Wake Up and Smell The (Bitter Cup of) Coffee!

Former Pittsburgh Pirates player and broadcaster Nellie King passed away yesterday at Family Hospice Center in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania.  Nellie was 82 years old. Signed as an amateur free agent in 1946, King didn’t make his major league debut until 1954. Three years later, at the age of 29, he was out of baseball because […]

They Belong to the Ages: The 2010 Pittsburgh Pirates

Sometimes we notice incompetence only when it assumes its most spectacular forms.  The chemist who blows up her lab.   The surgeon who amputates the wrong leg.  The mechanic who fills your radiator with wiper fluid. But often we overlook the grinding, day-to-day manifestations of ineptitude, the kind you live with and suffer through until one […]

Touring the Bases With…Milt Wilcox

Milt Wilcox, a righthanded hurler from Hawaii, was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in the second round of the 1968 amateur draft, a draft that included Tim Foli, Thurman Munson, Bobby Valentine, Greg Luzinski, Gary Matthews, and Bill Buckner.  Coming straight out of high school, Wilcox began his career in the Rookie League before moving […]

A Humorous Look at Recent Baseball News

The Indians were expecting close to 35,000 fans to attend Sunday’s game against the Nationals, the team’s highest attendance since Opening Day. I think it’s great that so many Indians fans are excited about seeing highly touted prospect Carlos Santana play. Hear he plays a mean guitar.  Or maybe they are excited about the rejuvenated […]

Stan the Man from Donora

Some months ago, I examined a pair of Stan Musial biographies at a friend’s request. Not long  afterward, “Stan the Man“ hit the shelves. What makes Wayne Stewart’s book different? Stewart shares Musial’s hometown and writes much of the book from that perspective. How appropriate. Though Musial found stardom in a big way, he never […]

When Cheney Ruled Washington

It was a cool September evening in 1962 when 4,098 citizens exercised their right to assemble, in anticipation of an appearance by the representatives of the nation’s capital. Not surprisingly, John Kennedy was the first to take his turn, though he turned out to be a minor figure in the night’s long drama. Later, a […]

The Sixth Tool: Measuring the Mind

Of all the prospects Pittsburgh received in its 2009 fire sale, possibly the most alluring was 25-year-old right-hander Charlie Morton.    Morton came armed with a knee-buckling curve, a swooping slider, and a darting fastball that blazed past hitters at 95 miles-per-hour.   He dominated Triple-A in 2008 and 2009.   Word was he was the ideal pitcher […]

Pete Castiglione Passes

Peter P. Castiglione was born on February 13, 1921 in Greenwich, Connecticut. A high school baseball star he signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates’ organization in 1940 and played for the Carthage Pirates of the Class D Arkansas-Missouri League. In 55 games he batted .298 and advanced to the Hutchinson Pirates of the Class C Western […]

Strasburg In Harrisburg: Altoona, April 11, 2010

Who is he? He’s a right-handed pitcher, picked first in the nation by the Washington Nationals in the 2009 draft. We know as much. He grew up in Santee, California, under his parents Jim and Kathleen Swett, and went to West Hills High School there. He then attended San Diego State University as a public […]

Dan’s daring predictions for diamond action

Predicting the future — in any venue — is difficult even for Alison DuBois or others blessed with psychic powers. That is especially true when it comes to baseball, where teams play nearly 200 games and face each one without knowing who will get hot, who will get hurt, or who will perform above or […]

Musings from the Manager’s Office

Where to go on a rainy day in spring training? The manager of the Atlanta Braves, always a congenial host, held court with a half-dozen journalists before the rained-out exhibition game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at ESPN Wide World of Sports. Now that he’s a self-proclaimed lame duck, Bobby Cox has answered everything two, three, […]

Milo: I’ll stay active through 2012

Milo Hamilton, whose big-league broadcast career started with the 1953 St. Louis Browns, plans to stay on the air for three more seasons. The venerable voice of the Houston Astros wants the chance to broadcast from the newest ballparks, including Yankee Stadium this June and Minnesota’s Target Field — depending on future interleague games that […]

The Pittsburgh Americans? It Almost Happened

Over the first 30 years of the modern era, Barney Dreyfuss’ Pittsburgh Pirates battled John McGraw’s New York Giants for National League supremacy, but had Ban Johnson gotten his wish, the Pirates might have been the class of the American League instead. On October 11, 1899 a group of executives from the Western League, including […]

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