Photo
9 hours ago
Hiroshima Toyo Carp signage
Mazda Stadium
Hiroshima, Japan
Photo by baseballbb

Hiroshima Toyo Carp signage

Mazda Stadium

Hiroshima, Japan

Photo by baseballbb

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14 hours ago
bronxbanter:

Seen in record store window, New Paltz, New York.

bronxbanter:

Seen in record store window, New Paltz, New York.

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Video
15 hours ago


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Video
16 hours ago
Happy Birthday Bob


Come up where the Yankees are
Dress up in a pinstripe suit
Smoke a custom-made cigar
Wear an alligator boot

Catfish, million-dollar-man
Nobody can throw the ball like Catfish can

- Bob Dylan

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17 hours ago

No, umpires aren’t really bearers of truth; they’re inhibitors of violence. Let a bunch of overheated, over-muscled, testosterone- and sweat-drenched men arbitrate their own disputes—the oftenest would be whether a taken pitch should be called a strike or not—and you’ll have blood and broken bones in pretty short order. The idea is to have someone else to blame, a faceless enemy we combatants can all agree is wrong. This, too, is a national pastime.
- Adam Sobsey, Bull City Summer/Paris Review
Read the rest: “Interpretations”


Photo by Leslie Jones via Boston Public Library: Group of Washington Senators. (l to r:) Jackie Hayes, Joe Judge, coach Nick Altrock, unknown, and catcher Bennie Tate confront unknown home plate umpire at Fenway Park. (1930)

No, umpires aren’t really bearers of truth; they’re inhibitors of violence. Let a bunch of overheated, over-muscled, testosterone- and sweat-drenched men arbitrate their own disputes—the oftenest would be whether a taken pitch should be called a strike or not—and you’ll have blood and broken bones in pretty short order. The idea is to have someone else to blame, a faceless enemy we combatants can all agree is wrong. This, too, is a national pastime.

- Adam Sobsey, Bull City Summer/Paris Review

Read the rest: “Interpretations”

Photo by Leslie Jones via Boston Public Library: Group of Washington Senators. (l to r:) Jackie Hayes, Joe Judge, coach Nick Altrock, unknown, and catcher Bennie Tate confront unknown home plate umpire at Fenway Park. (1930)

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19 hours ago

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22 hours ago

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Video
1 day ago


retrojayscards:

Domingo Martinez, 1993 Topps, #810

“Scouting is professional baseball’s personalized way of renewing itself, from year to year and generation to generation. It reaches to the social roots of the game, to small towns and skinned infields, and to the psychological roots of the game, to seasonal optimism and persistent dreaming. The players’ dreams of glory are no more compelling than the scouts’ dreams of discovery, of seeing the crystal through the carbon, the future shining through the present.”

- Kevin Kerrane, Dollar Sign on the Muscle

Earlier this month the Baseball Hall of Fame opened Diamond Mines, an exhibit dedicated to celebrating and recognizing the contributions of scouts to baseball. Scouts live on little money, spend weeks and months on the road away from their families, and are unseen and anonymous to the general public. Their reward? Finding that diamond in the rough. Being the first to recognize the potential for greatness in what is essentially a child.

The history of the game is filled with stories of scouts hearing a special crack off a players bat. Or seeing them run speeds that get faster and faster with each re-telling. Or wandering into a field that could sometimes barely be called a diamond, to see a kid throwing a ball into a chain link fence and being able to see the potential to spin a curve six or seven years down the road.

For fans of the Toronto Blue Jays, one name has always been synonymous with scouting- Epifanio (Epy) Guerrero, who passed away yesterday. The man whose name rose above the anonymous cloud of “scout.” We all know the players. Tony Fernandez, George Bell, Carlos Delgado, Alfredo Griffin, and on and on and on. The scouting network Guerrero developed in the Dominican Republic and the rest of Latin America helped elevate an expansion team to a division champion in less than a decade.

And the stories behind their signings are just as legendary, like paying for Tony Fernandez to have knee surgery as he signed him to his pro contract. Or finding Syl Campusano sleeping on a dirt floor in a shack with a caved in roof after a hurricane. Guerrero gave Campusano a $3,500 signing bonus to put a roof on their home. Or the legend of riding into the remote hillside on a mule to get a father’s permission to sign a player.

As Tony Fernandez said “He’ll give a kid a tryout in the rain, in the street, with bare feet.”

Part of the reason I started this blog was that growing up baseball cards were a major part of how I learned about the game. As a seven year old I can remember seeing cards in Topps’ 1988 set that listed how the player was acquired at the bottom. As Tony Fernandez was my favourite player, I remember seeing Guerrero’s name and not understanding why he was important. But going through my collection, there is no non-player whose name appears on more of my cards than Epy Guerrero.

It may seem odd to use a card of Domingo Martinez, something of a prospect “bust”, but I loved the heading of Coming Attraction. With Guerrero fans could always believe there was another undiscovered talent on the way. Another superstar just waiting around the corner. In the days before prospect rankings were hotly debated topics and fans discussed signing restrictions on international talent, it seemed Epy Guerrero could produce a star player out of thin air. His impact on baseball in Canada and in Latin America can’t be overstated. In an anonymous profession, Epy Guerrero made the baseball world at large know his name and it will not be forgotten in this city for some time.

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Photo
1 day ago
Happy 72nd, Bob.

Illustration by Alex Fine 

via Phawker

Happy 72nd, Bob.

Illustration by Alex Fine

via Phawker

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Photo
1 day ago
Field of Dreams site
July 25, 2005
Dyersville, Iowa
Photo by TS Flynn

Field of Dreams site

July 25, 2005

Dyersville, Iowa

Photo by TS Flynn

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Photo
1 day ago
Pablo Sandoval & Dexter Fowler
May 17, 2013
Coors Field
Denver, Colorado
Photo by Jack Dempsey/AP

Pablo Sandoval & Dexter Fowler

May 17, 2013

Coors Field

Denver, Colorado

Photo by Jack Dempsey/AP

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Photo
1 day ago
Machado
Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Baltimore, Maryland
Photo by Doug Kapustin/Reuters

Machado

Oriole Park at Camden Yards

Baltimore, Maryland

Photo by Doug Kapustin/Reuters

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Photo
1 day ago

“Dan Uggla — U-G-G-L-A. It is a Swedish name, and it means owl.”
- Vin Scully

Photo by Curtis Compton/McClatchy News Service

“Dan Uggla — U-G-G-L-A. It is a Swedish name, and it means owl.”

- Vin Scully

Photo by Curtis Compton/McClatchy News Service

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Photo
1 day ago
1953
via Vintage Sleaze

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Photo
1 day ago
Babe Ruth’s sweater, ca. 1922

via SCP Auctions (sold December 2012 for $250,642)

Babe Ruth’s sweater, ca. 1922

via SCP Auctions (sold December 2012 for $250,642)

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