Hall of Fame Fantasies—from Jurickson Profar to Mariano Rivera
Cooperstown Dreams Every player has fantasies of being immortalized into the Hall of Fame. In January 2019, it’s likely Mariano Rivera will be unanimously inducted into the Hall. Just a few weeks ago, a dynamic player many teams had coveted …
Baseball Free Agency: Money for Nothing
Play Ball! The baseball story begins as an outgrowth of money, gambling and the insatiable love of baseball in American cities. It was not a story of money for nothing a decade after the Civil War ended. It began as …
Where Have You Gone Charlie Hustle?
Baseball’s Issues If you read Phil Mushnick’s column in the New York Post the other day, entitled, Machado shows baseball places value on all the wrong qualities, you read an astute analysis about what’s wrong with baseball. Mushnick writes that baseball …
Reasons to be Nervous About Yankees Pitching?
Nervous Nellie Approach Once again, reading some of the sportswriters in the New York press this week feels like hysteria on steroids. The world is coming to an end at Yankee Stadium because the Yankees did not sign Patrick Corbin, Nathan …
Hot Stove Musings: Patrick Corbin Auction (Greed Personified) and the Middling Mets
Four, Five, or Six Years? Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported the Yankees decided they wanted to go four years on Patrick Corbin, but then decided to add a fifth year to the contract. Then they were told …
Sexual Assault in Sports: Cool Those Jets, Boys
Sports and the Lack of Personal Discipline The beauty of competition. Fire. Emotion. The spirit of the challenge. The home run. Touchdown catch. The strikeout. The diving tackle. Strong, gifted athletes displaying their athletic prowess on a field of play. …
The Delicate Art of Hot Stove Baseball Calisthenics
Calisthenics Defined as gymnastic exercises to achieve bodily fitness and grace of movement, are we witnessing the equivalent of baseball calisthenics this offseason? Teams adopting unusual postures to gracefully stretch their bodies in just the right direction so they can …
Why Are Baseball Traditions Disappearing?
Baseball Traditions Disappearing Baseball traditions are too few, ephemeral, in danger of change and tied to the holy dollar bill as they convert to the profane. The gentle valley in left-center field at old Crosley Stadium in Cincinnati. Or the …
Why Did Jacob deGrom Win the Cy Young Award?
Did Jacob deGrom deserve to win the National League Cy Young Award this past season? The dispute is so perfectly baseball. Why? Because baseball has yet to fully reflect the diminished importance of certain time-honed statistics like the pitching victory. …
Hot Stove Thoughts about Player Movements in Baseball
From Harry Frazee to New York, with Love There’s something to be said for the originality and creativity of player movement in baseball which incubates philosophical investigation. No other sport can match the impassioned player movements each hot stove season. …
