Milt Wilcox

Milt Wilcox, a righthanded hurler from Hawaii, was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the second round of the 1968 amateur draft, a draft that included Tim Foli, Thurman Munson, Bobby Valentine, Greg Luzinski, Gary Matthews, and Bill Buckner.  Coming straight out of high school, Wilcox began his career in the Rookie League before moving […]

Touring The Bases With…Randy Jones

Former major league hurler Randy Jones spent only 10 years in the bigs and lost more games than he won, going 100-123 for the San Diego Padres and New York Mets, but for two magical seasons, he was among the best pitchers in the game.  After leading the National League in losses with 22 in […]

Baseball’s Craftsmen

George F. Will’s “Men at Work” is a classic. Twenty years after the book stood at No. 1 on the NYT Bestseller list for 19 straight weeks, it’s back as a re-release. This week, for those of us who were too young to appreciate it the first time around, let me shed light on what […]

Trade Mate Hurls No-Hitter on Day Lima Died; Second Hurler Missed Gem by One Out

In an amazingly ironic twist, Kris Honel hurled a no-hit game for Chico, CA on the same day Jose Lima passed away.  The two pitchers were traded for each other last season with Lima moving from Long Beach to Edmonton in the Golden League swap. Honel, a first-round draft choice of the Chicago White Sox […]

Moved by Jose Lima’s Death, Joe Klein Looks Back at Going To the Dominican to Sign Him and on His Atlantic League Days

Jose Lima’s sudden death was felt throughout baseball, amplified by the fact he was pitching as recently as last summer, but the depth of the loss of the fun-loving 37-year-old may not have been felt much deeper than in the Atlantic League’s home office in Camden. “I knew Jose when he was 16, and I […]

Former MLB Hurler Dick Drago to Appear on “What’s On Second” Podcast

Former Major League hurler Dick Drago will appear on “What’s On Second: The Seamheads.com Radio Hour” on Monday, May 17 at 11:00 PM Eastern (8:00 Pacific).  Drago began his major league career with the expansion Kansas City Royals in 1969 after spending four years in the Detroit Tigers’ minor league system, where he went 50-41 […]

Citizens Bank Puke

After the game on April 14th I double checked the Phillies’ promotional schedule and it was not listed as “Drunk Loser Night” despite what I had seen. It has been about a week and a half since Philadelphia has been held up once again as a shining example of how a few knuckleheads can make […]

Touring the Bases With…Ed Herrmann

The grandson of pitcher Marty Herrmann, Ed, a catcher, debuted with the Chicago White Sox in 1967, then spent 11 years in the majors before ending his career with Montreal in 1978 as Gary Carter’s backup.  In 1972, Herrmann caught all 49 of Wilbur Woods’ starts, the most for a battery since 1884 when Sam […]

A Hurler Who Hit Better Than The Rest

A look at Louisville Colonels’ pitcher Guy Hecker’s 1886 season, when he became the first and only pitcher ever to lead a major league in batting. In the winter of 1885, it looked like a good bet that Guy Hecker would not be suiting up in a Louisville Colonel uniform for the 1886 season, a […]

This Week in Baseball: 1928

This is part of a weekly series in which I describe what was happening in Major League Baseball each week of a randomly chosen year. This week’s article chronicles the goings on during the week of April 8-14, 1928.