In 1999, Major League Baseball unveiled its All-Century Team to commemorate the best players of the 20th century. This was a watershed moment in baseball analysis for me—in an era where balloting was done by paper and submitted via mail, my dad was insistent that the ballot be taken seriously, and thus I, a ten-year old,…
What’s aged the best and the worst about Ken Burns’s “Baseball”
As a person who devotes large amount of my time to writing about baseball on the internet, the whole "social distancing" thing that we are expected to (and should) do to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus probably comes a bit easier to me than it does to most, but it is still a…
The pain of loss is a small price to pay for the joy of life
On Sunday morning, I weighed writing something about the Cardinals. By Sunday afternoon, nothing concerning the Cardinals seemed to matter. There really is no precedent for the horrible tragedy of the death of Kobe Bryant, 41, in a helicopter crash on Sunday that also took the lives of eight others, including his 13 year-old daughter…
The Kwang-Hyun Kim signing is a start. It isn’t enough.
An inherent problem with being an armchair MLB general manager is that the sport doesn’t have a hard salary cap, and thus the smart move if your sole motivation is winning is to just sign everybody. If you are a fan and thus have no connection with the actual front office, you don’t have to…
The 10 Greatest Ozzie Smith Baseball Cards of All-Time, Part 2
On Wednesday I posted Part 1, numbers 6 through 10, of what I believe are the ten greatest Ozzie Smith baseball cards of all-time. The wordy intro was a nostalgic trip you're probably familiar with, that collecting baseball cards was once an almost rite of passage for any adolescent discovering the sport itself, only to…
The 10 Greatest Ozzie Smith Baseball Cards of All-Time, Part 1
"I was there when it was fun; I was there when it all collapsed." - Me Ozzie Smith will turn 65 at the end of this month which means he has not played professional baseball for a very long time. It's not easy, I suppose, watching your first sports hero grow old because there stands…
The Tomahawk Chop is a regressive, embarrassing relic of a bygone era of disgusting cultural appropriation vs. no it isn’t
Editor's note: With the use of the "Tomahawk Chop", a popular chant among Atlanta Braves fans, once again a hot button issue in Major League Baseball, I have asked two long-time online opinion columnists, Nathan Eckert and Bob Sheffer, to contribute their takes on the matter.--JF Nathan Eckert I am a lifelong fan of the…
Six observations from all this Ronald Acuna business
In the wake of last night’s chaotic mess of a baseball game, culminating in a 7-6 victory for the St. Louis Cardinals over the Atlanta Braves, no player has garnered more attention than Ronald Acuna Jr., the young Braves superstar who managed three hits for seven total bases, an additional walk to lead off the…
Being “All In” is a Cardinals’ pipe dream
Here's the truth: going "all in" is usually not a smart move. Of course, we need to define the context where this phrase is being used. When you're sitting around a poker table with pocket aces and a dwindling stack, all in may be your best bet. It's a way of pushing hesitant and amateur…
On grief
This afternoon, the baseball world was stunned by the announcement that Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs, 27, had died suddenly while the team was in Texas to play against the Rangers. Tonight’s game was cancelled, and while articulating the pain of the death of a 27 year-old man seemingly in peak physical condition was…
St. Louis Bullpen 