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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 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
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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
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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
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
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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
Posted in Baseball, Right Off the Bat Website
Tagged Brooklyn Dodgers, Brooklyn Superbas, Chicago Cubs, doubleheader, Edward Reulbach, Federal League, Frank Chance, Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, Literature, Major League Baseball, Mordecai (Three Fingers) Brown, National Baseball Hall of Fame, National League, National League pennant winners, Sandy Koufax, St. Louis Cardinals, Twi-night Doubleheader, World Series
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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
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
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 American League, Bob Feller, Boston Red Sox, Cleveland Indians, Gil McDougald, Herb Score, Jack Hamilton, Major League Baseball, Mickey Mantle, National League, New York Mets, Tony Conigliaro, Yogi Berra
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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
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 American League, Bruce Bochy, Dave Righetti, Derek Jeter, Joe DiMaggio, Kansas City Royals, Literature, Madison Bumgarner, National League, New York Yankees, Pablo Sandoval, San Francisco Giants, Wild Card, World Series, Yankee Stadium
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Right Off the Bat 