Category Archives: Baseball

SELLING A CALL.

SELLING A CALL. One of my brother Elmer’s favorite baseball stories is about a call Ron Luciano made. Ron Luciano was an umpire in the majors from 1969 to 1979 who was known for his flamboyant calls. Luciano told the … Continue reading

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MY FAVORITE BASEBALL MOVIE.

MY FAVORITE BASEBALL MOVIE. My favorite baseball movie is still The Bad News Bears because of its truthfulness. But my favorite baseball segment in a movie—also because of its truthfulness—is from The Naked Gun. It’s the scene where Frank Drebin … Continue reading

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HARD TIMES FOR UMPIRES.

HARD TIMES FOR UMPIRES. Umpires have always been criticized, but umpires are in a worse position than they have ever been. Instant replay and special cameras for strike zones expose almost every bad call. TV announcers show those bad calls … Continue reading

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UMPIRES AS BUREAUCRATS.

UMPIRES AS BUREAUCRATS. I posted earlier in the week about the controversy over a veteran umpire’s harsh criticism of the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees because they take too long to play their games. This article confirms … Continue reading

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WISDOM FROM LEFTY GROVE [SIC].

WISDOM FROM LEFTY GROVE [SIC]. Lefty Grove [SIC] was a Hall of Fame pitcher who was much quoted. One story about him reflects how much time some pitchers could take back in the day. There were men on base in … Continue reading

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REVIEWING THE PERFORMANCE OF UMPIRES.

REVIEWING THE PERFORMANCE OF UMPIRES. I take the controversy over umpiring as supporting my repeated argument that the reviews of umpires and referees should be made public. Umpires basically have jobs for life, while players and managers are scored on … Continue reading

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SHORTENING THE BASEBALL EXPERIENCE?

SHORTENING THE BASEBALL EXPERIENCE. My father used to say when he read complaints about baseball games being too long that it was sportswriters who made the biggest fuss about long games because they wanted to get their work over with. … Continue reading

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MAYBE THE OLDEST CONTINUOUS ROTISSERIE LEAGUE?

MAYBE THE OLDEST CONTINUOUS ROTISSERIE LEAGUE? Nick pointed out that the original Rotisserie league may have ceased operation at some point. The article I linked to yesterday contains this quote from Daniel Okrent, the man who had the idea for … Continue reading

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FANTASY BASEBALL AND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS.

FANTASY BASEBALL AND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS. The Baseball Musings blog linked to this article by Les Leopold with the provocative headline “Play Ball! How Rotisserie League Baseball Crashed the World Economy.” (I take a special interest in Rotisserie league baseball … Continue reading

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ARE SOME BATTERS BETTER AT FOULING OFF PITCHES?

ARE SOME BATTERS BETTER AT FOULING OFF PITCHES? I don’t read enough about baseball, so perhaps this question has been addressed somewhere. How helpful is it for a batter to be able to foul off a two-strike pitch—to “spoil” the … Continue reading

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