Congratulations to Jim Thome on hitting his 600th career home run last night. While he was running around the bases, he was thinking of his late mother. This story has more, including visits to his Little League baseball field in Peoria where his mom used to watch him play. Well worth your time.
Baseball, and sport in general, needs more like him.
We all get old, and dying is part of the deal, but when a famous athlete gets old and moves to a hospice to endure the final days or weeks of hell that esophageal cancer unleashes on a human body, it seems even worse somehow.
This guy was as strong as an ox, and hit 500+ home runs back when that still meant something. I can still see his 1968 baseball card. That was the first year I ever bought baseball cards, and I loved them. I looked at them for hours, read the back, learned all the stats. And for some reason, he stuck in my mind as one of my favorites. Something about that name really resonated with me. How could a guy named Harmon Killebrew not be badass?
He was one of the biggest stars in the American League at the time, near the top of the leaders in HR and RBI every year. So I was excited to watch the 1968 All-Star game on TV because he was playing first base. Then I was horrified after watching him tear his hamstring on a close play at first, from stretching too far and doing the splits. It seemed so catastrophic to me - I was only 9, and I don’t think I had ever seen anybody get hurt before. He couldn’t walk and they had to carry him off on a stretcher, I think.
These guys seemed bulletproof to me, but I learned right at that moment that they aren’t, and am reminded of that again, now.
Our thoughts and prayers to Harmon Killebrew and all his family, friends, and teammates.
Ball, meet bat!
Francisco Cervelli lays down a bunt. I just want you to look at the ball meeting the bat. Wow.
AP photo by Kathy Willens.
Finally a photo that captures the excitement of bunting.
Bunting? In the AL? What the hell is that?
Beautiful.
When it came to hitting, I had two specialties in Little League. Bunting and taking one for the team.
Needless to say, I didn’t play much after middle school…
(via sportspage)
Jacksonville Braves
The Death of the Triple
via oldtimefamilybaseball : via Beyond the Box Score
Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy doesn’t think Edgar Martinez is Hall of Fame worthy. Baseball Think Factory reader Pete L. deflates one of Shaughnessy’s more ridiculous reasons with a little help from a search engine:
… in [Shaughnessy’s] article in SI right after the 2010…
Another example showing that baseball writers hold too much power re: HOF voting (along with the Ron Santo travesty).
Ladies and Gentlemen: Your Tax Dollars at Work
If by “at work” we mean “sitting in a junkyard”.
Well played, U.S. Congress! Well played.
Bush Stadium in downtown Indianapolis was built in 1931 as a field for Negro and minor-league baseball teams. Today, it’s a historical relic holding hundreds of rusting vehicles traded under “cash for clunkers,” a spooky memorial to waste
Tim Lincecum, then and now. Huh.
via i54.tinypic.com
Consistency is the hallmark of greatness.
But this is just INSANE.
(via sbnation)
An amazing resource for baseball fans — they have box scores all the way back to 1920.
And, get this: despite having Dusty Baker as their manager!
Quite a feat.
Interesting quote from Brandon Phillips, Reds second baseman:
“We have to beat these guys. I hate the Cardinals,” Phillips told reporters. “All they do is bitch and moan about everything, all of them, they’re little bitches, all of ‘em. I really hate the Cardinals. Compared to the Cardinals, I love the Chicago Cubs. Let me make this clear: I hate the Cardinals.”
Nothing like some good old-fashioned hatred to liven up a baseball game!
via mightyflynn: (via Cincinnati Sports History)
