Growing up as a sports fan in the 1970s, I remember two Joe Fergusons. One was a decent quarterback for the NFL Buffalo Bills. The other, the lesser known of the two, was an overlooked catcher for the Dodgers and a few other major league teams. As a baseball fan first and foremost, I started […]

10 years ago, the White Sox made a pair of trades that resulted in them getting one of the biggest names in baseball without giving up anything of serious value. On Jan. 15, 2003, they turned various bits of nothing much in particular into Bartolo Colon, a pitcher coming off a 20-win season. The Sox […]

In a couple of months, at the SABR Analytics Conference, the organizers plan to present awards for three types of baseball writing: {exp:list_maker}Contemporary Baseball Analysis: Honoring the best analysis focusing on a subject related to the modern game(s), team(s) or player(s). Contemporary Baseball Commentary: Honoring the best commentary focusing on a subject related to the […]

Fifty years ago today, a glorious rarity happened: a trade involving two Hall of Fame players. As an added bonus, they went opposite ways in this trade. It wasn’t just the two players straight up—in all, six players moved in the deal—but it isn’t every day two immortals are involved in one deal. On Jan. […]

Twsenty years ago today was a great day in the history of the San Francisco Giants baseball franchise. It’s the day that the team was saved. Well, that’s too melodramatic. The team would be around no matter what, but it wouldn’t be around in the Bay Area. On Jan. 12, 1993, Giants team owner Bob […]

We’ve all been thinking about the Hall of Fame a lot lately. In fact, this is my second such post in as many days, but I have an idea that I think is worth considering. It grows out of a Rob Neyer post where he mentions not wanting to support a player who would not […]

This week’s Hall of Fame result wasn’t totally unexpected, but for many of us, it was frustrating nonetheless. The primary question that everyone has been wrestling with lately is, “what, exactly, is the Hall of Fame supposed to be?” Let me explain. Since basically forever, the Hall of Fame has been a place to enshrine […]

It is an article of faith in the online baseball community that Barry Bonds, etc., got jobbed in this year’s Hall of Fame voting. Just look at the numbers, says the sabermetric orthodoxy. And understandably so. Looking at numbers is what sabermetricians do. But these are not the people who vote on Hall of Fame […]

5,000 days ago something very rare happened—something that hadn’t happened in decades: A team scored in all nine innings of a game. It was May 5, 1999 and the Rockies were slated to play a day game against the Cubs in Colorado’s only series of the year in Wrigley Field. The day before they’d scored […]

The people who hold the keys to the Baseball Hall of Fame have decided to move slowly. They’re not sure what to think, what with all the crazy home runs and questionable substances floating around the game a few years ago. So they’re taking their time. They’re not going to vote any of these big […]