Category Archives: Baseball

NYC Subway Series Round 2

The suddenly hot Mets, as hot as the weather this first day of summer (which is when I, Evander, always feel the season truly starts—in fact, the season doesn’t really take shape till mid-August), and the suddenly not-so-hot Yankees (unlike … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Yankees | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Clemens: He’s Not the Pope but He’s Innocent

Ecclesiastical jokes aside, as if to prove our point that one of the greater glories of cricket and baseball is that they’re three parts purity to one part sleaze (or should that be three parts sleaze to one part purity?), … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Cricket, IPL | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Marks of Cain

The last couple of days have displayed—in extremis—why we at Right Off the Bat love cricket and baseball so much, and why they will never stop pitching us curveballs or bowling balls that rear up from a good length. On … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Cricket, IPL | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Judy Johnson and Ghost Marcelle

In Right Off the Bat, Martin and I delve into the thorny subjects of empire and race as related to cricket and baseball. Two perhaps lesser-written-about Negro Leagues players, with a couple of the most unforgettable monikers ever, are Judy … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Right Off the Bat Book | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Yankees-Mets Subway Series at 50

The Mets not only took the first regular-season Subway Series game from the Yankees in 1997 (I, Evander, was there), a 6-0 spanking, they won the very first meeting in a 1962 spring-training game. The event was fraught with tension. … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Yankees | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Home-run Hitter and the Most Beautiful Woman in the World

From the headline of this blog, it would be reasonable to think, Again on Joe and Marilyn, Marilyn and Joe? But there was another slugger, with the second-highest home-run percentage (next to Babe Ruth) in Major League Baseball history, who … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Johan Santana Throws First No-hitter for Mets in Their 8,020th Game

Congratulations from the Right Off the Bat project to Johan Santana, the first Mets pitcher to twirl a no-hitter. Philip Gregory Humber and David Cone had pitched perfect games for other teams. Former Mets stars Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver, and … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Right Off the Bat Book, Right Off the Bat Website | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Humidity Don’t Mean a Thing to Make the Ball Swing

It’s long been assumed that humidity in the atmosphere causes the cricket ball to swing through the air when it leaves the bowler’s hand. Well, apparently that’s wrong. According to an article on the BBC website today, scientists have put … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Cricket | Leave a comment

Mantle by the New Math Numbers

Like most red-blooded (Is there any other color?) American (U.S., but let’s include the entire hemisphere) males from Noo Yawk, and aetat. fifty to eighty at this writing in 2012, I (Evander) have a fascination with Yankees star Mickey Mantle—virtually … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Yankees | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

“Schoolboy” Rowe

My (Martin’s) friend and fellow publisher Bob Kalechovsky of the estimable and pioneering Micah Publications asked me yesterday whether I might be related to Lynwood “Schoolboy” Rowe, who was the star pitcher for the Detroit Tigers in the 1930s. I’m sad … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball | Tagged , | Leave a comment