A Picture Worth Almost Two Thousand Words: Ted Kluszewski and Me

It was a moment that now seems almost as if I imagined it.  It was the summer of 1972, I was seventeen years old, freshly graduated from high school, away from home, somewhere in Ohio, and Iron Mike was hurling baseballs at me in a batting cage.  Having spent considerable time in this same situation […]

A Kid in the Hall of Fame

Hey baseball fans! I realize I haven’t blogged about actual baseball history in about a week and I apologize for that. Today, I will be blogging about one of my favorite catchers of all time. Yes, I am a Yankee fan, but I’m not talking about Yogi Berra or Bill Dickey. I’m also not talking about Mike Piazza, who […]

No Tears for George

I am a native New Yorker who still lives in the NY/NJ area and I watch the 6 PM News on NBC each evening.  On Monday, December 6, the sports newscaster announced that George Steinbrenner was not elected to the Hall of Fame – and that was it.  No mention that Pat Gillick was elected […]

El lado olvidado del béisbol (The forgotten side of baseball)

Sin embargo existe una faceta del juego que deben rendir todos los equipos cuando saltan al terreno de juego. Hablamos del desempeño defensivo de los jugadores, el cual puede tener tanta incidencia en el desenlace de un juego como lo que puedan hacer los pitchers o los bateadores.

Al fondo de la esquina caliente (At the bottom of the hot corner)

Inicios de octubre de 1970 desplegaba varias páginas de suspenso para mis 9 años de hiperkinesia desbordada. Haber seguido los juegos del Mundial de Fútbol por televisión y el Campeonato Nacional Juvenil de Béisbol en el estadio de Cumaná, encendía toda la fruición de mi expectativa ante la Serie Mundial de aquel año. Toda esa curiosidad galopaba en paralelo con el reto de la tabla de dividir y la regla de tres que significaba el cuarto grado. La maestra Inés llenaba el aula con su conocimiento transparente y su pedagogía que saltaba entre los pupitres. Cualquier asomo de miedo a las matemática me lo borró en el primer instante que escuché su voz. Me había tocado el turno de la tarde, por lo cual debía estar atento en mis juegos y correrías por calles y cañaverales de regresar a casa antes de mediodía.

Back to the Future: The SPORT Magazine 1969 Major League All-Stars

While going through my old magazines (again) I saw an article from the July 1964 issue of SPORT titled “A Look Into the Future: The 1969 All-Star Team” written by John Devaney.  Devaney polled more than 50 big league managers, coaches, veteran players, writers and sportscasters to find the players whom they believed would be […]

19th Century Overlooked Base Ball Legends Project — And the 2010 Candidates are…

It was an early April morning and I was sitting on the back porch of the Otesaga in Cooperstown, New York. The twenty minutes or so sitting alone rocking back and forth in a white rocking chair was a surreal moment for me. I have often heard stories of Johnny Bench and others sharing moments […]

Rambling on About My Glory Days – Ballplayers (Kids) Say the Darndest Things

One never knows when a ballplayer, young or old, will say something that makes your head spin, creates a comment that you don”t forget and teaches a valuable life lesson for the future. My second book was written because I believe sports provide many opportunities for parents to teach life lessons to their kids. Sometimes, […]

How A Baseball Simmer Challenged History

Robert Bofors’ study of caught stealing estimates during the Deadball era proves to be illuminating.