The only thing missing here is Billy Dee Williams.
- For anyone who hasn’t seen it, Rob Neyer left ESPN.com on Monday, joined SB Nation on Tuesday, and gave a kickass interview here on Wednesday. Things really do move quickly on the Internet.
- It’s my turn today on the “Best of the Worst” series Bill Miller and I have been doing for his blog, The On Deck Circle. This week, I wrote about Walter Johnson, perhaps the greatest example ever in baseball history of a superb player with a moribund franchise.
- Here is a recap of the brief and colorful career of Detroit Tigers pitcher Boots Poffenberger. That name alone merits a post. If anyone would like to send me an unusual name of an obscure player, I’ll do an “Any player/Any era” for the one I like best.
- The Hardball Times notes why Jim Leyland, Mike Scioscia, and Ozzie Guillen could eventually be in Cooperstown as managers: Each won World Series without any future Hall of Famers on their postseason rosters. This has happened three other times in baseball history, 1981 and 1988 with the Dodgers and 1984 with the Tigers and the managers for those clubs, Tommy Lasorda and Sparky Anderson are each enshrined. My thoughts? Leyland: Yes. Scioscia: Probably, if he keeps doing what he’s doing for another decade. Guillen: No.
- Verdun2 has done it again with a fine profile of late sportswriter Wendell Smith who pushed for the integration of baseball and was the first black member of the Baseball Writers Association of America in 1948. This looks to be the first in a series of articles for February. Verdun2 ended his post by saying it would “begin a celebration of black history month in the US with a look at a black American writer. I intend to make a few more looks at the Negro Leagues and other aspects of black baseball off and on during the month. Hope you will enjoy them.” I’m sure we will.