As an art historian might say when discovering Michelangelo’s unfortunate “Dogs Playing Poker” period … what was that all about?

A pair of 22-year-old rookies have landed in the fourth slots of the Angels’ and Nationals’ rotations.

Death. Taxes. Bud Selig putting a committee together to solve a sticky problem he doesn’t want to deal with: After meeting with ownership and management of the Oakland Athletics in Phoenix, Arizona on Saturday, Commissioner Allan H. (Bud) Selig announced today that he has appointed a committee to thoroughly analyze all of the ballpark proposals […]

If you saw a headline that read “Cubs legend visits devoted fan,” who would you think the article referred to? Ernie Banks would be my first guess, though if I were in a good mood I’d probably accept Ron Santo, Billy Williams, or Ryne Sandberg. Heck, if it was a local Chicago paper and the […]

Following up on deMause’s note about empty seats in Shea, Bob Raissman wonders how a less-than-capacity crowd at Yankee Stadium is going to look to the viewers at home: Ticket talk triggered a memory from long ago – Sept. 22, 1966. The Yankees would finish in 10th place that season and on that day, 413 […]

DiMaggio. Mantle. Murcer. Henderson. Williams. Damon. Gardner: “We’re going to start with Gardy in center,” Girardi said. “Both of them played great. Melky had a tough year last year, but he came into camp and was ready to go and played well. Gardy finished up strong and had a great camp.” Gardner and Cabrera have […]

Neil deMause is pretty much awesome. His Field of Schemes book and blog have served as one of the primary inspirations for my criticism of public subsidies for professional sports, and rarely a day goes by when he doesn’t have something worth thinking about. Among the most interesting things from the past few days: based […]

Maybe it’s just that they got rid of the wrong Barry …

As Benjamin Disraeli once noted, “there is no education like adversity.”

The Pirates won’t be contenders this year, but new management and Andrew McCutchen give fans something to look forward to.