Watching Derek Jeter’s final season unfold brings both joy and sadness for this lifelong Yankee observer and one-time club employee. The joy is in celebrating the 20 years of memories, and the sadness is, of course, that it is coming to a close. I am taken back to 1968, which was Mickey Mantle’s final season. […]

Part 1 of 2 If Alex Rodriguez’s season-long ban holds up in 2014, he will be the first Major Leaguer to miss a full season for disciplinary reasons since Commissioner Happy Chandler banned the Mexican League “jumpers” for five years following their 1946 defections. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn banned Ferguson Jenkins indefinitely, and Commissioner Fay Vincent […]

If remembered for anything today, the Highlanders of New York are recollected as predecessors to the Yankees. Occupying by modern standards a bandbox of a ball park in the highest part of Manhattan, the team’s name reflected its location. If one were able to ask clubhouse manager Fred Logan what was most memorable about the […]

Most people think the women of the All American Girls Professional Baseball League of the 1940s was the first and only opportunity for women to play professional baseball. Not true. Women who loved baseball began turning professional almost as early as men. The club generally recognized as the first men’s all-professional team, the Cincinnati Red […]

At the time, it was the cornerstone of baseball’s centennial celebration, a much-heralded, fan-driven promotion designed to get everyone involved with the festivities. It was 1969, the centennial of professional baseball, 100 years since the Cincinnati Red Stockings started paying salaries for playing ball. Major League Baseball was just embracing serious marketing and licensing concerns. […]