BASEBALL CRAZINESS

TRANSCENDENT STARS Every few years baseball is graced with a couple of transcendent stars.  Merriam-Webster would tell you that “transcendent” means “far better or greater than what is usual”.  When we – as baseball fans – discuss transcendence, we talk about players whose names span the ages – players who can easily be dropped into…

PATIENCE . . . PART 2 As it is written, it is done. On Friday I wrote about many contracts – and one specifically lacking.  And, over the weekend, that one player got a new deal.  Ian Desmond, he of the turned down 7/$107M offer, took a 1-year deal to play leftfield for the Rangers. …

PATIENCE ISN’T ALWAYS A VIRTUE I try to teach my kids patience.  It is an uphill battle – has been since birth – but I constantly try. Delayed gratification, I explain to them, is the best kind.  A bird in the hand is only half as much as two in the bush, I calculate for…

THE ONLY CONSTANT IS CHANGE The season ended November 1st, just 114 days ago.  In some ways, it feels like yesterday; and in other ways, it feels like a lifetime ago.  But one thing is certain, as players report to training camp, your team, my team, your buddy’s team, your rotisserie team (Millenials, look it…

THINK OF THE CHILDREN! Another January, and another life-changing day for a former Major Leaguer.  And another day, week, month (?) of hand-wringing over the votes, the voting process, and the eventual end of the world as we know it because some former athlete (?) won’t be honored on a hot summer day in upstate New York.…

JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN . . . It’s hard to be a billionaire.  It is increasingly difficult to be the richest guy on the block.  It’s not fair when you have more money than anyone else, and everyone expects you to spend it like a drunken sailor on shore leave.  And despite what people may…

HOT STOVE ON THE BACK BURNER What I am about to write is neither an excuse nor a justification.  I am not even sure it rises to the level of a cop-out.  Rather, it is an admission of ignorance, indifference, and potentially insensitivity. Last Friday afternoon I posted a blog entitled Free Agents of (Loose)…

FREE AGENTS OF (LOOSE) CHANGE It started with the following text to a buddy of mine on the eve of Game 6 of the ALCS: “More pressure?  (David) Price tonight or (Johnny) Cueto tomorrow (if necessary)?” The corollary question was: Who was more nervous, Price’s agent or Cueto’s agent? We are now officially in Hot…

FROM G.O.A.T. to GOAT We live in a funny society.  And by “funny”, I mean wholly cruel and punishing. As a society, we love nothing more than a great story, a fairy tale come true.  And then we wait for – nee, we wish for, and often precipitate – the great fall.  It is as…

THE BLAME GAME On back to back days, we saw two Major Leaguers make major league heads up plays.  They literally ran the bases with their heads up, and took an extra base when others might/would have missed the opportunity. In Toronto, this resulted in a confused umpire, a littered field, and a tie-breaking run…