Five years ago last month, Eric and I started Bus Leagues Baseball. I’ve always remembered the site’s creation as being pretty simple, with a late night Gmail chat about a possible collaboration on minor league baseball inspiring Eric to start a WordPress blog (with a name taken from an expletive-filled line uttered by Crash Davis in the film “Bull Durham”, which always served as our inspiration. The movie, that is, not the language) and...
Blog Archives
Q&A: Auburn Doubledays Pitcher Derek Self
Last week’s feature subject for the New York-Penn League Notebook at MiLB.com was Auburn’s Derek Self. I chose Self because I was planning on catching a game in Auburn, he was one of the best closers in the league, and in two seasons I hadn’t written about a closer. I sat down with the soft-spoken native of Cave City, Kentucky, last week to talk about his preferred role on a pitching staff, his pitch...
Q&A: National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum President Jeff Idelson
It’s becoming a bit of a cliche at this point, but last year our hive mind of writers was emailing back and forth about some of the people we thought might make for a good interview and Jeff Idelson’s name came up. Idelson, as the title of the post says, is the president of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum; i.e., the man with one of the coolest jobs in the world....
Q&A: Mets Prospect Brandon Nimmo
This is one of my favorite interviews because it started out on such a positive note. Nimmo had been hit by a pitch on his shoulder a couple days before and still wasn’t feeling right (he ended up sitting out until August 11 before returning with two straight multi-hit games leading into the All-Star break), so he finished up batting practice early and we sat down to talk. I knew I had to tell...
Q&A: Pirates Prospect Clay Holmes
Clay Holmes was my third choice to write about last week for MiLB.com, a fact that stands more as a testament to the amount of interesting talent on the State College Spikes than Holmes’ ability on the field. (For the record, my first two choices were Luis Heredia, who was pitching and therefore unavailable the day I went down to Lowell to get my interview done, and Tyler Gaffney, whose unavailability I only found...
Q&A: Baseball Executive Mike Veeck (Part 2)
In Part Two of our interview with longtime major and minor league baseball executive Mike Veeck, we talk about where his father might be operating if he were alive today, his favorite place to run a team, and why baseball in Florida is a tough sell. This is something I’ve always wondered about. Given the current economic climate in baseball, if your dad was alive and operating in the present day, would he be...
Q&A: Baseball Executive Mike Veeck (Part 1)
For quite a while now, Mike Veeck has been on our list of people to interview. The son of Hall of Fame owner Bill Veeck, Mike has worked in baseball for nearly forty years at the major league, affiliated minor league, and independent minor league levels. After a few emails to help set things up, we finally connected on the phone late last week. Below, in the first of our two-part interview, we spoke...
More Proof That I Am Getting Old
On Twitter yesterday, one of the writers I follow offered a fun little diversion: go to Baseball-Reference, find the box score for the first game you attended, and see if any players are still active. He had two left from a game in 1996. I had none from my first game on September 3, 1995, but only because Tim Wakefield decided to hang up his knuckleball at the end of last season. Just for...
Light vs Heredia, Live From Lowell? Sure, Why Not?
I’m in Lowell, MA, tonight, taking care of the necessary interview for this week’s New York-Penn League Notebook at MiLB.com. I knew before the game that 17-year-old Luis Heredia would be on the hill for the State College Spikes (he was my first choice for the Notebook; unfortunately, I have developed a knack this season for showing an interest in interviewing that day’s starting pitcher; it’s a gift), but didn’t realize until Joshua Kummins...
Q&A: New York Yankees Prospect Saxon Butler
Staten Island’s Saxon Butler was the subject of my fourth New York-Penn League Notebook this season, which ran last Friday on MiLB.com. I caught up with Butler prior to the Yankees game against the Lowell Spinners on July 16 and he immediately made me feel good about choosing him for my story, launching a long homerun to right field in the third inning. I also have to feel good about my timing – Butler...
Bus Leagues Photos
2012 05 14 Scranton Wilks Barre/ Empire State Yankees vs Pawtucket Red Sox
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