Category Archives: Sports

My thoughts on the world of sports, including all the major professional sports (especially baseball). I have opinions about all sports, but baseball is the only one that I consider myself an expert on. This section will also include thoughts on professional wrestling, even though it isn’t technically a “real” sport.

Rooting for Laundry

On November 30, 2010, the Dodgers signed free agent Juan Uribe. Two days later, they declined to offer a contract to Russell Martin, making him a free agent. This was hard for me, as Martin was one of my favorite players and Uribe was my least favorite. Jerry Seinfeld famously talked about what we’re really… Read More »

Goodbye Dee Gordon

Well, for about a minute, the Dodgers had the only (I think) all African-American middle infield in baseball, in Jimmy Rollins and Dee Gordon. But now Gordon is gone, off to the Miami Marlins. I wouldn’t say I am conflicted on this, because I definitely know what to feel. But my feelings are on opposite… Read More »

Jimmy the Dodger

As of right now, we don’t have any official word on who the Dodgers will be sending to the Phillies, but it appears to be a done deal that Jimmy Rollins is coming to LA. Obviously, any real analysis will be done after all the parameters are known (and by people smarter than me), but… Read More »

Baseball, kids, and role models

“Baseball.” You know how when someone says your name, it tickles that little part of your brain with a “hey, that’s me!” sensation? For me, there are a few other words that have that same effect on me. One of those is “baseball.” A love of baseball is literally a part of my internal identity.… Read More »

Vetting Myself

I’m going to start blogging more often, specifically about baseball. To get in the mood, I’ve been reading through some of my oldest posts on this site. A couple things have become painfully clear: I used to be super obnoxious. (I said USED TO!!!) I’ve made a lot of over-confident predictions. On #1, I’m hoping… Read More »

Name that player…

Who is this player? Had a HUGE power surge in the early-to-mid-90s. Went from a skinny kid to a big, muscular power hitter over that same time period. Starting having major injury problems right around the time MLB started cracking down on steroids. Never had a great season after the current, stricter drug policy was… Read More »

Is 90 feet “a pick from heaven”?

I’ve started watching Ken Burns’ “Baseball” series while I exercise, and this morning I saw something interesting. In the first episode, Charles McDowell says this about the decision to put the bases 90 feet apart: That’s so interesting that that would come out 90 feet. That somebody sat down, Mr. Cartwright or whoever said, “Hey… Read More »

Race and literacy

A couple days ago over at HardballTalk, Craig Calcaterra wrote about some controversy surrounding Joe Ricketts, the patriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Cubs. Ricketts is apparently very anti-Obama and is using his wealth to spearhead some efforts to get a new president elected this fall. One of the tactics his group is… Read More »

Baseball WARs

Quick quiz: name 62 pitchers who were better than Sandy Koufax. What’s that you say? There aren’t 62 pitchers who were better than Sandy Koufax? Okay, then we’re all in agreement that career WAR (Wins Above Replacement) is not necessarily an accurate representation of how good someone was, especially someone who had a relatively short… Read More »

K/BB ratio and its applicability

I was going to tweet a question to Rob Neyer, who happens to be one of the most respected (by me) baseball writers in the world. He clearly loves and is passionate about baseball, which will surprise people who think stats have taken all the fun out of the game, because Rob is also one… Read More »