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 […]

Kid Bloggers Interviews Red Sox Legend Frank Malzone

Hey baseball fans!I have another fun interview for you today. This one is with Red Sox third base legend… Frank Malzone! I know that he’s not the most talked about person in baseball history, but he was really good in the 1950s and ’60s. Because he’s not that well known, let me tell you a little […]

My Visit to the Sports Immortals Museum

Hey baseball fans! During the recent break, I went to Florida to visit my grandparents, Aron and Salome, and I visited the Sports Immortals Museum in Boca Raton, Florida. There, I got to look at 1% of the biggest collection of sports memorabilia in the world (the rest is in special storage vaults). Let me tell […]

Booming Batters

Hey baseball fans! Now that I’ve blogged about Proficient Pitchers nicknames (part one and part two), it’s time for the hitting nicknames. Here they are: The Splendid Splinter - Ted Williams Ted’s goal as a baseball player was that when he walked down a street, a dad would say to his son: ‘Son, there’s the best hitter that […]

Kid Blogger Interviews MLB’s Official Historian

Hey baseball fans! I just received the answers to the interview questions that I sent to…. John Thorn, the Official Historian for Major League Baseball! Thorn was appointed Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball by the Commissioner on March 1, 2011. He has written books like “Treasures of the Baseball Hall of Fame” and […]

Ted Williams Leads As Most Popular Stamp

Ted Williams Leads As Most Popular Stamp (via PR Newswire) Postal Service Calls on Fans to Show Support for their Favorite All-Star WASHINGTON, June 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Pre-order stats for Forever stamps honoring four of Major League Baseball’s most iconic legends indicate that Ted Williams is in the leadoff slot for hits with 14,380 […]

U.S. Postal Service Expands All-Star Stamp Lineup To Honor Each Icon Individually

U.S. Postal Service Expands All-Star Stamp Lineup To Honor Each Icon Individually (via PR Newswire) Joe DiMaggio, Larry Doby, Willie Stargell and Ted Williams to be honored on Individual Forever Stamp Sheets July 21 WASHINGTON, May 31, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Baseball fans can celebrate their favorite All-Stars as a group or individually. Responding to overwhelming […]

All For Paul

May 27, 2012 Jimi Hendrix, Albert Einstein, Prince Planet, Julie Christie, Harper Lee and Joan of Arc.  What do they all have in common?  They’re about half as cool as Paul Konerko. Konerko, the venerable Chicago White Sox first baseman, is swinging the bat like a honey badger hocked up on Cherry Coke trapped inside […]

The Glory Days: Dramatic Homers Usher in the 1960s

A pair of monumental home runs ushered in the 1960s, and both blasts have been talked and written about ever since. Bill Mazeroski’s seventh-game homer was the first to end a World Series, giving the Pittsburgh Pirates victory over the New York Yankees. Various polls of fans and writers have ranked it the most dramatic […]

Why Davey Johnson Is So Unhappy

One thing about Bryce Harper’s steal of home a few days ago, it brought a smile to the face of his manager Davey Johnson. Johnson has otherwise found too little to smile about during the first month of the 2012 season, despite the overall good performance of his team. Davey was a hitter. That is […]

Adjusting for Military Service

Many fans have wondered over the years about those players who lost playing time to military service – and how that may have impacted their total careers. One interesting aspect of win shares and the CAWS Career Gauge is that it is fairly easy to reasonably adjust a player’s career numbers to reflect this lost […]

Baseball in a Starring Role

There is more than a small amount of pride in being an ardent baseball fan these days. The World Series was not only a success, but it garnered wide enthusiasm for the Cardinals from fans across the country who were rooting for the team over the long seven-game contest. It is that very ability of […]

Fun With Retrosheet: League Leaders With the Fewest Games Played

Cliff Blau recently mentioned to me that Vince Barton led the NL in getting hit by pitches in 1931 despite playing only 66 games and wondered what were the fewest games for players leading their respective leagues in a hitting category. So since major league baseball returned to a 150+ game schedule in 1904 (and […]

Fun With Retrosheet: Players With The Highest Percentage of Post-Season Homers

A quick one today: here are the players who have hit the highest percentage of their home runs during the post-season: Player First Last REG POST PCT Mickey Lolich 1963 1979 0 1 1.0000 Don Gullett 1970 1978 0 1 1.0000 Joe Blanton 2004 2011 0 1 1.0000 Paul Goldschmidt 2011 2011 8 2 .2000 […]

First Division Finish

No, the Nationals are not headed for the playoffs, and yes, the smug fans up the coast will shake their heads in bemusement at the joy we share at finishing in the top half of the 30 Major League baseball teams. But remember and cheerish that grin, because the Nationals don’t just “hear that train […]

Fun With Retrosheet: Come-From-Behind Batting Champions, An Update

John Pastier was wondering (among other things) about the record for the most days leading the league in batting average without winning the title. Here’s the list: Player Year LED DNL DNQ First Last Pete Reiser 1942 131 36 0 5-11 9-24 Lenny Dykstra 1990 125 37 10 5-11 9-14 Larry Walker 1997 124 57 […]

Teddy Ballgame To Be Honored By USPS With Postage Stamp

Red Sox Hall-of-Fame OF Ted Williams was larger than life and possessed the stuff of legend. He was both a baseball hero and a war hero, serving as a naval aviator (USMC pilot) during WWII (1942-46) and the Korean War (1952-53). He was the last baseball player to hit .400 during the regular season while […]

Catching up with Bob Zupcic

The first professional athlete I ever met was Ted Williams, when I was about 9 years old. The experience was extremely disappointing, given how profane and cranky Williams turned out to be, even to a little kid like myself. The second professional athlete I met was Bob Zupcic, when I was about 12 or 13 […]

Koufax or Ryan? Tough choice for Torborg

Don’t ask Jeff Torborg to choose between Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan. The only man to catch no-hitters thrown by both can’t make up his mind. A former back-up catcher for the Dodgers and Angels, Torborg caught a perfect game thrown by Koufax in 1965 and no-hitters thrown by Bill Singer in 1970 and Ryan […]

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 […]

Fenway Park’s 100th Anniversary: There’s Nothing Like Being at the Game

I’ve never considered myself religious by any means. Yet, I’m a believer that everyone has some place where they just feel at home, or safe. A sanctuary, of sorts. To some of the more religious types, a church. Baseball stadiums are my church. There is just something about passing through the gates and walking into […]

Terry Francona’s Do or Die Mission

“I think Francona should be gone by the end of the month and the pitching coach also. They both suck.” That’s not me saying it. I intercepted a message on an answering machine from one lifelong Red Sox fan (who lives in Rhode Island) to another lifelong fan. And, no I’m not talking the Twenty-oh-fours. […]

Ese tipo de héroe. (That kind of hero)

Hay temporadas que son consideradas como el tope de una carrera. En ellas un pelotero lo hace todo por su equipo, desde animar a los compañeros en el dugout hasta discutir con los árbitros. El jugador pareciera estar dotado de una fuerza excepcional que le hace alcanzar logros paralizantes.

Six Decades of Baseball

__________ Six decades is a long time.    That’s a lot of baseball memories. Bill Lewers issues an important caveat at the beginning of his 378-page narrative:  he’s an ordinary fan.    For much of his life, he has watched baseball from the upper deck where he often sits alone (or so it seems), collecting memories […]

Only a Friend Would Know

Learned. The dictionary defines the adjective “learned” as “having much knowledge”; “acquired by experience.” Yep, I’d say 95 years of life qualified Elden Auker. This week, read the righty’s take on baseball’s biggest stars along with proud and humbling moments from his years around the game. “Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms“ by Elden Auker with […]

139 Ballplayers Died in Service in World War II

Names such as Bob Feller and Ted Williams instantly spring to mind when we think of dedication to service during the war years, but little is heard of the minor league players who also served. While the majority of big leaguers enjoyed an almost normal existence (albeit for $21 a month service pay) playing baseball […]

Ruminations On Carl Crawford: The Evolution From Ted To Jim-Ed To The Future

Throughout the years, the last few generations of baseball fans in Boston became accustomed to the “Red Sox brand of baseball”, characterized by slower, plodding players who routinely traveled 90 feet at a time around the base paths, except when they (or a teammate) launched a baseball over the Green Monster or into the right […]

The All-Left Field Team

This post originally appeared on my personal blog, Left Field…hence, the concept of an All-Left Field Team.

The Anatomy of a Hall of Famer

It’s been a month now since Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven were introduced as the two newest members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. I think both deserve it. I also think Blyleven should have been a Hall of Famer a long time ago, but that’s neither here nor there. He’s finally in and […]

Honig Gives Boost to All

Sit down to watch “A Hall for Heroes,” “Baseball’s Golden Age,” “When It was a Game” or any number of other baseball programs. No doubt you will hear plenty from Donald Honig. Maybe you have delighted in one of 12 baseball books he has authored. This week, allow the man with plenty of baseball yarns […]

The Favorite Toy and…Grover Cleveland Alexander

Those of you who read my last Favorite Toy article about Babe Ruth probably noticed that the second installment was supposed to be about Ted Williams. Well, after giving it some thought I realized that I wanted to go deeper with Williams than most of the others I have in mind, mostly because of the […]

The Favorite Toy and…Babe Ruth

With the 2011 season still a few months away, I thought it was too early to bust out The Favorite Toy to determine what milestones we might see next year, so I thought I’d go retro and look at some of the game’s greats, not-so-greats and what-might-have-beens to see what odds The Favorite Toy gave […]

Tim Raines – Some Stars Get No Respect

Tim Raines appeared on the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot for the third time in 2010. In 2008, he got 24.3% of the votes, and in 2009, he got only 22.6% of the vote. In 2010, he increased to 30.4%. This would apparently indicate that he does not have a good chance of being elected […]

The Sweet Swing of a Slugger

Nowadays, it’s difficult to think of baseball players without talk of steroids, performance enhancers, or at least strength training. More than a century ago, however, raw skill and equipment formed a power-packed duo that dictated a player’s success. “Sweet Spot: 125 Years of Baseball and the Louisville Slugger” by David Magee and Philip Shirley is […]

Another One Bites The Dust

I didn’t know the late William Lee “Bill” Jennings. Never met him, never had a chat with him, never even knew of him until recently, in fact. What little I do know about Mr. Jennings, who died at the age of 85 on October 20, 2010, is attributable to his passing being prominently mentioned on […]

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