106 Major League Victories This Season; You Bet, and That Is Just for Independent Leaguers

Twenty-one years ago when Kash Beauchamp was signed off the St. Paul (MN) Saints’ roster in the Northern League and assigned to Class AA the naysayers were continuing to pooh-pooh the future of this new thing called Independent Baseball.  Those who believed it could succeed likely were in the minority. We have pointed out the […]

Thinking About Jamie Moyer at 49

Jamie Moyer is old enough to have helped prompt the Chicago Cubs to trade Dennis Eckersley to the Oakland A’s in the spring of 1987, when Moyer was a rising prospect displacing Eckersley as a starter, and to have been traded along with Rafael Palmeiro to the Texas Rangers for Mitch Williams before the 1989 […]

Here Come the Miami White Sox

Mark Buehrle has long been the best pitcher in the National League and that distinction will likely grow more evident now that he’s actually going to be pitching in the National League. After 12 seasons, 161 victories, four All-Star games, three gold gloves, one no-hitter, a perfect game, a World Series victory and the coolest […]

Greensboro’s Cardinal Finally at Peace

GOSHEN COMMUNITY – Thomas Edison Alston is buried within sight of first base, resting peacefully after the tumultuous life of a baseball player who never quite lived up to his potential. At least, that’s how the story goes now. The story is a lot more complicated than that. Edison was the first African-American to play […]

Happily Ever After

Once upon a time, there was a baseball team. This baseball team wasn’t the richest team, though it wasn’t poor by any means.  It wasn’t the strongest team and it wasn’t by any means the fastest team.  It wasn’t even considered the best team within its region, much less in all the land. This team […]

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, […]

Chuck Tanner: El manager que siempre veía oportunidades de ganar. (Chuck Tanner: The manager who always saw a chance for winning)

Probablemente la madre de Tanner le habló de las hazañas de Honus Wagner, Bill Abstein, Fred Clarke, Vic Willis, Howie Camnitz, Lefty Leifield y todo el equipo de los Piratas de Pittsburgh que ganó la Serie Mundial de 1909, 4-3 ante los Tigres de Detroit. O compartió con Chuck el seguimiento de los Piratas que lucharon por el banderín de la Liga Nacional en 1938 y llegaron segundos a 2 juegos de los Cachorros de Chicago. Seguro pasaron momentos de silencio y tristeza consolándose porque los bucaneros se quedaron fuera de competencia. Ni que decir de que en 1960 a lo mejor su señora madre llamó a Chuck eufórica por el jonrón de Billy Mazeroski que le dio la Serie Mundial a los Piratas o que pudieron compartir la gesta de Danny Murtaugh, Roberto Clemente, Steve Blass, Manny Sanguillén, Richie Hebner, Al Oliver, Bob Moose, Dock Ellis y todo el equipo de Pittsburgh de 1971.

Thinking About Jamie Moyer at 48

Jamie Moyer is old enough to have helped prompt the Chicago Cubs to trade Dennis Eckersley to the Oakland A’s in the spring of 1987, when Moyer was a rising prospect displacing Eckersley as a starter, and to have been traded along with Rafael Palmeiro to the Texas Rangers for Mitch Williams before the 1989 […]

Yankees: Why Losses Today May Mean Wins Tomorrow

Yankee fans were unhappy—to say the least—on Monday night, when the Yankees surrendered first place to the Rays for the first time since August 3. Tuesday night, the Yankees got first place back, and breathed a sigh of relief. Amidst all that anger came an interesting thought: what if, by some chance, the Yankees didn’t win […]

More Of The Same

It’s a little checklist that Cardinal fans go through before games, to prepare themselves for what is to come: Is the opposing pitcher someone the Cardinals haven’t seen much of? Check. Does the opposing pitcher have a high ERA? Check. Is the opposing pitcher lefthanded? Hey, he’s not!  Maybe they have a chance! Of course, […]

Boulter and Guilmette garner league honors

Dave Brust knows baseball talent when he sees it. The Yankee skipper saw plenty of talent clad in pinstripes this summer. That being said, there are only so many post-season awards to hand out. Those getting the honor represent a team of quality players. 

Northern League Making Attendance Statement

The Northern League made a major move in 2010 when it got back to a more attractive eight-team operation, and now it is making a challenge that might not have been easy to forecast. In its 18th season, the Northern is chasing the Atlantic League for the highest average attendance for every time the turnstiles […]

Sweep Incomplete

Busy couple of nights at the ballpark, with most of the focus on the bump in the middle. First off, the Jeff Suppan return tour kicked off in a manner that didn’t shock me too much, though I will admit I didn’t think it’d be that strong.  You had a guy that’d made some adjustments, […]

A Cardinal Weekend

The Cardinals had a good weekend against the Brewers, though it could have been better.  Their slipup last night on ESPN’s game of the week dropped them back into a tie for first.  I go over this series and the Reds series in my weekly column, but let’s take a look at them here as […]

Remembering Baseball’s Heroes on VE-Day

As we celebrate the 65th anniversary of VE-Day, let’s take a moment to remember the 58 professional baseball players who lost their lives in the fight against Nazi Germany. As you look through the list of names you will notice Herman Bauer, brother of Hank Bauer; Lefty Brewer, a promising young left-hander who spent some […]

It Is Easy to Tell How Much Sparky Lyle Loves Managing and the Atlantic League

It only takes a few minutes with Sparky Lyle to understand how much the Somerset manager thinks of the Atlantic League.  It is equally impressive that the 65-year-old, who was a major league star as early as the late 1960s, still has fire in his belly for his job, which has to be part of […]

Donald’s Future Looks To Be At Second

At this time last year, infielder Jason Donald was playing with the Philadelphia Phillies Triple-A affiliate in Lehigh Valley trying to make every impression possible to somehow crack a Phillies infield situation where he was road-blocked by All-Stars Jimmy Rollins at shortstop and Chase Utley at second base. Even though the situation in Philadelphia appeared […]

Remembering Steve Howe

The accident scene was so eerily similar to his reckless existence. Steven Roy Howe lay dead on a California highway with his late-model vehicle resting on top of him; a witness told cops that Howe’s truck simply drifted off the roadway. When I first read of the death of this once-promising athlete from Michigan, I […]

One Season Hitting Wonder, But Major League Lumber Man: Otto Schomberg

Otto H. Schomberg was born in Milwaukee on November 15, 1864. His father, Henry, (listed as Schoemberg in the 1865 City of Milwaukee Directory) was a cooper, working and living at 710 West Lloyd Street.1 Otto Schomberg first appeared in a City of Milwaukee Directory in 1880 as a laborer, living at 721 7th Street […]