-
Recent Posts
Archives
Baseball
Cricket
Tag Archives: Literature
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 Al Kaline, Amed Rosario, analytics, Aroldis Chapman, Atlanta Braves, Babe Ruth, batting average, Bob Gibson, Boston Red Sox, Buffalo Bisons, Chicago Black Sox scandal, Cricket, designated hitter, doubleheader, exit velocity, Florida Marlins, Globe Life Field, Hal Chase, home run, Horace Clarke, Hot Stove League, Houston Astros, ICC, Joe Morgan, Justin Turner, launch angle, Literature, live-ball era, lively ball, Los Angeles Dodgers, Lou Brock, Major League Baseball, Major League Baseball Players Association, Mark Twain, Mendoza Line, Miami Marlins, minor leagues, National League, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, Ronald Reagan, Sabermetrics, Sahlen Field, Spring Training, Steve Cohen, strikeout (K), Subway Series, Summer Olympics, Theo Epstein, Tom Seaver, Tony Clark, Toronto Blue Jays, Whitey Ford, World Series
Leave a comment
The Ol’ Neighborhood Play
The pitcher does a little shuffle: By the time the ball’s released his back foot is ten inches in front of the rubber. The ball whizzing toward the batter is loaded with pine-tar or similar foreign-substance; or the ball’s been … Continue reading
There Used to Be a Ballpark Again
“How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people!” (Lamentations) William Carlos Williams is the author of an epic poem about Paterson. It is one of the cities “left behind.” Maybe not anymore. In fall 2019, it was announced … Continue reading
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 Babe Ruth, Bernard Malamud, Boston Red Sox, Charles Dickens, Chicago Cubs, Cricket, designated hitter, Don Bradman, Izaak Walton, Jane Austen, John Updike, Literature, London Stadium, Major League Baseball, Mark Twain, National League, New York Yankees, Ring Lardner, St. Louis Cardinals, Summer Olympics
Leave a comment
Great Stadiums (10): Big Beautiful Shea Stadium
I (Evander) went wild first visiting the then-new home of the New York Mets (short for Metropolitans), something like 55 years ago. Ground was broken for “Flushing Meadow Park Municipal Stadium” on October 28, 1961. Shea was McLuhan-cool. It had … Continue reading
Posted in Baseball, Right Off the Bat Book, Stadiums
Tagged Astrodome, Bill Shea, Houston Astros, Jane Jarvis, Joe Namath, Literature, Major League Baseball, Mike Piazza, National League Championship Series, New York Mets, Nolan Ryan, Pat Jarvis, Shea Stadium, Stadiums, Tom Seaver, World Series
Leave a comment
Great Stadiums (9): Daphne du Maurier Stadium (Oracle Park in San Francisco)
Daphne du Maurier wrote “The Birds,” a short story expanded upon by Alfred Hitchcock to a film of eco-psychology that features his greatest special effects, glamorous skulduggery on Mount Rushmore notwithstanding. Oracle Park—Pacific Bell, then SBC; after those corporate-naming auspices … Continue reading
Ripeness Is All
Relentlessly, the English medium-fast bowler James Anderson is climbing the list of all-time wicket takers (in Test cricket). At the time of this writing, he’s placed fifth (with 544), a mere 19 wickets below the great Australian quick Glenn McGrath, … Continue reading
Tab, Joe, Joe, and Joe
The synchronicity of nostalgia. Events that rhyme in time. A circling of the sun. The revolution of the cold-blooded moon. Fantasy and fact orbit one another! It is 60 years ago today, July 21, 2018, that “Joe Boyd, a middle-aged real estate salesman, … Continue reading
Posted in Baseball, Yankees
Tagged 56 game hitting streak, American League, Damn Yankees, Joe DiMaggio, Literature, Mickey Mantle, Mike Trout, Milwaukee Braves, New York Yankees, The Natural, The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, Washington Nationals, Washington Senators, World Series
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 56 game hitting streak, All-Star Game, Babe Ruth, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Brooklyn Atlantics, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, closers, Cricket, Cricket Rules, Dale Long, Don Drysdale, Don Mattingly, Elias Sports Bureau, Eric Gagne, exit velocity, Ford C. Frick, home run, intentional walk, Joe Krakauskas, Joe Wilhoit, Kansas City Athletics, Ken Keltner, launch angle, Literature, Los Angeles Dodgers, Major League Baseball, Mickey Mantle, Moneyball, Montreal Expos, National Association, National Baseball Hall of Fame, National League, New York Giants, New York Mets, New York Yankees, Oakland Athletics, OBP, Orel Hershiser, Pacific Coast League, Pete Rose, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsgurgh Pirates, relief pitchers/firemen, Roger Maris, Sabermetrics, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, San Francisco Seals, Ted Williams, Terry Francona, Wee Willie Keeler, Western League, Whitey Ford, Wichita Jobbers
Leave a comment
Right Off the Bat 