The Last At-Bat of Legendary Baseball Hitters

Major League Baseball is defined by its legends; players who are still remembered decades after their last appearance in a game and their ultimate deaths. Despite the amazing feats some of these players accomplished, when the bell finally rang to signal the end of their careers, their swan songs were lackluster by comparison. In particular, […]

1928 All-Star Game: American League Embarrasses Nationals In Queen City Rout

AMERICAN LEAGUE EMBARRASSES NATIONALS IN QUEEN CITY ROUT Manush Poles Out Four Hits AL HURLERS HOLD SENIORS TO THREE SAFETIES CINCINNATI, July 10.—A gray Cincinnati day became even darker for National League supporters when American League sluggers knocked Dazzy Vance from the hill in the second inning with an eight-run outburst that effectively ended the […]

A Man Who Could Lead a Team and an Army

Hey baseball fans! A couple of days ago, it was Babe Ruth‘s birthday! However, considering I’ve blogged about him a number of times, today I will be telling you about one of his fellow Hall of Fame teammates. It’s not Lou Gehrig or Tony Lazzeri. It’s the Kentucky Colonel, Earle Combs! The Pebworth, Kentucky native played with just the Yankees […]

The King of Baseball

Hey baseball fans! As some of you know, Masahiro Tanaka won his 25th consecutive game pitched a couple days ago for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Japanese professional baseball league, breaking the 75-year-old record that was held by Carl Hubbell, the Hall of Fame pitcher for the New York Giants. Some of you might be asking […]

An Interview with Hal Steinbrenner

Hey baseball fans! As many of you know, I am a die-hard Yankees fan, which would explain why I am so honored to have interviewed the man you are about to read about in the following paragraph. He has also been a lifelong Yankees fan, probably because of what his father did for a living. […]

Call to the Pen: The Great Lefty Gomez

Hey baseball fans! I just put up my latest post for Fan Sided’s Call to the Pen. This one is about one of the best Yankee pitchers ever, Lefty Gomez. If you want to read more about this, just click here. I hope you enjoy the post and thanks for reading it. Check back in a couple of days […]

My Favorite Hall of Fame Duos

Hey baseball fans! I’m sure you all know the dynamic duo of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. If you don’t, let me just tell you that they are a great Hall of Fame duo. Do you think they made my list of my top favorite Hall of Fame duos in baseball history? Read on and find […]

A Life Saved By a Beaning

During my travels through baseball history, I have joined many other historians in a fascination with so-called “cup of coffee” players who played just a game or two or a few in the major leagues, or sometimes only one inning. Archibald “Moonlight” Graham’s one inning captivated Ray Kinsella enough to make him a major part […]

My First Trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame

Hey baseball fans! I am off this week because of spring break, so naturally I took a baseball-related vacation… to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York! If you can believe this, it was actually my first time there and it was AWESOME!!!!!! I had a lot of fun and […]

My Visit to the Sports Immortals Museum

Hey baseball fans! During the recent break, I went to Florida to visit my grandparents, Aron and Salome, and I visited the Sports Immortals Museum in Boca Raton, Florida. There, I got to look at 1% of the biggest collection of sports memorabilia in the world (the rest is in special storage vaults). Let me tell […]

All-Around Athletes

Hey baseball fans! As I promised in my Booming Batters post, today I will be blogging about some of the greatest all-around athlete nicknames in baseball history. Hope you enjoy: Stan the Man - Stan Musial From 1942-1963 with the St. Louis Cardinals, Musial had one of the best careers of all time. With 475 homers,  3,630 hits, and […]

2012 Milestones (And Beyond): Runs Scored

Ten days ago I wrote that we won’t be witnessing any real milestones in wins for a long time unless Jaimie Moyer makes a successful comeback, and even that’s no guarantee.  Using Bill James’ “Favorite Toy” at ESPN.go.com (called “Career Assessments” now), I deduced that CC Sabathia has a 45% chance of reaching the 300-win […]

Hunter or Hunted?

Long before Pete Rose, there was Hal Chase. In “The Black Prince of Baseball: Hal Chase and the Mythology of the Game,” authors Donald Dewey and Nicholas Acocella examine whether Chase left an indelible black mark on baseball or whether the culture of baseball scourged Hal Chase. Read this book because: 1. Chase was one […]

Son Makes Good on Father’s Pledge

I recently read a story about my grandpa, Babe Dahlgren and his father Peter that I’d never heard before. After all the years spent talking with my grandpa, all the countless months researching his life and career, somehow this one slipped past me like the easiest of ground balls. The story appeared in the Minneapolis […]

Only a Friend Would Know

Learned. The dictionary defines the adjective “learned” as “having much knowledge”; “acquired by experience.” Yep, I’d say 95 years of life qualified Elden Auker. This week, read the righty’s take on baseball’s biggest stars along with proud and humbling moments from his years around the game. “Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms“ by Elden Auker with […]

The Anatomy of a Hall of Famer

It’s been a month now since Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven were introduced as the two newest members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I think both deserve it. I also think Blyleven should have been a Hall of Famer a long time ago, but that’s neither here nor there. He’s finally in and […]

Talk about a Gathering!

We’ve all seen the photo. It’s the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Opening Day in 1939. Naturally, “The Sultan of Swat” sits in the center. Nine men, who may or may not have been Ruth’s equals but were without question baseball immortality, surround “The Babe.” “A Great Day in Cooperstown“ begins with this photo. My, oh […]

Marvelous Mack

Connie Mack, “The Tall Tactician”, Major League Baseball’s longest-tenured manager for 50 seasons with the Philadelphia A’s, employer of the $100,000 infield. If ever you wanted to discover something about Mack or the dawn of baseball, chances are you will find it in “Connie Mack and the Early Years of Baseball“ by Norman L. Macht. […]

The Favorite Toy and…Babe Ruth

With the 2011 season still a few months away, I thought it was too early to bust out The Favorite Toy to determine what milestones we might see next year, so I thought I’d go retro and look at some of the game’s greats, not-so-greats and what-might-have-beens to see what odds The Favorite Toy gave […]

Just How Good is Jim Thome?

Jim Thome recently passed Mark McGwire for the #9 spot on the all-time home run list with 584 round trippers.  So, an obvious question arises: Just how good is Jim Thome?  Or, better yet, does his career really reflect Hall of Fame numbers? The answer is Yes.  At the end of the 2009 season, Jim […]

Roy Firestone to Appear on Seamheads Podcast

Join Steve Lenox and Mike Lynch on “What’s On Second: The Seamheads.com Radio Hour” every Monday from 9:00-10:00 PM Eastern as they discuss the goings on in Major and Minor League Baseball. This week’s guests are Roy Firestone, a seven-time Emmy Award-winning and seven-time cable ACE Award-winning host, interviewer, narrator, writer, and producer. As the […]

The Curse of the Virtual Bambino

Even in the world of virtual reality, Babe Ruth is king. It seems that I’m always working on serious research for my next book or article, spending almost all of my free time on it, that I almost forgot what it was like to have fun. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the research/writing process […]

MSG Panel of Experts Selects Dave Winfield as New York’s Best Left Fielder

From MSG: Last night on Episode Six of MSG’s “The Lineup: New York’s All-time Best Baseball Players,” five left fielders – George Burns, Rickey Henderson, Lou Piniella, Zach Wheat and Dave Winfield – were nominated for one spot in “The Lineup .” Attached is a list of career statistics for each of the five nominees. […]

Just How Good is Albert Pujols?

Would you believe that Albert Pujols is already one of the top twenty position players of the modern era (since 1920)?  In addition to that, he is the third best first baseman of the period – behind only Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx.  These are conclusions drawn from the CAWS Career Gauge. Bill James’ Win […]

Derek Jeter Named New York’s Top Shortstop by MSG Panel of Experts

From MSG Network: Last night on the fifth episode of MSG’s “The Lineup: New York’s All-time Best Baseball Players,” it was time to decide who would lead New York’s greatest infield at the shortstop position. The five nominees were Travis Jackson, Derek Jeter, Pee Wee Reese, Jose Reyes, and Phil Rizzuto. The show’s panel, which […]

Steiner Sports Steps To Plate With Original Babe Ruth Bat

Ultimate “Bambino” Collectible Now Available in Yankees Legends Auction; One of Fewer than 20 Known to Exist NEW YORK, March 16, 2010 — An original, near-pristine, and extremely rare autographed Babe Ruth model bat is now available as part of the “Yankees Legends Auction” at Steiner Sports (www.steinersports.com).  The brown bat, a promotional model circa […]

Remembering Babe Dahlgren: A Video Montage

When I first met Matt Dahlgren, thanks to the power of Facebook, his grandfather Babe was merely the answer to a trivia question: Q: When Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games streak ended on May 2, 1939, who replaced Gehrig in the Yankees’ lineup? A: Babe Dahlgren That was the extent of my knowledge about Babe’s career […]

Book Review: “Rumor in Town”

The story of Ellsworth “Babe” Dahlgren is about more than just the life of a ballplayer. It’s about redemption, loyalty, promises made and kept, and love; love between a grandfather and grandson, between a player and his boyhood idol, and between a man and the game he fell for at age six while sitting in […]