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. […]

This is the story of two Yankee catchers and how the legacy of one soared while the other remained in place. In other words, it is the story of how one player can get better after retirement, and the other not, even though neither has had another hit nor thrown out another runner in all […]

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 […]