To say I love baseball is an understatement. To my family, baseball is so much more than a game, but our history. My grandfather tried out for the Giants, my Great Uncle Pete Castiglione played for the Cards and Pirates. My dad, his brother, sister, son, and I played. It is a family tradition to …
The blog that follows was written by Patrick Johnson, a student in my Baseball and Statistics course given at Quinnipiac University where I am a Professor in the Mathematics Department. I would be interested in your take on the controversy involving the Jackie Robinson West Little League Team. Jackie Robinson West (JRW), an all-African American …
The expression that good pitching will defeat good hitting has always been true in baseball. Instead of chasing top free agent pitchers Max Scherzer, Jon Lester, and James Shields, the Yankees decided to stand pat with their 2015 starting pitchers. The only guy they brought in was Nathan Eovaldi via trade. Gone from the 2014 …
First, I would like to thank Marty, William, and Jose for commenting on my last Blog in which I criticized the new baseball commissioner’s idea of making the defensive shift illegal. All three agreed with me that this will not solve the problem and can actually hurt the game of baseball. In reading the comments …
A defensive shift is employed when a power-hitter, known to swing for the fences, comes to the plate. A lefty hitting power-hitter will pull the ball to the right side and a righty power-hitter will pull the ball to the left side. A defensive shift occurs when defensive players leave their normal positions to overload …
Baseball was full of many scandals. There was Joe Jackson and “The Black Sox Scandal”, George Brett and “The Pine Tar Incident”, baseball players corking their bats, baseball pitchers scoffing the baseballs, and baseball players taking banned substances. Now the NFL has deflate-gate starring Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. Commissioner Goodell faces quite …
For the first time since 1955, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America has elected four members to the Hall of Fame. They are Randy Johnson (The Big Unit), Pedro Martinez (Pedro),John Smoltz and Craig Biggio. All four of these players have no link to any use of baseball’s banned substances. Johnson, Martinez and Smoltz easily earned induction …
As I have said in many of my blog postings baseball follows me wherever I go. It was Dec. 15, 2014, my wife Tara and I were at the Bradley Airport in CT, on line waiting to board our plane. The woman behind us and my wife looked at each other and thought they knew …
As Trent McCann was growing up, his grandfather would tell him many stories about his own youth. Some of these stories involved famous sports celebrities. Since his grandfather recently passed away, Trent wanted to share with everyone the unplanned afternoon his grandfather spent with Babe Ruth, so that the little piece of history his grandfather …
As the 2014 draws to a close, I wish to take this opportunity to thank all my readers for supporting my baseball blog. The blog has just passed 500,000 views. Also, I would like to thank all of you who wrote postings for my blog or contributed suggestions for my blog. Congratulations to the 10 …