Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens were arguably the biggest stars in Major League Baseball in the 1990s.  Bonds was the best position player, Clemens the most dominant pitcher.  Their careers followed eerily similar paths, culminating today with what I expect will be the failure of both of them to garner enough votes from the Baseball  Writers of ( Read more... )

We watched John Sayles' movie Eight Men Out last night.  Netflix, of course.  It's an old movie.  It came out in 1988, right around the same time as Field of Dreams, when  hollywood seemed to be in the midst of a mini-obsession with the Shoeless Joe Jackson story.  Hollywood does this -- remember when Tombstone and Wyatt Earp came out within months ( Read more... )

It's a bit early in the year, but nevertheless, today marks the opening of the 2008 Major League Baseball season.  It's before 8:00 am here and the first game is being played right now.  How weird.  Red Sox-Athletics, in Tokyo.  Part of MLB's continuing effort to expand the game globally ( Read more... )

Pitchers and catchers report tomorrow, which, for those of you unfamiliar with baseball terminology, means that spring training is about to begin.  This is usually a time of rejoicing for me; an end to a long, lonely winter of sports about which I don't really care.  Football, basketball, hockey -- usually they're just games to read about when ( Read more... )

Today's my Dad's birthday.  He would have been 88.  It's been eleven years since we lost him and I still think about him every day.  And each time I do, the memory of him brings a smile to my face ( Read more... )

It's been a dark couple of days for us baseball fans as the fallout from George Mitchell's report on steroid use in the sport continues, and it promises to get worse before it gets better.  Players implicated in the report are starting to put out statements either accepting blame for what they're said to have done, or, more likely, denying having ( Read more... )