I was just watching an ESPN video about the retirement of New York Yankees public address announcer Bob Sheppard, when I noticed something interesting. Included in the feature was the lineup card from Sheppard’s first game, between the Yankees and Boston Red Sox in 1951. Among the Sox was Lou Boudreau, who I never realized [...]
Archive for November, 2009
Making the Hall of Fame: One need only hit as well as Orlando Cabrera
Posted: 30th November 2009 by Graham Womack in Baseball Hall of FameTags: Baseball Hall of Fame, overrated hall of famers
3
Halladay, would he be so nice?
Posted: 28th November 2009 by Graham Womack in MLBTags: Free agency, trades, and other moves
Toronto Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay is poised to collect a substantial payday. Preliminary indications are that Toronto will not attempt to resign the 32-year-old free agent to-be, whose contract is up after 2010. While a big team like the Red Sox, Yankees or Mets (or maybe the Dodgers or Angels) will gladly overpay Halladay, [...]
Ranking the 2010 Hall of Fame candidates
Posted: 27th November 2009 by Graham Womack in Baseball Hall of FameTags: Baseball Hall of Fame
I read on ESPN.com today that the latest Hall of Fame ballot is out, with first-time candidates like Barry Larkin and Roberto Alomar joining holdovers like Andre Dawson and Mark McGwire. It’s always interesting to look at who has a good chance of making it to Cooperstown each year. I also enjoy reading the names [...]
Tug Hulett and 10 other great baseball names
Posted: 26th November 2009 by Graham Womack in Best of listsTags: Best of, great baseball names
The news concerning the trade of Tug Hulett the other day prompted two reactions for me: 1) Who the hell is Tug Hulett? 2) Why haven’t I ever heard of a player with such a cool name? Tug Hulett sounds like the name of a boat in an old Disney cartoon, a small, happy little [...]
Prediction: 10 Veterans Committee picks
Posted: 23rd November 2009 by Graham Womack in Baseball Hall of Fame, Best of listsTags: Baseball Hall of Fame, Best of, Veterans Committee
Months ago, I wrote about “The 10 best baseball players not in the Hall of Fame.” It remains one of my most-read entries and even got mentioned in a Mormon blog, since it included Dale Murphy. Were I really slick, I’d post the Top 10 Mormons not in the Hall of Fame. That’s a project [...]
I don’t much care for modern baseball. I rarely watch games on television anymore, and I gave the recent World Series only passing consideration. It just didn’t interest me that much. I’d rather read a book. I used to worship the San Francisco Giants. Their teams of the late ’80s and early ’90s probably were [...]
Something I didn’t know about JFK
Posted: 21st November 2009 by Graham Womack in MLBTags: The Boys of Summer
With the anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s assassination coming up on Sunday, I coincidentally learned something interesting about our late president. Turns out he could have been a baseball man, instead. In finishing The Boys of Summer yesterday, I came upon a passage late in the book that described how Kennedy’s father, Joseph, nearly purchased [...]
Classic book review: The Boys of Summer
Posted: 19th November 2009 by Graham Womack in Book reviewsTags: book review, The Boys of Summer
After more than a year, I finally finished The Boys of Summer this afternoon. Written by Roger Kahn and first published in 1971, the book is part oral history about the Brooklyn Dodgers and part recollection by the author of covering the team as a young reporter in the early 1950s. I’ve read many baseball [...]
Transcript: My interview with Jose Canseco
Posted: 18th November 2009 by Graham Womack in InterviewsTags: interview, Jose Canseco
I put batteries into an old recorder today and discovered I still have my interview with Jose Canseco from April 2008. I interviewed Canseco in Oakland on his promotional tour for Vindicated, the follow-up to his bestseller, Juiced. I snapped the following picture that night: Being that the former Bash Brother starred for the Oakland [...]