Buffing Their Halo: The Angels Make the Best of a BAD Situation
About a week before the August 1st trade deadline, the Los Angeles of Anaheim made it known that they would not be trading their once-in-a-century two-way star, Shohei Ohtani. Many in the baseball world criticized this decision, believing that the Angels could reset their farm system (currently ranked 28th by MLB Pipeline) with the haul…
The Blue in the Sky
We currently have the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years, but we could always use more jobs. Going back many years, I have had a plan to add at least 15 new ones. And while these jobs wouldn’t do much for the national labor statistics, they would do a great deal for our enjoyment of…
Bring on the Chaos
I have a motto, one that I communicate to my kids as well as anyone I work with, and one that has served me well for over two decades: “Try never to make the same mistake twice.” Because, in the words of Billy Joel, “We’re only human, we’re supposed to make mistakes.” Mistakes are, for…
The Dangers of Leading With Your Head
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine whose son plays Division I baseball told me a story. She was watching her son’s game on television when a player (not her son) dove headfirst into second base on an attempted steal. The runner’s head smashed into the shortstop’s knee, whereupon the runner collapsed on the…
Pick a Lane
Much has been written about organizations not caring enough to field a competitive team. In an effort to combat this scourge, the players tried to impose a salary floor in the latest CBA negotiations to thwart the concept of “tanking.” Shortly after the new CBA was signed, the Oakland A’s, doing their best Major League impression, went…
MLB Labor Negotiations: Moving Mountains
From the moment word came down that the owners and players had reached an agreement and the MLB lockout would be lifted, baseball writers all over the country took to their keyboards to bang out stories about the new CBA. Jeff Passan, weary and exhausted, the victim of a Twitter hack, was able to hash…
How Do You Explain PEDs and the Hall of Fame?
Read enough newspapers or watch enough news or listen to enough podcasts, and you are bound to get slapped in the face with poor reportage. It’s the law of big numbers. But, as a discerning baseball fan, I have come to expect that, while I may not agree with all baseball takes and opinions, I…
Laying Down With a Dog
I have always loved the Theo Epstein story. Local Boston kid leaves home, cuts his teeth, comes back and orchestrates the roster that ended an 86-year curse. When management wanted to go in another direction, he moved to the Midwest and orchestrated the roster that ended a 108-year curse. And then he became best buds…
What Are We Doing?
One of my best friend’s favorite thing to say is “What are we doing?” I have thought about that expression often the last couple of weeks with respect to MLB umpires turned TSA agents ferreting out illegal substances. By now we have all witnessed the Max Scherzer interrogations as well as the Sergio Romo striptease,…
Through the Looking Glass
When I was six years old, I MC’d my elementary school’s production of “Alice in Wonderland.” Memory does not serve if I was afforded that lofty position because I could neither sing nor act, but if the current state of affairs is any marker, both of those analyses would ultimately be proven correct. In any…