Month: February 2017

“Grand Slam,” by Marjorie Maddox

February 27, 2017

This piece manages to create in me a sense of nostalgia, a touch of depression, and feelings of peace and hope all at the same time.  It is short and sweet, and every time I read it, it evokes a different emotion entirely.  Written by Marjorie Maddox, this poem was published in Rules of the Game: Baseball Poems in 2009.

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Dreams brimming over,
childhood stretched out in legs,
this is the moment replayed on winter days
when frost covers the field,
when age steals away wishes.
Glorious sleep that seeps back there
to the glory of our baseball days.

1904 Yale vs. Princeton

February 21, 2017

yale-princeton-1904

Here’s a cool, old school panoramic of a Yale-Princeton game, dated July 2, 1904, found in the Library of Congress collection.  The photo was contributed by R.H. Rose & Son, and the game took place in Princeton, New Jersey.  I tried to find a box score or other details about the game, but didn’t have any success in doing so.  However, if you go to the photo link here, you can zoom in and pan around the photo.  In doing so, you can get some cool views, like this one:

yale-princeton-zoom

This day in baseball: First catcher’s mask

February 12, 2017

On February 12, 1878, Harvard captain Fredrick Thayer received a patent for the first catcher’s mask.  Thayer invented the mask for Harvard’s catcher, James Tyng, who apparently was a bit skittish, in spite of his talent.  The mask was adapted from a fencing mask, with eyes holes that supported a series of pads made from animal skins.  The catcher’s mask caught on quickly among pros and amateurs alike and was in wide use by the 1880s.

 

catchers_mask
Vic Willis wearing a catcher’s mask, circa 1900 (Wikimedia Commons)