Fort Worth Could Be Among Additions to Atlantic League, Montreal to the Can-Am

It is sounding more every week, as least so it seems, that the Atlantic League may be more than an eight-time league by next season.  Peter Kirk, whose Opening Day Partners already own four teams in the league, confirmed to veteran writer Jim Seip for his Revs Inside Pitch blog that his group is in […]

The Glory Days: How MLB’s First Expansion Unfolded

Major league baseball’s first modern-day expansion did not just happen overnight. It was not simply the result of a shrewd job of blackmailing by William Shea and renowned baseball man Branch Rickey; they did not hold Commissioner Ford Frick and 16 team owners hostage by threatening to start a new league. The shadow of the […]

If Montreal Gets Stadium, Indy Team Will Follow

     The French counterpart to the word “if”, I am told, is “si”.  Well, si got considerable attention north of the United States border this week.       Miles Wolff, the commissioner of  the Canadian-American League, which this corner tends to shorten to Can-Am, sat down to talk baseball in bustling Montreal this week, along with […]

How About Those Pirates…

The Pittsburgh Pirates endured another losing season in 2010 (18th straight and counting), fired yet another field manager in John Russell, tied the 1963 New York Mets for the worst road record for a single season, and drew 1,613,399 fans to P&C Park, the second lowest total in the National League, and still fashion themselves […]

From the New York Collegiate Baseball League Championship

If it wasn’t in Elmira, I wouldn’t even go. But the final day before the boys head back to the dorms is staged here, in Elmira, at Dunn Field; and Dunn Field is the center of at least one known universe. This is where my father, presumably in 1956, almost missed his high school graduation to see […]

LETTERS FROM QUEBEC: An Expos Birthday…

“Gerry was a great salesman,” the friend said. “How else could he have convinced Walter O’Malley to bring major league baseball to Montreal?” Remember this date – May 27, 1968. It is as significant as any in the history of the organization we once called the Expos. Although pretty well forgotten now, May 27 was […]

Buying A Manager

“I came here with $100,000 to get a new manager and two new players for the Chicago club.” said Chicago Cubs President Charles H. Weeghman as he arrived in New York City for the annual National League baseball meetings of 1916. “I have in mind for a leader two men who have attained national prominence […]

A Question of Ownership

From 1933-1988 there was one constant in the Boston Red Sox organization—the Yawkey family.  For 55 years, the team was owned by either Tom or his wife Jean, and three generations of my family lived, breathed, cried, and bled Boston Red Sox baseball under Yawkey’s watch.  But prior to Yawkey’s purchase of the team, seven […]