1966: Lyndon Johnson declares he’ll stay the course in Vietnam. The Beatles are now officially more popular than Jesus. Richard Speck carries out a murder spree in Chicago; the Gemini 10 launches spaceward; Cleveland, OH has its first racial uprising in the Hugh Riots; out in LA, Walt Disney dies. And down South the Arkansas…
That’s right, folks, July 31 promises to be a scorcher. Your old standbys (standsby?) like water, lemonade, and sport drinks may not be enough. Try these five under-the-radar options for relief: Saisons – per the Oxford Companion to Beer, the first of the threefold reasons for the existence of saisons is “to refresh the seasonal…
The Portable Dictionary of Baseball Idioms-Turned-Americanisms (Part 2) Baseball has always positioned itself as the All-American pastime, tying itself to our nature’s culture. But even I (writer, baseball enthusiast, nerd) hadn’t realized how much baseball has shaped American English. Part 1 of this list appears here. And a few more follow: Home Run In baseball:…
If you were the lucky soul whom Kurkjian called, although it is unlikely you are aware of being part of baseball lore, this one’s for you. The Portable Dictionary of Baseball Idioms-Turned-Americanisms (Part 1) Baseball has always positioned itself as the All-American pastime, tying itself to our nature’s culture. But even I (writer, baseball enthusiast,…
On Friday evening, during a tight game between the Cardinals and the Brewers, a fan crocheted in the stands. The act was, in multiple quarters, erroneously reported as knitting, but knitting uses two needles and crochet a single blunted hook. Much of Friday’s commentary had to do with the idea that if she was crocheting…
Cleveland Indians acquire RHP Oliver Drake off waivers from the Milwaukee Brewers. [5/5] Los Angeles Angels acquire RHP Oliver Drake off waivers from the Cleveland Indians. [5/31] RHP Oliver Drake clears waivers and has been outrighted to Salt Lake (AAA). [6/19] Look, I don’t know. Long before I became a writer, I remember reading the…
Deadspin published a nice piece by Joe DeLessio on Friday about digging through his late father’s massive, overwhelming collection of memorabilia, most of which was baseball stuff, most of which of that was Orioles stuff. The word “stuff” is often a filler term where a better, more precise descriptor isn’t coming to mind, but in…
Steppenwolf is one of the most famous and most misunderstood of the novels of Nobel Prize winning-author Herman Hesse. I’m having trouble understanding it myself, fifty pages in; I’d nearly given up, only to see Hardball Times editor Jason Linden give it his highest praise. Written from the perspective of Germany between the wars, the…
Perhaps the primary crusade in baseball analysis over the past decade is the drive toward the distillation of the baseball player’s true talent. On a throughline from wins above replacement to independent pitching metrics to BABIP noise to video-capture data, every aim has been to sluff off some of the noise, the complicating factors, that…
One Saturday in June, a little girl opened the door to the hall closet and a stack of newspapers slid out. She squatted on the floor to look at them. The paper on the top had a photo of a man lying on the floor in a halo of light, surrounded by worried people. The…
Every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way—ours is a family of Mets fans. My dad and his younger brother have always loved baseball, but my grandma was by far the biggest diehard in the family. This is our first season, and the Mets’, without her. My grandma liked to tell the story of…
Tampa Bay y Seattle se emparejan para otro intercambio, con los Mariners agregando a Alex Colomé y Denard Span.
(with apologies to Natasha Trethewey’s “Myth”) The starter is the closer is the opener again, baseball writ by Rilke’s refrain: we must change our lives or suffer being left behind. Adapt or die. Some dislike the new, what’s bad for baseball, bullpen starts. Or: the JUCO prospect who almost didn’t play. Realize the scrap of…