Mike Kelly, whose autograph after 124 years is worth a king's ransom.
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Mike “King” Kelly, Nineteenth-century Baseball Star, Makes the News
Posted in Baseball, Cricket
Tagged Boston Beaneaters, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Mike "King" Kelly, Willie Mays
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Basil D’Oliveira (1931–2011)
Basil D'Oliveira
The South African–born England cricketer Basil D’Oliveira has died, having battled Parkinson’s disease for several years. Aside from his capable batsmanship and usefulness as a bowler, D’Oliveira will always be known as the man who encapsulated the racism within cricket during the 1960s.
D’Oliveira (who was “colored” under Apartheid’s racial-classification system and couldn’t play for his home country, which was in every way reserved and preserved for whites) moved to England and eventually qualified to play for the national side. When the English selectors failed to pick him for the 1968–69 tour of South Africa, the media detected either lack of courage or something worse on the English authorities’ behalf. When one of the touring members fell ill, and the English selectors finally picked D’Oliveira, the South Africans predictably protested: not only could they not have any player of color in their own team, they couldn’t play any team who had any individuals of color in it. The tour was canceled, and ultimately all national cricket sides boycotted South Africa until 1992.
The D’Oliveira incident exposed the ugly racism that tinged all aspects of cricketing life. It also went a long way to opening the conversation that cricket needed to have about race. Through the entire episode, D’Oliveira showed grace and resilience, and he continued to play cricket for and in England. These days, the South African side contains several players of color. More significantly, perhaps, the teams South Africa plays do as well.
It Just Got Wilder
Jim Crane, new owner of the Houston Astros: on the verge of moving to the A.L.
As announced earlier, the Houston Astros, the team that entered the National League along with the New York Mets in 1962, will slide over to the American League right after the club’s fiftieth-anniversary celebration as an N.L. team. Two Wild Cards will be added to bring the leagues into line. These Wild Cards, as planned, would involve one-game playoffs to cap a 162-game season. Justin Verlander, A.L. Cy Young Award-winner (and MVP), has tweeted his approval. Readers of this blog, note my (Evander’s) disapproval. Major League Baseball is becoming no different from the National Hockey League, wherein just about every team, save my New York Islanders, gets a postseason chance to win the Stanley Cup. After 162 games, if the two best teams cannot be determined, then why not throw away (NBA-style) the entire season? There is nothing so clean as the best team from the A.L. facing the best in the N.L. in a seven-game World Series. The only thing I like about the announcement is the geographic rivalry created between the Texas (Will they become “The Arlington Rangers” as the Marlins now only represent Miami and not their state?) Rangers and Houston Astros. In other news, the New York Mets and Baltimore Orioles have retro uniforms for 2012. Unlike the Orioles and their exquisite phone booth of a stadium, the Mets needed to, and have announced a move of the fences inward at Citi Field. These eccentrically distant and needlessly high walls will no longer soar sixteen-feet above sea level.
When Did the Florida Marlins Become “The Miami Marlins”?
The Marlins get a makeover
(Although neither Pujols [to date] nor Posada went to the Marlins, on August 11, 2017, it was reported former New York Yankees star Derek Jeter is a key component among a group that successfully bid for a franchise that has seen many ups and downs, and changes. The deal is expected to be approved by club owners in fall 2017.)
Posted in Baseball, Yankees
Tagged Albert Pujols, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Miami Marlins, National League, New York Yankees
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Kidnapped Wilson Ramos Rescued
What the Hell Just Happened in Cape Town?
Yes, Michael. It WAS that bad.
Just when you think the world of cricket couldn’t get any weirder or upside down, a Test match comes along that defies all expectations. Such an event occurred yesterday. The Australian cricket team is visiting South Africa for two Test matches (an absurdly short series in and of itself) and a bunch of one-day games. In the first Test match just concluded, the Australian team made it to the end of the first day at 214 for the loss of eight wickets, a mediocre score that required half its runs to flow from the bat of captain Michael Clarke. The following morning, Australia reached a respectable 274 before being bowled out. The pitch was relatively placid; the sun was shining.
South Africa safely negotiated their way to lunch at 49 for one. Then all hell broke loose. The Proteas, as the South African team is known, contrived to lose nine wickets for the addition of only 48 runs, leaving Australia to bat again with a second-innings lead of 188. But the drama had only just begun. Australia struggled to tea at 13 for three, and then lost an astonishing six wickets for only seven runs, to reach a total of 21 for nine. At this point, Australia was in serious danger of posting the lowest ever score in a Test match (26). A few blows from Australia’s last-wicket pair more than doubled the score, to 47. Nonetheless, it was an abject total on a pitch that held no demons and in perfectly decent batting weather. To compound the misery, South Africa then cruised to 81 for the loss of one wicket by the end of the second day. This morning they dutifully knocked off the remaining runs for the loss of only one further wicket at a brisk and frankly contemptuous pace.
As Lady Bracknell might have put it, if she’d be a connoisseur of the noble game, “To lose ten wickets in a day may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose twenty-three looks like carelessness.” South Africa can breathe a sigh of relief that their own disastrous performance in the first innings was swept away by an innings of such ineptitude and lack of spine that it quite literally hasn’t occurred to an Australian side for more than a century. South African Dale Steyn may be the best fast bowler in the world, but Vernon Philander (who took an amazing eight for 78 on his debut) is hardly in the same class. That Hashim Amla and Graeme Smith both scored centuries in South Africa’s second innings showed that the pitch wasn’t as bad as the other scores might suggest. All these reasons leave one agog at how far the mighty Australia has fallen! The question is, Has this team reached the bottom?
Posted in Australia, Cricket, South Africa, Test Cricket
Tagged Graeme Smith, Hashim Amla, Literature, Michael Clarke
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Baseball Player Kidnapped
Venezuelan major-league catcher Wilson Ramos is missing
A Penny for the Old Guy
Guy Fawkes looking like Salvador Dali
Matty Alou
The Alous (Matty, center) when they played for the San Francisco Giants
Under a Cloud from the First
Andy Zaltzman: He's not buying it (especially not at that price)
Following the meting out of prison sentences to three Pakistan cricketers in the wake of the “spot-fixing” controversy over illegal betting in cricket games, comedian and cricket fanatic Andy Zaltzman has been casting his skeptical eye over the history of the game—including the first ever international game, between the United States and Canada in 1844:
It was a suspiciously low-scoring game, in which no batsman scored more than 14, and the USA, cruising to victory at 25 for 0 in pursuit of 82 to win in the fourth innings, lost all 10 wickets for 33.
Admittedly, losing all 10 wickets for 33 was not especially unusual in the mid-19th century, when men were men, moustaches were moustaches, and cricket pitches were discourteously bobbly. But the scorecard and accompanying notes reveal further details that the ACSU [the body set up to look into corruption] simply must investigate.
Four batsmen in the game are recorded as being dismissed “lbw b ?”, with ? picking up another scalp via a stumping by Canadian gloveman Phillpotts. ESPNcricinfo’s match notes highlight that: (a) Canada’s captain was not named, (b) the bowling figures do not add up in any of the four innings, (c) the runs do not tally in the USA’s first innings, (d) the Americans’ key No. 3 batsman Wheatcroft simply did not turn up at the ground on day three and therefore missed his second innings, and (e) it is not clear which of the Wilson and Thompson brothers played for Canada. Every single one of these potentially match-turning factors suggests that some shady betting syndicate was almost certainly involved. And as long as betting in India remains illegal, 1840s cricket matches will be vulnerable.
The 1846 rematch raises further questions. Aside from the in-form ? picking up another key wicket, Canada scoring 46% of their first innings runs through wides flung by the under-suspicion US bowlers (admittedly this amounted only to 13 of an underwhelming total of 28 all out), and further alarm-bell-clanging mathematical inconsistencies in the scorebook, the game was suddenly abandoned with Canada struggling at 13 for 3 in the second innings.
Apparently John Helliwell, Canada’s opening batsman, confidence rising as he advanced his score to 4 not out (needing only one more to become his team’s highest scorer in the match), skied the ball towards the bowler, the American allrounder Samuel Dudson, who was himself pumping with adrenaline after a dazzling innings of 10. Helliwell, in an outburst of unbridled North Americanism, rushed towards Dudson to try to stop him taking the catch, shoulder-charged him and clobbered him to the ground. . . .
Right Off the Bat 