Tag Archives: Boston Red Sox

Wait ’til Next Year

The drouth was over. It ended the only way it could. A rebarbative, plague-infected, player celebrated along with the still-healthy ones. After six games. Some fans were inside a gleaming hitherto-unused, untested (no pun in this “get-tested” era) stadium: the … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Cricket, IPL, Right Off the Bat Website, Stadiums | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Babe Ruth Had the Spanish Flu Twice in 1918

My (Evander’s) old friend and longtime supporter of the Right off the Bat project, Mike Katzmarek, reported a story he’d heard on a French-radio broadcast that started me on the slightly scattered subjects of this blog. Thanks also go to … Continue reading

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

The Baseball Scene

Henry James, for whom no abstraction, no characteristic or gesture, was too subtle to be examined (and examined), qualified and qualified again, is generally credited with a fictional form that was actually pioneered by women, mostly Continental-women writers on to … Continue reading

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

Baseball and Pythagoras; or, Finger Painting the Word Picture by Numbers

The Right off the Bat (ROTB) project was angled toward the hallowed halls of Cooperstown this week. Since we have rescheduled for 2019 or probably into the 2020s, permit me (Evander), in this our 601st blog and with little else … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Cricket, Right Off the Bat Website, T20 Cricket, Test Cricket | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Streaking

Like the proverbial first-small-step of the longest journey, record-MLB streaks begin innocently enough. Each captures the imagination of the public in different ways. The most enthralling streaks occur over the course of a season. A few, equally impressive, are accomplished … Continue reading

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

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

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

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

Group Psychotherapy for Cleveland

Nicholas Frankovich asks if Cleveland Indians (in 2022 to be called the 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 … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball, Cricket, Right Off the Bat Website, T20 Cricket, Yankees | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Twilight of the Roids

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

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

Little Red Scooter

To Martin’s Broad Agonistes, I note two Major League Baseball parallels: and our Right off the Bat is thus chockablock, many being downright spooky. On the night of May 7, 1957, left-handed ace Herb Score—called by Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, … Continue reading

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

Baseball and African-American Life

Gerald Early’s meandering yet compellingly, beguilingly honest essay, “Baseball and African American Life”, asks, “Why have Negroes not truly accepted baseball?” The answers are complex and perhaps inconclusive. A first questioning is, “In what way?” Jackie Robinson opened a door … Continue reading

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