The Bud Selig/Fox Sports Ultimate Wildcard Play-In System

After seeing how crazy of an idea the 2012 Wild-card Play-in game was, I decided that if it was here to stay, then it should be expanded to 15 Play-in games.  This way, MLB teams would play 162 games to determine their opponent in a single elimination Play-in game series with the last two teams […]

American Jews & America’s Game: A Review

Baseball is so much more than the action on the field and in the box scores. Untold numbers of people have used the game to help shape who they are, and connect them with their ethnicities and national identities on whole new levels. Larry Ruttman’s American Jews & America’s Game: Voices of a Growing Legacy […]

Fraudulent History 101

So Marvin Miller got screwed again this week in the Hall of Fame balloting. Who didn’t see that coming? Miller certainly saw it coming, undoubtedly the reason why he requested that his name be kept off future Veterans Committee ballots after being snubbed in 2008. That time around, the committee was heavily stacked against him, […]

In Celebration of the Plantation Owners

Back in the good ol’ days, when the working scum knew their places, the great barons of industry were legend. Carnegie, Ford – they made America, not the bohunks, Micks, Sheenys and coloreds who toiled in the factory. Right? That’s how it was written in all the textbooks. Baseball was like that too. The great […]

Marvin Miller Again Denied Hall of Fame Induction

From the MLBPA: New York, NY, Monday, December 06, 2010 … The following statement was issued today by Major League Baseball Players Association founding Executive Director Marvin Miller regarding the Hall of Fame Expansion Era Committee election results. “The Baseball Hall of Fame’s vote (or non-vote) of December 5, hardly qualifies as a news story. […]

Once Considered Jewels, Baseball Cards Have Lost Luster

Remember the days when “gem” referred to the rock on a lady’s finger or to a pitcher’s performance? Remember the days when you’d scrounge up three or four dollars for a pack of cards, hoping that you’d find that 1:150 insert? Today we journey back to yesteryear with Dave Jamieson’s “Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards […]

Psst… Wanna know a secret?

“Wanna know a secret? A lot of your heroes weren’t the men you thought they were. The reality of the game they played differs from your ideal picture too. OK, I guess that’s not really a surprise. But more often than not, histories paint romantic pictures of yesterday’s stars. Perhaps some childhood mischief or an […]

Outgoing Is Incoming To The Other Side

March brings Spring Training- and Madness. Jamie Moyer is trying to play this year. He is the Phillie in Winter. There were a lot of retirements over the past few months: Smoltz, Glavine, Frank Thomas, Garciaparra. It’s like the state offered an enhanced severance package or something. But Moyer keeps plugging along. If he does, […]

The Scapegoat

Rule of thumb – you can tell how nice a place is by the number of stonewalled front lawns. The road through Bedford into Stamford is a rock-rimmed capillary, the barricades protecting the homes of the wealthy which sit safely beyond. Turning off the main drag to Ray Grebey’s home, a different picture emerges. Grebey, […]