Can’t Buy Me Love: Baseball Free Agency Begins
The Feeding Frenzy Has Begun … The annual baseball meat market has begun to the Beatles’ tune: “Can’t Buy Me Love.” Player prices already seem to be higher. The ask is in the stratosphere, based on the back of the …
MLB Games Telecast from Center Field, with Love
The Baseball Telecast It’s tough to watch a baseball telecast. Not tough to be a baseball fan. But tough to watch every game exactly the same way from the same vantage point. It’s as if every game is played in …
Gulliver and the Lilliputians at the World Series
The Regular Season This past baseball season felt like it was played in a test tube that was continually jolted and prodded with every bullet thrown to home plate. Try as hard as they might, the Lilliputians could not play …
Should the Yankees Be More Like the Rays?
Recent baseball articles about the abrupt end of the Yankees 2018 season questioned the Yankees desire to win. The articles suggested their primary concern was to remain under the luxury tax threshold of $187 million dollars set for 2018. The …
Relievers, Wildcards and Apple Pie—Part III
Part III of a three-part series (see Part I, Part II) The Aftermath: Pitching, Baseball, and America So, for one night at least, the Athletics looked like what they were, a small-market club up against a big market, tough opponent …
Relievers, Wildcards and Apple Pie—Part II
Part II of a three-part series (see Part I) 3 Oct 2018: The American League Wild Card Game The Oakland Athletics started the game with an “opener,” a jittery, twitching right-hander named Liam Hendriks. Amazingly, he had been designated for …
Why Baseball Stadiums are the Cathedrals of America
Even people who don’t follow baseball have heard of Fenway Park and Wrigley Field. The two original baseball cathedrals left in America, dating back more than 100 years from the days of the Titanic sinking in 1912. Fenway Park opened …
Relievers, Wildcards and Apple Pie—Part I
This is Part I of a three-part series Take a Deep Breath: Rethinking Relief Pitching For years, the idea of using the best non-starter on a pitching staff to pitch only the ninth inning seemed a bedrock fundamental of baseball. …
After Boston, a Few Hard Truths for the Yankees to Face
The Yankees lost the Division Series last night. And despite their almost miraculous comeback in the ninth inning of game four, they looked dead most of the series. The Yankees played this postseason like they did when they lost to …
State of Pitching (Part III): The Rise of the ‘Opener’
Part III of a three-part series (see Part I, Part II) What Are They Waiting For? Strategic pitching decisions by managers can change the tenor of a game. Shut down the opposition before they get going. Give their team a …
