Yogi Berra for A Glove of Their Own...from the original article

Every so often in the sports industry, do you encounter a genuine person who is trying to making a difference without a hidden agenda. Bob Salomon is one such individual. Over the past month, I have gotten to know Bob and truly what he is about. His book, “A Glove of Their Own” is truly a treasure as reflected in the below article by Diane M. Grassi that we recently featured in Premier Players Magazine. Enjoy!

A Glove of Their Own: A Grand Slam On and Off the Field by Diane M. Grassi

“The future ain’t what it used to be.” – Yogi Berra

The recession of 2008, long documented as the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, has impacted not only Wall Street and the American pocketbook, but the American psyche.

As such, there has been a symptomatic withdrawal not only by the American consumer, but by the American family and thus, by extension, the American neighborhood. And such has left many communities unengaged and in a state of bewilderment, with others steeped within the depths of despair.

It is in such times of crisis that the national fabric becomes torn and many feel displaced and disconnected. Yet, there remain some select individuals who take it upon themselves to offer hope, in helping to present a new paradigm for a collective morale boost, by uniting families with neighborhoods, and in helping to reconnect those neighborhoods with their respective communities; revisiting those values once identified as the essence of the American spirit.

And in that effort, a unique “movement” is evolving by way of a New Jersey father, most proud of his two children, and outwardly dedicated to reaching out to all children, in order that they too may continue to pass on the once held dear concept of “giving back”, as they become adults and raise children of their own. And Salomon and his wife do no less with their own two youngsters.

Bob Salomon is a name you will be hearing about. He is using the concept of children participating in sports as the vehicle to communicate his all encompassing goal of giving back. His first effort has evolved through the game of baseball. More specifically, the illustrated children’s book, A Glove of Their Own, published in November 2008, has caught fire and is the centerpiece of Salomon’s main vision.

The story is about a group of youngsters playing a pick-up game of baseball on a local neighborhood lot. Unfortunately, not all have bats and gloves to properly play the game. But a retired gentleman comes across them playing, only to return another day with a duffle bag filled with used gloves, bats and balls from games gone by, used by his own children. He then donates them all to the group of children. It but sets a good example for the children and serves to inspire them to keep on playing the game they love.

As a direct result of brainstorming with two friends, the eventual co-authors of A Glove of Their Own,

Debbie Moldovan, Keri Conkling and Lisa Funari-Willever, Salomon was presented a written story, and later beautifully illustrated by Lauren Lambiase .

But it was Salomon’s tenacity that convinced Funari-Willever, to see his project through, assuring her that she would not regret her involvement. Funari-Willever, herself, has dedicated much of her life to giving back and was the main force behind Salomon’s now realized proposition.

The end result of this collaborative effort was not just that of publishing a nice children’s story, but an extended benefit from it arose. It would serve as an example for children to be forthright, unselfish, giving and grateful. But equally important to Salomon, is that children are reminded to have fun while playing the game of baseball, and all sports, and to point out that just being a kid is okay, too.

Yet, it was only through A Glove of Their Own that Salomon realized his deep-felt obligation to become a facilitator of charitable efforts, not only by continuing to publish children’s sports stories, but by reaching out to a variety of organizations and media entities as well.

The intent is to pique the interest of professional athletes, professional sports franchises, sports-affiliated businesses, community invested corporations, and non-profit agencies, amongst others. And Salomon hopes to meld various partnerships to approach communities. These communities would then become their own facilitators with the intended goal of encouraging children’s participation in extra-curricular organized sports, funded by a combination of various entities and manifesting fundraisers nationwide.

However, the underlying theme, which Salomon insists must remain, is that professional athletes, both active and now retired, start making more of an investment in their local communities in which they play or in which they reside.

And it would behoove these professional athletes, and those now retired from professional play, to become involved on their own accord, rather than, for example, through a required clause in their playing contracts to perform volunteer work, which many Major League Baseball (MLB), National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Hockey League (NHL) professional teams now require as part of player negotiated deals.

Charity is but a gift and giving back should ultimately come from the heart. And Salomon truly believes that children will see through those athletes who are merely going through the motions, thereby not setting a good example for them. He wants to work with those who are dedicated in their intent to reach out to the children in the community, and simply because it is the right thing to do, rather than to garner accolades for themselves.

At such a time when discretionary income is dangerously low nationwide, it is imperative that municipalities, local communities, schools and neighborhoods alike, come together in innovative ways to mobilize future generations to continue to thrive; to return the favors bestowed upon them by enjoining the public with the private sector to a positive end.

Salomon has duly impressed many already in the private sector such as Rich Lampmann, Director of Promotions and Public Relations of Modell’s Sporting Goods. “The memories of the pick-up games in the yard or at the field, stick with us for a lifetime. Bob and his team have taken this a step further and are not only promoting the game…but also using the games as a means of spreading sportsmanship and teamwork for the greater good.”

And Rick Redman, Vice President of Corporate Communications for the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory notes, “It’s a wonderful story that everyone can learn from; kids and adults. Plus, it’s tied to many great causes and provides the chance to donate funds to your favorite baseball charity. How could we say no to Bob Salomon? He has a drive and passion that’s unmatched.”

There also are many retired athletes who have leant their support to A Glove of Their Own such as former MLB players Craig Biggio, Bernie Williams, Sean Casey, Jason Grilli, Tommy John, Roy White, Dick Drago, Phil Niekro, Bud Harrelson, current Los Angeles Dodgers manager, Joe Torre, former Yankee great Yogi Berra and the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center, and many others.

And Bob Salomon hopes to collaborate with active MLB players such as Joe Mauer, starting catcher for the Minnesota Twins, and Nick Swisher, the right fielder for the New York Yankees. Both players are dedicated philanthropists in their own right, making giving back through charity a priority in their lives off the field. And there are a bevy of many well intentioned athletes in the NFL, NBA and NHL who Salomon continually reaches out to in hopes of being afforded the opportunity to meet with them on future charitable endeavors.

Salomon is also involved in a collaborative effort with former MLB pitcher, Tommy John, as a producer of a film documentary. It will feature John’s life and center on the now worldwide famous Tommy John Surgery now considered the state-of-the-art corrective surgical procedure for injured elbows, based upon John’s own surgery decades ago. It not only saved John’s career but has extended the careers of countless other players, not only in MLB, but throughout professional and amateur sports.

Those wishing to learn more about A Glove of Their Own can visit its website, agloveoftheirown.com where one can learn more about all of its affiliated organizations, including corporations, broadcast media outlets, non-profit agencies and other athletes and celebrities touched by the spirit of giving.

And Salomon also wants to ensure that individuals can play a participatory role in whatever way they choose, in order to give back. It does not necessarily have to be on a grand scale or with relationship to an agency or corporate interest, either. Any small acts of kindness and involvement in neighborhoods and communities is the intent of Salomon’s purpose. Or folks may choose to go the route of purchasing copies of A Glove of Their Own and rallying others to participate in that way as well.

As such, books may be purchased through  AGloveOfTheirOwn.com. Glove donates $.10 from the sale of each book to the following organizations: Good Sports, Sports Gift, and Pitch In For Baseball. In addition, $3.00 per sold book will be given to any school or non-profit organization that joins Salomon’s effort.

His immediate next project is to publish a children’s book involving football as the theme, this time. But again, his effort is far more than a hyped up version of pay it forward, and rather a rallying cry to nurture our children. In doing so, we will all be better human beings for it will serve to enrich the quality of all of our lives, both locally and nationally, for decades to come. And that should be a priority for all of us.

“Success is not the place one arrives, but rather the spirit with which one undertakes and continues the journey.” – Alex Noble

Copyright ©2010 Diane M. Grassi All rights reserved.

Contact: dgrassi@cox.net

Please visit: www.AGloveOfTheirOwn.com

Related posts:

1. A Review of Swenson Baseball’s SN8 Infielder’s Glove
2. An Intro to a Baseball Book: “Beating About the Bushes”
3. A Glove of Their Own: A Book Review

Front Cover

Once I connected with the artist behind these books (on the Red Sox and other MLB teams), Peg Connery-Boyd, on LinkedIn I asked to do a review of them here on Baseball Reflections not only did she say YES, but when she found out I had a few kids (six to be exact) she sent us three!

Most of my kids (four girls and two boys) are baseball fans so this was a special treat! We use one as a master copy (for the coloring pages and to reduce the arguments over who gets to color which pages) and the other two were given to my eight and ten year olds (the artists in the family who also like the activities, too).

By the way Peg, before I forget, thank you; the kids love them!

The favorite pages of my kids are the coloring pages (which were a big hit, pun intended, sorry), the connect the dots and the word searches! Also included are a maze page, crossword puzzles, trivia pages (including a match the player to their country, a nicknames match and a match the retired numbers to the players they were retired for page), a name scramble and the Red Sox active roster as of April 5, 2009.

To see what else is available through Hawk’s Nest Publishing, LLC please follow the previous link to their site. They have books for 5 other MLB teams and even one for the US Open Tennis.

Update: Here are some of the comments from my kids about what they liked about this Red Sox coloring and activity book…

4 year old son – liked coloring his favorite player Bustin’ (he can’t say Dustin for some reason) Pedroia

6 year old daughter – her favorite was also coloring player pages & her favorite was Dustin Pedroia (do you see a trend here?)

8 year old son – liked the word searches saying, “They were NOT too easy, but hard. Not a bad hard, but challenging”. His favorite coloring page was Wally The Green Monster because he was “cool”. Overall he liked the book because he said it “keeps me busy when I’m bored”!

10 year old daughter (the artist in the family) – her favorite part of the book was the challenging pictures to color. She thought they were challenging because of the detail put into each picture! Her favorite coloring page was Big Papi, David Ortiz. She thought it was “cool how they captured how he points up” to God after hitting a home run. She also thought the crosswords were “tricky, but fun”!

Editor’s note: The edition sent to Baseball Reflections was the Red Sox 3^rd. Edition, Collectible. These publications are approved by the MLBPA and the Players Choice.

Related posts:

1. Book Review: Burying the Curse, By Terry Pluto
2. A Glove of Their Own: A Book Review
3. Miracle Man by Nolan Ryan: A Book Review

Taken from the Maple Street Press Website

Not only do they have articles and interviews, but it also has a colored schedule, last year’s stats for the starting 9 including spray zones, hit zones and scouting reports on how well they did against certain pitches last year (the reserves do not have these more detailed stats). Other articles include a look at both the future of the Red Sox (prospects) and Red Sox history, too.

Contribuing to this annual are Michael Silverman of the Boston Herald, Ian Browne who is currently a beat writer for MLB.com, Alex Spier of NESN and David Laurila of Baseball Prospectus to name a few.

One of my favorite articles is also one of the shortest and it isn’t even listed in the table of contents (was that a mistake?) was an article title, “A Run Saved: A Marriners Perspective on Beltre and Cameron” by Dave Cameron of U.S.S. Mariner (co-founder) and he’s also the managing editor of FanGraphs.

Another is on the following pages by Chuck Korb about the new direction the Sox moved towards this season (2010)…defensive-minded. This articles describes last year’s weaknesses by position and how Theo and staff have addressed those flaws from a year ago.

This year’s annual closes with the Red Sox All-Aughts Team opposite the back cover! I hope you buy it and enjoy it (or any of their others) as much as I have.

FYI – I do not earn any commission from the sale of any Maple Press Annuals. Hat tip to the member of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance (BBA) who informed me of this annual and made sure I got my copy (Cecilia Tan).

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3. Red Sox Sign Their New Left Fielder

Tim Sommer highlights an almost-forgotten era in American baseball.  He gives the reader a candid look at a time when professional baseball players were motivated by the love of the sport and of the simplicity of professional baseball in the 60s and 70s.  He tells how his family circumstances, personal  persistence, and his boyhood dreams impacted his entry into an eight-year career in professional baseball.

“Beating About the Bushes” gives in insider’s perspective and a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the lives of professional athletes, their loyalty to one another even amid the competitive nature of achieving the major leagues.  Sommer also points out the human faults of the sports heroes created by the media.

Sommer’s writing is humorous, entertaining, informative, and sometimes controversial.  Although he pulls no punches, his allegiance to Orioles, the players, trainers, coaches, managers and fan are all a part of who Tim is.  He relates stories of dozens of professionals who are now professional baseball legends as well as those who have become members of the Hall of Fame.

Tim Sommer talks about his own unique experiences during his eight years in professional baseball.  He gives play-by-play accounts of games that were important to him in his drive to attain personal success.  He shows another side of his personality as he describes a road experience, “Always it was a wonderful opportunity to experience the size and diversity of America while traveling…opportunities to absorb the many flavors of life along the way.”

Sommer provides the reader with a broad overview of professional baseball.  He gives insight into racial tension, contract negotiation, free agency, pensions and the player strike of 1969.

The format of the book is ideal for today’s busy sports fan.  The forty-five short chapters are fast reading, entertaining and contagious.  Each chapter highlights an incident, a celebrity story, or a funny expose of one of Tim’s peers.  Chapter titles are made up of catchy titles which draw the reader in compelling them on to the finale chapter “One Last Hurrah.”

Tim Sommer is articulate, witty, and is a veritable encyclopedia of baseball trivia, history, statistics, and first person vignettes.

Baseball enthusiasts, from little league coaches to professional fans, trainers and managers are destined to bond to the persona who is Tim Sommer.  “Beating About the Bushes” is a book for all sport fans.

Beating About the Bushes:  Minor League Baseball in the ’60’s
By Tim Sommer
Infinity Publishing (2008)
ISBN 9780741449818
Reviewed by Richard R. Blake for Reader Views (11/09)

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1. Announcing a New Baseball Book: Fifty-nine in ‘84
2. A Collection of Baseball Reflections Book Reviews
3. A Glove of Their Own: A Book Review

In 1884, Hall of Fame pitcher Charles "Old Hoss" Radbourn won an astonishing 59 games, started 73 games and completed them all, and pitched more than 678 innings. Then he went out and won all three games of baseball's first World Series. This is the book about how he did it, day by day, the agony he
endured, the courage he showed, and about how wild and intense major-league baseball was in his day.

For more details, please see www.oldhoss.com

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1. An Intro to a Baseball Book: “Beating About the Bushes”
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This is a topic that fascinates me and one I was sure to discuss with Bill Lajoie before writing our book.  For those who don’t know Mr. Lajoie, he is considered by many to be the greatest baseball mind of our era.  Among other things, he was the architect of the 1984 World Champion Detroit Tigers as well as an important right-hand man for the powerhouse Atlanta Braves of the 1990s and the curse-breaking Boston Red Sox of the 2000s.

To follow up Pete Schiller’s article “Will Nolan Ryan Change How Pitchers are Treated”, I’ve excerpted the relevant Appendix F, pages 257-261 from our book.

Why Are There So Many Pitching Injuries?

One would think that with today’s medical knowledge and technology, pitchers would be stronger and more durable than ever.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

While the reduction in complete games and innings pitched was slow and steady from the turn of the century into the 1970s, the decline has been dramatic since the 1980s.

For most of the preceding 80 years, major league teams worked with four-man rotations.  As recently as the 1970s, the ace typically threw over 270 innings a year while the other three starters were over 200.   Today, major league teams invariably use five-man rotations where the ace might go 200 innings and the others 150-170.

So in essence, today’s starting pitchers throw less often and fewer innings but still get hurt more than they used to.  There was no surgery for damaged rotator cuffs, torn labrums, or ulnar collateral ligaments for the first 70 years of the 20^th century, but pitchers still went back to the hill and piled up innings.

It’s a major league issue that also extends into player development.

Injury is the #1 obstacle to developing pitchers.  It is as simple as that.  There have been a number of franchises who’ve focused extensively on drafting amateur pitchers to no avail because their pitchers couldn’t stay healthy long enough to get to the big leagues and make an impact.

One can look into recent drafts and see a recurring pattern of failure with several clubs.  A relevant example is the Kansas City Royals.

The Royals emphasized pitching in every draft between 1997 and 2001.  Thanks to free agent compensation that awarded the Royals extra draft picks, they had 10 first-round choices during those five years.  Remarkably (for the purposes of this appendix), they selected pitchers with every single one of those first-round picks.

The Royals thought they’d corner the market on good young pitching and build an arm factory like the Atlanta Braves had in the 1980s and 1990s.  It made sense, but somehow it failed.

The Royals have had only one winning season since 1993 (through 2009) and their recent failures are due in no small part to a lack of pitching.

In order, the Royals used their 1997-2001 first-round picks on pitchers Dan Reichert, Chris George, Matt Burch, Jeff Austin, Jimmy Gobble, Jay Gehrke, Mike MacDougal, Kyle Snyder, Mike Stodolka, and Colt Griffin.  Of the ten, four would fail to pitch even a day in the big leagues.  Two more would amount to cup of coffee guys (George and Austin).  Of the remaining four, MacDougal would have impact as a closer for two years while the other three were mostly spot starters and back-end middle relievers.  None of the ten were impact pitchers aside from MacDougal, who shined briefly and made it to one All-Star Game.

Was it simply bad drafting?  Maybe in retrospect, but these were pitchers who were coveted by the other teams as well.  Someone else would have drafted these pitchers soon after had the Royals passed.  The real culprit is injury.  Almost all of these pitchers had major arm problems in the minors that curtailed their development.

When you have that many pitchers go down, you have to start looking at player development and how they handled their young arms.

The Royals are just one example, they are not alone.  During that era, the Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, Florida Marlins, Baltimore Orioles, Texas Rangers, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Detroit Tigers were plagued with so many pitching injuries that they might as well have drafted all hitters instead.

With the technology and knowledge we have today, why were Bill Lajoie’s Tigers in the 1970s so much more successful in keeping their pitching prospects healthy?

The Detroit Tigers of the 1970s had the best farm system in baseball, thanks in part to Lajoie’s exceptional drafting.  But you can draft all the great pitchers you want and if your minor league coaches misuse them, they’ll never stay healthy long enough to get to the big leagues.

Miraculously, Tiger pitchers didn’t get hurt coming up in the 1970s.  Dave Rozema, Jack Morris, Dan Petry, Dave Tobik, Jerry Ujdur, and on and on were able to get to the big leagues without injuring their arm en route.  Not every prospect turned into a successful major leaguer, but it wasn’t because their arms blew out.

There was really only one Tiger pitching prospect who went down with an arm injury before he could prove himself in the majors. Flamethrowing Dave Steffen pulled up lame in spring training of 1980 and he was never the same again.  But even that arm injury wasn’t the fault of the minor league coaches.  It was while he was in big league camp that Steffen was over-used and mishandled.

Lajoie and Hoot Evers (the preceding farm director) were blessed with outstanding pitching coaches in their system. Evers had hired Johnny Grodzicki and Billy Muffett and the two of them ran the pitching program in the minors.  When Lajoie assumed farm director duties from Evers in 1979, Grodzicki was promoted to the big league staff but Lajoie was smart enough to keep Muffett around.

Back in those days, they didn’t have pitching coaches for every minor league team.  So Grodzicki and Muffett had to rove to all of the affiliates.

First and foremost, they were teachers.  They were knowledgeable coaches who knew how to get their points across to young pitchers.

It sounds simple enough, but in today’s game you see minor league coaches hired for much different reasons.  Often you’ll see relatives or friends of management get the jobs, or ex-major leaguers who have big names but little interest or talent in coaching.  Hoot Evers and Bill Lajoie despised that sort of nepotism, their prospects were too precious to be turned over to the wrong hands.  They would occasionally have to work with coaches the GM forced them to hire, but for the important things they were going to rely on the Grodzickis and the Muffetts.

Bill Lajoie was an outfielder when he played, but he soaked up everything he could on pitching from the real experts.  Evers and Lajoie were two of the first farm directors to use pitch counts on their minor leaguers.  Today it’s used and perhaps over-used by all thirty teams, but for most of baseball history nobody kept track of pitch counts.

At AA and below, the highest pitch count allowed in Lajoie’s and Evers’ system was 109.  It was individual and there were pitchers who were put lower.  Lajoie picked 109 instead of 110 for psychological reasons.

But it wasn’t simply go out, throw 109 pitches, then hit the showers.  That’s the way teams do it now.  Lajoie had a number of parameters involved.  He would let them go farther if they threw strikes.  And he would allow them to work their way out of trouble twice.  If they got into trouble a third time, they were yanked regardless of pitch count.  Before that, they had no reason to look into the dugout for help.

Lajoie still wanted his starting pitchers to get into the late innings.  He wanted them to smell the win and find a way to get it.  That’s where his philosophy differs greatly from the piggyback rotation that came to be some 25 years later.

The piggyback rotation usually involves getting eight different pitchers to start.  But instead of waiting eight days, they would use two of the pitchers each game who would take turns after a certain pitch count (usually 60-70).  It would end up a four-game rotation.  The idea was that it would save injuries and give more pitchers a chance to start.

The piggyback rotation was introduced by the Cincinnati Reds and Texas Rangers earlier in the decade (2000s) but both have since disbanded it.  The St. Louis Cardinals instituted the plan in 2007.

Though it restricts pitch counts, Lajoie is completely against it because it doesn’t develop pitchers mentally to work their way out of trouble, to be efficient, and to nail down a win.  The piggyback rotation is developing a throwing machine, not a pitcher.

The piggyback hasn’t protected from injuries, either.

In 2008, the Cardinals were forced to terminate their piggyback rotation in mid-season for their Florida State League affiliate because, ironically, several of their eight starters had gone down with arm injuries.  They didn’t have enough men for an eight-man rotation, so they went back to the standard five.  Incredibly, the next year, the Cardinals went right back to the piggyback with eight pitchers taking turns.  And once again, it was curtailed because too many pitchers got hurt by a system that was designed to prevent injuries.

Both the Reds and Rangers realized a similar fate earlier in the decade and decided to cut the experiment short.

Lajoie learned from his coaches that not every pitcher should have the same pitch count; so he let the coaches decide in many instances.  Some pitchers simply have more durability than others and can handle the higher load.  Someone who knows pitching, like Grodzicki and Muffett, can understand that concept in a way an accountant can’t.  It’s dangerous to give the exact same pitch count or inning-count to every single prospect.

Lajoie’s goal, in his words, is to keep the “elasticity” of a pitcher’s arm going as long as possible.  By that he means that pitching isn’t about brute strength, it’s about having a loose, quick arm, and if it’s overused, the arm loses its quickness and looseness (elasticity).  Others have used the term “dead arm” to label a pitcher who has lost elasticity.  Not only does velocity go down at that point, but they usually struggle to spin their breaking balls as well as they used to.

A young pitcher is more fragile and Lajoie believes that you can ruin a kid’s career by over-using him before age 25.  His arm is still developing and such over-use kills it before he can turn into a big leaguer.  Lajoie believes that may be what happened to Steve Avery, the Braves’ prize lefty who pitched so well in the early 1990s only to lose his stuff as he got into his late 20s.

A really good pitching coach can watch a pitcher and tell when his arm is going dead, without having any idea about what the pitch count is.  Former Atlanta Braves pitching coach Leo Mazzone was insistent that the number means nothing.

The Tigers of that time would rarely make mechanical changes to a pitcher’s arm-action or delivery.  If the pitcher was doing something suicidal, they might tweak it.  But Grodzicki and Muffett recognized that a pitcher could easily get hurt if you asked him to throw a ball 90 MPH with a motion he’s unfamiliar with.  Jack Morris’s arm-action and leg swing may have looked painful to some and there are plenty of coaches who would have altered Dan Petry’s prominent head tilt, but that’s what they were comfortable with; Morris and Petry combined to throw nearly 6,000 major league innings.  In today’s game it seems minor league pitching coaches are in a rush to put their stamp on their young hurlers.  There are organizations that change the mechanics of virtually every pitcher who comes through and the results have invariably disappointed.

Perhaps the most important thing a pitcher can do to stay healthy and durable is to throw between starts.

Nowadays, most starting pitchers rest between starts.  They put on an ice pack the first day, then on day three or four they throw a soft bullpen.  The whole idea is that ice and rest will save their arm and make them stronger five days later.

Lajoie believes just the opposite, that arms get stronger simply by throwing more.   And ice wasn’t used in the 1970s in the day of 300-inning aces and four-day rotations.  (It is contra-indicated by the medical community, but just about every team ices their pitchers’ arms today.)

Lajoie recommends throwing more, but not pitching more.  He doesn’t imply that pitchers will automatically have more durable arms if they just go out and pitch 300 innings again.  He’s referring to what they do on the days between starts.   Lajoie would like them to play catch on the days off, throwing batting practice, and play long toss.  That’s the way arm-strength is maintained, not by icing and resting.

Leo Mazzone, his pitching coach with the Braves, had a routine for his starters to follow between starts.  The Braves rotations in the 1990s were some of the best in history and it’s easy to win with Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz at the top, but Mazzone deserves credit for keeping them healthy for so long, which as we’ve seen is no small feat in itself.

More recently, Texas Rangers president Nolan Ryan has taken an active role in his organization’s pitching program.  The Hall of Famer, who pitched until age 46 throwing 5,386 big league innings over the course of 27 years, is alarmed at the high injury rate of pitchers in this day and age.  Ryan not only pitched till he was 46, but he was still one of the game’s hardest throwers when he retired.  Ryan was unquestionably blessed with great genetics, but it was his work ethic and preparation that allowed him to throw 95 MPH fastballs into his mid-40s.

One regimen he’s installed is having his starting pitchers throw live batting practice between starts with long-tossing mixed in.  He’s also redefined the Quality Start statistic with his pitchers.  Instead of six innings with three or less runs, Ryan requires seven innings with three or less runs.

Will the Rangers starting pitchers be able to throw more innings and have more gas in the tank for the end of the season?  Will their young pitching prospects stay healthy?  Other teams will follow the Rangers closely and if Ryan is successful, look out for another revolution in pitching!

CHARACTER IS NOT A STATISTIC: The Legacy and Wisdom of Baseball’s Godfather Scout Bill Lajoie is also available for purchase at BarnesandNoble.com, and from the Xlibris Corporation at https://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/bookdisplay.aspx?bookid=70062.

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Backyard Ball

By Thomas P. Hannon, Jr.

This is a fun filled book about the world of Plastic Baseball or Wiffle Ball. It includes all the information you need to start playing as a family game or serious league play. Use this book to help rediscover your Backyard and read about people who actually built replica fields in theirs. Read the story about Little Ebbets Field and how it was built. The book has pictures, how to guides and so much more!

Backyard Ball also has a Free Product Catalog, the Catalog covers all the products you can use, consider it the Consumer Reports for the Equipment, there are no sponsors.

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3. A Glove of Their Own: A Book Review

To many,

Pluto has also written more books about Cleveland sports than anyone, ever. One of them, Burying the Curse: How the Indians became the best team in baseball, is the subject of today’s review.

Published in 1995, at the height of the Indians dominance in the American League’s Central Division, Pluto chronicles how a historically putrid franchise rose to the top of MLB. The Indians had been cursed for years, Pluto reports, with bad drafting and ownership that wasn’t willing to put up the money for talent that could actually win on the field.

In the book, Pluto picks apart the important parts of a season that Tribe fans will remember for the rest of their lives. Games are highlighted in which former Indian teams would have certainly thrown in the towel, but that this version kept fighting for a victory, even if it took extra innings to do so.

One of those games was the game in which the Indians clinched their first division title in more than 40 years. They were leading the division by almost 25 games and had a ton of baseball left to play, even in the strike shortened season, but it was a joyous day for those on the shores of Lake Erie. For the first time in nearly half a century, their team was being heralded as the team to beat.

As most know, that season did not end the way most dream stories do, as the Indians lost to the Atlanta Braves in the World Series. This book does a good job of depicting the actions and feelings of the Indians faithful during and after that season. Even though many wanted the World Series win, the Indians were still thrown a large parade when they returned home, and to outsiders, it would have seemed like they won it all.

Perhaps fans and writers alike were so confident because they knew the nucleus of the team was there to stay for a few more years, so bringing the real championship home seemed like little more than a formality.

Overall, Pluto does a great job painting the picture, an accurate picture of that memorable season in 1995, and he does it from somewhere between a fan and a journalist’s perspective. Cleveland had never seen anything like it and neither had Pluto, which shows in the writing of the book. This book illustrates that no one in Northeast Ohio, no matter their stature in the sporting world could have expected, or dreamed, what transpired on the diamond that year.

Book Grade: 3.75/5

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On a field in Hoboken in 1845, Alexander J. Cartwright helped give birth to baseball or “base-ball” as it was originally known. Three strikes, the position of shortstop, the concept of an inning, and even bases themselves were all Cartwright’s innovations.

In Live All You Can: Alexander Joy Cartwright and the Invention of Modern Baseball, Jay Martin lays waste to the notion that Abner Doubleday established the modern game of baseball. Martin makes a bold case for A. J. Cartwright (1820-1892), an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and avid ballplayer whose keen perception and restless spirit codified the rules of the sport and engineered its rapid spread throughout the country.

In addition to popularizing baseball and making it “America’s game,” Cartwright was also instrumental in developing an American presence in Hawaii, becoming a sugar plantation owner and eventually an adviser to the Queen of Hawaii. His life was a reflection of nineteenth-century American ingenuity and expansion and Martin’s biography offers a fascinating window into the invention of baseball as well as Cartwright himself and the times in which he lived.

For a glimpse into this controversial book, Columbia University Press has also posted an excerpt of the book that documents that first official game that took place at Elysian Fields in 1845.

Be on the lookout in the future for a possible book review or interview with the author, Jay Martin.

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