All posts tagged: Earl Weaver

R.I.P. The Earl of Baltimore and Stan the Man

Published by

Baseball lost two members of the Hall of Fame this past weekend:  Earl Weaver and Stan Musial. There’s much that could – and has – been written about these two baseball greats.  I’ve linked to Joe Posnanski’s blogs above, but I could just as easily have sent you to read Tom Boswell’s column on The Earl of Baltimore or George Vecsey on Stan the Man. I won’t go on about Weaver’s baseball genius – decades before Moneyball made his theories all the rage – or Musial’s quiet consistency – to the point where he was widely considered to be the best ballplayer of the postwar decade. No, I’m going to focus on their nicknames. Baseball has the best nicknames. Period.  In Why Is Baseball So Much Better Than Football, Boswell touches on the topic in multiple ways, but he sums it up here: Reason #85:  Baseball nicknames go on forever – because we feel we know so many player intimately.  Football monikers run out fast.  We just don’t know that many of them as people. Then …

Nats vs. Mets – On Any Given Night

Published by

One of the great things about baseball is that on any given night, the worst team in the league has a decent chance at beating the best teams in the league.  You may believe that’s true in any sport, but think about how often you see a lousy NBA team give a top-notch NBA team a close game.  I can’t think of many times.  However, with baseball you see it virtually every night. And tonight’s no exception.  I’ve been doing chores and keeping my eye on the televised game between the Washington Nationals and the New York Metropolitans .  The last time I checked, the Nats were battling the Mariners and the Padres for the worst record in baseball.  The Mets, on the other hand, had the third best record in the National League and were leading the East. So the Mets jump off to a 2-0 lead and you think to yourself, “Uh-oh, it is going to be a long night.”  Well, that’s true, but not for the reason you think.  Everytime the Mets pull …

Summer Reading

Published by

An email from the husband of a friend who shall remain nameless showed up in my home email in-box recently with a list of books on his table ready for his summer reading.  There were a lot of very serious titles—some of which I’ve read and many of which I’ve missed—but the one that caught my eye was War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges.  Now I’ve read that book, and I don’t consider it light reading.  In fact, it is pretty depressing.  For while Hedges calls for humility, love, and compassion as the only chance for the human race, he writes of the addiction of war and its unifying force.  When you read this, our chances seem pretty slim. But that’s NOT why I’m writing about Summer Reading Lists.  There are 9 other months of the year to read books like War is a Force…  Summer reading is different.  Here are three books (two on baseball; one only tangentially on architecture but really on love) I think are great for …