Early Innings…Holding out Hope You are a lifelong baseball fan. Maybe you played softball or baseball at some serious level. Perhaps you have always just enjoyed watching the game and following your favorite team. In any case, let’s just say that baseball was and is important to you in some way. Now let’s take a
How to Watch (and Bet!) the Little League World Series
It takes a certain kind of temperament to search “LLWS gambling” and “LLWS prop bets” on a casual Saturday afternoon, but (un)fortunately for you, reader, I have that temperament in spades. What I saw shocked me: You know, I don’t ask for much. But when it’s the middle of August and I’m getting killed wagering
Taking the Season One Click at a Time, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Online Sports Trackers
Growing up in Maine, I rooted for teams well outside the standard TV coverage map for the area. In the summer, when NESN would broadcast Brian Daubach’s strikeouts as the Red Sox limped to an impotent second-place AL East finish year after year, I’d cut away at the :28 and :58 mark of each hour
A Five-tool Writer
In baseball, there is a phrase used to describe a complete ballplayer: a five-tool player. First talked about in The American Diamond, by Branch Rickey.* The term has evolved from one used to describe an all-around athlete to one that describes a truly elite player. Statcast defines a five-tool player as one that excels at hitting
What Happened, and What We Imagined
I remember where I was when Matt Davidson fouled off a pitch from Jharel Cotton. I was sitting at home on the couch, wondering how this single event might form the basis of an article, an opening into some larger discussion about choices and life. For this reason, July 3, 2017, will always have special
Review: Costco’s Baseball Ticket Deal
TL;DR -For $64.99 you get voucher for 2 tickets, 2 hot dogs, and 2 small sodas -You still have to pay for parking or hitch a ride -Make sure your voucher can be redeemed on the day you want to go -Redeem vouchers early for best seats -The tickets are decent and worth the money
The Mets Need to Focus on Rebuilding Now
Things started off so promisingly for the Mets this year. Their fearsome pitching rotation were finally all healthy at the same time, and many expected the team to make a run at the pennant. Fast forward to today and the Mets are sitting in fourth place of the NL East with a losing record, ahead
Embracing Fear: How Dennis Eckersley Beat the Bottle and Rode His Rebound into Cooperstown
Looking for Courage in All the Wrong Places The path to greatness doesn’t normally include a stop at rock bottom. Then again, no two journeys are the same and nobody ever accused Dennis Eckersley of being normal. He threw a no-hitter at age 22 and won 20 games at age 23. At age 31 he
Which Baseball Movie Fits Your Mood? A Handy Guide
“What’s your favorite baseball movie?” is a pretty tough question. Just because two movies deal with the same sport doesn’t mean they have anything else in common. Baseball movies come in all shapes, sizes, tones, and attitudes, so with a new season just getting underway, use this handy guide to choose a baseball movie based
The Irresistible Call of Spring Training
My wife and I spent March 2016 in Phoenix watching baseball. It might have been the best month of my life. We’d been to spring training before—my first trip came in 1993, when I got to witness the beginning of Tim Salmon’s career and the end of Robin Yount’s up close and personal—but never for