Ten years ago today, one of the strangest trades of the 21st century was made. It was a marker trade, serving to define what group you belonged to. If you didn’t think it was much of a big deal at all, then you were normal and part of mainstream baseball fandom. But, if this trade […]

If I missed something important in one of these it’s because I was less plugged-in than usual yesterday. My daughter Mookie had her dance recital. Both ballet and jazz, which required me to sit through two (2)  separate shows. I kid you not: four hours of sitting in an auditorium to watch eight minutes of […]

Twenty years ago was a nasty day for the California Angels. They didn’t suffer any tough loss at the ballpark. In fact, they didn’t even have a game that day. That said, I’m sure they’d much rather have suffered a horrible loss on the field than the horrible event that took place off the field. […]

It was stunning, but not surprising, news. On the morning of Friday May 18, 2012, news broke that Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood intended to retire. He’d been having a very rough time of it in 2012 after years of battling injury. Now that his career is over, it makes sense to take a look back. […]

Braves 7, Marlins 0: Brandon Beachy: the best pitcher you haven’t heard of. He shuts out the Marlins on five hits and ups his record to 5-1 with a 1.33 ERA. Giants 7, Cardinals 5: Bad Cardinal defense and a little more offense than usual gave the Giants some runs on a day when Matt […]

Rockies 6, Diamondbacks 1: I took my bike out for a spin for the first time in a while last evening. It was a nice ride on a nice night. At least apart from the crazy, over-the-handlebars wreck I got into at the corner of Alpath and Johnston Road. There were no apparent injuries at […]

Ten years ago, Jason Giambi had perhaps the greatest game of his life. It was certainly the most clutch at-bat he ever had in a regular-season game, and it served as his New York Yankee coming out. In the offseason, Giambi moved from Oakland to the greener pastures of the Bronx. The 2000 AL MVP […]

Red Sox 5, Mariners 0: That Josh Beckett is such a disgrace! He’s poisoning this team, I tell you, poisoning them! Oh, wait, he pitched well? Seven shutout innings while striking out nine? Well, in that case, I stand corrected. Cardinals 7, Cubs 6: Jason Motte vultured a win when he gave up a tying […]

Nationals 8, Padres 5: Bryce Harper golfed one more than 400 feet to straightaway center for his first ever major league homer. He also struck out on four pitches to Joe Thatcher and launched a really loud f-bomb. I love him for both reasons, frankly. And I love how the back end of the Nats […]

Exactly 100 years ago today, on May 15, 1912, baseball witnessed one of its most infamous fights. It pitted one of the game’s greatest stars, Ty Cobb, against a man missing all of one hand and much of the other. Yeah, that fight was a bit one-sided. Cobb and his Tiger teammates were playing in […]