Amazon VOD “SPACEMAN: A BASEBALL ODYSSEY”
Image by Paul Keleher via Flickr I recently was asked to help promote a documentary that was just released on Amazon VOD. It’s called SPACEMAN: A BASEBALL ODYSSEY. Here’s the synopsis: “Throughout the 1970’s, Bill Lee was the ultimate gonzo baseball player, a brilliant left-handed pitcher who flouted every manager orfront office executive who tried […]
Ryan Hanigan: From Rollins College to the Cincinnati Reds
When the Rollins College baseball team hosted the Cincinnati Reds for a spring training exhibition in 2001, no one could have anticipated that one of the Tars would some day be living the big-league dream as a key member of the Reds. But fast-forward ahead eight years and sure enough in 2009 former Rollins standout […]
Nick Kappel’s Fantasy Focus: Three Pitchers To Buy Low On
Many starting pitchers who are usually reliable such as Brandon Webb, Jake Peavy, John Lackey and Roy Oswalt have been wildly unpredictable and/or injured through the first ten weeks of the season. If you are one of the unlucky ones who have been become frustrated with your staff’s inconsistency, you might want to look into […]
Stadium Review: Blair County Ballpark Home of the Altoona Curve
Blair County Ballpark gets its first praise from this reviewer from the title of the stadium because they have not yet followed suit with many other major and minor league teams and sold the naming rights to their stadium. This is not to say that it will never happen, but it is good to see […]
What’s Wrong With Josh Hamilton?
The Texas Rangers are 30-19 after 49 contests, leading the Angels in the AL West by 5.5 games after play on Saturday. The Rangers’ quick start can be attributed to their potent offense, which ranks fifth in the majors, scoring 5.44 runs per game. Ian Kinsler, Michael Young and Nelson Cruz have led the way […]
Tracking the Top Prospects: 11-20
No lengthy introduction needed here as we continue with the second half of the top 20 prospects in baseball thanks again to Keith Law of Scouts, Inc. We will start now with No. 11. 11. Tim Beckham, SS, Tampa Bay Rays organization Last year’s number one overall pick in the MLB first-year player draft went […]
Numbers Indicate Baseball Participation Grows in Europe as the Baseball World Cup Nears
Recent polls have illustrated that baseball is no longer just a hip sport in the Americas as the interest and participation continues to grow across Europe. This growth has been marked by the institution of new clinics, the foundation of new federation web sites and grassroots programs that are being instituted for all ages. Much […]
Hanley Ramirez: Is He the Best Shortstop in Baseball?
Playing for the Florida Marlins is about as close as Major League Baseball can come to having a site in the witness protection program, but even toiling away in anonymity, shortstop Hanley Ramirez is turning heads and creating a name for himself as one of the best young players in the game. A year after […]
The Royals Become Relevant
Unless you are a Kansas City Royals fan or a really, really huge baseball fan in general, chances are you have not given the Royals much thought since about 1994. Even during the 2003 campaign, when Kansas City won sixteen of their first nineteen games and hung in the race until late August, they were […]
Interleague Play Q&A
Back on December 8, 2008 I posted a 10 question interview session that I conducted with 6 other baseball bloggers about their thoughts concerning Interleague play. With the first Interleague series of the year going this weekend I thought it would be a good time to post this link to it for your amusement! Enjoy! […]
White Sox Reflections 1 ½ Months In
I’ll let Paul Konerko and Ozzie Guillen sum up the White Sox season (15-18) through the halfway point in May. “We stink.” – Guillen “We’re just not good right now, that’s it.” – Konerko That pretty much sums it up, but let’s take a look at why the Sox are struggling so much. Offense The […]
IBAF Names Donna Lopiano, Ph. D., As Chair of Women’s Baseball Committee
The IBAF has announced that Dr. Donna Poliano has officially been named the chair of the women’s baseball committee. Dr. Lopiano has held many previous roles in sports including being the Chief Executive Officer of the Women’s Sports Foundation. She has also been recognized on an international level for leading the movement for gender equality […]
Brewers Solid Through 32 Games
At 18-14, and having won 16 of their last 21 games, the Milwaukee Brewers are quickly making their fans forget about their 3-8 start and have them thinking more about a return trip to the post-season. While it shouldn’t be overlooked that this team is 11-12 against teams above .500 and is 5-0 against Pittsburgh, […]
Nick Kappel’s Fantasy Focus: Buy Or Sell? Part 2
In last week’s fantasy focus, I outlined several players whose hot starts you should buy and sell. This week, I’ll profile a few players whose slow starts you should buy, and others who you should sell. BUY Scott Kazmir Kazmir has struggled through his first six starts of the 2009 season, posting a 6.00 ERA […]
More on hCG and Manny Ramirez
For those of you that read about Manny obtaining hCg from a doctor for a “personal issue”, here’s a thorough article from ESPN on hCG that should be an eye opener. Here’s an update on Manny’s suspension from the ESPN article: ESPN.com reported later Thursday that baseball‘s drug testing revealed that Ramirez had an elevated […]
Diamondbacks Fire Manager Bob Melvin
Bob Melvin has been fired as manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks and replaced by A.J. Hinch, the club’s director of player development since 2006. Melvin was a good guy and a great interview. What he did with the 2007 Diamondbacks was incredible, leading that team to the best record in the National League despite fielding […]
America’s Pastime: The Last 4 Innings
Sixth Inning The culmination of a week long bike trip with my Boy Scout troop that encompassed 150 miles was a baseball game on the fourth of July at PNC Park, home of the Pittsburgh Pirates. My dad was not able to accompany us on the biking journey, although he would have loved to, because […]
America’s Pastime: The First 5 Innings
First Inning “You can’t go to a baseball game without peanuts,” my dad said as he took a huge scoop of the salted variety from a bin in the local grocery store. At five-years-old, I had never been to a baseball game before and the whole day had been about him telling me what has […]
O’s CF Jones Living Up to Potential
We all know that one month of success does not make a season, but early returns indicate that Baltimore Orioles centerfielder Adam Jones is indeed the real deal. When the Orioles traded ace starting pitcher Erik Bedard to the Seattle Mariners for a cast of players highlighted by Jones, there were many skeptics questioning whether […]
CD Review: Baseball Songs Sports Heroes 2
Assuming their audiences did not get enough in their first two albums, the song writing team of Joe Pickering Jr. and Phil Coley got together once again to put out yet another compilation of baseball related songs. In their 2006 album, Baseball Songs Sports Heroes 2, the duo teams with a few other musicians to […]
The Making of a Hitter
by Jeff Louderback, PR for Write Perceptions After 12 seasons of professional baseball, including seven in the major leagues, Jack Perconte gave 60,000 hitting lessons to young players at his academy in Illinois. His first book instructs coaches and parents how to teach the art of hitting and make baseball more enjoyable for children from […]
CD Review: Baseball Songs Sports Heroes
While there are movies and books available for dedicated sports fans, most aren’t familiar with Joe Pickering Jr. and Phil Coley’s collection of CDs on baseball songs. The first in this series is entitled Baseball Songs Sports Heroes: People Who Have Made a Difference. On this album there are everything from songs about individual players […]
Rangers Reflections: The First 3 Weeks
One month into the season and we know two things about the Rangers: their offense is picking up where it left off last season and their pitching has drastically improved from last season’s horrendous output. Though both facets of the team are virtually the same as last season’s mark, the team has managed to stay […]
Touch: A Woman’s Point of View
My Touch Obsession by guest writer Lori Thompson It started in June 2007. My once yearly trip to a Mariner’s game was going to happen in a couple of months and just didn’t want to wear the same gray/blue men’s baseball shirt that I’d worn the last four years. I was looking for something new. […]
DVD Review: Fever Pitch
Image via Wikipedia People may have differing opinions on whether Fever Pitch (Widescreen Edition) is a good movie, but they cannot argue the fact that the producers had to be the luckiest people of all time. What were the chances that they were going to decide to do a movie on a crazed Red Sox […]
A Compilation of Baseball Reflection’s Interviews
For those of you who were not reading Baseball Reflections in the early days, or are recent patrons of the site, I have gathered a listing of all of the interviews I have done for the site over the first 18 months of our existence. They are listed in the order in which they were […]
BillShrink.com Gives Economic Advice to Baseball Fans
Image via CrunchBase Many fans out there are probably wondering how they are possibly going to be able to make it out to the normal amount of games this year with the current economic situation. If this is the case, then these fans might want to visit BillShrink.com because they claim to have the answers […]
Friday Night Links
Here is another set of links to some of our friends in the Blogosphere. Please be sure to check them out & tell ’em Baseball Reflections sent ya! First on our list tonight would be Gear Up For Sports. They cover Baseball, Football and Basketball, but not all teams are currently being covered. So, if […]
Why I’m high on this Tigers team
Before the season, I wrote that these Tigers would be a bit of a mystery. We didn’t know what to expect. Unlike the “experts,” I didn’t expect the worst. But other than that, I had no idea what we’d see out of the 2009 Detroit Tigers. Well — and knowing full well the dangers in […]
IBAF Enters Plan for Women’s Baseball in Olympics
Despite the fact that baseball isn’t even currently an Olympic event for males, the International Baseball Federation announced on Monday that they were going to enter a plan that would add women’s baseball to the Olympic program in 2016. The federation has already submitted a program to the Olympic Committee asking them to review information […]
