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

Posted in Baseball, Cricket, IPL, Right Off the Bat Website, Stadiums | 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

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

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

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

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

Posted in Baseball, Right Off the Bat Website | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Dazzy Vance and W. C. Fields

In 1926, W. C. Fields filmed It’s the Old Army Game. The silent movie has something to do with Florida real-estate scams. Perhaps it’s best remembered for showcasing the complex and alluring Midwesterner Louise Brooks before she left Hollywood pictures … Continue reading

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

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

Posted in Baseball | 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

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

Posted in Baseball | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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

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