It’s A Throwback Saturday, Where Boxing and Horse Racing Take Center Stage

Secretariat at the Kentucky Derby, 1973

On Saturday, May 2nd, two once-kings of American sports will have a day when they are once more the biggest sports in the country. Since it’s the first Saturday in May, that means the 141st running of the Kentucky Derby, and Saturday night Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao will duke it out in Las Vegas for several crown.

There was a time when boxing and horse racing were the top spectator sports in America and it wasn’t even close. In the 1930’s the NBA didn’t exist and the NFL and NHL were a fledgling regional leagues with no teams west of Green Bay. Baseball was big but fragmented, with plenty of fans more interested in their town ball teams- people took the minor leagues very seriously because the rosters were generally filled with hometown boys- than the major leagues. Golf was for the rich.

I don’t know why horse racing and boxing were the top draws for the first half of the 20th century and I am certainly no authoritarian on these things- I’d nominate Laura Hillenbrand or the late great authors David Halberstam or Studs Terkel- but I can take an educated guess. Like baseball, boxing matches and horse racing were common occurrences in every town in the days before television. They were popular to compete in even when it wasn’t a professional event- baseball and boxing in particular. In the days before everybody had a car, most everybody had a horse or knew how to ride one. Like drag racing or bike riding, horse racing was something people did pretty much anyway. And boxing rings are easy to set up- every town had some sort of auditorium or arena- and it seems like there were more fist fights then, so more guys knew how to fight.

The popularity of those sports declined for various reasons, most of them in some way related to television. Boxing was at first very popular on the teevee because it required very little camera movement to show everything. It’s the same reason wrestling and bowling were very successful on early TV- because people would watch pretty much anything. But neither boxing nor horse racing had cohesive marketing units like the NFL or the NBA or MLB, and that led to their declines.

Health concerns coming to light were probably the biggest factors in the decline of horse racing and boxing as popular sports. Both sports had weight limits, and boxers and jockeys would do horrible things to get or keep weight (Hillenbrand’s “Seabiscuit” has a harrowing account of the many ways jockeys tried to lose pounds in the hours leading up to weigh-in). Horses were (and many allege still are) treated horribly in attempts to gain more speed, from pills to injections to just straight-up intimidation tactics. As the public became aware of these things- read a Dick Francis novel or two to get some ideas- people turned away. In addition, a “punch drunk” ex-boxer was a common sight, and we now know that was an after-effect of too many concussions (the NFL should be taking copious notes on all of this).

Outside the ring, in a problem that continues to this day, there are as many different boxing regulatory committees as there are weight classes. You and I could form a boxing committee and have a championship belt and guys would want to win it because it’s another way they can call themselves “champ.” Because so many people can call themselves “champ,” it gets watered down. Occasionally somebody can break through, like Ali or Tyson or Sugar Ray Leonard, but just because everybody knows their name doesn’t mean everybody wants to watch them do their thing. My parents know who Justin Bieber is but couldn’t tell you any of his songs. Neither could I, and I’m proud of that.

It’s also difficult to distill horse racing down to one big championship race. The “Triple Crown” is the closest thing to a Horse Racing Finals as there will be, but that’s just for two year old horses. Horses can race for several years. The many different kinds of championship horse races depends on the age of the horse and the style of racing. The Triple Crown has endured because the tracks in Louisville, Baltimore and Saratoga banded together to promote themselves. Like how the Masters promoted itself as a different kind of golf tournament. There are plenty of other important historical tracks around the country, from Los Angeles to Miami, but the average person doesn’t know about those.

Finally, and perhaps most important of all, there are many fewer people who know how to ride horses and who get into fights than there were in the early days of the 20th century. The ability for the public to have some sort of familiarity and underlying knowledge of what a jockey is doing in a race or a boxer is doing in a ring has dropped precipitously. Nearly everybody has played a baseball or softball game or flag football or shot hoops. We understand those sports more intuitively than we do boxing or horse racing. Because I actually played roller hockey, I like watching hockey. It could very well be as simple as that. 

But for one day, boxing and horse racing will again be the top draws in America. And that conjures up for me a sportswriting life that I would love to have, if only for a day. I want to wear a fedora, a wide short polka-dot tie and a flower in my lapel- which would mean I’d have to wear a coat with lapels. I want to be an old-time member of the press (because “journalist” was too high-falutin’ for those guys) with that button on the label of my fedora. I want to be clacking away at my Royal typewriter slapping down prose that would make Grantland Rice, Damon Runyon, WC Heinz and Ernest Hemingway proud.

By Monday morning (or more likely, Saturday at midnight), we’ll be back to discussing playoff basketball and the NFL draft and early season baseball trends. On Saturday, though, boxing and horse racing will be the talk of the land once more. It’ll be interesting to see how many people really dig in to the romanticized nostalgia. If you need to find me on Saturday, I’ll be wearing my fedora.

"I'll have it for you in 20 minutes, Chief!"

 
photos courtesy: totalprosports.com, biography.com, theboxingtribune.com, and the great photo of me is by mandysloan.com

Justin Maxwell, San Francisco Giants MVP of the Week

Max effort

There’s no doubt that San Francisco Giants Justin Maxwell was the team MVP last week. In five games he had three homers, six RBI- including the walk-off extra-inning winner on Thursday- and went 6-for-20 (.300) while making some outstanding defensive plays in the field as the G-men swept the Dodgers thanks in large part to Maxwell. He continued it in an abbreviated Rockies series.

Here's the best play he made all week.

That offensive production, by the way, equaled or bettered his entire 2014 season, when he was a little-used sub for the American League Champion Kansas City Royals. He did receive a pennant ring along with fellow former Royal Nori Aoki, but he contributed to the champs about as much as I did. That’s not a knock on the guy, that’s the truth.

By making such big contributions with so little expected, Maxwell becomes the latest in a line of recent Giants who have done the same thing, albeit the others did their stuff during pennant races or the playoffs- Cody Ross in 2010, Barry Zito in 2012, and Joe Panik last season come to mind.

Because Maxwell has done his stuff in the first weeks of 2015, the glove he wore while making that great catch against the Dodgers won’t go into the museum next to the Rally Thong… at least not yet.

Maxwell fits the Giants’ mold because he’s only gotten this chance because Hunter Pence has been hurt. But because this has happened a lot to the Giants, it’s got to be another credit to Bruce Bochy for making little-used guys feel like they’re part of something bigger.

A quick glance at Maxwell’s career shows that he’s not had achance to play regularly. He’s only played more than 75 games in a season once, when he played 124 for the 2012 Houston Astros. That team lost 107 games in their final National League season and was part of one of the statistically worst series in baseball history- their final three games against the Cubs became one of the few times that two teams with 100 losses played each other.

What happened next shows how lightly Maxwell has been regarded: the next season, the Astros traded him for a minor league pitcher. The worst team in the majors got rid of a guy who played 125 games for them.

Two years later, he’s at least a one-week wonder for the defending World Champions. Bochy has made Maxwell- and many other players- believe in themselves after not getting perhaps the best treatment. Bochy’s managerial style has gotten a guy like Maxwell, whose enthusiasm might be flagging after years bouncing around the leagues, excited about putting himself and his body on the line, if only temporarily.

Even if Maxwell gets relegated to bench duty and spot starts after Pence comes back, Bochy will have a measure of trust in the guy, and Maxwell will know that he’s getting a fair shake.

If all he does the rest of the season is play well against the Dodgers, Giants fans will be satisfied, that’s for sure. Then Maxwell’s play will be part of the stories that people tell about the best rivalry in baseball, no matter what the Easterners say. That won’t be a bad major league legacy for a guy who didn’t have much of one heading into 2015.

"Glad you're on my team. Uh, what was your name?"

photos courtesy: sfgate.com, usatoday.com

Scenes from a San Francisco Giants Day Game, 4/23/15

Left field, pre-game. The usher was not particularly understanding. I'm just trying to get a photo and move on, bro.

Center field bleachers.

The flags breezing along. The Giants are at the top (World Champs flag) and bottom (currently last in the division)

The edible garden in center field, watched over by Hello Kitty.

Why this is a custom jersey and not sold by the truckload in stores I have no idea.

Hunter Pence (#8) isn't going to play for weeks, yet he's in full uniform. I expected nothing less from him.

A great day, and a sweep of Dem Bums to boot!

all photos by the author

NFL’s Genius Marketing Has Us Excited About Paper

 There are about ten days left in April, and the sports world should be buzzing all day about the NBA Playoffs, the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and the MLB regular season, with some time given to college football spring ball. Instead, the NFL has all the headlines today, and probably until the beginning of May, thanks to the 2015 schedule release and the NFL Draft.

This is not to say that all current publicity around the NFL is good, and indeed there are many examples about how the league could very well be in serious trouble, but the marketing of the good parts of the league has been so brilliant in recent years that we are excited about paper.

Because that’s all a schedule release is. And unlike college football or MLB schedule releases and off-season moves where we are really just excited about our own team, the NFL has somehow wormed its way into the public consciousness so much that people who have never been to Green Bay are excited for the Packers and Bears on Thanksgiving night. I have never been to Florida yet I want to know if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are going to pick Jameis Winston or not.

The NFL only plays official games between September and the end of January/first days of February, five months out of the year and for the most part only once a week (Monday and Thursday night games only involving four teams out of 32 every week). Yet the league is now a year-round obsession, and fans are interested in what every team is up to.

This phenomena can be almost directly traced to fantasy sports and the league’s early realization that it could expand the fan base and the revenue pie. Not to say that there weren’t horrible missteps early on. In the early part of the century the league was still trying to figure out how to integrate fantasy football promotion within TV broadcasts. I distinctly remember late in a game hearing Dan Dierdorf talk about how a quarterback had completed a lot of passes so “If you played him this week in fantasy you’re probably winning.”

Things have changed.

Fantasy football means that people who have never been to Philadelphia are studying the Eagles quarterback situation. Rams fans are very curious about the Dallas defense. And that means there are people who will pick players based on an “easy” schedule and are always looking for the next hot rookie.

That’s why the schedule release and the draft have become so important. It’s why we’re excited about paper.   

It’s why instead of the national sports talk being that the New York Mets have the best record in the National League (I swear to you this is true), we are wondering what sort of dog the NFL is forcing NBC to have in one of the “Flex” games that they will switch out for Indianapolis, New England or Dallas as soon as possible. You know there will be one.

The Golden State Warriors trying to win their first NBA Finals in 39 years? The Montreal Canadiens return to prominence? The Mets potentially actually being good? Nope, it’s all about paper.

The government should hire these NFL marketing people to make people excited about what the country’s up to. In six months we’d all be excited about road projects in Montana. Don’t laugh, because at this point we’re all wondering if the Tampa Bay Bucs won’t somehow screw up the number one pick.

It appears not everyone wants Famous Jameis.

photos courtesy: espn.com, nj.com

New Peet’s Javiva: It’s Just A Coffee Milkshake, People

Does this even look like coffee?

I went online and searched “Peet’s Javiva” after having one just to get a calorie and sugar count. That’s all. But that search led me to the new great skirmish between coffee companies: the blended coffee drink.

Or as I like to call it, a coffee milkshake.

Let’s not blow this thing too out of proportion, although of course when it comes to coffee drinks I am waaaayyyyyyy too late with that suggestion. Be real: if you are having a “blended coffee drink," whether it is named a Javiva or a Frappuccino or anything else, then you are having a milkshake. Plain and simple.

It also doesn’t matter if you use soy milk or almond milk or whole milk or 2% or some kind of milk that I have never heard of, or even a substitute of a substitute milk product. A blended coffee drink is a milkshake, like a hamburger is a hamburger even if it contains no meat. The basic set-up is the same.

I had no idea there was such a vehement argument about which chain’s coffee milkshake is better. Peet’s claims that theirs is special because it uses fresh coffee and Starbucks uses some sort of not-as-fresh coffee and Dunkin’ Donuts uses coffee that has been brewed in the Back Bay and then shipped to all DD’s locations (that may not actually be true). You can already tell the Peet's Javiva is hipper because it has a Tumblr page. (Note: that was sarcasm.)

What cannot be sidestepped is that these things are all coffee milkshakes (even if there are versions that don’t contain coffee, see hamburger argument above). They include incredible amounts of sugar, especially if you add a flavor like caramel. I did that, and I could perceive no caramel flavor in the Javiva. Of course I had just been in line an excruciatingly long time as one guy trying to decide on what one pound of coffee he wanted to buy ended up somehow ended up having all three Peet’s baristas in the shop working on his order at one time. They were probably as fed up with the guy as I was by the time two of them wiggled themselves free to take care of the now half-dozen customers in line.

In an attempt to make this a food review and not an indictment of the coffee drink culture (I know, too late), the key takeaways from my visit to Peet’s can be summed up with my final interaction with the barista who actually made the Javiva.

(Javiva completed, whipped cream added on top, and pushed across the counter.)

Me: “Oh, so it’s just your guys’ version of a Frappuccino?”

Her: “Pretty much.”

That about sums it up. Peet’s has a new coffee milkshake. It tastes an awful lot like a Starbucks Frappuccino. I didn’t get a post-Starbucks Frappuccino headache like I have gotten before, so that’s a point in Peet’s favor.

Anyway, the reason we got here in the first place: “Nutrition” info for a medium (16 oz.) caramel: 407 calories (2% milk) and 85 grams of sugar. Holy Schnikes. A grande (16 oz.) Starbucks caramel frap: 400 and 63. Caramel “Coollatta” at Dunkin’ Donuts (skim milk): 450 calories and- this can’t be right- 105 grams of sugar. What on earth.  A straight-up 16 ounce caramel milkshake: more than 1,600 calories and about 50 grams of sugar. You’ve got to be kidding.

On second thought, hold the Javiva and I’ll have a latte instead. On third thought, “just give me something without any sugar.”

"I can't give you a tab unless you order something."

 photos courtesy: peets.com, complex.com

The Day The NBA Playoffs Started 2015

Since the NBA Playoffs last about three years, similar to the playoff format of Baseketball, I like to make a list of what is happening the day the playoffs start and then compare that to the day the playoffs end. If I’ve missed a category, please add it in the comments. We will revisit this list in June.

Playoffs begin April 18^th

108^th day of the year (257 left)

  

Days until Apple Watch release (April 24^th):

 6

Days until NFL Draft (April 30^th):

12

Days until Kentucky Derby and Pacquiao/Mayweather (May 2nd):

14

Days until David Letterman’s last show (May 20):

31

Days until summer begins:

63

Days until 4^th of July:

76

Days until Christmas:

250

Best team in MLB:

Detroit Tigers, 9-2 

New York Mets, 9-3

Worst team in MLB:

Milwaukee Brewers, 2-9

Top song on Billboard:  

See YouAgain, Wiz Khalifa Featuring Charlie Puth

Top song on ITunes:  

Uptown Funk,Bruno Mars Featuring Mark Ronson

 or is it the other way around? I have no idea who anybody is anymore.

Top grossing movie:
 Fast and Furious 7

Game of Thrones Season 5 episodes shown:

2

Mad Men Final season episodes left:

5

Top “talker” stories:

 Star Wars Teaser Trailer #2

Apple Watch pre-release

Average U.S. gas price:

$2.446/gallon via fuelgaugereport.com

U.S. Temperature extremes:

94 at Death Valley, CA

10 at Buena Vista, CO

High temperature in Tracy, CA

73

photo courtesy: nba.com

Eugene, Oregon Wins 2021 Track and Field World Championships, But Was The Race Fair?

Track and field is a funny sport. The individual disciplines- the 100 meters, the shot put, the steeplechase, the javelin- are simple. If I run the same distance as you but do it faster, I win. If I throw the object further than you, I win. The simplicitycof it in a complex sports world is amazingly refreshing.

But because nothing can apparently be that simple, the governing bodies of the sport, be it the USATF or the IAAF or the Olympics, are incredibly complex behemoths that seem intent on being as difficult to figure out as the disciplines are simple to win. Unlike events on the track or field, which reward the fastest or strongest regardless of age or gender, the governing branches appear to be committees stacked on committees stacked on committees. It seems like they have to take a vote to decide whether they can take a vote.

Which makes Thursday’s announcement that Eugene, Oregon,  will be the host of the 2021 IAAF World’s Championships rather surprising. That Eugene is the first American city to host World's is not surprising. They had a strong bid for the 2019 event because Eugene is A.K.A.Track Town USA, with the classic and world-renown facility known as Hayward Field,

In one way, Eugene capturing the 2021 championships is a perfect example of the old boys club. There was no open bid for the event, it was just given to Eugene. This angered Swedes in Gothenburg, (yes, Swedes can get mad) who wanted the championships to celebrate the city’s 400th anniversary. Other cities were no doubt planning on bids and didn’t even have time to form exploratory committees so they can’t even start to get mad.

But in another way, it’s a perfect example of the complexity of the governing bodies of track and field. After Eugene didn’t land the 2019 championships (they went to Doha, Qatar, which means every human rights organization will protest this at some point, if they haven’t already), the IAAF invited the organizers to come learn what they could improve on. Because Eugene was already down the bidding road for world championships, the IAAF decided to keep them on that road but just switch the destination. As the world governing body of the sport, they can do that. And they did.

The complexity of the IAAF plus the familiarity of the previous Eugene bid let TrackTown win the race without any competition. The championships location committee, already knowing what Eugene would have done if they had won the 2019 event, took an exploratory vote for 2021 that would become final if it passed overwhelmingly. And it did. Eugene was led down the road and assured of the win. Just like, if you read between the lines, Qatar and the 2019 championships, which technically did go up for bid.

Does this smell not quite right? Of course it does. The thing is, every international sports governing body is tainted. FIFA comes to mind, as well as the Olympics committee. To say nothing of so-called private sports leagues, who are heavily subsidized by public money yet give next to none of it back directly to the community those sports are played. Roger Goodell and the NFL, anybody?  The bad taste in Sweden's mouth will pass. Because of this Gothenburg or Stockholm or somebody will get fast-tracked to host some other major track and field event. You watch. It's how this works.

Once the shadow passes, it will be very impressive that Eugene becomes the first U.S city to host the IAAF World Championships. Combined with hosting the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Track and Field Olympic Trials, the NCAA Track and Field Championships through 2021 as well as many other championship-caliber meets like the Pre Classic and the IAAF World Junior Championships, Track Town USA is more prominent than it ever has been.

In a way, it reminds me a bit of Watergate: Track Town would have won the 2021 bid anyway, they didn't need to rig the vote. Eugene- and Hayward Field- is the best place in America for top track and field. And that’s something no complex governing body can change, no matter how many committees have to vote.
 

photo by the author

Is Steve Kerr In Trouble Because the Golden State Warriors Are So Good?

The Golden State Warriors have set numerous regular-season awards for success. Steve Kerr has pretty much every first-year head coaching record that you can think of. Perhaps the most amazing part of Golden State’s 67-15 record is that the Warriors are the first team to win at least 50 games and then have at least a plus-15 win differential the next season.

This statistic, however, is slightly misleading because the Chicago Bulls won 47 games in 1995 and then set the NBA single-season record with 72 in 1996, and the ’72 Lakers, who held the previous record by winning 69, had won 48 games in 1971. It’s still damned impressive.

The Warriors head into the playoffs as the favorite, but the regular season-success may work against them because of Kerr’s inexperience coaching in crunch time of must-win games.

Because he hasn’t had any.

When the Warriors have lost this season, they’ve just shrugged it off and moved on to the next one. They haven’t lost three games in a row at all. They came kind of close when they lost to San Antonio and New Orleans on consecutive nights earlier this month, but Golden State had already wrapped up the top seed by then and weren’t going to show any special tricks to their likely playoff opponents.

Kerr has never been head coach for a win-or-go-home game. Of course he’s been part of many as an assistant and as a player. Most notably, he hit the NBA Finals-clinching shot for the Bulls in 1997 against the Utah Jazz. But he’s never had the (artificial, media-generated) pressure of coaching a team on the road to win a playoff game or a series. Since Golden State has been so good, he’s never even come close to facing that (artificial) pressure this season.

He’s had exceptional training on how to coach those games, playing for Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich and having teammates like Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan and, uh, Craig Ehlo (but not that year). But he’s never done it himself, as the guy who is responsible for all the on-court decisions.

That’s why the first-round games against New Orleans will be absolutely key to Steve Kerr’s growth as a coach. It’s one thing to coach one game against a team and move on, win or lose. It’s another to coach against the same team four or seven times in a row when the season is at stake. It’s still another to coach a close-out game against a team that will do anything to win and keep playing another day. Steve Kerr has done none of those things.

This is why Warriors fans should be a tad concerned about the playoffs. Especially when they go up against Gregg Popovich, Kerr’s former coach. The masterly Popovich will do everything he can to jangle the rookie coach’s nerves. The one guy who knows this for sure is Steve Kerr. Which is why Pops and the Spurs already have an advantage over Kerr and the Warriors.

Coach Kerr knows that the regular season superlatives will mean nothing unless the Warriors win the title. In that respect, he’s already acting like a veteran coach. Now it’s time to coach like one.

"Then, after we beat you...." Ah, but who's saying it?

photos courtesy: nbcbayarea.com, nytimes.com

After The Masters: Jordan Spieth's Future

Spiethin' ain't easy.

Jordan Spieth tied or bettered several of Tiger Woods’s records at The Masters, so of course the sports world is now busy deifying a 21-year-old as “The Next Tiger."

It’s common to call somebody “The Next” so-and-so. Usually, those guys don’t become “The Next” whoever. The number of guys designated “The Next Michael Jordan” is a long list that includes Hall of Famers, pretty good players, average players, and flat-out busts. But the best players on that list earned their way off that list by being phenomenal players in their own right. Kobe Bryant isn’t known as the next MJ, he’s just Kobe. LeBron is just LeBron.

How many golf guys have been given the title “The Next Tiger” since 1997? It seems like any young golfer who won a major in the last 18 years has gotten it. If we just look at people whose first major win was at Augusta, I seem to recall Mike Weir, Trevor Immmelman and Charl Schwartzel all being heralded as "The Next Tiger." You know how many combined major wins those guys have? Three. Their only major win was at the Masters.

Most recently before Spieth, it was Rory McIlroy. I’m not the only one to notice how quick people are to anoint Spieth as the new king and shove Rory to the side. It’s not like McIlroy will never play again because he is pushing everything to the right. Rory has four majors, including the last two of 2014- the Open Championship and the PGA Championship- and is just 25. He's not going anywhere anytime soon.

Spieth is doing his best to ignore the hype by putting his head down and playing more. He claimed on his Letterman appearance that he’s playing his third tournament in a row, headed out to Hilton Head, because they helped him get started on tour and that he feels obligated as well as a special kinship to the event.

That explanation could be true.  It could also be because Spieth knows you have to ride a hot hand when it’s dealt, seeing that he has finished in the top two in his last four tournaments.

But it’s probably because he has no desire to become the next Tiger Woods. He wants to be known independent of Tiger. He wants to be the only Jordan Spieth.

He’s taking the best course of action to not becoming the next Tiger by continuing to play. He’s surviving in the short-term by doing what brought him success in the first place: playing golf.

In the long-term, he already has a role model for how not to do it: Tiger Woods. It’ll be hard for Spieth to stay a regular ole Texas country boy, but we need to give the kid a chance.

Because the best thing to happen wouldn’t be for Spieth to become “the next Tiger,” but for Rory and Jordan to become “the next Arnie and Jack.” Now that’s something we can all root for.

photos courtesy: nydailynews.com, strangegolf.com

Please Don’t Let The Top San Francisco Giants 2015 Season Highlight Be Madbum On A Horse

Because right now, it is.

Of course that’s not really true. Rookie Chris Heston has pitched marvelously in two starts, taking over for Matt “Greg Oden” Cain. Unfortunately Heston only has one win to show for it since the Giants can’t seem to score any runs. In the home opener they left the bases loaded in the first two innings, and had 10 men LOB through five.

Scoring runs has seemed to be a problem for this team for several years, but winning three world championships in five years has allowed the problem to be somewhat ignored. At some point it will turn out to be a huge problem and it won’t matter what the pitching does. It’s kind of like weight gain. A pound or two every now and again doesn’t seem like much until you look at a picture from five years ago and find out that you’re 50 pounds heavier, and that’s a problem. Errr, so I’ve heard.

April just seems like a month for the Giants to survive and not get too far out of contention. It’s also not good to say “When Hunter Pence gets back everything will be fine,” because Pence can’t make Cain’s dead right arm come back and keep Tim Lincecum’s head on straight and ensure that Tim Hudson doesn’t break down and that Brandon Belt and Casey McGehee don’t succumb to freak injuries.

Other than that, he can pretty much do anything. And step one is making sure that Madison Bumgarner on a horse isn’t number one on the season highlight reel.

"You ain't seen nothin' yet."

photos courtesy: sfgate.com

A New Baseball-History Oriented Blog

Friends, readers, and friends of readers.

I have begun a new baseball-history oriented blog over at MLBlogs.com so I can indulge my baseball nerdness among other baseball nerds.

It's called Townballstories.mlblogs.com, which in itself is a historical baseball nerd name.

My latest post is:

How Baseball Helped The Masters Become a Top Golf Tournament

I'll link to the new stuff when there's new stuff there. But I'll also still be here. In other words, just keep reading. Link and follow and all that jazz 'cause it's hip.