When Sergio Romo struck out Miguel Cabrera to finish the 2012 World Series and make champions of the San Francisco Giants, Buster Posey raced out to the mound for the first of the embraces. Brandon Belt… Read more »
Arm Side Run
Josh Hamilton is a long way from finding a new home, but Josh Roenicke has one. Michael Bourn is still feeling out the market, but Mike Aviles has been traded twice in a fortnight. The offseason is… Read more »
Dan Haren had no control over his fate as Friday night stretched into Saturday morning on the East Coast. The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the Chicago Cubs came together, then shoved apart on… Read more »
The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, a team very much in transition, declined to make a qualifying offer of $13.3 million for one year to their right fielder, Torii Hunter Friday night, allowing Hunter to… Read more »
The new Collective Bargaining Agreement in Major League Baseball is in full effect for the first time this winter, at least as it pertains to free agency and other machinations of the league’s offseason. One… Read more »
The Los Angeles Dodgers signed impending free-agent relief pitcher Brandon League to a three-year, $22.5-million contract with a vesting option for 2016, according to Dylan Hernandez of the LA Times. He figures to be their… Read more »
How unheralded was Brian Harper, who played 16 seasons in the Major Leagues and batted .295? How underrated was he? Well, ask yourself: Who were the five best catchers in baseball from 1989-93? According to… Read more »
You knew magic was in the air in San Francisco Thursday night, when Tim McCarver opened his early comments on Madison Bumgarner with the observation that Bumgarner’s nickname was MadBum. Aside from sounding like a… Read more »
Jacques Barzun, perhaps the most famous and accomplished cultural historian to date, died Thursday night at 104 years old, according to The New York Times. Barzun was by no means a man to be remembered… Read more »
I blogged about Game 1 of the 2012 World Series once already, so I’ll keep this brief. A few things spring to mind as I replay the game in my head. 1. The Three Stooges… Read more »
Pablo Sandoval hit three home runs and the hardest single of the night in Game 1 of the 2012 World Series Wednesday, as the San Francisco Giants beat the Detroit Tigers and Justin Verlander 8-3…. Read more »
Ryan Vogelsong, Marco Scutaro and Barry (Rally) Zito will live forever in the hearts of San Francisco Giants fans, but most baseball fans will remember the 2012 NLCS as a rival to the 1997 World… Read more »
The next two weeks will see the end of the transition year in Major League Baseball. Once the World Series ends, the last vestige of the old collective bargaining agreement will be swept away, and… Read more »
See, that’s not nice. I shouldn’t use that title. I suspect Buster Olney, whose writing (if not baseball analysis acumen) I esteem highly, did a great job on a book of the same name, but… Read more »
Wednesday and Thursday each gave us the thrill of four playoff games and 12 hours of engrossment. It couldn’t last. (Thank goodness for that small favor, by the way, because I’ve written nearly 8,000 words… Read more »
The playoffs rage on, and while I have to remember to add “took absolutely all breathing room out of playoff schedule” to my list of grievances against Bud Selig, I’m thoroughly enjoying it all. I… Read more »
It spelled the end of two teams’ seasons, but for fans whose enjoyment of taut, well-executed baseball runs deeper than the logos on the uniforms, Thursday was a thrill as exquisite as the one Wednesday… Read more »
One of the peculiar things about baseball, one of the things that make it blessedly and joyously different from the other major pro sports, is that a whole lot can happen without much changing. The… Read more »
Baseball is awesome. Playoff baseball is even better. Every active playoff series playing on the same day should probably be illegal, just because it feels so good. We got that Wednesday, with baseball starting in… Read more »
The Atlanta Braves carefully lined up their rotation to ensure that they would send Kris Medlen to the mound in Friday’s Wild Card elimination game, and with good reason. Medlen last started a game the… Read more »
