I find it difficult to read baseball books over the summer because there is just so much live baseball to be seen on TV. Still, I’m glad I took some time this summer to read Tim Wendel’s Summer of ‘68. More than just a baseball book, Wendel’s work weaves the 1968 season into the greater […]

It was shutout Tuesday, apparently. Let’s tally the goose eggs: Yankees 3, Rangers 0: Hiroki Kuroda with the two-hit shutout. He was masterful, but man, there were a lot of ill-advised Texas swings in the parts of this one I watched. Either Kuroda had them more fooled than someone on the foolingest day of his life […]

Yankees 8, Rangers 2: I suppose the critical mass of people mocking the Yankees’ pickup of Derek Lowe was just too delicious for God or Loki or Fate or whatever controls our world to pass up, because He/it/whatever decided to play it funny with us and allow Mr. Lowe to toss four scoreless innings in […]

Ten years ago today, it was not a fun day to be Jason LaRue. For at least one inning, it was a flatly miserable time to be Cincinnati backstop Jason LaRue. On Aug. 14, 2002, the first inning of the Reds-Diamondbacks game was the kind of thing that gives catchers nightmares. Pitching for the Reds […]

Blue Jays 10, Yankees 7: Holy frijole, did you see Rajai Davis’ catch, robbing Casey McGehee of a home run in the seventh? The guy is like 5-foot-9 and the wall is like ten feet and he went Spud Webb on that bad boy. Or Spiderman. Or something. Just wow. Otherwise, the Jays beat the tar out […]

Forty years ago today, Billy Martin tried one of his more interesting maneuvers to shake his team up, and it worked pretty damn well. On Aug. 13, 1972, Martin had a problem. He was in his first season managing the Tigers and trying his damnedest to keep the club in a pennant race. Less than […]

A quarter-century ago today, baseball had one of the greatest examples ever of an archetypal trade. It’s possibly the most intriguing win-Now vs. win-later trade of all time. On Aug. 12, 1987, the Detroit Tigers sent young prospect pitcher John Smoltz to the Atlanta Braves in exchange for veteran arm Doyle Alexander. On the face […]

Mets 6, Marlins 1: R.A. Dickey continues his dominant year. He struck out ten and didn’t walk any while tossing a complete game. And we may see more of him soon. Royals 8, Orioles 2: Manny Machado made his major league debut. Two for four with a triple. Not bad! No one else did anything, […]

Marlins 13, Mets 0: Well, that one got out of hand. Chris Young was beaten like a red headed stepchild (can we still say that?), allowing two homers and four RBI to Giancarlo Stanton and a mess of runs to everyone else. Jose Reyes extends his hitting streak to 26 games. Giants 15, Cardinals 0: […]

Tigers 6, Yankees 5: Miguel Cabrera homered for the third straight game. The dude is good. The Tigers have won six straight and, with the White Sox loss, pull to within a half game. Speaking of the Tigers, I found out last night that one of the people I hung out with at Comerica Park […]