THE FLYING DUTCHMAN GOES FISHING

mightyflynn:

Peanuts #1, ca. 1953

cover by Charles M. Schulz

(via flipflopflyball)

“A catcher and his body are like the outlaw and his horse. He’s got to ride that nag till it drops.”
Johnny Bench

Sunday I’m having a fantastic opportunity to meet with author David Searcy. He’s doing a story on the sadness of baseball and wants to talk with me about the Rangers and game six. And because of this I think the baseball gods are telling me to finally put that fucker behind you.

It’s early and probably means a hill of beans but for Ranger fans who were so angry they didn’t sign Prince and kept Mitch at 1B here are some numbers about 7 weeks in.

Prince                               Mitch

HR 7                                 HR 7

RBI 25                               RBI 16

OPS .807                           OPS .874

OPS+ 121                          OPS+ 130

OBP .346                           OBP .339

Errors 6                             Errors 0

Mitch Moreland has a better OPS, OPS+, the same Number of HR and almost the same OPB and fewer errors. And not that he would be the run producer Prince is but Prince does hit in the middle of the order, while Mitch usually hits ninth in a very deep lineup. This probably won’t continue so why am I looking? Because I enjoyed it.

Stickball [summer stickball league in Brooklyn, 2009]

Stick ball NYC [Photo 1985 by Matt Weber]

Stickball

Sometimes all you have is a broom to use as a bat. [New York]

She’s a grand old lady. Today, 100 years of baseball in a park that opened when William Taft was president.

Stickball [New York]

As we take the time to reflect back on what Jackie Robinson did 65 years ago. Here is a photo of some minorities taking time out from playing to have their photo taken shortly after Jackie broke those barriers down.

Stickball

William Klein photo: 1954, New York