Strasburg Redux

Washington has many fine sportswriters. Atop the list are Tom Boswell, Tim Kurkjian, and until recently John Feinstein. Last season Feinstein was one of the louder voices calling for the Nationals to keep sending Strasburg out every five days in September. And now he is using the failure of the Nationals to make the playoffs […]

I Miss My Friend Nellie King

I can remember it as if it were yesterday.  The family and I had returned from a “cook-out,” and my wife Barbara noticed a message on the answering machine.  She informed me that it was from “one of those baseball people.”   I should explain that I am a member of SABR (Society of American […]

No-Hitters on the Road

Like every Mets fan my age, I’ve only been waiting since 1962 for their first no-hitter. Well, that might not be accurate. In those early years there were few illusions about the potential of any Mets pitcher to pitch a no-hitter. We weren’t like the fans of the expansion Montreal Expos in 1969, who got […]

Touring the Bases With…Dave Baldwin

The confrontation between batter and hitter defines baseball.  No one understands the scientific dynamic of those opposing forces better than Dave Baldwin, late sixties bullpen stalwart for the Washington Senators, a geneticist and engineer who studies batters and pitchers as mechanical and neurological entities.  His insights are fascinating and offer some important instructive insight into […]

Musings from the Manager’s Office

Where to go on a rainy day in spring training? The manager of the Atlanta Braves, always a congenial host, held court with a half-dozen journalists before the rained-out exhibition game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at ESPN Wide World of Sports. Now that he’s a self-proclaimed lame duck, Bobby Cox has answered everything two, three, […]