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Sunday, January 25, 2004

Kickball 

Back in grade school, we used to play kickball all the time. Well some folks at the World Adult Kickball Association still play it well past their prepubescent days. As the song "Everybody Loves Kickball" says, "EVERYBODY LOVES KICKBALL
EVERYBODY LOVES KICKBALL
When the sun is out and the sky is blue
There is nothin' else that I would rather do
Than play kickball
EVERYBODY LOVES KICKBALL"

There are other leagues, too. They include The Midwestern Unconventional Sports Association (MUSA)and The Kickball League of Baltimore. Something tells me that beer is involved. :)

Thursday, January 22, 2004

New documentary features Bay Area sandlot baseball 

"PlayBall -- Alameda's Sandlot Saga" debuts at 8 p.m. today at Auctions By The Bay movie house, 2700 Saratoga Drive, Alameda Point. You may want to check this out if you are in the Bay Area. Alumni of the Alameda Recreation and Park Department's baseball program include Dontrelle Willis, Willie Stargell, Tommy Harper, Curtell Motton and Chris Speier.

You're Listening to WALK 

"Mediabay Announces Yogi Berra Collection of Old Time Radio Baseball Classics - Marks First in a Series of Personality-Driven Anthologies - - Collection includes Abbott and Costello's World Famous 'Who's On First' - - Stars on the Collection include Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Dizzy Dean, Jackie Robinson, Joe DiMaggio and Casey Stengel - "

I found this story on Yahoo! in the financial news section. It sounds like a pretty interesting gist for the baseball history buff in your life.

Wednesday, January 14, 2004

Ex-pitcher decries war in Iraq  

There was a Jim Bouton sighting in Texas Monday. Bouton spoke on various subjects including war, Pete Rose, and steroids. For another take on Bouton's appearance at Schreiner University, visit the Kerrville Daily Times. I love reading about Bouton's remarks because he always has an interesting take on things; even if I don't agree with him (which is often.)

He's like Bill "Spaceman" Lee in that respect. Speaking of Lee, he had some remarks in Sunday's Manchester Union Leader about Pete Rose and the recently departed Tug McGraw. McGraw was another guy who made good copy himself. Why are pitchers the most quotable players? My guess is it's because they have more time to sit around and think up stuff than position players.

Sandy Koufax and the 1965 World Series 

I hope that Repoz doesn't mind if I recycle his lead-in from Baseball Primer: A wonderful walk through Game 7 of the 1965 Los Angeles Dodgers-Minnesota Twins World Series, with play by play man Rich Lederer....as seen on ESPN Sports Classic.

Oh..to long for the days of the sweet swinging Don LeJohn ...


MLB Timeline: Best Players by Position 

In his book on the Hall of Fame, Bill James listed criteria to consider a player worthy, including "Was he the best player in baseball at his position?" This chart is an attempt to help answer that question, as well as showing duration. There are also inevitably some tough-luck cases, such as George Brett, whose career happened to coincide with that of another great third baseman, Mike Schmidt. Likewise, Tris Speaker's time in center field was mirrored by Ty Cobb, while Hank Greenberg played opposite Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx at first base.

The chart in question comes from Baseball Reality. I'm not sure if I agree with all the rankings, but the chart makes a good starting point for any discussions (arguments.) My thanks go out to TangoTiger at Primate Studies for tipping me off to this chart's existence.

Sunday, January 11, 2004

Total Baseball's Baseball History Page 

Thanks to Internet Archive, dead webpages come to life! Total Baseball hasn't been online for some time. Fortunately many pages were archived. I'd like to thank Greg Spira for pointing this link out to me.

The link in the headline of this entry leads surfers to a history of baseball written by David Q. Voigt. Although it ends in 1996, it is a pretty comprehensive summary of the game's history. Total Baseball also featured biographies of baseball legends.

This internet version of The Wayback Machine is way cooler than the one that Peabody and Sherman used.

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

A century of Korean baseball 

Found this article today. I thought I'd pass it on.

Monday, January 05, 2004

Major League Sports Almanac  

Someone pointed this site out to me a couple of weeks ago. The Major League Sports Almanac offers franchise history and champions of major sporting leagues from across the world, past and present. The range of this site is broad, if shallow. For baseball fans, it does cover five Negro Leagues and three Japanese Leagues.

Happy Surfing!

Sunday, January 04, 2004

Nation's oldest major-leaguer dies at 99  

"Paul Hopkins, who gave up a record-tying home run to Babe Ruth in 1927 and was the oldest former major-league player, died at 99."

In one of my first posts on this blog, I linked to a story about Paul on the eve of his 99th birthday. Here it is again.

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