With Jorge Posada now three years removed from the game, and Russell Martin pricing himself out of the Bronx, the Yankees face an Opening Day dilemma they haven’t encountered since 1989: no clear candidate for the starting catcher job. Just five years ago, the Yankees looked lousy with catching prospects. Powerhouse slugger Jesus Montero—he of [...]
Surplus of catching talent makes Opening Day decision easy for Girardi, Yankees
February 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Hernandez’s glory overshadows Cabrera’s shame
August 15, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Felix Hernandez has always been a breath of fresh air for his downtrodden Seattle Mariners, but on Wednesday afternoon, he was an infusion of life for a sport that could have used a second wind. Just as Hernandez was about to toe the rubber for his start against the Tampa Bay Rays, news broke that [...]
Love for the game a learned pastime
June 17, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Baseball has never been just a game for me. It is thrill and glory and fresh-cut grass. It is adrenaline and scuffed cleats and crisp double plays turned under mock-summer lights. It is gleaming fields on Opening Day and wind-frozen fingers raised in postseason triumph. But most of all, it is my father and me [...]
Pettitte brings big leagues to baseball-loving Rochester
May 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
A Sunday afternoon in May at a minor league ballpark likely held no distinction for Andy Pettitte. Just a stop on the road to the big leagues, it couldn’t have been much different than any other whistlestop bandbox in any American mid-size city. For the 13,854 packed into beautiful Frontier Field, in the High Falls [...]
Humber’s perfection speaks to the everyman
April 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Go ahead. Start your love affair with Philip Humber. No one could blame you. The former first-round draft pick with sky-high potential had plummeted to everyman long before he reached baseball immortality. Though he once electrified the Mets organization with his crisp curveball, by the time Humber took the mound on Saturday afternoon in Seattle, [...]
Nova, Kennedy find success in versatility
April 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Ian Kennedy is not an imposing mound presence. At six feet and 190 pounds, 2011′s 21-game winner appears even smaller, with throwback stirrup socks and a beard that looks more like a child playing dress-up than a Cy Young vote-getter. And even now, at 27, as the former first-round pick is climbing toward his prime [...]
On the Comforting Convergence of Faith and Baseball
April 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment
I’ve always felt more comfortable evangelizing baseball than any part of my faith. Both are so much a part of me that I could swear they were running through my veins with my blood, carrying a kind of oxygen that fuels my sense of right and wrong, ruination and redemption, death and rebirth. But where [...]
The Great Closer Shakeup
March 31, 2012 By Leave a Comment
“The other team is sitting in the dugout thinking, ‘We’ve got no chance. It’s over.’ This guy walks into the game, and they’re done.” – “Goose” Gossage, on Mariano Rivera A great closer is as valuable as an original Honus Wagner card in mint condition–as just as rare. More often than not, teams spend years [...]
Empirical evidence, not projections, tell the real story
March 25, 2012 By Leave a Comment
One of the most distinctive aspects of baseball is its marathon-style season: in the 162-game grind, what happens in April is often irrelevant by September. Still, predictions run rampant. Analysts craft pre-determined outcomes based on the information available prior to the season, which consists of little more than verbose guesswork. But the nature of the [...]
Sizemore’s struggles not without precedents, hope
March 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Four years ago, Grady Sizemore was one of the hottest young players in baseball. At 25, the centerfielder was already the proud owner of three All Star berths, two Gold Gloves, a Silver Slugger, and MVP votes in each of the past four seasons. He had amassed 111 homers and 349 RBIs since his call-up [...]
