baseball Page 307 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
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Today gives Mariano Rivera Appreciation Day at Yankee Stadium. Andy Pettitte makes his final regular season start in the Bronx so it's a sentimental afternoon for an organization that's known to lay it on thick. Still, Rivera is one of my favorite players so I can put up with the schmaltz. I've gone...
Here's Willie Mays, MVP, Eating Breakfast In His Little Apartment
In 1954, Willie Mays was 23 years old. That year he hit 41 home runs, had a .345 average, and was the National League MVP. And here he is, at his rented apartment in a Harlem walk-up with his landlady, one Mrs. Goosby, looking protectively over his shoulder as he eats....
The Wit And Wisdom Of The White Rat
Pat Jordan's 1992 L.A. Times story on Whitey Herzog:...
Bill Murray, The Sports Fan
Since we're talking Chicago this week, it's a good time to revisit Peter Richmond's story about hanging with Bill Murray that we reprinted earlier this year....
Wil Myers And James Shields Are The Wild Card Race's Best Show
It's fitting that Wil Myers and James Shields, the two principals involved in the Royals-Rays preseason trade that launched a thousand articles and blog posts about which team had just committed an unforgivable blunder/stolen a great player, are refusing to give us an easy answer to that debate. Wit...
Playing The Game As If It Were A Form Of Punishment For Everyone Else On The Field
Before Game 7 of the 1971 World Series, Roberto Clemente told Roger Angell, “I want everybody in the world to know that this is the way I play all the time. All season, every season. I gave everything I had to this game.”...
Meaningless, Meaningful September Baseball Is Great Baseball
A few thoughts, in no special order, on a lousy ballgame from the other night:...
The Commissioner's Son
Dig David Kamp's 2006 GQ profile of Paul Giamatti:...
The Great Chase
Wladimir Balentien is the new single-season home run king in Japan. Fifty-two years ago, Roger Maris chased Babe Ruth’s home run record here in the States. Of course, he eventually broke it. When he did, this is what the great Leonard Shecter wrote in the New York Post:...
The Radio Game
Dig this bit from Mark Harris' short essay, “Recalling the Joy of Watching Baseball on the Radio,” which is featured in the collection Diamond: The Baseball Writings of Mark Harris. Most famous for his Henry Wiggens trilogy, Harris doesn’t argue that radio is superior to television, just that they e...
Barry Bonds Has Died, According To This ESPN Typo
Hey, I wonder what Barry Bonds is up to these days. Oh, look at this. It seems that he just had his obstruction of justice conviction upheld by a federal appeals court. Bummer for Barry. But wait, there's more: HE'S ALSO DEAD....
The Veeck Family Business: Make 'Em Laugh
Last month, Michael MacCambridge was good enough to include Tom Boswell's 1981 Inside Sports profile of Bill Veeck to Grantland's stellar "Director's Cut" series....
Alex Rodriguez Is The Hero The Yankees Need But Don't Deserve
Hey, remember Alex Rodriguez? The most evilest, steroid-guzzling clown fraud who just a month ago was at the center of the biggest shit storm of the MLB season? The aged, disgraced slugger that everyone wished would just disappear? Well, his old, flawed team is thisclose to making the playoffs, and ...
The Finest Baseball Game Recap You'll Read This Year
I've written over a thousand game recaps in my 11 years following the Yankees at Bronx Banter. It can be a tedious and dull writing assignment and I struggle to keep the posts fresh. But every so often you'll get a piece on deadline inspiration like the one my man Jon DeRosa delivered last night:...
Sean Penn Would Have Been A Great Ty Cobb
It's fun to recast movies. After watching Mystic River I wished it could start again with the leads exchanging roles. Harry Dean Stanton would have made a great Billy Martin if The Bronx is Burning was made 15 years earlier. If I could have one wish it would be to see Art Carney reprise his stage pe...
Pride Of The City
Over at SB Nation Longform, Joe DePaolo has a strong piece on the annual baseball game between the NYPD and NYFD:...
Wladimir Balentien Ties Single-Season Japanese Home Run Record
Wladimir Balentien has already put together one of the best seasons in baseball history as a member of the Yakult Swallows in the Japanese professional baseball league, and now he has his name in the record books. ...
Elaine de Kooning: Baseball Fan
Baseball Players by Elaine de Kooning. Ink Wash on Paper (1956)....