Tag Archives: National League

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

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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

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The Walk-down Song

In 1880, the National League changed the rules so that eight balls instead of nine were required for a walk. In 1884, the National League changed the rules so that six balls were required for a walk. In 1886, the … Continue reading

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

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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Dazzy Vance and W. C. Fields

In 1926 W. C. Fields filmed It’s the Old Army Game. The silent—minus shell-game patter (if only via intertitles)—movie has something to do with Florida real-estate scams, including elements Fields would re-create in his masterful It’s a Gift. But Army … Continue reading

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Not Cricket: “Bat Form”

Front-office personnel of the venerable St. Louis Cardinals franchise have plenty of explaining to do as the FBI investigates their hacking of the Houston Astros’s databases. Besides the Times, Reuters has now weighed in to let the rest of the … Continue reading

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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

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Good-bye, Mr. Sunshine

Ernie Banks is gone. He was the first African American to play for the Chicago Cubs, and has forever since been “Mr. Cub.” A Hall of Fame inductee (1977), Banks is best remembered for his boundless enthusiasm: Let’s Play Two! … Continue reading

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The United States of Jeter

A lonely cab-horse steams and stamps. And then the lighting of the lamps. As summer unofficially ends, the 2014 MLB season concluded with a terrific run of postseason playoff games, it seemed the majority of them decided by a run … Continue reading

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2014 Major League Predictions

In time-honored fashion, and this being the ROTB Project blog-number 499, here come my (Evander’s) guesses for the 2014 Major League Baseball season. (“Predictions” is such a silly word. Who could? Well, I! in this 2-year-old podcast.) American League East: … Continue reading

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