Dick Williams led four teams to league pennants, guiding two of them to world championships. Other than a late-career stint with the Mariners, Williams had success in every one of his managerial stops, most notably with the A’s, Padres and Red Sox. He also came within a whisker of managing the Yankees, only to have […]

It was 15,000 days ago today that the Minnesota Twins debuted a new pitcher with quite a career ahead of him: Bert Blyleven. He went on to win 287 games before finally, belatedly earning election to Cooperstown this year, and he’ll have his official induction ceremony alongside Roberto Alomar next month. He looked younger back […]

Phillies 5, Red Sox 0: Cliff Lee.  Cliff Phifer Lee.  Cliff effin’ Phifer Lee throws his third straight shutout and completes his 32nd straight scoreless inning. Some may downplay this by claiming that this was against a weak Red Sox lineup, but a weak Red Sox lineup is still better than a great many other […]

After a three-game appetizer in mid-May, baseball is in the midst of feeding its fans a steady two-and-a-half-week diet of interleague games. Some fans enjoy the taste, while others would rather swallow ground glass. To each his own, right? Well, no, where would the fun be in that? Aside from abrogating the purity of the […]

Exactly 100 years ago today, John McGraw passed one memorable milestone in his managerial career. On that day, McGraw’s first-place Giants played the last-place Braves and rather predictably won, 10-4. That win, New York’s 41st on the season, was #1,000 in John McGraw’s managerial career. Currently, there are 56 skippers with 1,000+ victories in their […]

Elsewhere on this page today, The Hardball Times presents two different statistical approaches to picking the major league All-Star teams. In the real-world current system, though, they’re chosen by fan vote. So, here are the latest leaders, as of last week. Thursday is the last day to vote. National League CATCHER Brian McCann, Braves: 2,301,252 […]

Tigers 4, Blue Jays 2: Jhonny Peralta had an RBI triple that ended up being the game winner, but this game really belonged to Jim Leyland, who had one of the better arguments with an ump this year, mocking his change-of-call in grand gestures, thereby entertaining the hometown fans on the way to his ejection. […]

The American League leads the National so far in this year’s interleague play. That isn’t especially noteworthy, given that the AL has held the advantage in interleague play for six consecutive seasons coming into this one. But there are a few details about this year’s interleague competition that might indicate that the AL’s stranglehold over […]

I was out of town for the second weekend in a row. This time to West Virginia to visit my mother-in-law and to breathe some mountain air. Bonus: you can pick up the Beckley, W. Va., newspaper on Sunday morning and read last Wednesday’s box scores! Reminds me of being a baseball fan back in […]

Last week I asked all of you to take a SWAG at how many of the remaining years in Joe Mauer’s eight-year, $184 million pact would be healthy ones, and here is what you said: Healthy Mauer seasons Percentage Zero 2.7% 1-2 17.8% 3-4 39.7% 5-6 34.2% Seven 5.5% The absolute pessimists were small in […]