ONE REASON WHY WE LOVE BASEBALL

 Dodger`s announcer Red Barber had a bleeding ulcer and could not serve as the lead Dodgers broadcaster.

The Dodgers still had Barber’s partner, Connie Desmond, but they needed  another announcer, so Dodgers GM Branch Rickey went out to find a suitable addition to the Dodgers broadcast team and settled on Ernie Harwell.

However, Ernie Harwell had a contract with the Atlanta Crackers and Crackers President Earl Mann was not going to let his announcer go without compensation, so the Dodgers sent catcher Cliff Dapper to Atlanta and Ernie Harwell became in 1948  the only broadcaster ever traded for a player.

BASEBALL OPENING DAY 2025

March 27, 2025 Legal Update: 

David O Markus. Lauren Krasnoff. Month plus trial. 

Wait for it....

NOT GUILTY!!!!  Congrats!!! 

IT'S OPENING DAY!
For legions of die-hard fans who closed out the fall of last year stating "wait till next year!", next year is here. 

Just to hit the ball and touch 'em all –
a moment in the sun; It's gone and you can tell that one goodbye!
John Fogerty, Centerfield.
  
This is a blog tradition. We run this post most years. Baseball is important to us.

The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again. Ohhh... people will come Ray. People will most definitely come. Terrance Mann, Field Of Dreams.



Baseball follows no time. It has a rhythm of it’s own. It’s the only major sport without a time clock.  But now it has a pitch clock and we are not a fan. The strategy is to control the man. Control the match-up.

No matter how you play it, its 3 men up and three men down for nine innings.

It’s a game of statistics- do you bring in your right-handed reliever to face the other teams big right-handed hitter? The stats say yes. And yet…

it’s a game of hunches. When Tommy Lasorda called an injured Kirk Gibson off the bench in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series in the 9th inning, one on, two out, the Dodgers behind 4-3, and the future Hall of Fame Pitcher Dennis Eckersley on the mound , he did so on a hunch. Announcer Jack Buck called the home run, and was moved to exclaim “I don’t believe what I just saw.”

It’s a game of senses.

The glimpse of the green grass in Centerfield when you first walk into Yankee Stadium.
The smell of cut grass and fresh dirt.
The sting of a foul ball off a wood bat on a cold March morning.
The sound of the pop of the ball in the catcher's glove.

Little boys and girls  learn that when they hurt themselves in the game, to rub some dirt on it. Is there any more valuable lesson in life?

The moments are magical, yet simple. It's why memories remain so clear in the rheumy eyes of old men who once played the game.

To take the wide turn past second, stretch a double into a triple, dive in head first, stand up, and dust yourself off.

To move to your own rhythm while you crouch with your glove off of third base, (the hot corner) each hand on a knee, eyes wide as the ball comes off the bat. You scoop up the one hopper and make the throw to first.

Roberto Clemente in game 7 against the Orioles catching the ball in deep right field, whirling and firing a strike to third base- the best throw in the history of the game. 

Willie Mays stalking center field, gliding under a fly ball. 

Hammerin Hank Aaron hitting another one out.

Pudge Fisk hopping and jumping and waving that ball fair.

Mets/ Red Sox. Game six, 1986. Do we need to say anything more?

October 13, 1960. A fading fall light in Pittsburgh. Seventh game of the world series. Ralph Terry on the mound for the Yanks for the bottom of the ninth. The game impossibly tied at 9-9. Bill Mazeroski, the Bucs light-hitting second baseman  takes the first pitch for a ball. The second pitch sails over a dejected Yogi Berra in left field as the city explodes and Maz dances around the bases in the only seventh game-9th inning walk off home run.

Young Dwight Gooden throwing heat, and then snapping off a curve (uncle Charlie, or Lord Charles) for a called third strike. Close your eyes and you can almost see Bob Gibson, standing on the mound in 1968, glaring, before throwing a hard high one inside.

Reggie hitting one out with his first swing on a cold October evening against the Dodgers in the 77 Series. And then another one with his first swing. And then, impossibly, another one with his first swing. Three swings, three home runs. In the World Series. 

Cleon Jones waiting under a fly ball hovering in an ice-blue New York October sky. The ball lands softly into his glove, and Jones falls to one knee for a minute as a man, and stands up as an immortal member of the 1969 Miracle Mets- the fly ball being the last out in the world series that the improbable Mets won. 

Any three guys turning a 4-6-3  double play, but Tinkers to Evans to Chance being the best.

There comes a time in a boy’s life when he stands there at home plate. It's hardball in an organized league. His first real “at bat.” The pitcher is a year older, and maybe thirty pounds heavier. The first pitch comes in so fast he can barely see it. It’s hard to believe anyone can throw that hard. And yet the boy stands there, rubbing some dirt on his hands as he re-grips his bat, kicks his cleats into the ground, and waves his bat. Hopefully menacingly. Just like he's seen it done on TV.

The pitch comes, and suddenly it's in slow motion. He can see the seams on the ball rotating. He can almost smell the ball as he swings. The bat glides across his hips and the plate. It all seems so simple, as a line drive bounces safely in the alley. He turns at first, saunters back, takes off his batting helmet and glove, and puts his foot on the bag, feeling it crunch beneath his foot. He may not know it, but his father is crying in the stands, and he has given himself a memory for life.

Young boys grow up and then grow old. They do their life's work and the game begins to fade away.
But every now and then, right around this time of year, they rummage through their closet and pull out a glove. Or maybe they go to the sporting goods store and buy one for themselves and one for their son or daughter. Then they sit  with their new glove that first night, showing their kid how to oil it up and put a ball in the pocket. And maybe it’s a family tradition to fold that oiled glove over a ball in the pocket and put that glove under your pillow.

And you smell the oil, and the rawhide, and you dream.

Just to hit the ball.
And touch them all.
A moment in sun.
It’s gone and you can kiss that one goodbye.

This is our favoutire post. 

OPENING DAY 2023

UPDATE: TRUMP INDICTED!  INDICTMENT ANNOUNCED THURSDAY AS THE NY GRAND JURY FILED AN INDICTMENT UNDER SEAL FOR DONNY TRUMP. IT WILL BE UNSEALED NEXT WEEK.  For those of you in the REGJB Trump Indictment pool who had the 12-6 pm block of March 30, 2023, you will advance to the Perp walk/arraignment pool bracket. For the rest of you, much like picking the Jets over the Chiefs in the survivor pool, thanks for playing. 

Let's play ball!  Today is opening day. We have a traditional opening day post you newbies can read here. It's a good one.  But today we are in a reflective mood. 

What is perfection? It's a 6-4-3 double play. It's Willie Mays gliding in center field and making catch. You want to see perfection? Watch this video on throws Roberto Clemente made from right field. He was the first (or one of the first) Hispanic superstars. When the Pirates won the World Series in 1971 and he showed the world how good he was and won the MVP, he was interviewed in the clubhouse and made the shocking decision to first speak in Spanish on nationwide TV to his people in Puerto Rico. 

Perfection is Henry Aaron hitting a home run. And Aaron Judge hitting one as well. Aaron and Aaron- there are no coincidences. 

Perfection is the smile on a child's face walking into a baseball stadium for the first time and walking down a tunnel and suddenly this bright green field emerges and their face beams. 

Perfection is a Nolan Ryan fastball. It is Bob Gibson scowling from the mound. It's a Dwight Gooden curveball impossibly breaking over the plate and it's Sandy Kofax and Tom Seaver and Lefty Carlton. 

Perfection is Graig Nettles at third base in the world series, making breathtaking plays time and time again. And it's Brooks Robinson at third in any game he played. 

Perfection is Ozzie at short and Johnny Bench behind the plate. 

Perfection is stealing second base, and then running to third on the bad throw. Perfection is Jackie Robinson dancing off of third base in the world series and stealing home, and Yogi probably making the tag and then arguing with the ump. Because in baseball, perfection is dispute and arguments and Billy Martin kicking dirt on the umpire's shoes. It is Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris in 61 chasing the greatest ballplayer of all time- The Babe. 

Perfection is the hit and run. 

Perfection is a 2-1 ballgame played on a hot July day when the fans are drinking cold beer and eating hot dogs and peanuts and there is pitcher's duel, and the home team wins in the bottom of the ninth. 

Perfection is Jack Buck yelling "I don't believe what I just saw" after a lame Kirk Gibson hit a game winning home run on one leg in the bottom of the ninth in the world series for the Dodgers. It was any game Vince Scully called. And if you want to go way back, it's Red Barber and Bob Prince calling games on the radio, because in the right hands, baseball is a game for the radio and the mind's eye. 

Perfection is any baseball game that takes two and half hours, or three hours, or four because baseball is played by its own rhythms and not with a clock (pitcher's clock not withstanding). 

Perfection is the sound a ball makes on a wooden bat and the sound the ball makes as it smacks the leather in the center of a glove. Perfection are the memories of an old man about the games he played in his youth, and the cheering of a father as his daughter strokes a single in her first at bat in a little league game. 

In life there is so little that is simple and pleasurable that can make you smile. Baseball can do that and does it over and over every day, every year. 

Perfection is baseball and baseball is perfection. 

BASEBALL'S CURRENT TOP TEN

Baseball means many things, and debate is one of them. Nothing better than sipping a cold hard seltzer (which somehow, we have started to enjoy) on a hot summer day and debating the top ten in baseball. Not including pitchers, and in semi- order of our ranking, here are our current top ten:

Aaron Judge RF Yankees: Current home run king. Almost had the triple crown last year- 62 HR, .311 average and 131 RBIs. Shows up on defense.  Averages 49 HRs and .292 over his career.  Rookie of the Year 2017 and AL MVP last year. 

Mike Trout CF Calif Angels: All around skill, talent, stats. Won an AL MVP in 2014, 2017 AND 2019. Does everything but win. And how much of that is his fault and not managements?  Averages 40 HR, 23 stolen bases, and .303 for his 12-year career. Those are HOF stats. He just needs to get into the postseason. 

Yordan Alvarez DH/LF Astros- MVP in of ALCS where he hit .522 and was unstoppable. Won a WS. Shows up in big situations (hit the homer against Rodney Ray to set Houston up in the post season) adequate fielder. Dynamic and exciting baseball player.  Rookie of the Year 2019. 

Mookie Betts RF LA Dodgers:  Speed and daring on the bases. Solid fielding. A career .293 hitter. Smacked 35 HRs last year and shows up in the post season- hit .429 in the wild card series last year. A winner and a guy you want on your team.  AL MVP 2018.

Shohei Ohtani P/DH Calif Angels: Unique. Hits 260 and is a DH, but throws 140-150  innings a year and wins 10-15 games a year on a lousy team. Perhaps the worst hitter of the top ten. But because he's a pitcher and hitter, he makes the list. 

Jose Ramirez 3B- Cleveland - Only guy on a lousy team that can hit. No one in the lineup protects him, and yet he gets the job done.   Hit .280 and 29 HRs last year which is his average for his nine year career. 

Bryce Harper RF Phillies:  Hits big pitching. Won 2 MVPS. Won the pennant for his team last year. .280 career hitter. Averages 165 hits and 33 HRs a year. The kind of player than can anchor a World Series team.   Rookie of the year 2012; NL MVP 2015 and 2021. 

Freddie Freeman 1B LA Dodgers:  NL MVP for the Braves in 2020. Hit 25 HR and .325 for the Dodgers last year. Quietly does the job. Dependable. 

Rafael Devers 3B Boston:   Hits big pitching. A few great years. 165 hits in 2021. 164 hits in 2022. Consistent. 65 HRs in two years and .280 hitter. 

Autin Riley 3B Braves: Hits 35+ HRs a year. Hit .303 in 2021 and .273 in 2022. Great on defense. 

Manny Machado 3B Padres - Plays every day. Good defensive 3rd baseman. 25-30 HRs a year- hit 32 HRs last year while batting .298. Potential to change any game at any time. 

CRITICAL COURTS

As we end October, what people are talking most about is....climate change? The new spending package? Delta Plus? Nah. It is the proposal by PETA (for whom we have donated time, efforts, and money) that Baseball change the animal-offensive name of "The Bull-pen" to ....(wait for it)....

The ARM BARN! Ta da!

In other news, any guesses as to which of all the court districts in Florida, was first to jump on the no-mask mandate? (Hint, we do not like this circuit). YUP, its Broweird, whose new chief judge eagerly embraced the new rule that people in courts do not have to wear masks. Yes, in Broward, it's June 2021 all over again. 

In Texas, they all up in arms (which means in Texas they are nervously fingering their sidearms) over the issue of Critical Race Theory. Truly, without Googling it, we have no idea what CRT is. And before we go further, speaking of Texas, if you add the sum of the day of the month with the day before, and square it, if the result is a prime number, you can get an abortion in Texas, if it is not a prime number, you cannot. You know what they say about abortion in Texas, it is like the weather in Florida,  if you do not like it, wait an hour, the law will change. 

Getting back to Critical Race Theory, which in 2021, is becoming the new Sharia Law hot button issue, we are imaging the future. Come with us to 2033....

 Facebook National News. Dateline Washington, DC:

A week after her inaugural address, President Tiffany Trump, making good on her campaign promise, announced a deal on funding for the nation's Critical Race Theory Courts, where defendants, who can show they were exposed to CRT in their youth, can be offered a diversion program based on their underprivileged upbringings. The first CRT court will open in Dallas, Texas, at the site of the old Texas School Book Depository, which was destroyed under the orders of President Trump, when it was revealed Ted Cruz's father, using a gun provided by Barrack Obama's father from Africa, shot and killed President Kennedy from the Grassy Noll. 

In other news, Chief Justice Amy  Barrett, writing for a unanimous court, upheld the law 2030 law passed by the Republican dominated Congress banning Twitter. "If you ban President Donald Trump, you get banned, First Amendment or not. And we note, if the First Amendment had the same status of the rest of the Constitution, it would have been in the Constitution, and not some last minute afterthought Amendment."

Some scary thoughts, in line for a scary weekend. 

Happy Halloween. And other than in court in Broward, wear your mask over your nose. 

SHUT IT DOWN

Judges Sayfie and Soto are wincing as they read the headline. 
"Why can't that moron leave us alone already?" or words to that effect are crossing their Judicial minds. 
Rumpole responds: SHUT IT DOWN ......Commissioner of Major League Baseball Rob Manfred. 

"Ahhhh...." said Judges Sayfie and Soto. "Whew...." 

The Marlins are infected with Covid-19. One positive went to five went to thirteen in a blink of a virus eye. All the Philadelphia Phillies who the Marlins players who were positive played against are being tested. The Phillies game with the Yanks has been canceled. The Umps are in quarantine.  (say, maybe there is something good about this virus stuff....nah).  No one will enter the visiting team dugout the Marlins used at the Phillies stadium. Just call it radioactive and see us in 50 years.  The Atlanta Braves who the Marlins just played before flying to Philadelphia are shoving so many testing strips up their nasal passages that it looks like a walrus convention in the south. 

Lets examine the problems. 60 games are scheduled to be played over 67 days. There is no room or ability to fly a team to play a makeup game. The players are in close contact with each other and close contact with players on the opposite team (the catcher's mask is not exactly the type of mask needed to stop virus transmission). A wildfire spread of the virus is inevitable. Even players who are scouted as "all bat no glove" and  boot every grounder and can't catch a flyball are going to catch the virus. 

A long time ago a great law school professor taught us agency law. And he said "Agencies do agency business." Apply that to any appellate agency case and you will see that thread in the opinion. If the agency was doing agency business then its actions were affirmed. And the reverse was true as well. 
Viruses do virus business. They infect people and spread like a ,,,,uh....virus. 

The cat is out of the bag. 
This is worse than the designated hitter rule. 
One team is a virus hot house and NO ONE on that team can play anywhere anytime against anyone for two weeks. 
How now Comm Rob? Covid just went deep against one of your teams and knocked them out of the box. Are you sending another batter against this virus? (Careful readers realize we just improperly mixed baseball metaphors. But, whatever.)

The Great Baseball owner and promoter Bill Veeck, who did such outlandish promotions as bring your disco records to the game to smash, once sent a small person to bat in a major league game under the theory no pitcher would be able to get to his strike zone (which we all know is from the batter's chest to his knees).  The small person is  known to history as Eddie Gaedel or the PC incorrect Midget Gaedel. He wore the number "1/8" on his uniform. Gaedel stood 3'7" and had one at bat in the second game of a double header against the Cards. He was walked on four straight pitches. Veeck had instructed Gaedel to crouch at the plate and measured his strike zone at 1.5 inches.   Gaedel is the shortest player in the history of major league baseball and as Veeck was quoted as saying "The greatest midget player in the history of baseball" (because he was the only small person player in baseball history). 

Here's the thing. While a pitcher could not find Eddie Gaedel's strike zone. The virus would infect him as quickly as  pitcher Randy Johnson who stands a menacing 6'10" on the mound. 

Shut it down Mr. Manfred. Walk to the mound and instead of pointing to an arm (left hander or right hander from the pen) pull your finger across your throat. It's over. Covid-19- 1. MLB -0. The season is done. You may just not know it yet. 

OPENING DAY

We post every opening day for baseball, but there has never been one like this. 
With apologies to the Grateful Dead, what a long strange trip this is going to be. 

There is no good in what will be happening on the diamond,  other than men will be pitching a small cylindrical object that other men using a different and longer cylindrical object will try and hit. 

Let's deal with the bad. 
First and foremost, NO SPITTING ALLOWED. Playing baseball without expectorating is like Barbecuing broccoli. Every year in the minors some raw boned rookie from Oklahoma with a large chaw of tobacco stuck in his cheek swats the ball a country mile and people start dreaming about the next Mickey Mantle. Spitting is endemic to baseball. You cheat by throwing the spitball. Players chew sunflower seeds by the gazillion and spit out the seeds. Players spit chaw and they spit when they chew gum. Mark us down as a solid "NO" with the ban on spitting. 

No high-fiving.  What are the players going to do after a dinger? Fold hands and say "Namaste"? Count us out. 

No fans. There is nothing like home town fans. Standing and cheering as one  as Doc Gooden or Nolan Ryan or Bob Gibson or J.R. Richard is on the mound. The count is 3-2 and everyone knows some serious heat is coming for the third strike. Or how about this: Two on, two out, bottom of the ninth, home team down by two, winning run in the form of Dave Kingman walks to the plate. Kingman did one of two things: He struck out a lot, and when he made contact, he sent it out of the park. Fans are on their feet screaming so loud the pitcher walks off the mound, takes off his cap, and mops his head and walks a quick circle. The fans in return, scream even louder.  
A few years ago in an NL playoff game the home team fans so rattled the opposing pitcher, he balked in a run. Fans matter. Baseball is fans. No fans.....no baseball. No baseball the way it was meant to be played- on a warm summer day, with the bleachers full of fans drinking cold beer or cokes  and cracking open salted peanuts. 

We know change is inevitable. We know the dastardly Covid-19 has inexorably altered our way of life. We know this is only temporary. That a sixty game season is sacrilege- nothing more than a cup of coffee over a 162 game season when the averages (the all important averages and stats that we live for) take hold over the long haul. Lowest ERA in a season? Don't know. But we will never forget Bob Gibson's was 1.12 in 68 or that Kofax was the NL leader in lowest ERA for five straight years from 62-66- something that will never be repeated. DiMaggio had a 56 game hitting streak. Great hitters come and go, but no one has been able to hit safely in 63 straight games for well over 50 years. 

Hack Wilson had 161 RBIs for the Cubs in 31. That's the record that has stood for 89 years. It will last a 100 years - mark our words. Lou Gehrig, Jimmy Foxx and Alex Rodriguez had 13 straight seasons with more than 100 RBIs. By comparison, the incomparable Babe Ruth had only eight straight seasons with 100 or more RBIs. 

We could go on and on. But we will end with this. 
Who gets the honor, in this strange year,  of throwing the opening pitch for the first game to open the 2020 Baseball season? Who else could it be but Dr. Anthony Fauci, in the Washington Nationals game today. 

But of course it was Fauci. Who else could it be? 
Let's play two. Enjoy the season. Better times are ahead. 

PUT ME IN COACH

"Just to hit the ball and touch em all..."

OPENING DAY- re-run from last year

There's nothing like it in all the world.

Fresh cut grass. Oiled gloves. The smack of a ball on a wooden bat. The sound of cleats padding over a base.

Opening Day for Baseball. Every team is in it. The sights. The sounds. The smells. It's a uniquely American experience.

Baseball is the only major team sport not played with a time clock. It has a rhythm all its own. It moves to its own time. 9 innings.

There's a line in the John Fogerty song Centerfield:

"Just to hit the ball, and touch em all,

a moment in the sun,

its gone and you can tell that one goodbye."

It sums up a lifetime of hope and desire- just to hit the ball and touch em all- a home run. Little boys dream of it- and old men remember warm summer days when they moved with a grace long since gone.

And then finally- the one movie that always makes u cry: A Field Of Dreams. We'll leave it to others to discern just what in that movie touches us so much, but this speech- by James Earl Jones as Terrance Mann to Kevin Costner as Ray Kinsella- sums up what Baseball is, and always will be to millions of fans:

Mann: The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, is a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again. Ohhhhhhhh, people will come, Ray. People will most definitely come.