Red Sox Flashback: The First World Championship
With the Sox on the cusp of winning another World Series, with fans all over New England savoring the time, a look back to 1912 provides a marvelous historical treat. Business in Boston virtually shut down on September 23,1912 as 100‚000 cheered the Red Sox returning from a western trip by train into South Station. […]
Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball
On July 16, 1889, Joseph Jefferson Wofford Jackson was born into a poor family in Greenville, South Carolina. He never learned to read or write. By the time he was six years old, he worked as a cleanup boy in the cotton mills. By age 13, he labored amidst the din and dust a dozen […]
How Far the Game Has Come
With apologies to the great poet Robert Frost, the game was ours before we were the game’s. And the game goes on decade after decade and now into the 2018 baseball post-season it still continues as part of the fabric of American culture. Much, however, has changed in the national pastime as a look back […]
2018 League Division Series
As we inch towards the 2018 Fall Classic, we have already experienced historic events! Before we could even get to the Wild Card games, the National League gave us something to talk about … not one, but two teams tied for first place in the Central and West divisions causing a game 163 for all […]
YAZ, SOX, OCTOBER
Another October, another post-season, another rush by teams to win the World Series. So many have October baseball memories. LENNY MEGLIOLA: For Tom Yawkey, Yastrzemski was almost like an adopted son. And Yaz took advantage of that. He was, after all, the best player on the team. He had a director’s chair in the Red […]
The Not So Amazin’ Mets
The first run they ever scored came on a balk. They lost the first nine games they ever played. Rumor has it they picked the name of the best pitcher (Tom Seaver) in their history out of a hat on April Fools’ Day. They were supposed to be the replacement for the Brooklyn Dodgers and […]
Who will win the World Series?
With the baseball season in full swing, attention soon falls on the World Series but who will be there and ultimately who will come out on top? It has been another year full of drama, twists and turns with teams competing for supremacy but can anybody stop the Boston Red Sox on their way to […]
Remembering Ted Williams: Selected Oral History
This is the centennial week of the birth of Ted Williams, August 30, 1918. The Splendid Splinter did it his way. From the Frommer archives please enjoy memories of those who had the pleasure of experiencing him. JON MILLER: “Geez,” they said, “We have this great left-handed hitter and he keeps losing home runs out […]
Fenway Flashback
The glory days are back at the Fens as the 2018 season heads down the home stretch. There is a lot of excitement about the real possibility of another world championship for the Sox. Royal and loyal rooters, though, still have in their memory bank images of a sad long ago time when life at […]
More Things You Probably Didn’t Know About the Yankees (Part II)
Much terrific reaction to the first piece on this topic has now resulted in more. There is a world of fascinating sidebars, trivia items, facts and factoids about the Bronx Bombers. Enjoy another sampling. Yogi Berra, Mosts, a Partial List Most postseason games – Yogi Berra holds the record for appearing in the most […]
Rivalry: Red Sox vs Yankees
Throughout the 2018 season the Yankees and the Red Sox have kept their eyes on the ball and the standings as baseball’s greatest rivalry plays out again. Coming up another series between the two rivals, another head to head confrontation in the “blood feud.” Wa back then, as the story goes, there was a get-together […]
REMEMBERING JERRY COLEMAN
“The Yankees were not our team, they were our religion.” –Jerry Coleman My connection to Jerry Coleman goes all the way back to 1975 when I was researching and interviewing for my first book – – A Baseball Century: the First Hundred Years of the National League. I met him in San Diego where […]
Things You Probably Never Knew About the Yankees
The franchise is right up there as one of the most famous in sports. Probably more books and articles have been written about it than any other baseball team. Yet, there is always something new to learn about the Bronx Bombers so read on. Yankees A reference with the name “Yankees” first appeared in print […]
13 Things You Probably Did Not Know About Jackie Robinson
With hype and hullabaloo in the air over the 2018 All Star Game and all of its sidebars, my thoughts somehow turn to Jackie Robinson, a six-time all star and my all-star of all stars. Much is known about him, but there are quite a few things that are not. For your Number 42 consciousness […]
What’s Important When Choosing Softball Bats?
With the improved technology all over the world, many changes have been experienced on the design of softball bats. With the increased variety of the materials used in the making of the bats, it has become extremely hard for the buyers to decide on which the best bat is for one’s self. Before the purchasing […]
YANKEES by the Numbers, (Part II)
The 2018 Yankees are putting up all kinds of fabulous numbers in their bid to get into the World Series, For those of you who enjoyed Part I – here are more fabulous Yankee numbers. Enjoy 51 Number worn by Bernie Williams for sixteen Yankee seasons. He is one of 13 players to wear […]
FENWAY PARK FLASHBACK
The joy and passion and full houses and winning ways now on parade at Fenway Park all are a sharp contrast to the way things once were at the little ballpark in most of the 1960s. There are still those around who recall that time, some with mixed emotions. Sam Mele: I came into Fenway […]
STILL More Yankee Quiz
You asked and now you receive – questions simple, weird, relevant, irrelevant, but all New York Yankees related. Take the quiz and see how much you know. From the “Stadium Club” to Babe Ruth’s Uniform Number to who owned the team before George Steinbrenner came along . . . What is the significance of […]
More Yankee Quiz
You asked and now you receive – questions simple, weird, relevant, irrelevant, but all New York Yankees related. Take the quiz and see how much you know. 51. Who wore uniform Number 2 before Derek Jeter? 52. Who originally designed the intertwined Yankees logo, “NY”? A. Jake Ruppert B. NYC Police Department C. Tiffany […]
Remembering Ted Williams
He was called “the Splendid Splinter,” “the Kid,” “Teddy Ballgame” and other unmentionable names. But Ted Williams was always something else. There was the love-hate affair fans at Fenway Park had with Ted Williams. He dropped a fly ball in the first game of a doubleheader. Raucous razzing followed. In the second game, a ball […]
Yankees Finally Hitting Their Stride
“Aaron Judge” by Keith Allison (CC BY-SA 2.0) It was a slow start to the season for the New York Yankees, as the team struggled to find its footing offensively. But the team has found a way to get itself out of that hole, and is finally beginning to be the team that everyone thought they […]
From “the Captain” to “Friday Night Massacre”
The Bronx Bombers alias the New York Yankees, the most successful franchise in baseball history has a corner on lots of things including nick-names. For your reading pleasure, a sampling of nom de plumes, aliases, sobriquets, catch words and of course nick-names, “The Captain” – Derek Jeter – was such an icon that the Yankees […]
Not Just Another Game
Rivalries fuel sports. They pump up the players and fans alike while attracting nationwide media attention. They are the games you circle on your calendar and wait for all year. You need a few things to fall into place to develop a good ole rivalry, however. First and foremost, the teams must be good. Nobody […]
2017 HyperWhip by Axe Bats, a Review
I was first introduced to Axe bats, if my memory is correct, at the 2014 100 Inning Baseball charity game for ALS (aka Lou Gehrig’s disease) at Adams Field in Quincy, MA. Axe Bats were gracious enough to donate some Hard Maple Composite bats for the game that year. I had never swung an axe […]
FLASHBACK: First Opening Day at Fenway Park
By Harvey Frommer It was damp and chilly throughout New England for most of the spring of 1912, and in Boston, it took a few tries before baseball at a brand new ballpark could be played in decent weather. On April 9th, the Red Sox and Harvard’s baseball team met in an exhibition game in […]
Remembering Tom Yawkey
With the news out everywhere that the Boston Red Sox have filed a petition with the city of Boston to rename Yawkey Way, a road outside Fenway Park named after Tom Yawkey, who reportedly resisted integration efforts in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The goal is to restore the original name of the street, Jersey […]
“YOU COULD LOOK IT UP” –CASEY STENGEL
“Make ’em pay. Make ’em pay you a thousand dollars. Don’t go help those people with their shows for coffee-and-cake money. You’re the Yankees—the best. Make ’em pay you high.”—Casey Stengel By Harvey Frommer I first met Casey Stengel in the dugout at Shea Stadium when he was the manager […]
Not How You Start – Yankee Beginnings
With the start of the 2018 baseball season highly anticipated by fans of the sport, here for your reading pleasure is a flashback to the meager roots of perhaps the most illustrious franchise in baseball history. Enjoy Known as the Baltimore Orioles during the 1901 and 1902 seasons, the franchise went out of business […]
Remembering Harry O’Neill: Philadelphia A’s Catcher and American Hero
Over one thousand Major League Baseball players served in the US military during World War II. Yet despite this large number – and in spite of both the ferocity and length of the war – only two of those ballplayers were killed in action during World War II. Their names were Elmer Gedeon and Harry […]
Sports Book Reviews
This is the time of year that all kinds of sports books with all kinds of slants appear. For some they are “hot stove reading.” For others, they are part of the annual cycle – spring books. For your information and reading pleasure, herewith some to sample. The New York Yankees Home Run Almanac […]
