Quote of the day
Posted: December 11, 2019 Filed under: Quote of the day | Tags: Baseball, Jim Abbott, life, Major League Baseball, MLB, quotes, sports Leave a commentThere are times when you’re tired and times when you don’t believe in yourself. That’s when you have to stick it out and draw on the confidence that you have deep down beneath all the doubts and worries.
~Jim Abbott

ESPN
Quote of the day
Posted: October 4, 2019 Filed under: Quote of the day | Tags: Baseball, Jimmy Breslin, life, Major League Baseball, MLB, New York Mets, quotes, sports Leave a commentThe Mets lose an awful lot?
Listen, mister. Think a little bit.
When was the last time you won anything out of life?
~Jimmy Breslin

Wikipedia
Quote of the day
Posted: September 19, 2019 Filed under: Quote of the day | Tags: Baseball, Bob Uecker, humor, life, quotes, sports Leave a commentThe biggest thrill a ballplayer can have is when your son takes after you. That happened when my Bobby was in his championship Little League game. He really showed me something. Struck out three times. Made an error that lost the game. Parents were throwing things at our car and swearing at us as we drove off. Gosh, I was proud.
~Bob Uecker

Wikipedia
Quote of the day
Posted: August 14, 2019 Filed under: Quote of the day | Tags: Baseball, Effa Louise Manley, history, life, Major League Baseball, MLB, quotes, sports Leave a commentPeople say, ‘Don’t live in the past.’ But I guess it depends on how interesting your past is.
~Effa Manley

Wikipedia
“Shakespearean Baseball Sonnet #22,” by Michael Ceraolo
Posted: July 13, 2019 Filed under: Pop culture | Tags: Baseball, life, Michael Ceraolo, poetry, Spillwords Press, sports Leave a commentHere is another great Shakespearean Baseball Sonnet from the talented Michael Ceraolo. This piece was published by Spillwords Press earlier this week.
*
The glass shall not persuade me I am old.
But when I begin to miss the fastball,
Even when no Time’s furrows I behold,
The end of my career has come to call.
For all the honors that have covered me
Are but a memory when it’s time to part.
Living in record books for all to see,
Though sometimes disguised in a fancy chart,
It shows me a solid professional;
Mostly I played to my ability.
(This poem is not a confessional
Of those times when I lacked facility).
Overall I hope I gave fans pleasure,
What the game gave me in equal measure.
Quote of the day
Posted: June 28, 2019 Filed under: Quote of the day | Tags: Baseball, Chuck Tanner, life, quotes, sports Leave a commentYou can have money piled to the ceiling but the size of your funeral is still going to depend on the weather.
~Chuck Tanner

ESPN.com
“Glory,” by Yusef Komunyakaa
Posted: June 21, 2019 Filed under: Pop culture | Tags: Baseball, Jackie Robinson, Josh Gibson, life, poetry, Satchel Paige, sports, Willie Mays, Yusef Komunyakaa Leave a commentThis piece by Yusef Komunyakaa was published originally in Magic City in 1992. It serves as a nod to black baseball as well as a depiction of baseball as play in juxtaposition to the working lives of black Americans. Life is hard for these young men, but the game provides them with an outlet to help them get through it all.
*
Most were married teenagers
Working knockout shifts daybreak
To sunset six days a week–
Already old men playing ball
In a field between a row of shotgun houses
& the Magazine Lumber Company.
They were all Jackie Robinson
& Willie Mays, a touch of
Josh Gibson & Satchell Paige
In each stance and swing, a promise
Like a hesitation pitch always
At the edge of their lives,
Arms sharp as rifles.
The Sunday afternoon heat
Flared like thin flowered skirts
As children and wives cheered.
The men were like cats
Running backwards to snag
Pop-ups & high-flies off
Fences, stealing each others’s glory.
The old deacons & raconteurs
Who umpired made an Out or Safe
Into a song & dance routine.
Runners hit the dirt
& slid into homeplate,
Cleats catching light,
As they conjured escapes, outfoxing
Double plays. In the few seconds
It took a man to eye a woman
Upon the makeshift bleachers,
A stolen base or homerun
Would help another man
Survive the new week.