Arthur D. Hlavaty

Age & Guile

Fri, 26 Feb 2021 14:09:34 GMT

When Satchel Paige pitched to Hank Aaron [MLB]

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The enemy of my enemy

Sun, 21 Oct 2018 09:52:35 GMT

I am too old to hate the Red Sox. That is, I discovered baseball in 1949, when I was almost 7, and I became a Yankee fan because my father was one. The Jesuits are right: What you believe at that age is the way the world is, or at least should be, so the Yankees are supposed to win the World Series every year.

Back then, the Dodgers were the Enemy. We beat them in the World Series, with an occasional break for beating the Phils or the Giants, in the interests of variety. The Red Sox were just another team that we beat during the regular season: Teddy Ballgame and the Eight Dwarfs.

But then Walter O’Malley became the third worst person in the 20th century (revisionists say it was really Robert Moses), and the Dodgers moved to the ass end of the country, which meant they were too far away for a real rivalry. For that and other reasons (attention span), I drifted away from baseball, replacing it with football, which I still follow, despite all the issues. Then came Steinbrenner, and old Yankee fans, like old Communists, compare notes on which abomination drove them away, but insofar as I still noticed baseball, I was pro-Yankee.

The new rivalry was the brave little Red Sox versus the big bad Establishment Yankees, and as John Cheever said, “It can be worth your life in literary circles to be a Yankee fan.” Eventually the inevitable came: Red Sox fans lost their raison d’etre when the team finally won a World Series, but many still persevere.

Now the Sox and the Dodgers are playing for the Big One. One of them’s gotta lose.

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The Umpire Strikes Back

Wed, 08 Aug 2018 10:30:18 GMT

Baseball union wars in the ’80s [Deadspin]

Thanx to Metafilter

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Baseball History

Fri, 27 Jul 2018 15:04:13 GMT

Clemente meets Brosnan [Lithub]

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Good old days

Wed, 18 Oct 2017 11:00:52 GMT

Maybe the world will bring back one of my childhood pleasures: Yankees beat Dodgers

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Player

Thu, 02 Jun 2016 10:07:29 GMT

The sportswriters called him Bobby and mocked his accent (because they spoke one fewer language than he did), and when he died they made him into a plaster saint. This was the real Roberto Clemente.

Thanx to Metafilter

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Crowd-sourced

Sun, 19 Jul 2015 09:35:10 GMT

The perfect baseball game is 19 hours long and has lots of crying.

Thanx to Metafilter

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The man who changed baseball

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 11:35:51 GMT

Charlie Pierce remembers Marvin Miller.

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In the country of baseball

Fri, 16 Nov 2012 11:46:38 GMT

Remembering Dock Ellis

Thanx to onyxlynx

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Babe Ruth shrugged

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 17:32:51 GMT

Indians infielder inspired by Ayn Rand. What will he do when he's ordered to sacrifice?

Thanx to RAW Illumination

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In the tradition

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 19:01:44 GMT

Only Hank Steinbrenner can demonstrate his legitimacy by being a bastard.

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It's what he would have wanted

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 17:36:28 GMT

Yankees act like assholes about George Steinbrenner's letters.

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Witness

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:08:14 GMT

Jose Canseco is the new Whittaker Chambers: a loathsome, crawling thing who has the facts right about the controversy he is embroiled in.

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Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:45:24 GMT

The Age of Wonder for baseball is even younger than for science fiction, and I'm hoping this year's World Series re-creates one of the great traditions of my childhood: Yanks Beat Dodgers. (Yanks beat Phils is also familiar, but that happened only once.)

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Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:34:22 GMT

Yetanother law enforcement excess during the Bush years

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