NOTE: THIS WAS WRITTEN BEFORE THE HOF ANNOUNCEMENT. With voting on the early days and golden age baseball taking place this weekend, I thought I would look back on some players who had careers that were on a Hall of Fame path derailed by injuries. There will always be debates about players who are in, and those who so far have not been elected. For years I have bemoaned the…
At first blush, you might think I am talking about the lockout and that certainly is what appears to be the biggest problem, but if you look deeper, you will find that baseball popularity is on the wane – that is the Deep Trouble that MLB is in. Jeff Dominique wrote about it yesterday in a masterful article. I also have a few thoughts about it. Look at this: Baseball…
In 1947 Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier by becoming the first person of color to play in the major leagues. But it almost happened in 1901. John McGraw wanted to sign a light-skinned Negro named Charlie Grant to play for the Giants. Now baseball back before the 1900s was filled with white players who had a deep-seated prejudice against blacks. And for years there had been a so-called, gentleman’s…
One of the quickest ways to start a baseball argument is to simply say, this guy was the greatest of all time. Football and basketball fans make that debate all of the time. And the opinions vary so much from state to state. Most pundits hand the crown to Michael Jordan, his six titles, and numerous MVP awards. Football is a little trickier since you need to add not only…
I thought I would go back and see who had the best individual seasons in the history of the team. Won’t do all of the categories. That would be an incredibly long post. So I will try to stick to the main stats. WAR This is a relatively new way to gauge a player’s worth. WAR, or wins above replacement. Gives you an idea of how many wins a player…
Hello, baseball fans and welcome to the 1890 edition of your Brooklyn Bridegrooms. Coming off of a very successful 1889 campaign where they won 93 games under Bill McGunnigle to lead the American Association. The team moves out of the American Association to the newly formed National League of Professional Baseball Clubs. The Brooklyn team will be playing this season in Washington Park II. This is the second season the…
In no way do I think I have all the answers but do get lucky a lot. I think that it is because I do not think in the box or outside of the box. I prefer to think that there is no box! Three weeks ago, I fired our COO and VP of Operations. They were nice guys and I liked them, but they had no vision. Every day…
I got to thinking about this since I have had a couple of spirited discussions with a friend of mine on another site. Today it seems to be the definition has changed some. I am beginning to believe there is no such thing as a pure utility player anymore. The Dodgers were lucky for the last several years to have what many called super subs. And they had two at…
May you and your families have a Happy Thanksgiving… wherever you are! Let’s all count our blessings and remember our friends – ones who are still with us and ones who we won’t see again. None of us know how many more trips around the sun we have so let us gather with our families whenever possible and be thankful. Let’s not forget our Dodger Family. Happy Thanksgiving Dodger Brothers…
As we all know, just before the Rule 5 Deadline, the Dodgers cut ties with Billy McKinney and Zach Reks while adding Jacob Amaya, James Outman, Eddys Leonard, Jorbit Vivas, and Michael Grove to the 40-man roster. On a team with plenty of LH bats, Zach Reks and Billy McKinney were expendable. You do not get to this level if you are a chump, so it is possible that one…