The Sunday Notes: 2015 Awards Edition

The 2015 award season has come and gone, ending the year. For the twelfth straight year, average attendance per game topped 30,000 and overall gate went up, barely, over last year. All told, 73,760,020 purchased tickets to Major League Baseball games in 2015. Would you believe the first year the average topped 20,000 was 1979 […]

The Baseball Historian’s Notes for July 22, 2013: Teams Must Be Careful to Not Over-Extend Themselves

In these heady days of nine-figure contract extensions, it is becoming increasingly less likely to see a player spend their entire career with the same team. Those who do, like the New York Yankees’ Mariano Rivera, can achieve icon status. However, teams seeking to retain their signature players have to be careful not to make […]

Early Look at Possible NL Pennant Match Up in Cincy

The baseball season is the sum of a million small parts, “millions and millions of stars” as Carl Sagan used to say. As with the cosmos, the magic of baseball is both the enchanted aggregate and its many component parts. And that is why even at this early juncture there is no shortage of excitement […]

Rose & Reggie: 40 Years Later

Rose & Reggie: 40 Years Later Reggie Jackson and Pete Rose are two of baseball’s all-time iconic figures, having put together nearly unparalleled careers in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. Jackson and Rose played on piles of All-Star teams, won multiple World Series, earned millions on and off the field and were often loved and […]

Proficient Pitchers – Part One

Hey baseball fans! As I promised in my last blog about fielding nicknames, today I will be blogging about some of the best baseball pitching nicknames of all time.  I will be splitting this topic in two blogs, because I have many good pitching-related nicknames, so here’s blog number one: Dr. K - Dwight Gooden We all […]

Early Thoughts On the 2012 National League Rookie of the Year Race

Last week I outlined how the American League Rookie of the Year race is shaping up and now it’s the National League’s turn. While the NL has also introduced a strong crop of rookies this year, the level of production has not been quite as high as their AL counterparts. Bryce Harper has gotten the […]

2011 Pre-Season Preview: NL West – San Francisco Giants

2010 NL Rookie of the Year, Buster Posey San Francisco Giants (2010 record: 92-70) Notable additions: SS Miguel Tejada Notable subtractions: SS Edgar Renteria, INF Juan Uribe The offense: Catcher: Buster Posey Infield: Aubrey Huff (1B), Freddie Sanchez (2B), Miguel Tejada (SS) and Pablo Sandoval (3B) Outfield: Mark DeRosa (LF), Andres Torres (CF), Cody Ross […]

Yankees & Jeter: Where Business Meets Baseball

Pretend for a moment that you are the general manager of a Major League Baseball team. You have a bunch of money coming off the books this offseason, and your job is simple: Get your team to the World Series. As you enter the offseason, you have your priorities. In your particular situation, you need […]

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, […]

Touring The Bases With…John Castino

John Castino was selected co-rookie of the year (with Toronto’s Alfredo Griffin) in the American League for 1979 after batting .285 with eight triples. Due to the tie, the voting process (and point system) was changed in 1980. Castino hit .302 in 1980 and led the American League in triples in 1981, but back problems […]

Doing It The Hard Way

When I turned on the game a little late last night, I was well-pleased to see that the Cards had already been serious, putting up six in the top of the inning.  And even though Jaime Garcia allowed two runs of his own in the bottom of the frame, I figured the Cards were well […]

NL East Serves Notice to Phillies

The Phillies open a series against the Atlanta Braves this Memorial Day only a half game up on them in leading the division. Not surprising is that the Nationals are in last place with the Marlins; what is, though, is that they are both only four games out of first place. Almost 50 games into […]