It’s the beginning of the third week of May, and my college’s commencement is over, but I’m still working on my end-of-semester grading. The seniors’ evaluations are all done, of course—and they’ve got their diplomas in hand, as of midday Saturday—and everything else that I have to read and respond to and affix a number…
Bad calls used to be bad because we all knew they were wrong and the umpire who made them was an idiot. We could boo and yell and gesture safe in the knowledge that we were better than the boys in blue. We didn’t know what the hell was wrong with them, but we knew…
In 2005, my spouse worked third shift, and in those overnight hours, our little house was very quiet. Near the end of a dead-end street and abutting a deep stretch of woods on the very edge of Binghamton, NY, the house was peaceful as I could want in the daytime. Overnight, it was just as…
June 16, 1976 To: Juan Moreno, Asst GM, Minnesota Twins From: Mike Bates, General Manager, Minnesota Twins Re: Red Sox Trade I received your memo dated this morning, about our impending trade with the Red Sox, sending Bert Blyleven, Tom Burgmeier, and Randy Bass for Carlton Fisk, Dwight Evans, John Tudor, Don Aase, and Bruce…
My 12 year old was in an opera in Cedar Rapids this weekend about Grant Wood. They needed some kids to sing and dance and be part of Wood’s grade school class for a scene from his life as a teacher, before he got successful, and my son jumped at the chance. He’s very into…
On Thursday, Markus writes out a to-do list: create the new front desk schedule, place necessary orders for tiny bars of soap and little bottles of shampoo, pay invoices for vacuum cleaner repair and swimming pool chemicals, deliver the previous day’s deposit to the bank. The paperwork goes quickly enough that he starts to dream…
The richest kid in class is the kid whose parents gave them money for the Scholastic Book Fair. I remember taking the little “catalog” home and asking my mom for money. She’d always complain at first. “Don’t you have enough books? Do you ever do anything but read?” Well mom, no, I don’t have enough…
Because we are, all of us, such right-thinking people, we concern ourselves very greatly with the plight of the young men who are currently being exploited in the minor leagues for less than the minimum wage and being paid far below the poverty line. Those who are being manipulated and lied about and cheated out…
If you ask me, I’d say the offseason gets a bad rap. I’d even tell you I’m starting to think we’re viewing it the wrong way. Every November, we collectively lament the end of baseball season, but the offseason is a time to recover from losses. It’s a time to lick your wounds, work on…
Friends, before I get properly started, let me assure you this is about baseball. I just need you to bear with me for a paragraph or two. I took my seven-year-old daughter to a basketball game on Sunday. The Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team was playing Northwestern on Senior Day, and thumped them quite thoroughly….
You can choose the family you spend your life with, but you can’t choose the family you’re born with, even if you know that some of them, given the opportunity, would certainly switch you out for someone else. As a child, you always say that you’re going to run away, that you’re going to the…
Reader, last week in this space, James Fegan, a fine man and colleague whose opinion is to be respected, wrote that Spring Training is “a false liferaft amid a sea of boredom and unwanted college football recruiting updates.” He calls it “lame,” “meaningless,” and “incredibly long.” He is, I’m sorry to say, right on most…
I am BP’s senior prospect writer. In that role, I must be able to give objective evaluations of players, without biases conscious or subconscious. These evaluations aren’t always positive, but it’s really fun when you find a dude that nobody else is on and he turns out to be pretty good. This is one of…
September 30, 1999 is an important if somewhat forgettable day in San Francisco sports history. That’s the day when the Giants played their final home game at Candlestick Park, and the day that stadium became a football-only venue. The Giants have spent their last 19 seasons playing in the stadium now known as Oracle Park….
The closest thing in the world to time travel cost me less than ten dollars. But it wasn’t always so cheap. Once upon a time, as you undoubtedly know, baseball cards were valuable. Growing up in the late ‘80s, everyone heard the rumors and fables of the guy who found his dad’s collection of 1930s…