I imagine everyone has seen the video already. If not, here it is. In it, David Ortiz expressed his thanks to the mayor of Boston, the governor of Massachusetts and the city police department for their efforts in the wake of the April 15 bombing. All well said, and I—and everyone else around the country—agree […]

Angels 4, Tigers 3: Watched most of this one as I painted a couple of rooms in my house. Two highlights of the game for me were (1) overhearing my girlfriend use some really bad language the second or third time the Tigers left the bases loaded; and (2) Tigers color commentator Rod Allen, when describing […]

I was excited to see Allen Webster take the mound in a Boston Red Sox uniform Sunday night. Yes, I am a Red Sox fan, but I also am a PITCHf/x fan. To my knowledge, tonight was the first time that Webster has thrown in front of PITCHf/x cameras in a major league ballpark. Scouts […]

Twenty years ago today, Chris Bosio had the game of his life. Though it didn’t look like that would be the case when things began, he ended up having easily the greatest day of his career. When April 22, 1993, began, Bosio was a pitcher trying to help improve the Mariners pitching staff. Seattle had […]

Orioles 10, Rays 6: Time to re-bookmark Matt Wieters Facts. The Chosen One’s grand slam in the 10th gives the O’s their 17th straight extra innings win. Diamondbacks 6, Yankees 2: Frankie Cervelli hit a homer to tie it in the ninth. He also had two — not one, but two — catcher’s interference calls. […]

There are two seemingly unrelated stories that I’d like to take a moment to compare in order to make a point. In the world of economics, public policy, and how not to format a spreadsheet, word has come out that a seminal paper arguing that high debt-to-GDP rates are bad for economic growth was based […]

Twenty-five years ago today, one of baseball’s oldest players had one of his ugliest outings ever. April 19, 1988 was a day Joe Niekro probably wanted to forget about as soon as it was over. It wasn’t just that he pitched poorly and allowed a slew of runs. It’s that he also kept getting called […]

Reds 1, Phillies 0: CONTINUED FROM TUESDAY NIGHT: Nine minutes, a quick score and then the whole thing was over. About as good a night as you coulda hoped for when you were 17, but for the Phillies this had to be disappointing. Reds 11, Phillies 2: Well, maybe not as disappointing as this. The […]

On April 18, 1950, in the New York Yankees’ season opener at Boston, Billy Martin made his major-league debut. He entered in the sixth inning to play second, replacing pinch-hitter Dick Wakefield, who had struck out to help snuff out a New York rally that still left them trailing the Red Sox, 9-4. Martin did […]

Twenty-five years ago today, Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt engaged in an impressive bit of heads-up baserunning, scoring all the way from first base on a wild pitch. On April 18, 1988, Schmidt and his Phillies compadres took on the New York Mets. In the top of the eighth, the Phillies held a […]