All posts filed under: Baseball

Searching and Finding More to Come…

Published by

So you went to Google, typed in a search term and found this blog called More to Come…  Here, dear readers, are the most popular terms that have brought visitors to this corner of the blogosphere. Farnsworth House – Virtually every day I have at least one visitor seeking out information about this architectural icon.  Back in 2008, I wrote a post based on my day job where I updated friends and family on the flooding at the world famous Farnsworth House.  Since my employer – the National Trust for Historic Preservation – has owned the Farnsworth House (operated by our partners at Landmarks Illinois) it has had two major floods.  Seems those 100-year floods come more frequently than they use to!  If you want to read more about the flooding at the house – or just learn more about this architectural masterpiece – check out the PreservationNation.org site. Good Places to Raise Children – Six months ago, Business Week magazine named my home town – Murfreesboro, Tennessee – as one of the top places …

Catch Some Acoustic Music during May in Washington

Published by

The Washington, DC area will be host to some terrific acoustic music acts during the month of May, ending with a stellar lineup at DelFest over the Memorial Day weekend.  With the coming of beautiful spring weather, this is a perfect time to hear some live music. Regular readers know that I’m a big fan of the Monday Night Concerts of the Institute of Musical Traditions.  The 2008-2009 season wraps up in May, but not before a May 4th concert in celebration of Pete Seeger’s 90th birthday (I bet they’ll be some righteous sing-alongs) and the final DC-area concert of the Canadian band Tanglefoot on May 11th.   According to the IMT website, Tanglefoot is “Stan Rogers meets Van Halen.” For some straight-ahead traditional bluegrass, check out the DC Bluegrass Union’s Spring Concert on May 9th with Dan Paisley & Southern Grass. Then over the Memorial Day weekend, all bluegrass lovers in the Mid-Atlantic region will be heading to Cumberland, Maryland, for the second annual DelFest, hosted by the Del McCoury Band.  There’s a stellar line-up, including Old Crow …

It Ain’t Over…

Published by

As I’ve written before, I love good baseball writing.  So I almost laughed out loud when reading the Baseball Prospectus’ It Ain’t Over ‘Til It’s Over and came across this passage from a story about the 2003 National League Central pennant race between the Houston Astros and the Chicago Cubs: The Cub’s opponents going into the final four days were the Reds and Pirates, and the Astros had four games against the Brewers.  The top two teams in the NL Central would battle it out against the bottom three, and whoever beat up the eminently beatupable would advance. “Eminently beatupable.”  With language like that, you know exactly what he means. More to come… DJB

No Obama First Pitch for the Nats

Published by

It appears that George, Tom, Abe, and Teddy will be the only presidents to appear at Nationals Park tomorrow for opening day. The current resident of the White House, President Obama, has turned down an invitation from the Washington Nationals to throw out the first pitch for the home opener tomorrow against the Philadelphia Phillies. Perhaps Obama has watched the Nats lose their first two series of the season, to begin a rousing 0-6 – MLB’s only team still without a win.   Or perhaps he has enough problems to deal with without having to take time out to watch a team that’s still not ready for prime time. Let’s hope a change in scenery and coming home will help the Nats get that elusive first win.  And we can dream about the time that Washington has a baseball team that even a basketball-loving president would want to see. More to come… DJB

Opening Day

Published by

A few observations from around the big leagues on Opening Day: Those young Nats pitchers may be in need of a bit of seasoning.  Maybe those Baseball Prospectus writers were right.  Still we have 161 games to go! Nonetheless, it was good to see Adam Dunn hit his first Nats dinger during game 1. O’s rout the Yankees.  Way to go O’s! What did C.C. Sabathia do all winter?  Eat all the money given to him by the Yankees? New look Braves looked pretty good against the Phillies. More to come… DJB

A Night of Baseball Geekdom

Published by

Tonight I put everything on the back burner and wallowed in a night of baseball geekdom.  Yes, it was the annual pre-season visit to Politics & Prose bookstore by the editors of Baseball Prospectus.  And it was a night of VORP (Value Over Replacement Player), BQS (Blown Quality Starts), BABIP (Batting Average on Balls in Play) and other incomprehensible acronyms and statistics.  It was also a night for a long soliloquy by co-editor Steven Goldman on why the Yankees will be facing a huge decision in 2010 on Derek Jeter, when they predict his bad glove, age, slumping hitting, and a chase for 3,000 hits will all come together the year his contract expires.  As they note, …famous-player milestones sell tickets and merchandise, but as veterans of the Astros’ “Biggioquest ’07” can tell you, subjugating team goals to the greater glory of a fading star isn’t conducive to winning.  By 2010, Jeter’s glove won’t play in the infield and his bat won’t play anywhere else.  His 3,000th hit will have zero benefit to the winning effort. As …

New National Dunn Looking Good at the World Baseball Classic

Published by

It is exciting to hear that new Washington National Adam Dunn has had a great start at the World Baseball Classic.  Dunn had a home run in each of the first two victories, but it was his enthusiasm that led Ted Lilly, the starting pitcher for Team USA, to say, “Adam Dunn is a lot of fun,” Lilly said…. “He’s got a lot of energy and he keeps things light. It hasn’t taken him long to kind of warm everybody up.” Dunn has homered in both United States victories here. One home run was a line drive to left-center field, and one was a towering blast pulled to right. The United States manager, Davey Johnson, compared his power to that of Willie McCovey, a Hall of Famer. “I’ve seen a lot of big guys that swing the bat hard,” Johnson said. “But he has a really good eye for a big, strong guy.” A new National compared to Stretch McCovey, one of my heroes as a young boy.  Come on opening day! Read the entire story at the …

Pitchers and Catchers Report in 14 Days

Published by

On the weekend of the Super Hype Bowl, the Washington Nationals web site notes that we’re 14 Days and 13 Hours (as of this posting) until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training.  There is a light at the end of the tunnel.  To celebrate, let’s check out question #1413 from Obsessed With Baseball. Which one of these Hall of Fame pitchers did NOT reach 300 career wins? A.  Mickey Welch  B.  Early Wynn  C. Robin Roberts  D. Kid Nichols And the answer is….C.  Robin Roberts Spring is around the corner. More to come… DJB

Baseball, Blues, and Bluegrass – Do Christmas Gifts Get Any Better?

Published by

In the midst of a strong recession, everyone expected downsizing in holiday gift giving.  But the generosity of family and friends showed me that downsizing can still result in gifts that touch the heart. My colleague Dolores shares my passion for baseball, so her gift of Obsessed with Baseball was perfect.   This is Jeopardy for the baseball set…2500 questions that the electronic widget embedded in the book asks you to answer.  For instance – to take a random example – Question 54:  Who led the majors in RBIs in 2006?  A.  David Ortiz, B. Albert Pujols,  C. Ryan Howard, or D. Lance Berkman.  If you typed in “C” for Ryan Howard, the widget tells you “correct” and you are 1 for 1 or 100% correct.  It is easy to spend all day answering questions about Heavy Hitters, Hall of Fame, The Playoffs, and more. Want to try another one?  Question 1505:  Name the future big-league manager who hit 30 or more home runs 11 times in his 21 season playing career.  A.  Gil Hodges, B. Frank Robinson, C. …

Hot Stove League (Continued)

Published by

In an earlier post I got it half right.  Despite a good effort by the Nationals and their owners the Lerners, the big free agent catch Mark Teixeira got away…but to the Evil Empire (a.k.a. New York Yankees) instead of the Boston Red Sox.  With that signing, the Yankees now have the four highest paid players IN BASEBALL HISTORY on their team at one time.  What recession?  Jeez… But I’m going to take the positive view about this from the Nats perspective.   At least they finally decided to play in the big leagues of free agency, and they went after the right player this time as well.  I think in my heart of hearts I knew the Nats were on the margins in the Teixeira chase even with their strong offers.  But they can’t stop here.  A career 48-59 pitcher with a 5.05 ERA for the Orioles can’t be the big news out of the Hot Stove League for our Nationals.  Fans deserve more than a Triple-A team playing in a major league ballpark.  That’s my Christmas wish …