BREAKING RECORDS IN BASEBALL: CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING
The word “asterisk” comes from a Greek word meaning “little star.” Never has a little star caused so much discussion and controversy than the one Commissioner Ford Frick attached to Roger Maris’ single season record 61 home runs in 1961. Frick was a close friend and biographer of Babe Ruth and was a beat writer […]
MLB Rivalries: St. Louis Cardinals vs. Chicago Cubs
Baseball has seen so much action over the years, and alongside hockey, football, and basketball, it is one of the most loved sports in the United States. Just like people bet their hard earned money on the Super Bowl, they spend their hard earned money betting on the World Series odds. But, what makes the […]
MLB’s Top 10 Most Expensive Memorabilia Ever
Baseball, America’s beloved amusement for watching, cheering, and betting on best-rated MLB online bookies at Bookmaker-Expert.com, has resurrected interest in the collectibles market. Four baseball cards (at least) have been purchased for record prices in 2021, one record-breaking after another. Who are the renowned faces on those MLB cards, exactly? What other memorabilia is luring […]
The Wizards of East St. Louis
By Tony Samboras Every once in a while, something happens in sports that simply defies logic. As sports fans, we have all been indoctrinated to believe that the best teams have the best players and are able to pack the stats on the way to a league championship. It’s hard to imagine the New England […]
The Steroid Era: A Fan’s Lament
I’ve been a baseball fan, and a Giants fan for over thirty years. I’ve seen good teams, average teams and bad teams. I’ve seen different styles of play within baseball over the course of my time being a baseball fan. I have mixed feelings about the steroid era, because one of the biggest stars, Barry […]
Baseball At Its Weirdest
Hey baseball fans! Today is finally the day you will all know who the “Chicken Man” is (hint: he had 3,010 career hits)! In other words, today, I will be blogging about some of the most interesting (and strangest) baseball superstitions and customs of all time. Hope you enjoy: Moises Alou This great ballplayer never […]
A Review: Extra Innings: More Baseball Between the Numbers from the Team at Baseball Prospectus
There’s more to sabermetrics than FIP,WARP, and BABIP. These statistics that have been filtering into the baseball lexicon over the past decade are really just tools that allow fans and serious students of the game to answer questions and settle debates. Each new breakthrough introduces opportunities for further study. While Wins may be a stat […]
A Case for Larry Walker’s Induction into the Hall of Fame
This is the time of year when the Baseball Writers of America (BBWA) submit their final ballots for the players they think are deserving of induction into Major League Baseball’s Hall of Fame. Among the eligible nominees this year, Barry Larkin and Jeff Bagwell may have the best chance of being elected. But an equally […]
Should MLB players suspected of PED use be penalized in Hall of Fame voting?
This is a post written by Jeff Herbst. Jeff has had a passion for sports ever since he could first walk and enjoys writing in his spare time. He works with Phoenix Bats, a company that manufacturers wood bats and specialty composite wood bats for amateur and professional ball players around the globe. Since 1936, the baseball Hall […]
Fenway Park’s 100th Anniversary: There’s Nothing Like Being at the Game
I’ve never considered myself religious by any means. Yet, I’m a believer that everyone has some place where they just feel – home, or safe. A sanctuary, of sorts. To some of the more religious types, a church. Baseball stadiums are my church. There is just something about passing through the gates and walking into […]
An American Tradition: MLB Hall of Fame Voting
South Park is one of my favorite programs on television these days. Trey Parker and Matt Stone trash everyone. So, while I may bristle somewhat at the fact that they trash my church or heritage, I chuckle because they trash everyone. In particular, they have managed the almost impossible feat of making Satan a sympathetic […]
Hall of Famer Rod Carew on Finding Your Road to Success
Across the springs, summers and autumns – after all the seasons and over all the years – countless styles, methods and theories of how to hit a baseball and how to be a successful hitter have developed. Unfortunately, some instructors remain limited in their knowledge and, hence, can limit you in your approach to becoming […]
A Charlie Rose Interview with Hall of Famer Willie Mays
This interview is over 20 minutes long and was found on hulu.com Enjoy!
What an Honor
Oh what rapture it is to second-guess. For years I have stayed behind my shield of maladroit opinion feeling free to blast away at those “experts” for their incomprehensible votes and stultifying opinions. Ah, but those days of being the dilettante of the keyboard may soon be ending. One of the great advantages of being […]
A New Series by Ken Burns: Baseball – The Tenth Inning
A FILM BY KEN BURNS AND LYNN NOVICK PICKING UP WHERE HIS EPIC 1994 DOCUMENTARY LEFT OFF, RENOWNED FILMMAKER KEN BURNS CONTINUES THE FASCINATING STORY OF AMERICA’S NATIONAL PASTIME New Documentary Debuts on DVD and Blu-ray October 5, 2010 Featuring Interviews with the Filmmakers, Additional Scenes and Outtakes HOLLYWOOD, CA – In 1994 the landmark […]
The Start of A New Era in Atlanta, Without Chipper Jones?
Thanks to our friends (and fellow members of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, aka the BBA) at The Hall of Very Good, we bring you the latest 24 hours old news on the Chipper Jones (Braves 3B) injury and career status…Chipper Jones…Career Over? Tuesday night, Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones tweaked his left knee fielding […]
Berry Reassigned, Bagwell to Take Over as Astros Hitting Coach
Image by BaseballBacks via Flickr The following article was originally posted at James’ site Astros County back on July 11th! It’s not often you get an email in church that makes you go, “Whoa!” in the middle of the Lord’s Supper. But that’s exactly what happened this morning. Alyson Footer first broke this morning that […]
Cardinals Are Not Dormant During Winter
While for a lot of teams, the offseason is a quiet time, a time for renewal and reflection. For the Cardinals, this offseason has been anything but. It would have been hard to believe after the final out of the NLDS that anything would overshadow the pursuit of Matt Holliday during the winter. After all, […]
Mark McGwire’s PED Admission: How Truthful Was it?
Image by Getty Images via Daylife The Admission The other day, former A’s and Cardinals slugging first baseman “finally” admitted to using steroids back in his playing days. But, he only admitted to using them as a health benefit to help him keep from his body breaking down and keep him in the game. He […]
The Cardinals 2009 Postseason And Some Notes on 2010
It’s been famously noted that the postseason is a crapshoot. While there is definitely some truth to that statement, for the St. Louis Cardinals the National League Division Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers brought both old and new reasons for a hasty exit from October. There’s no doubt that the unexpected occurred in this […]
The Curse of the American League
Image by Keith Allison via Flickr At this point, we have to begin to discuss the possibility of an official curse – for the third time in four years one of the American League’s elite homerun hitters has suffered a season ending injury in September, and for the second year in a row it may […]
WAKE UP AND SMELL THE ROSES
So once again Cooperstown, New York played host to thousands of baseball fans that flooded into the small rural town in upstate NY. On Sunday, June the 26th, two more legends of the game took their spots among their peers. Jim Rice finally received what many of his team mates and fellow hall of famers […]
Steriods, It’s Not All Equal!
On Monday night, July the 13th., we managed to see 7 of the best home run hitters in baseball and Brandon Inge get together in an attempt to put on a power display where batting practice pitchers grooved balls at 70—75 MPH and in turn the likes of Pujols, Fielder, Cruz, and Howard deposited them […]
Big Papi Comes Up Big in June
Image via Wikipedia So now that David Ortiz has found his stroke again, all the murmurs will start. This will certainly mirror the talk that surrounded Jason Giambi a couple of years ago. You all remember, don’t you? Giambi admitted to doing performance-enhancing drugs before the 2004 season, and followed that up with an 80 […]
Interview With Former MLB Catcher Brent Mayne
Whenever you get the chance to talk to someone that has been there, it’s always special to see it through their eyes. On June the 19th, 2009, I was given the pleasure of an audience with Brent Mayne, a 15 year Major League Veteran. My connection with Brent was made through a gentleman named Bob […]
Book Review: Fair Ball by Bob Costas
Bob Costas is probably best known for his Olympic commentary over the years, but he has really been a renaissance man and announced everything from baseball to football in this country. Costas put out Fair Ball: A Fan’s Case for Baseball in an attempt to tell baseball how it could fix its problems and become […]
Odds Listed for Possible Steroid Users
While BaseballReflections.com does not in anyway promote gambling, this story is an interesting one. If someone thought that betting on football and basketball had overtaken the game in the baseball arena, they just have to look at the current odds on BookMaker.com to see where society is today. Due to the fact that the recent […]
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’ […]
The History of Advertising in Major League Baseball
Image via Wikipedia Part 1 of 2 Companies have been using their own workers to advertise their product, even if they are not celebrities, for some time now. A much publicized Tylenol advertisement came out just a few years ago in which Tylenol used their own workers to sell the product. This technique is also […]
