Category Archives: Baseball

Major League Baseball to Play the West End (Figuratively Speaking)

Posted on December 24, 2016 by rightoffthebatbook

The Boston Herald reports the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees plan to resume their classic rivalry via a series in London—in 2018.* This follows the recent agreement reached by MLB, and is a further example of professional … Continue reading →

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Group Psychotherapy for Cleveland

Posted on November 6, 2016 by rightoffthebatbook

Nicholas Frankovich asks if Cleveland Indians (starting 2022 Guardians) fans require a big-couch session with a group psychotherapist. It’s a reasonable question. The 1954 Indians still hold the modern record for regular-season winning percentage—till the nonexistent Law of Averages caught up … Continue reading →

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Good-bye Vin Scully

Posted on October 1, 2016 by rightoffthebatbook

Los Angeles Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully, who works the radio side on his own, is retiring from 67 years’ painting the word picture. The Bronx native and Fordham Heights alum followed the Dodgers from Brooklyn to L.A. a mere 60 … Continue reading →

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Twilight of the Roids

Posted on August 7, 2016 by rightoffthebatbook

The baseball world has moved on. Unless unforeseen circumstances (e.g., a rainout; another club hoping to catch lightning in a bottle in 2018, or by some arrangement even in 2017) prevail, Alex Rodriguez will not play major-league ball after August … Continue reading →

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2020 Foresight

Posted on August 3, 2016 by rightoffthebatbook

Baseball and softball return to the Summer Olympics in 2020. From the standpoint of the Right off the Bat Project, irony of ironies, these sports had been voted out of the 2012 London Olympics. In our book, Martin and I … Continue reading →

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A Memoir of Teenage Obsession and Terrible Cricket

Posted on May 14, 2016 by rightoffthebatbook

A mere 48 hours away at this writing is the 75th anniversary of the start of Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. How the Yankee Clipper came to accomplish it puzzles the will. I have no intention of soliloquizing: What more … Continue reading →

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Annus Mirabilis 1869: Year of the Rain Out

Posted on April 2, 2016 by rightoffthebatbook

On July 23, 1866, the Cincinnati Red Stockings were organized, and from 1867 to 1870 their record was 175 wins, 15 losses, 1 draw. Base-ball, to that time, had been “a Gentleman’s game”: even if the Reds beat everyone’s brains … Continue reading →

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Getting All Political, but Not What You May Think

Posted on March 20, 2016 by rightoffthebatbook

For several dozen reasons, President Obama’s historic visit to Cuba on the first day of spring 2016 is historic. We at Right off the Bat have covered everything from baseball in Iran to (probably somewhere in this blog, certainly in … Continue reading →

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Ed Reulbach: Pioneering Jewish Baseball Star (to which I, Evander, add a *)

Posted on January 23, 2016 by rightoffthebatbook

In the history of MLB, only one pitcher has thrown shutouts in both ends of a doubleheader. (For cricket fans and the many baseball fans too young to remember or know, the regularly scheduled doubleheader means two games in one … Continue reading →

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Great Stadiums (9): PPC Newlands

Posted on December 26, 2015 by rightoffthebatbook

I (Evander) suspect—tho my suspicions may be nugatory—that readers of this blog will be hearing more about this one, in Cape Town, before we’re very far into the new year 2016. I was once again blown away by a cricket … Continue reading →

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