Opening Day is a month away
Posted: February 28, 2019 Filed under: 21st Century | Tags: Baseball, Major League Baseball, MLB, Opening Day, sports Leave a commentMore precisely, we have 28 days to go! Four weeks from today, baseball season will officially get underway.
This day in baseball: Olerud’s surgery
Posted: February 27, 2019 Filed under: 20th Century, This day in baseball | Tags: Baseball, John Olerud, Major League Baseball, MLB, sports, Toronto Blue Jays, Washington State University 2 CommentsAfter collapsing on January 11th following a workout, John Olerud underwent brain surgery for the removal of an aneurysm on February 27, 1989. Olerud, a left-handed first baseman at Washington State University, went on to be the Blue Jays’ third round pick in the June Amateur Draft.

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Quote of the day
Posted: February 26, 2019 Filed under: Quote of the day | Tags: Andy Van Slyke, Baseball, humor, quotes, sports Leave a commentI have an Alka Seltzer bat. You know, plop plop fizz fizz. When the pitcher sees me walking up there they say, ‘Oh what a relief it is.’
~Andy Van Slyke

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“Baseball on the Block,” by John McCutcheon
Posted: February 25, 2019 Filed under: Pop culture | Tags: Baseball, John McCutcheon, music, sports Leave a commentFor me, growing up, it was baseball in the backyard, but this song does make me miss those games.
This day in baseball: Boggs’s arbitration case
Posted: February 23, 2019 Filed under: 20th Century, This day in baseball | Tags: Baseball, Boston Red Sox, Major League Baseball, MLB, sports, Wade Boggs Leave a commentIn spite of losing his arbitration case on February 23, 1986, third baseman Wade Boggs was still awarded $1.35 million, which was the highest amount ever awarded as a result of the process. The amount was a half million less than the $1.85 million Boggs was seeking from the Boston Red Sox.

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Need a new bat
Posted: February 22, 2019 Filed under: Pop culture | Tags: Baseball, Bil Keane, comics, Family Circus, humor, Jeff Keane, sports 3 CommentsAha! So that was my problem. Man, as pricey as bats are, you’d think they’d engineer them better.

Family Circus
Quote of the day
Posted: February 21, 2019 Filed under: Quote of the day | Tags: Baseball, David James Duncan, quotes, sports Leave a commentBaseball is not life. It is a fiction, a metaphor. And a ballplayer is a man who agrees to uphold that metaphor as though lives were at stake.
~David James Duncan

University of Montana
36 days until Opening Day
Posted: February 20, 2019 Filed under: 21st Century | Tags: Baseball, Major League Baseball, MLB, Opening Day, sports 1 CommentActually, we are exactly one month away from the opening series between the A’s and the Mariners to be played March 20th and 21st in Tokyo. Traditional Opening Day, however, is scheduled for March 28th.
History of Fenway Park
Posted: February 19, 2019 Filed under: 20th Century, 21st Century | Tags: Babe Ruth, Baseball, Boston, Boston Braves, Boston Red Sox, Braves Field, Fenway Park, Green Monster, history, Major League Baseball, MLB, National Register of Historic Places, New York Highlanders, New York Yankees, sports, Ted Williams, Titanic, Tom Yawkey, World Series Leave a comment
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Fenway Park is the oldest Major League Baseball stadium currently in use. The ballpark has hosted World Series games in eleven different seasons, with the Boston Red Sox winning six of those Series, and the Boston Braves winning one.
Construction on Fenway Park began in September 1911 in Boston, Massachusetts near Kenmore Square. The ballpark opened on April 20, 1912, having cost $650,000 to build. It had a capacity of 27,000 and featured a steel and concrete grandstand extending from behind home plate down the baselines, with wooden bleachers placed in the outfield. The Red Sox played their first Fenway ballgame on that date against the New York Highlanders (Yankees), winning 7-6 in eleven innings. The opening of the new ballpark found itself overshadowed in the news, however, by the sinking of the Titanic just the week before.
In 1914, the Boston Braves played their home games during the World Series at Fenway Park, due to the construction on their own new stadium, Braves Field, still being in progress. The Braves would get the opportunity to return the favor before too long. As any baseball fan will know, Babe Ruth played with the Red Sox prior to his time with the New York Yankees. During his stint in Boston, Ruth helped the Red Sox to World Series titles in 1915, 1916, and 1918. The 1915 and 1916 Series, however, were not played at Fenway Park, but rather at Braves Field, in order to accommodate a larger crowd.
Throughout the late-1910s and into the 1920s, the Boston team struggled financially, a situation that resulted in the sale of Babe Ruth to New York and led to the disrepair of various features of Fenway Park. In 1926, a great fire engulfed the wooden bleachers in left field of the ballpark. However, these bleachers hadn’t seen much use leading up to the incident anyway, due to their dilapidated state. Finally, in 1933, the Red Sox were sold to millionaire Tom Yawkey. Yawkey invested in renovations to Fenway, including the blue, wooden grandstand seats that remain in the stadium to this day.
The Green Monster in left field actually began as a mere ten-foot fence. When he came into ownership of the team, Yawkey opted not to replace the fire-destroyed wooden bleachers in that part of the stadium. Instead, during the 1933-1934 off season, Yawkey rebuilt much of Fenway, including the erection of a 37-foot left field wall, initially covered in advertisements. A scoreboard was also added to Fenway Park in 1934, at the base of the great wall. At the time, the new board was considered a type of advanced technology, and the scoreboard remains at Fenway to this day, with scores continuing to get updated by hand. The wall would actually become the “Green Monster” in 1947 when advertisements were removed from the wall and it received a dark green paint job.
The “Williamsburg” area of the ballpark in right field was named for the legendary hitter, Ted Williams. It is said that the right field bullpen area, constructed in 1940, was built specifically to accommodate Williams’s left-handed swing, pulling the right field wall in closer to home plate. Also found in the right field stands sits a lone red seat. This seat is a nod to the 502-foot home run Williams hit in 1946 — the longest homer in Fenway history.
Light towers were then added to Fenway, and the Red Sox would host their first night game on June 13, 1947 against the Chicago White Sox. It wouldn’t be until 1976 when Fenway saw its next big change, when a $1.5 million electronic scoreboard was added above the stands in center field. Also in 1976, the Green Monster was refurbished, tearing down the old, tin wall and replacing it with a steel reinforced wall of hard plastic.
Private luxury suites were added to the ballpark’s upper deck from 1982 to 1983. Bleacher seats were also replaced with individual seats in order to allow season tickets to be sold to fans for those parts of the stadium. In 1987-1988, a color video board was erected above the center field seats, replacing the old scoreboard, and in 1989, the media level was added. Also in 1989, the 600 Club was constructed, featuring luxurious seats, climate control, and a great view of the field. The 600 Club would be renamed the .406 Club after the passing of Ted Williams in 2002, in honor of his historic batting average from the 1941 season. It would get renamed yet again in 2006 to the EMC Club.
The dugouts in Fenway are the only ones remaining in baseball with support poles in front of the players’ benches. Throughout the stadium, support beams can also be found, even though other clubs around the league have made a point to no longer have these kinds of support beams in their own stadiums. The beams at Fenway result in obstructed views for some fans, yes, however, the vertical poles have remained as a way to maintain Fenway’s old-time aura.
Just prior to the 2003 season, the Green Monster had bar-style seating added to the top of it, which became a major fan draw. That year, box seats were also added right behind home plate. In 2004, another two hundred seats were added to the roof high over right field, featuring tables at which fans get to sit during the game. During the early-2010s, the blue, wooden seats that fill the ballpark were systematically repaired and waterproofed.
From May 15, 2003 until April 10, 2013, the Red Sox sold out 820 consecutive home games at Fenway, which makes it the longest home sellout streak in Major League Baseball history. Fenway has also played host to many other sporting and cultural events, including: professional football games for the Boston Redskins, the Boston Yanks, and the Boston Patriots; music concerts; soccer and hockey games (including the 2010 NHL Winter Classic); and political and religious campaigns.
On March 7, 2012, just ahead of the stadium’s centennial, Fenway Park was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

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This day in baseball: Cox buys the Phillies
Posted: February 18, 2019 Filed under: 20th Century, This day in baseball | Tags: Baseball, history, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Major League Baseball, MLB, National League, Philadelphia Phillies, sports, William D. Cox Leave a commentAfter the bankrupt team had been taken over by the National League, William D. Cox purchased the Philadelphia Phillies from the NL on February 18, 1943. At the age of 33, this made Cox the youngest owner in the league. However, evidence surfaced later that year that Cox had placed some bets on his own team. Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis launched an investigation, and Cox eventually admitted to making some “sentimental” bets on the Phillies. Landis responded by banning Cox from baseball on November 23, 1943.

Shibe Park (Wikipedia)