By James Bailey
After 17 consecutive losing seasons, you’d have thought Pirate fans had seen the worst already. Then came last week’s 20-0 thrashing at the hands of the Brewers, and Pittsburgh baseball had hit a new low. Toss in a 17-3 loss to those same Brewers on Monday and the Pirates are in jeopardy of [...]
From the monthly archives:
April 2010
By Thom Henninger
It’s been a great April for Toronto’s Vernon Wells, who opened the season with four home runs in the first three games. His longball pace has slowed markedly — he has a total of seven in 20 games — but he’s been a doubles machine of late, with six two-baggers in his last [...]
By James Bailey
With just 72 runs over their first 19 games (ahead of only Baltimore and Cleveland in the American League), the Mariners are pushing the limits on their pitching and defense approach. Despite a promising 3.41 ERA for a team missing its second best starter, Seattle is a game under .500, third in the [...]
By Thom Henninger
Mets starter Mike Pelfrey was a candidate for a breakout season in 2009, after going 13-11 with a 3.72 ERA and just 12 home runs allowed over 200.2 innings in 2008. The 6-foot-7 right-hander failed to build on his success, and his 2009 season took a lasting downturn in June. He finished [...]
By James Bailey
Everything that can go wrong for the Orioles this year has. Key players have been waylaid by injuries. The meat of the order (well, pretty much the entire thing) hasn’t hit. Instead of taking the next step back toward respectability after owning the cellar in the American League East for the past couple [...]
By James Bailey
For those who never got to see him play—an ever-growing segment that now includes a couple of generations of fans—the legend of Willie Mays is built on grainy film of “The Catch” in the 1954 World Series, maybe a shot or two of him zipping around the bases, and numbers like 660 (home [...]
By Thom Henninger
Although the resistance to government funds being used to build a new ballpark was loud and strong in the Twin Cities, the new Target Field in Minneapolis has been the subject of unadulterated praise and a source of immense pride since its opening — certainly among local media and baseball fans.
By James Bailey
It’s early yet, and there’s a long time to go and plenty more books to read in 2010. But I feel fairly confident that when I compile my Best Baseball Books of 2010 list in December there will be a spot somewhere for Edward Achorn’s “Fifty-nine in ’84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball [...]
By James Bailey
When Randy Johnson retired last year there was a lot of talk about how we’d seen the last of the 300-game winners. Don’t look now, but there are a couple of guys stockpiling victories at a pace that could land them in that elite club.
By Thom Henninger
Jorge Cantu doubled home a run in Florida’s 10-2 romp over Cincinnati Thursday night, extending his major league record by collecting both a hit and an RBI in his 10th straight game.
Fans don’t give much thought to the notion of recording both a hit and an RBI in a single contest, and [...]
