Today, I’m pleased to present a guest post from Joe Guzzardi, who recently attended a reunion for the 1960 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates and had a chance to talk to former Bucs ace Vern Law. _________________ On June 19, I was one of the 38,000 at PNC Park for Saturday night’s game that honored the [...]
Archive for June, 2010
Vern Law recalls his 18 inning masterpiece from 1955
Posted: 30th June 2010 by Joe Guzzardi in by Joe Guzzardi2
Does he belong in the Hall of Fame? Maury Wills
Posted: 29th June 2010 by Graham Womack in Maury WillsClaim to fame: Wills revolutionized baseball in the 1960s by the leading the National League in steals from 1960 through 1965. In his 1962 MVP season, Wills stole 104 bases, broke Ty Cobb’s 47-year-old Major League record, and personally accounted for 13 percent of the steals in the National League, a rare feat. Other players [...]
Book Review: The 25 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time
Posted: 28th June 2010 by Graham Womack in Book reviewsA couple weeks ago, I received an email from a representative of a publishing company, Sourcebooks. The rep said New York Times bestselling author Len Berman has a new book due out this fall, The 25 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time. The rep wrote: I’d be curious to hear your thoughts on his list, [...]
My 2010 NL and AL All Star ballot
Posted: 25th June 2010 by Graham Womack in UncategorizedAs regular readers may know, I joined the Internet Baseball Writers Association of America a few months ago. Duties for club members are fairly light, though one of the things we do is cast token votes on mid-season awards and All Star selections. I’m proud to offer my first ballots: American League POSITION/ AWARD NAME [...]
What he did: I’ve written a couple of times recently about Case, an outfielder for the Washington Senators and Cleveland Indians from 1937-1947 who shot 8 mm color footage of his career. I didn’t know of Case before first hearing from his son George Case III, but his stolen bases totals impressed me. In an [...]
This week’s guest post from Joe Guzzardi, a regular Wednesday contributor here, looks at the practice in recent years of limiting pitch counts. ___________________ When Nolan Ryan took over as the Texas Rangers’ president, one of the first things he did was announce that throughout the organization he would banish the use of the pitch [...]
Does he belong in the Hall of Fame? Chipper Jones
Posted: 22nd June 2010 by Graham Womack in Chipper JonesClaim to fame: Jones rates among the greatest-hitting infielders, with 2,452 hits, 430 home runs and a .306 lifetime average. The 1999 National League Most Valuable Player, six-time All Star and longtime Atlanta Braves third baseman has declined since winning the 2008 batting title, though he’s wrapping an outstanding career. Current Hall of Fame eligibility: [...]
Update: There is now color footage from 1940 of Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams online
Posted: 21st June 2010 by Graham Womack in Historical topicsTags: George Case Around the League 1939-1946, George Case Washington Senators
A few weeks ago, I did a post here on a DVD, “Around The League: 1939-1946″ compiled from 8 mm color footage shot by Washington Senators and Cleveland Indians outfielder George Case. I got a fun story with great anecdotes from Case’s son George Case III and good still shots from the film. The one [...]
The 10 most durable position players in baseball history
Posted: 21st June 2010 by Graham Womack in Best of listsTags: most durable ballplayers
1. Lou Gehrig: It took a fatal illness later named after him to end his consecutive games streak and drive him from the game. His nickname was the Iron Horse. If Gehrig’s not the standard for durability, I don’t know who is. 2. Cal Ripken Jr: Broke Gehrig’s record and for much of his career [...]
More quotes from my interview with John Thorn
Posted: 18th June 2010 by Graham Womack in Interviews, John ThornLast week, I posted a story on a forgotten Negro League/semi-pro great named John Donaldson, and in writing it, I faced a high class problem for a writer: I had more solid material than could fit. As I’ve since commented, this was an 800-word piece that could’ve gone 2,000. A lot of good stuff didn’t [...]