Monthly Archives: June 2011

Pitchers & Poets Style Academy, Volume 1: The Best and the Worst

Fashion blogs are all over the Internet these days, from the Sartorialist’s style-making streetside photos to 1990s First Basemen Week contributor Jesse Thorn and his men’s fashion blog Put This On. Troops of professionals and weekend stylists scour the streets of … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball Fashion, Pitchers & Poets Style Academy | 7 Comments

The Final Game of the Season

It was the sort of field you would expect to see behind an elementary school: the ferrous chain-link backstop, splotches of crabgrass masking divots in the clay.  The playground, ordinarily teeming with playful shrieks and children’s arguments, today fell silent; … Continue reading

Posted in America | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The Joba File: Private Anxiety Made Public in Baseball’s Age of Potential

Joba Chamberlain elicits a negative response from the average baseball fan that far outweighs his time spent as a big league pitcher. For a few years, Chamberlain was the lightning rod for Yankee-hating, embodying what outsiders disliked about the team. … Continue reading

Posted in Players | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

A River Slums Through It by Jesse Gloyd

Jesse Gloyd is a writer after our own hearts, and we strongly suggest his work at his blog, Buckshot Boogaloo. His Twitter tag is @jessejamesgloyd. I went fishing on Saturday. I went with an old friend. My friend works for … Continue reading

Posted in America, Situational Essay | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Reviewing the ilovetoscore Scorebook

I promised awhile ago, circa Scorekeeping Week, that I would use and review the ilovetoscore.com scorebook, produced and offered for sale by Michael Schwartz. Well, I finally got out to the ballpark to take it for a spin. First Impressions … Continue reading

Posted in Reviews | Tagged | 1 Comment

The Man Who Couldn’t Hit

On May 25, 1972, Frank Fernandez pinch hit for Cubs starter Bill Hands in the sixth inning, grounded out to third base, and returned to the dugout.  It was his final at-bat before hanging up his batting equipment in the … Continue reading

Posted in Players | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Bud Selig Paid Me A Million Dollars To Stalk J.D. Salinger by Bob Costuz

Bud Selig paid me a million dollars to hand-deliver an All-Century Team ballot to J.D. Salinger. It sounds incredible, but remember, those were strange times: it was the baroque period of the Steroid Era and Bud Selig was the most … Continue reading

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Weekend Reading: Names

What We Carry, by Ted Berg, on what ballplayers can mean. Space, Time, and DVR Mechanics, by Chuck Klosterman on Grantland. CK is easily my favorite contributor to the quite remarkable Grantland stable. Here, he explores what is, for me, … Continue reading

Posted in Weekend Reading | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Finding Jered: Angertainment and the Reluctant Appreciation of an Ace

My wife really eats up Sarah Palin news. She could watch YouTube videos of the absentee Alaskan all day long. Angertainment, she calls it: the practice of watching something because you can’t stand the subject, and bashing them gives you … Continue reading

Posted in Baseball the Teacher, Players | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

On Narratives and Realignment

Editor’s Note: We are pleased to bring you Patrick Dubuque’s first post as this summer’s Bill Spaceman Lee Visiting Professor for Baseball Exploration. Please enjoy: “The broken flower drooped over Ben’s fist and his eyes were empty and blue and … Continue reading

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