Jim “Zipper” Zapp played a big role in getting the Birmingham Black Barons to the 1948 World Series against the Homestead Grays—the last time there was a World Series in the Negro Leagues. The season had seen a young rookie named Willie Mays spell him in the second game of a doubleheader. Zapp was a […]
MANAGING THEN AND NOW in MAJOR LEAGUE
Last year I read a story by ESPN.com’s Jerry Crasnick, with this headline: Why managing is harder than ever Within the actual story, Crasnick doesn’t make that argument, precisely. Anyway, his interviewees do most of the arguing. And they’re arguments I’ve seen before, here and there over the years. In Crasnick’s story, he quotes Tony La Russa: […]
THE GREAT TOPPS BASEBALL CARD MONOPOLY PART 6—CONFLICT
1968 Richie Allen […]
1904 World Series Cancelled | What really happened?
During the year that Theodore Roosevelt cruised to reelection as president of the United States, Peter Pan premiered on the London stage, and St. Louis hosted the Olympic Games (which included baseball exhibitions), pitching dominated the 1904 Major League Baseball season. Cy Young threw the first perfect game in MLB history. More than 50 hurlers had earned run […]
“THE BOYS OF SUMMER” BY ROGER KAHN
The Baseball Book That Changed My Life Reading this nostalgic book following its 1972 release, I was jealous of its author, Roger Kahn. Why? Because I wish I could have been in his boots writing about those pennant-winning years of the early 1950s Brooklyn Dodgers as he had done for the New York Herald Tribune, then […]