On this day in 1969 Mickey Mantle announced his retirement. Unfortunately I never saw the Mick play, so I can’t wax poetic about the speed, the power and the youthful All-American exuberance.  To that end, I can only listen the memories of baseball fans I trust – my parents, other family members and friends mostly … Continue reading Your Mick opinion is wrong

Not going to lie:  Prior to yesterday, I knew Brandon Drury by name, not much else.  Maybe a passing thought of “Is he related to Chris Drury?”, the former little league world series star and former NY Ranger.  Since about 75% of my baseball watching involves the Yankees, if you play in the western time … Continue reading Drury: more Qs than As

Today in baseball history, 1988:  The San Diego Padres signed short stop Dickie Thon who had been recently released by the Houston Astros.  To me, this is worth revisiting as Dickie Thon’s story is an unpleasant one, and should be a reminder to us all about the silliness of some behaviors that still continue in … Continue reading Dickie Thon, cautionary tale

Today in baseball history: In 2002, the sale of the Florida Marlins to a group headed by Jeffrey Loria became official. Seems innocuous enough, right?  Actually, it was a pretty dark day in baseball history and emblematic of a stretch of time where exploitation soared to new heights. A little background: The owner of the … Continue reading This day in 2002: (Not a good one)

Recently the opening shots were fired in what will likely be an escalating war of words (and worse) between the players’ association and the owners’ spokesperson Puppet*…oh, sorry… “Commissioner”, Rob Manfred. The players union, justifiably unhappy about the lack of interest in a high number of qualified free agents who remain unsigned, sent their leader, … Continue reading This sounds familiar…

I was forwarded a video produced by the YES Network (Simpleton Summer Camp) suggesting they had some inside information on the Yankees opening day lineup.  “Looking more and more like we nailed the Yankees opening day lineup…”, they proclaimed as smugly as a Jack Curry post game “analysis” would be delivered. Imagine: the network that … Continue reading Yankees Opening Day Lineup

Mike Mussina, by any standard you’d like to use, is worthy of being in the Hall of Fame.  I’ve made this clear before.  He was a superior pitcher to both Tom Glavine and John Smoltz, who both were inducted without much more than a cursory glance.  I can’t even imagine what Mussina would have done … Continue reading Moose

In my last blog, I literally had to come out and say “I’m bored” by the lack of teams’ transactions.  Most of the best available free agents are still available and most of the trades have just been salary dumps by teams who are cleaning house (that’s code for, “we’re not even going to try … Continue reading McCutchen: Your new opinion

When I started this blog early last season I was looking forward to winter baseball discussions.  Without the burdensome day to day critiques about Joe Girardi, I’d be available to evaluate free agent signings (Good signing, bad signing?  Will he help his new team or burden them?)  And with that, I’d be able to get … Continue reading Free Agents you might want to look at…

With Jack Morris about to enter the Hall of Fame and Trevor Hoffman likely to go with him, my belittling snark has the possibility of hitting an all-time high.  I’ve already discussed Morris, and Hoffman is to MLB what Scott Wedman is to the NBA*, so I really can go off on a tangent if … Continue reading Jim Edmonds, HOF!