The old Eastern Shore League in a Day

Despite producing four Hall of Famers and numerous other major league talents, very little is written about the Eastern Shore Baseball League (defunct since 1949).  A quick Google search gets you only a few relevant hits, interspersed among a plethora of links for present-day little league and high school teams.  Amazon.com boasts two books (one of which is in stock), while the Wikipedia page consists of a terse paragraph followed by a quick list of teams.  In other words, you can't find much on the Eastern Shore League through the internet or books.  If you want to learn about it, you need to go see it for yourself... or at least what remains.  Once you're in the area, you can pretty much do it all in one very full day.

Road-Tripping the 1903 World Series

A few days ago, Giants' ace Madison Bumgarner capped off a historically impressive World Series performance, bringing the Commissioner's Trophy to San Francisco for the third time in five years.  In doing so, he added his name to an elite list of legendary big-gamers in the fall classic.  The list goes all the way back to Denton True "Cy" Young, who pitched in the very first World Series 111 years ago.  Today, inspired by the Bumgarner's recent heroics, I'd like to take you on a virtual road trip to October of 1903, when the mighty Cy Young and his Boston Americans took on Honus Wagner and the rest of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first championship series between the American and National leagues.

Back To Beginnings

It was a bright September morning and I was driving up I-95 towards New York.  New York is a great baseball state:  two major league (and several minor league) teams, the sport's national Hall of Fame, and the final resting place for such legends as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, plus countless others.  Yes, I was heading TOWARDS New York... but that's not where I was going.  My destination for the weekend was a little closer to my starting point.  A state with no MLB teams; I was looking forward to a baseball-themed weekend in New Jersey.

Elbow to Elbow

I hadn't planned on writing this article. I prefer to focus on topics and personal anecdotes that don't receive a lot (if any) of press. Besides that, what the heck do I know about the ulnar collateral ligament? But with the need for Tommy John surgery reaching epidemic proportions, I've come to understand that these players don't need more experts... they need advocates.

Dear Mr. Niese,

Dear Mr. Niese,

I am not writing this letter to chastise you.  To the contrary, I'd like to set your mind at ease.  I am a Mets fan.  I've been one for as long as I can remember.  I'm just old enough to recall the final out of the 1986 World Series, on the day of your birth, joyfully jumping up and down with my parents in our Long Island home.  I stuck it out during 1992's "worst team money could buy" and through all 103 losses in 1993.  I continued to support the Mets when I left New York in 2000, eventually relocating to Washington, DC.  Even after DC acquired a team of its own, I stayed true to the orange and blue.

Fans in Diaspora

It was several years ago and a good season to be a Phillies fan.  Baseball's most losing team of all time had just decisively beaten the Nationals in their new DC ballpark. Almost everyone transferring through Metro Center at that time had been at the stadium 30 minutes earlier.  Now hundreds of people squeezed onto the platforms, silently thinking about how little sleep they would get before waking up for work the next morning.

Three Simple Rules for Recreational Softball

The outfield grass is green, the days are long and sunny, even the birds seem to chirp the tune to Take Me Out to the Ball Game.  It's time for recreational softball and, if you're like me, you're itching to get into a game!  But before you put on your team t-shirt and lace up your sneakers, there are a few ideas I'd like to share that will help make the game more fun for players of every skill-level.  Yes, as a grizzled softball vet, I feel the time has finally come for me to impart my knowledge.

Finding Baseball in Iowa

Driving past the 'Welcome to Iowa' sign on Interstate 35, I wasn't sure what kind of baseball culture I would find.  It was my first time in the state.  I knew there were some minor league clubs scattered here and there, but it was already after Labor Day, which is typically the final day of the minor league season.  I had just spent three days in Missouri, home to two major league teams and the Negro Leagues Museum.  Missouri is a great baseball state.  But Iowa?

Baseball in the Nation's Capital (Part II)

In Part I of Baseball in the Nation's Capital, I claimed that Washington, DC and baseball have an awkward relationship.  I also said that, despite it's awkwardness, baseball has a positive presence in DC culture and I attempted to prove it by listing the many baseball-themed activities that take place regularly in the area.  However, as some readers pointed out, even those local baseball events are a little awkward...  Fans gathering in an MLB outfield to watch an opera simulcast on the main scoreboard?  U.S. Congressmen and women putting on game-day uniforms and trying to strike each other out in a major league stadium?  A high school named after a pitcher?  So why does a city that lives and dies by its football team, and that sticks by its basketball and hockey teams through good and bad seasons, have such a strange relationship with the national pastime?

Baseball in the Nation's Capital (Part I)

Everyone knows how Washingtonians feel about their football franchise, but what about baseball?  It often seems that DC and baseball go together like socks and sandals... there's no real reason that it can't work, but let's face it, it looks and feels a awkward.  Let me show you what I mean:  if you're a baseball fan living in Boston, you almost certainly root for the Red Sox; if you're a baseball fan and a long-time resident of St. Louis, you probably cheer on the Cardinals; and if you're a baseball fan in the DC area, you are most likely an enthusiastic supporter of the Washington Nationals... or the New York Mets... or the Atlanta Braves... or the Philadelphia Phillies... or the Baltimore Orioles... or (and so on).  To understand how the District got itself into this predicament, a brief history lesson is required.  That lesson is coming in Part II of this post.  In Part I, we'll focus on the positive presence of baseball in DC culture - despite its awkwardness.

Remembering Ralph Kiner

Every once in a while, a baseball personality comes along who is big enough to belong to multiple generations.  When Ralph Kiner played his last game in 1955, my father was 13 years old.  Back then, the phrase "Kiner's Korner" referred to a section of the left field porch at Forbes Field - where his long fly balls frequently left the yard.  When I was 13 years old, I watched Ralph Kiner in the broadcast booth at Shea Stadium, regaling listeners with detailed stories of his playing days.  After each game he conducted one-on-one interviews with the players.  The name of his long-running post-game show?  Kiner's Korner.

The National Pastime?

Yesterday America watched the Super Bowl, one of the most highly revered sporting events of the year.  All over the country, people packed into sports bars and gathered at friends' houses to watch the big game. Major companies forked over millions of dollars for a few minutes of advertising time, while social media sites lit up with comments about the latest play.  It begs the question:  Is baseball still America's Pastime or does football now reign supreme?  It's a fair inquiry.  After all, the NFL generates huge revenues and television ratings.  I honestly couldn't tell you how the major U.S. sports rank in these two categories.  I haven't looked it up.  Regardless of what the numbers may be, it would be difficult to extract a sense of national identity from this information alone.  It would be like saying that Yellowstone must be more American than the Rocky Mountains because its vendors sell more T-shirts.  To really answer this question, we must widen our view beyond numerical data sets.

The Cold Hard Stats

In the weeks leading up to the annual tallying of Hall of Fame votes, two topics of conversation begin to intensify.  One is whether or not a known, or suspected, user of performance enhancing drugs is worthy of selection.  If you're like me, you've heard enough about that topic to last you for a while.  The other conversation is a recalling of statistics.  Reporters are quick to tell us how many 200-strike out seasons a pitcher accumulated, how many times a hitter led the league in batting average, and so on.  Those who put in a little more research, will provide insightful context such as "in a decade dominated by hitting, Pitcher X struck out 200+ batters seven times" or "Player Z's batting average was 30 points higher than the league average for five years in a row".   This listing of stats, and the accompanying analyses, is useful. It allows us to compare how players performed in relation to their contemporaries, and, to an extent, in relation to players of different eras.  But we have to be careful with stats.  They don't tell the full story.