The Baseball Historian’s Notes for April 14, 2013

The 2013 baseball season has gotten off to a rollicking start. From Yu Darvish’s near-perfect game to the exciting emergence of young players like New York Mets’ pitcher Matt Harvey, there has been a lot of good stuff for fans to digest. For all the fun baseball provides, the game also sometimes has a darker […]

Springtimes Past and the Changes They Have Wrought

Watching Anthony Rendon play third base for the Nationals last week in Kissimmee, Florida reminded me of so many past Spring Training games. Osceola Stadium, where the Astros train in March each year, is one of my favorite places to watch major league baseball. It is the closest ballpark to Viera, FL where the Washington […]

Rollie Hemsley: How a Hard Drinking Catcher Made Alcoholics Anonymous an International Phenomenon

Particularly in the earlier days of the game, baseball had a well-earned reputation for hard drinking and living players. Because the players often socially mingled with the press, and because the writers depended on access to teams to sell their papers, the vast majority of the more salacious happenings failed to make it to the […]

Chris Coste Is 37, Has Had Elbow Surgery and Been Released But Retirement Seems Very Unlikely

This is not a retirement story as I have seen implied elsewhere, but then why would anyone think a little thing like elbow surgery would put an end to Chris Coste’s playing career.  It will take more than the year off that normally is required after the so-called Tommy John operation to bring an end […]