…as you read this article. After Mr. Met was named the best mascot in sports last month, it was only natural to keep celebrating all that is furry, fabulous and most likely 4-fingered in baseball. MiLB.com introduced Mascot Mania. Finally, we, the fans, got the opportunity to determine Minor League Baseball’s top mascot. My little OCD personality has been harping obsessively about this since their “Elite Eight.” If you haven’t been following my other...
Place your bets guys! Tell me I’m wrong! After Mr. Met was named the best mascot in sports last month, it was only natural to keep celebrating all that is furry, fabulous and most likely 4-fingered in baseball. MiLB.com introduced Mascot Mania. Finally, we, the fans, are getting the opportunity to determine Minor League Baseball’s top mascot. I know what you’re thinking. Trish, what are the odds on Ike the Spike? What is the...
New Jersey has a rich minor league baseball history, including playing host to possibly the most important minor league game ever played – the first, June 19, 1846. Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey On that faithful day, the Knickerbocker Club played the New York Nine in what is considered by many to be the first official game between two teams. Elysian Fields (with a capacity of approximately 20,000) was a wide expanse...
So, I’ve been on a movie kick recently. (A pretty obvious statement if you’ve read my past few articles.) This holiday weekend, I decided to revisit what I felt were some of best portrayals of historical ballplayers. If I was going to narrow it down to my top three, I knew a lot of great performances would need to get cut, probably launching a debate. Why I write this article then?! Let the debate begin! Tommy...
With “rookies” like Jamie Moyer and Andy Pettitte making waves in the majors this year, I was inspired to take another look at Disney’s The Rookie (2002)… that plus the Yankees and Mets both lost today. Wouldn’t you want to pop popcorn and get into some pajamas? Directed by John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) and written by Mike Rich (Secretariat), The Rookie tells the story of real-life Major League Pitcher, Jim Morris. A...
With Roger Clemens on trial for perjury and Mariano Rivera facing a career ending injury, let’s face it. There haven’t been a lot of warm, fuzzy stories going around the baseball diamond. This kind of inspired me to revisit what should have been a warm fuzzy story, but ultimately wasn’t – the single season home run race of 1961. In other words, I watched the movie *61 … again. Directed by Billy Crystal, produced...
A couple of years ago, I got to run the Q&A at a Music Box Theatre’s screening of “We Believe: A Relationship That Lasts a Lifetime” in Chicago, IL. It was pretty exciting to actually lead a conversation about baseball with a large audience in a true baseball town. The following is a review of that film, a version of which appeared on the Music Box Theatre website last year. Directed by John Scheinfeld,...
I predicted weeks back that Bryce Harper would be in the Big Leagues before the All-Star break. Heck! I told you if you played Fantasy Baseball, put him on your bench. He wouldn’t be there for too long. I know. For my next trick, I will predicted that Kim Kardashian will date Kanye West just long enough for the NFL draft to finish. On a side note, why hasn’t she ever gone for...
Since the dawn of the game itself, Baseball and Art have been inextricably linked. Nowhere is this more so than in literature, which often propagates the national pastime as folklore and myth. One of these great neo-“myths” is The Natural, a 1952 baseball novel written by Bernard Malamud. The Natural is the story of Roy Hobbs, a baseball prodigy whose career is sidetracked by a lover’s gun. The story then picks up with an...
With attention focused on Jackie Robinson this week, it would be inappropriate if we didn’t take a moment to also remember Larry Doby (December 13, 1923 – June 18, 2003). A native of Camden, South Carolina, he was the second black player to play in the modern major leagues and the first to do so in the American League. Unlike Robinson, Doby also did it without spending one day in the minor leagues. A...
2012 05 14 Scranton Wilks Barre/ Empire State Yankees vs Pawtucket Red Sox
