Indians Acquire Salas in Trade with Rays, Designate Marte for Assignment
On Thursday, the Indians made a few roster moves, one in particular which raised some eyebrows in Northeast Ohio. To start things off, the Tribe traded with the Tampa Bay Rays and acquired reliever Juan Salas for minor league infielder Isaias Velasquez. Salas has seen action with the Rays during the past three seasons, but […]
Stadium Review: Firestone Stadium Home of the NPF’s Akron Racers
Image via Wikipedia Firestone Stadium is currently the home of the Akron Racers women’s softball team of the professional league called National Pro Fastpitch. While it may be serving the teams that play with the larger balls and shorter base paths today, there was a time when the stadium played home to some of the […]
Stadium Review: Jerry Uht Park of the Erie Seawolves
It would be easy to drive through downtown Erie, Pa. and not notice their baseball stadium known as Jerry Uht Park home of the Erie Seawolves of the Eastern League. The AA affiliate of the Detroit Tigers have played in the “Uht” since 1995 and according to the team’s website, more than one million fans […]
Tribe Signs Graffanino to Minor League Deal
With a busy, yet slow off season still yet to end, even though pitchers and catchers have already reported to spring training, the Indians decided that they didn’t have enough veteran talent with minor league contracts and major league invites to spring training, so they signed Tony Graffanino to one. Graffanino was originally drafted in […]
Stadium Review: Eastwood Field of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers
Built in 1999, Eastwood Field is the home of the Cleveland Indians’ rookie level club, the Mahoning Valley Scrappers. The ballpark itself looks great from the outside with brick pillars that come down to give it sort of an old school feel. The entire stadium is well done with brick, mainly light red and grey, […]
The Indians Add Another Cy Young Award Winner
The Cleveland Indians have added another Cy Young Award winner to their staff. Well, sort of. Frank Viola, who won the award with the Minnesota Twins in 1988, has signed on to work with the Indians’ pitchers during spring training in Goodyear Arizona. The former big leaguer will work along side pitching coach Carl Willis. […]
Stadium Review: Melaleuca Field of the Idaho Falls Chukars
Most people probably have never heard of the Idaho Falls Chukars, the class A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals, but they are thriving in the small western town. Due to their location, the team has experienced a turnover in organization affiliation and names during their existence, but that does not take away from their […]
Stadium Review: Municipal Stadium of the Hagerstown Suns
Municipal Stadium is on record as being the third oldest baseball stadium in the world, and one can certainly tell that when they visit the park. The ballpark is in no way showing age by falling apart or being unsafe, it just looks exactly like the old parks seen in documentaries about the history of […]
Stadium Review: Fifth Third Field Home of the Toledo Mudhens
Fifth Third Field is located in the center of downtown Toledo and provides a picturesque addition to the city. Although it is obviously a modern day ballpark, it is built with brick and illustrates the deep history that Toledo baseball possesses. The Mudhens were recently voted as having the best nickname in all of sports […]
How MLB Expansion Has Affected Hall of Fame Voting
Image by Getty Images via Daylife By way of comparison, lets look at the careers of newly elected Hall of Famer Jim Rice and current Free Agent who is being touted as a first ballot Hall of Famer himself, Manny Ramirez. As luck would have it, they have both played 16 seasons, making the timing […]
Bad News Bears: A DVD of the 2005 Film
Obviously, this film was not an original idea as it had originally come out (in various forms) decades earlier. Even though this is the case, Billy Bob Thornton and his crew allowed a new generation of people to learn the story of the Bears with a modern touch to the story. The new film follows […]
License to Deal: A Book Review
When Moneyball by Michael Lewis came out about five years ago, many thought they would never see a book about baseball that provided the same unique perspective on the game. Jerry Crasnick has done with agents in License to Deal what Michael Lewis did for general managers in Moneyball. By giving a day to day […]
Reflections on the Blue Jays’ Off Season
Hi everyone, and greetings from the great white north (metaphorically speaking, in my case– I actually live in Washington DC). I’m Hugo, and Rincewind and I (more on that later) run Bluebird Banter, a blog dedicated to discussions and ruminations on our favourite azure-tinged corvids. It’s a great site full of great folks and we’d […]
New Writers Have Been Gathered
Over the past few days, we have reached agreements with 3 new writers for 2 more MLB teams; the Toronto Blue Jays and The Chicago White Sox. First up are Daniel “Hugo” Fruchter and Tom Dakers, aka “Rincewind” from BlueBird Banter. To become more familiar with their work, please check out an article from each […]
The Natural: A DVD Review
What more can be said about the movie that many consider to be possibly the best sports feature film of all time? While it has its competitors, The Natural (Director’s Cut) should no doubt be at the top of the list. Modeled after the classic novel by Bernard Malamund (The Natural’s book review was featured […]
Does the Pitcher’s Mound Cause Injuries?
Back in 1969 the height of the pitcher‘s mound was lowered from 15″ down to 10″ in an attempt by major league baseball to level the playing ground between the era’s dominant pitching and the effect they were having on batters. Hitters were at an all time low for batting average of .237 the year […]
Do You Know Your Replacement Players?
Image via Wikipedia Many astute readers may remember the replacement players who were called upon during the strike in the mid-nineties just in case the players never reached an agreement with the owners on coming back to work. Perhaps not surprisingly, some of those players who were given the opportunity to try out ended up […]
Pinch Hitter: A Book Review
Dean Whitney seemed to want to create a modern day version of the classic novel The Natural when he sat down to write Pinch Hitter and in some ways he may have accomplished this task, but in many others, he didn’t. Pinch Hitter is the story of a man who miraculously makes it straight to […]
Indians Sign Saarloos and Aquino to Minor League Contracts
Mark Shapiro continued his barrage of off season moves on Wednesday when he signed pitchers Kirk Saarloos and Greg Aquino to minor league contracts. The Indians have been busier this off season than most in their recent history as they have already made a few trades and signed various players to many different contracts. Both […]
The Bob Feller Story: A DVD Review
Bob Feller seems to be an almost forgotten baseball name outside of the city of Cleveland, but throughout the DVD, the viewers are reminded that he was without a doubt the greatest pitcher of his time and his accomplishments were such that he should be mentioned in the same sentences as Ted Williams and Joe […]
Book Review of Baseball’s Greatest Games
Image via Wikipedia Baseball’s Greatest Games is the latest book in a new series put out by the MLB Insiders Club Library. The writing in the book is done by Eric Enders and the book can only be obtained if one is in the MLB Insiders Club. (In order to do this, search for it […]
Interview of Boston’s Justin Masterson
Image by Getty Images via Daylife For a good interview with Boston’s Justin Masterson, go to “this link” at Baseball Prospectus.com.
This Just In…Rice is IN!
I just got the e-mail from Boston.com, Jim Rice (my favorite player growing up), in his last year of eligibility, was finally elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame by the BWAA! Here’s the story on the election of Rice and Rickey Henderson (in his first year of eligibility) from ESPN. The date of the […]
The Natural: A Book Review
Image via Wikipedia With all of the buzz that the 1984 movie based on the book created, it seems that many have forgotten, or just simply ignored the origin of one of the greatest baseball movies of all time. To get the real story, one has to go all of the way back to 1952 […]
Test Your Baseball Team Knowledge
The average baseball fan can name 23 of baseball’s 30 teams in a three minute span. If you are wondering how well you might fare, go to this link: http://www.jetpunk.com/quizzes/name-major-league-teams.php, and take the quiz. Takers of this quiz will be asked to type as many teams in as they can in a three minute span […]
San Diego Padres Off Season Report
Season Wrap Up Like most of the NL West, the Padres had a disappointing 2008 season going 63-99, the third worst record in baseball last season! Who would have thought that the Giants would finish higher than San Diego at Spring Training last year? I for one did not even think it possible. Granted, 2008 […]
The History of Advertising in MLB Bibiliography
Arcella, C. F. (1997). Major League Baseball’s Disempowered Commissioner: Judicial Ramifications of the 1994 Restructuring. Columbia Law Review, 97, 2420-2469. Butterworth, M. L. (2007). Race in “The Race”: Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Heroic Constructions of Whiteness. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 24, 228-244. Cuneo, A.Z. & Tomaselli, R. (2007). How will MLB market Bonds’ […]
Tribe Trades with Cubs; Acquire DeRosa
Cleveland Indians general manager Mark Shapiro made yet another move to bolster his infield this off season as he pulled the trigger on a trade with the Chicago Cubs to bring right handed hitter Mark DeRosa to Cleveland. In exchange for the infielder, the Indians gave up three of their highly regarded minor league pitchers. […]
The History of African Americans in Baseball Part 4
Image via Wikipedia Since that high point in the 1970s, the percentage of African Americans has steadily dropped over the past three decades to just over eight percent in 2008. Many cite the decrease of African Americans in the game as having something to do with the fact that MLB was not doing what they […]
The History of African Americans in Baseball Part 3
Image via Wikipedia Sometimes forgotten in the hype for Robinson was the man to break the color barrier in the American League with the Cleveland Indians, Larry Doby. This fact was even more surprising especially considering the fact that Doby entered during the same season as Robinson, just a couple of months later. This did […]
