“Willie Davis, who succeeded Duke Snider as the center fielder for the Los Angeles Dodgers and used his blazing speed to steal 20 or more bases 11 straight years, led the National League in triples twice and set a record of three stolen bases in a World Series game, was found dead on Tuesday at [...]
Archive for the ‘Baseball’ Category
R.I.P. – Willie Davis (1940-2010)
Posted in Baseball, Obituaries, Popular Culture, Sports on March 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Supreme Court Sluggers: “Green Bag” Law Review Issuing Trading Cards of Supreme Court Justices
Posted in American History, Baseball, Collectors & Collecting, Politics, Sports, Supreme Court on November 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I’m not sure why I feel compelled to post this, but: “If you’re a fan of the U.S. Supreme Court bobbleheads that can be found on the desks of powerhouse lawyers and law professors nationwide, then you’ll like the next brainchild of the bobbleheads’ creator: Supreme Court baseball cards. “The first one, commemorating Chief Justice [...]
The Jerry Smolin Collection of Historic Baseball Programs Headed To Auction in April
Posted in Antiques & Folk Art, Baseball, Collectors & Collecting, Ephemera, Popular Culture, Sports, Sports Memorabilia on October 27, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Shameless self-promotion, I know, but . . . “Since the 1970s, as a collector, as a dealer, and as an auctioneer (one-half of the highly respected Sloate & Smolin Auctions and the sole owner of About Time Auctions), Jerry Smolin has been well known as a baseball historian and as a true connoisseur of baseball memorabilia. [...]
The Collectors’ Collector: Jack Smalling’s Autograph Collector’s Handbook
Posted in Baseball, Collectors & Collecting, Sports, Sports Memorabilia on August 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“A mail carrier arrives at a suburban four-bedroom home here each day with more postcards and envelopes than anyone else in the neighborhood receives, unsure of why the house gets so much mail or why it has its own ZIP code extension. “If the carrier stepped inside, she would find the reason: 2308 Van Buren [...]
Baseball Pioneer Harry Wright’s Letters Pulled from Hunt Auction
Posted in Antiques & Folk Art, Baseball, Collectors & Collecting, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Sports on July 3, 2009 | 1 Comment »
“Harry Wright, a Hall of Fame manager and pioneer during professional baseball’s gestation period in the 19th century, kept his letters in scrapbooks along with pictures and ledgers from his distinguished career. These faded pieces of paper are fragile evidence of some of the earliest business practices in baseball. “Hunt Auctions was scheduled to sell [...]
Baseball’s Slang, or: “Setting the Table” with “Muffins” & “Jelly Beans”
Posted in Baseball, Books, Language, Popular Culture, Sports on May 15, 2009 | 1 Comment »
“Slang is like a breeze; it softly comes and goes, as new times bring new buzzwords. Some stick (‘cool’ defiantly endures); some induce cringes when dusted off (‘groovy’ is now in the dustbin of irony). It’s obvious when slang becomes less funny or less meaningful through overuse: ‘Internets,’ for example, has become too widespread to [...]
Kerouac at the Bat: Jack Kerouac’s Personal Fantasy Baseball Game
Posted in Baseball, Books, Museums & Exhibitions, New York City, Popular Culture, Sports, Writers & Writing on May 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Almost all his life Jack Kerouac had a hobby that even close friends and fellow-Beats like Allen Ginsberg and William S. Burroughs never knew about. He obsessively played a fantasy baseball game of his own invention, charting the exploits of made-up players like Wino Love, Warby Pepper, Heinie Twiett, Phegus Cody and Zagg Parker, who toiled on imaginary teams named either [...]
Thrown for a Curve: The Secret of the Curve Ball Picked World’s Best Illusion
Posted in Baseball, Science & Technology, Sports on May 15, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“The three best visual illusions in the world were chosen at a gathering last weekend of neuroscientists and psychologists at the Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts in Florida. “The winning entry, from a Bucknell University professor, may help explain why curve balls in baseball are so tricky to hit. “A properly thrown curve ball [...]
The Real Things: Major League Baseball’s All-Star Authenticators
Posted in Baseball, Collectors & Collecting, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Popular Culture, Sports, Sports Memorabilia on April 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Nearly a decade ago, embarrassed about reports of widespread fraud in the $1-billion-per-year sports memorabilia industry — dominated by baseball and filled mostly with fakes and forgeries, according to an F.B.I. investigation — Major League Baseball did something about it. “Now every game has at least one authenticator, watching from a dugout or near one. The authenticators [...]
Touching All the Bases: William Safire on Baseball Lingo
Posted in Baseball, Language, Popular Culture, Writers & Writing on April 18, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Where would pols, pundits and morose mucky-mucks be without the language of baseball? “Here’s the pitch: Despite distractions, you have to keep your eye on the ball. You have to be aware of something unexpected coming out of left field, and only if your ad-libbed response is not off base will your home team go to bat for you. You can’t be born [...]
Baseball Burgers on Steroids: West Michigan’s 4-lb Stadium Burger Sells Big
Posted in Baseball, Food & Wine, Sports, U.S. Travel on April 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Last week, the West Michigan Whitecaps minor league baseball team sold more than 100 mega-sized burgers on opening night. “It’s made with five patties plus chili, American cheese, nacho cheese, tortilla chips, salsa, lettuce, tomato and sour cream — all piled on an 8-inch bun. “The mammoth meal weighs more than 4 pounds. And, even [...]
R.I.P. – Mark “The Bird” Fidrych (1954-2009)
Posted in Baseball, Obituaries, Popular Culture, Sports on April 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Mark Fidrych, an eccentric All-Star pitcher nicknamed ‘The Bird’ whose career was shortened by injuries, was found dead Monday in an apparent accident at his farm. He was 54. . . . “The curly-haired right-hander was the American League Rookie of the Year in 1976 when he went 19-9 with a 2.34 ERA and 24 complete [...]
R.I.P. – Johnny Blanchard (1933-2009)
Posted in Baseball, New York City, Obituaries, Popular Culture, Sports on March 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Johnny Blanchard, a power-hitting catcher and outfielder known as Super Sub who played in five consecutive World Series for the Yankees in the 1960s, died Wednesday in Robbinsdale, Minn. He was 76. . . . “As a left-handed hitter who could deliver the long ball, Blanchard seemed a perfect fit for Yankee Stadium and its short right-field [...]
R.I.P. – George Kell (1922-2009)
Posted in Baseball, Obituaries, Popular Culture, Sports on March 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“George Kell, the Hall of Fame third baseman who won the American League batting title in 1949 with the Detroit Tigers and was a longtime broadcaster for the team, died Tuesday at his home in Swifton, Ark. He was 86. . . . “Kell played in the A.L. for 15 seasons, was an All-Star 10 times and [...]
The Houses HOK Built: The “New” Yankee Stadium & the Mets’ Citi Field
Posted in Architecture, Baseball, Business, New York City, Popular Culture, Sports, U.S. Travel, Urban Affairs on March 19, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Paul Goldberger, architecture critic for The New Yorker magazine, on New York’s two new baseball stadiums, “the first time that two major-league stadiums have opened in the same city at the same time”: “A stadium is a stage set as sure as anything on Broadway, and it determines the tone of the dramas within. Citi [...]
Is the Curse Reversed?: Japan’s Hanshin Tigers & the “Curse of Colonel Sanders”
Posted in Asia, Baseball, Food & Wine, Popular Culture, Sports on March 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“A statue of Kentucky Fried Chicken’s Colonel Sanders tossed into Osaka’s Dotonbori River some 24 years ago by rowdy Hanshin Tigers fans has been discovered. . . . “The Colonel ended up at the bottom of the river in 1985, when delirious Hanshin Tigers fans celebrating the team’s first Central League title in 21 years [...]
Going, Going, Gone: Mastro Auctions Now “Legendary Auctions”
Posted in Antiques & Folk Art, Baseball, Business, Collectors & Collecting, Ephemera, Popular Culture, Sports, Sports Memorabilia on March 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Mastro Auctions, responsible for the sale of over $250 million in sales since its inception in 1996, has ceased operations. “The suburban Chicago company’s assets have been taken over by a newly formed sports and Americana auction house, headed by former Mastro President and Chief Operating Officer Doug Allen, Vice President Ron Oser and Logistics [...]
Say It Ain’t So!: Truth Strikes Out in Baseball Memoir “Odd Man Out”
Posted in Baseball, Book Reviews, Books, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Sports, Writers & Writing on March 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Matt McCarthy, a graduate of Yale and of Harvard Medical School now working as an intern in the residency program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia hospital in New York, has gained national attention in recent weeks for “Odd Man Out,” his salacious memoir of his summer as an obscure minor league pitcher. He writes about playing with racist, [...]
Say It Ain’t So!: Are Mastro Auctions & The Sports Collectibles Industry on the Ropes?
Posted in Baseball, Business, Collectors & Collecting, Crimes & Misdemeanors, Economy, Ephemera, Popular Culture, Sports, Sports Memorabilia on March 3, 2009 | 1 Comment »
“The sports collectibles industry looks like it is going to take a big hit because of the souring economy, and there’s lots of speculation that the hobby’s biggest auction house, Mastro Auctions, won’t be around much longer. The Illinois company – the nation’s largest sports memorabilia auction house – is the target of a federal [...]
Happy 90th Birthday, Jackie Robinson (1919-1972)
Posted in Baseball, Birthdays, Obama, Race, Sports on January 30, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
“Jackie Robinson was my boyhood hero and with every passing year I have a richer appreciation of what he went through and how he made this world a better place with his courage and grace.” (Tom Brokaw) Earlier this week in New York, in advance of what would have been his 90th birthday tomorrow, Robinson’s [...]
