The Blue Workhorse

Did you know when the Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first professional baseball team in 1869 the batters got to call whether they wanted the ball high or low? Did you know the first pitchers didn’t throw overhand? Did you know there wasn’t any bunting in the beginning of professional baseball?

In Darryl Brock’s If I Never Get Back, the reader and the main character, Samuel Clemens Fowler, are thrown back to the 19th century world of railroad travel and the first professional baseball players. Sam Fowler, a divorced newspaper reporter whose life is in ruins when the book begins, is somehow transferred back to 1869 and ends up traveling with Harry Wright and his Red Stockings, the first professional baseball team.

0.15 - In the past seven games, the Cleveland Indians’ starting pitchers have amassed a near unimaginable 0.15 ERA. That’s one single lone earned run in 58 1/3 innings. The earned run came way back on May 9 when staff ace C.C. Sabathia allowed a single earned run in the 5th inning against Toronto.
After Blue […]

While #2 overall fantasy player Hanley Ramirez’s statistics are impressive, no one is that surprised after he was a top 5 pick in nearly every fantasy draft, but when Nate McLouth puts up similar numbers and is ranked as the #7 fantasy player overall…eyebrows are raised.

The McLouths and Cliff Lees of baseball is exactly what this list celebrates - the players who produce tremendous statistics considering the value they cost their fantasy owners, whether that be a late round pick or a timely pick up off the waiver wire:

Have Yao Ming and Miley Cyrus ever met each other? I don’t know. Is that relevant for this article? Not really.

What matters is that Yao Ming is 27 years old. Roger Clemens was 28 years old.

Miley Cyrus is 15 years old, so was Mindy McCready. Cyrus sings country music, so did McCready.

Are you disgusted yet? If the thought of the 7-foot-6, square-headed Chinese basketball player cavorting with the diminutive smiling face of the youngest generation’s #1 star doesn’t disturb you just because of the logistics of their two diverse body types and appearances, the thought of their age gap should be enough to make you shudder.

Juan Pierre was in the box hitting — the same Juan Pierre who hasn’t hit a home run since September 2006. Needless to say, I wasn’t on the edge of the rail waiting for him to hit a bomb, but I was still paying attention nonetheless. Lo and behold, Pierre hits a line drive straight toward where I was positioned. At first I thought it was going to fly over my head, and I prepped myself to make a jumping attempt, but instead, it raised my glove just a bit above eye level, and the ball traveled directly into it.

I couldn’t believe it had come right to me. I pulled down my glove, took the ball out, and immediately handed it to the second young brother, who had seen his brother get a ball and had been standing out in the outfield with his father for nearly as long as I had (despite his parents asking him a couple of times if he’d rather go play in the kids zone or go shopping in one of the souvenir shops). I never thought I would give up the first batted ball I ever caught at a major league stadium, but without thinking, I had done exactly that.

April 15, 1947 - Sixty years after the first African-American player in the major leagues, Moses Fleetwood Walker was unofficially banned from baseball (no, Jackie Robinson was not the first to play baseball in the major leagues), Jackie Robinson takes to the field for his first official game in a #42 Brooklyn Dodgers uniform. He plays first base instead […]

The 2008 Major League Baseball season has started with a bang, and many players have came out of nowhere to post spectacular numbers over the first two weeks. However, all fantasy baseball players need to realize the season is a marathon, not a sprint, and it is far to early to give up on a player who starts slow, especially if they are an established major league player. However, here are some names that have caught the eye over the first two weeks:

Johnny Cueto (SP CIN) – Yes, Johnny Cueto sounds more like a character in a John Wayne movie, but the Reds’ young pitcher has dazzled big league hitters over his first two starts. The Dominican import began the season with a bang with a 7 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 10K performance over Arizona, but I was more anxious to see how Cueto would rebound against Milwaukee’s powerful lineup. All Cueto did was throw 6.1 innings, gave up 5 hits, had 0 walks and 8 strikeouts. His season line thus far: 13.1 IP, 6 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 18 K, and a WHIP of 0.45.

Something has been eating away at my soul for the past couple of months, causing me to lose sleep, have bouts with indigestion, and take a look at how I have lived my 22 years of life thus far, and how I want to finish my life on this earth.
No, it isn’t the death of […]