Bringing 62 back

When I was a kid, Roger Maris’ 61 home runs in a single season seemed like an unbreakable record. Even getting to 50 was nearly unheard of, and nobody even came close to 61 until the mid 1990s. But then Ken Griffey Jr. came close a couple of times, and Mark McGwire seemed to threaten

Baseball’s first professional player

In 1936, the first ballots for the newly-created Baseball Hall of Fame were mailed out for voters to consider. As with modern Hall of Fame balloting, there were two ways to be elected: the Baseball Writers Association of America (or BBWAA) was allowed to vote for contemporary players from the 20th century, while the Veteran’s

Jeff Bagwell for the Hall of Fame

As a member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (or BBA for short), I recently participated in their annual Hall of Fame voting process. I don’t have one of the writer’s votes for the election that determines who will actually be enshrined at Cooperstown, but like everyone who loves the game, I do have an opinion.

Say it ain’t so

Unlike a lot of people who pay attention to these things, I was supportive of Ryan Braun’s recent MVP award. Matt Kemp of the Dodgers had a better statistical season than Braun–only a fool would deny that–but the award isn’t really about that. What the award is about is up to the individual voter, and

The unique nature of Game 163

This is my 163rd post on this blog, and I wanted to spend a few moments ruminating on the most unusual game in all of baseball. The baseball regular season is a very predictable thing, in the sense that a team travels around from city to city, plays 2 or 3 or sometimes 4 games

An innocuous ending

The final Topps baseball card for Keith Comstock is shown above. Comstock made it to the major leagues in 1984, in his ninth season as a professional. Having never spent nine minutes as a professional, I could not knock him or his career for a moment. His is a tribute to the line in Bull

My blue hat’s off to Jim Thome

This won’t be a pleasant topic to address. There isn’t any physical pain or suffering involved, only mental anguish on my part. And of course it has to do with being a Cubs fan. What a great life I might have if baseball didn’t matter to me, or I was a fan of a team