Roger Peckinpaugh, Joe Cronin…Ian Desmond?

During the two decades when the Washington Nationals fielded quality Major League teams (1912-1933), the infield was invariably anchored by excellent shortstop. Clark Griffith, as manager and owner of the team during those years, valued the gritty ballplayer who could do it all and his on-the-field leaders included such great players as George McBride, Roger […]

The Hitting Version of Sandy Koufax

Hey baseball fans! There were many stars in baseball in the 1940s and ’50s that came out of the Giants, Cardinals, Braves, Yankees, Red Sox and Tigers. But this post is about a very underrated Hall of Famer who played mainly on the Pirates. He had a very short career, but is considered one of […]

The 2013 Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Inductees

Hey baseball fans! I recently realized that I never did a post about the 2013 National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum inductees. Now these inductees are not people who you probably recognize. Why? Well, for the first time since 1996, no one got into the Hall of Fame via the Baseball Writers’ Association of […]

My Top Five Favorite Cardinals Hall of Famers

Hey baseball fans! The 2013 World Series week has officially started! This year’s contenders are the Boston Red Sox and the St. Louis Cardinals. Considering that I’ve already done a top five favorite Red Sox HoFers post, I decided that the time is right to post my top five Cards Hall of Famers of all […]

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 […]

Nolan Sanburn: Oakland A’s Pitching Prospect Talks Baseball

The Oakland Athletics have displayed a knack for producing quality Major League pitching in recent years, with the likes of Tim Hudson, Trevor Cahill, A.J. Griffin and Sean Doolittle just to name a few. Young Nolan Sanburn is hoping he can be one of the next in line to emerge from their system. Sanburn is […]

Touring The Bases With…Gabe Kapler

Gabe Kapler was a 57th round draft pick by the Detroit Tigers in the 1995 amateur draft, then began a very successful minor league career that resulted in a late-season call-up in September 1998.  The righthanded slugger dominated the low minors at the ages of 20 and 21, hitting .300 with 45 doubles, 26 homers, […]

The Nationals a Team That Is Less Than the Sum of the Parts

Drew Storen’s demotion to Syracuse has caused more soul searching among Washington Nationals aficionados than it deserved. Storen’s ERA was 5.23 at the end of April and while he labored to get his groove back, lowering the ERA to 3.86 at the end of June, he melted down in July and when he was sent […]

My Top Five Red Sox Hall of Famers of All Time

Hey baseball fans! In case you don’t know, I’m a huge Yankees fan. That means that I am literally forced to hate the Red Sox. However, I don’t hate some of the Sox’s past players. In fact, by the end of this post, you will know my top five favorite Red Sox Hall of Famers […]

The Bull-Moose Juju

As the first month of the baseball season drew to a close in 2012, the Gio Gonzalez trade looked like an inspiration. Stephen Strasburg was back and the Nationals had the best pitching in the National League. Davey Johnson was looking for offense and summoned Bryce Harper. Everything Mike Rizzo touched in 2012 turned to […]

How Is This as Handsome Reward for 19 Indy Grads? They Are on Pace to Top $37 Million in Majors

Does it pay for an aspiring major leaguer who goes undrafted or needs to re-energize his career to play in an Independent league? And how!  Think about earning salaries totaling more than $37 million for the regular 2013 season.  Pay is prorated for most everyone, of course, so if a player is only in the […]

Chatting with the Royals’ Christian Colon

A long spate of losing seasons has put the Kansas City Royals in the position of drafting high in the MLB drafts over the past two-plus decades. However, it has only been recently that the organization has been recognized for accumulating one of the best collections of prospects in the game, with the hope that […]

Willie Upshaw Already Has a Significant Major League Resume, But Bridgeport Skipper Longs for Chance to Lead a Team

Willie Upshaw’s post-playing-days reputation as both a major and minor league hitting guru seems unchallenged and he enjoys the opportunity to be near his home in Fairfield, CT, but he is much like those he manages in the Atlantic League in that he wants a different job. “I get pigeonholed as a hitting coach”, the […]

Touring the Bases With Buddy Biancalana

Buddy Biancalana was a first round draft pick of the Kansas City Royals in 1978 who went on to have a major league career as a middle infielder. Used primarily as a utility player, Buddy had his greatest success was in the 1985 World Series when he played in all seven games and hit .278, […]

Harper Means Hustle and the Giant Combo Size

Bryce Harper is only a few days into his major league career. It is like a movie and the credits are still playing over the first few frames as we are introduced to the action. And maybe it is too early for the critics to assess what they are seeing, but there can be little […]

Off the Beaten Basepaths #3: The Eastern Shore

Maryland’s Eastern Shore and the Delmarva Peninsula has a rich baseball history. Hall of Famers Jimmie Foxx and Frank “Home Run” Baker were born there as were many other Major League ballplayers. An excellent musuem, the Eastern Shore Baseball Hall of Fame, is located in Salisbury. But there’s no sense reading about it, when you […]

History in the Making, Or Just Another Ballgame?

Bryce Harper and Stephen Strasburg were taken in the amateur draft twelve months apart. Each was a Boras client deemed difficult to sign and likely to command a record signing bonus. Each was acclaimed as a unique talent well worth whatever it took. The fact that they came in succeeding years was deemed extremely rare. […]

Monument Dedication for Lou Criger

On Sunday, June 3, 2012at 2:00 p.m.at RiverviewParkin Elkhart, Indiana, a monument will be dedicated to the life and baseball career of Lou Criger, with the public encouraged to attend.  The event is set for the 100th anniversary of his last big league game that he played, which wasJune 3, 1912 as a member of […]

DEFINING GREATNESS: A Hall of Fame Handbook

One third of the players in the Hall of Fame do not have the credentials to be there.  Or, to be more precise, 35% of the 20th century major league Hall of Famers do not have the performance records (on the field in the regular season) to merit a place in Cooperstown. After the BBWAA […]

Mariners Win With Montero Trade Too…

Last night saw the rare exchange of top young players, when the New York Yankees traded catcher/designated hitter Jesus Montero and pitcher Hector Noesi to the Seattle Mariners for pitchers Michael Pineda and Jose Campos. So far the reaction seems to be focused on what a terrific deal this was for the Yankees, and how […]

Triple Milestones 2011

Offensive production in the major leagues continued to decline slightly in 2011 but not as much as in 2010. The number of runs per game has declined each year from 9.72 in 2006 to 8.57 in 2011. The home run rate of 1.87 per game was the lowest since 1993. The major league batting average, […]

Touring the Bases with Italian Baseball Coach Andrea D’Auria

If you ever wondered about baseball in Italy, and if it is even played there, you will love this interview. Andrea sounds like a great guy and I am sure he is and displays the passion for baseball that is like the great coaches here in America. This year was especially rewarding and momentous for Italian baseball, as […]

Former Pitcher Larry Burchart Reminisces

The Los Angeles Dodgers really, really wanted collegiate star right-handed pitcher Larry Burchart. In 1967 they took him in the first round of the June phase of the amateur draft. Since he was enrolled at Oklahoma State, he did not sign. This did not deter the Dodgers, who took him again in the third round […]

The Pitchers: The 4 Levels of Greatness – Part 2

The CAWS Career Gauge has identified only fifty-one (51) 20th century major league pitchers who have obvious Hall of Fame numbers. In Part 1, I introduced the thirty-nine (39) 20th century pitchers in Levels 1 and 2.  These were the pitchers identified by the CAWS Gauge as having posted HOF numbers during their playing careers […]

The Pitchers: The 4 Levels of Greatness – Part 1

In a previous series of articles, I presented the 5 Levels of Greatness for the 20th century position players who posted Hall of Fame numbers during their careers – according to the CAWS Career Gauge.  We saw that there are one hundred sixteen (116) such players. In this series of articles, I will present the […]

Strasburg, Part Deux

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The Hall of Famers: The 5 Levels of Greatness – Part 1

Consider the following statement: One third of the players in Baseball’s Hall of Fame do not have the credentials to be there. Or, to be more precise, 35% of the 20th century major league Hall of Famers do not belong in Cooperstown according to their performance records (on the field in the regular season). This […]

Clearing The Bases

We’ve had to take a few weeks off due to some software problems, but we’re back today, just in time to watch all of the players that major league teams will call up to fortify their bullpen and bench during this final month.  The Yanks and Red Sox have been playing a big series this […]

Touring the Bases With…D. Bruce Brown

D. Bruce Brown is the chairman of the Bob Davids Chapter of the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR). The chapter serves the Mid-Atlantic region of the country and is the oldest SABR chapter–named for the founder of SABR, Washington, DC resident, Bob Davids. D. Bruce Brown has attended the last ten SABR national conventions […]

Graham Knight: The Ballpark Connoisseur

With all due respect, the best way I can describe Graham Knights’ website, http://www.baseballpilgrimages.com, is to call it “baseball porn.” It is a feast for the eyes and the senses, glorifying baseball and its stadiums. If you are a baseball fan and haven’t visited it before, you are missing out. The site is a shrine […]

The BBWAA Report Card for the 21st Century: Part 4

In Part 1 of this series, I indicated that the BBWAA (Baseball Writers Association of America) has been quite successful since 2001 in their selection of major league players for induction into the Hall of Fame.  Of the eighteen inductees from 2001 through 2011, sixteen do indeed have Hall of Fame numbers according to the […]

The Most Egregious MVP Snubs of All Time (at Least on Paper)

Not long ago I was watching an episode of “Prime 9” on the MLB Network about the nine biggest MVP snubs of all time. Before the show even began, I knew what would be ranked number one because it’s always mentioned as the biggest injustice in the history of MVP voting: Yankees second baseman Joe […]

Crosstown Crisis?

Not A Crowded House Normally the annual “Crosstown Classic” series between Chicago’s Cubs and White Sox are an automatic sellout at U.S. Cellular Field as Sox fans love nothing more than to see their team whip up on the Cubs and also impugn the testosterone of all Cubs fans who dare to wander down to […]

Touring The Bases With…Norfolk Tides GM Dave Rosenfield

Dave Rosenfield is the General Manager for the Norfolk Tides located in Norfolk, Virginia. They have been an Affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles since 2007 and are in the International League. They play at Harbor Park. (a) www.norfolktides.com Seamheads.com: This year marks your fifty-sixth consecutive year you have been associated with a professional club. Is […]

Touring The Bases With…Terry Tata

Umpire Terry Tata officiated in the National League from 1973-1999, and umpired in four World Series, seven National League Championship Series, three All-Star games and five no-hitters, for two of which he was behind the plate.  During his major league career, he umpired in 3,743 regular season games. Click here to see a video of […]

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