It Really Happened, Didn’t It?

Today’s trip down baseball’s memory lane are two Sports Illustrated covers, from this week in time, 50 years apart.The first is from the first week of November 1975, following the thrilling victory of “The Big Red Machine” over the Boston Red Sox. I don’t need to recount once more, but will of course, how the […]

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The Final Lesson of Baseball

It is not an exaggeration to say that I wept openly last night. It is not an exaggeration to say that as Dennise, Maria, and I leapt from our chairs, into the middle of the room —all in mutual tears, falling into a jumping bear hug— I clumsily and excitedly grabbed them so tight, it […]

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The Dream of a Screaming Baseball Headline

Today’s blast from baseball’s past is this screaming headline from the Cincinnati Post, and more Cincinnati Reds memorabilia from the box in my closest. As we’ve covered previously, my Dad bestowed me with a generational a love of the Reds, which developed concurrently with my love for the Texas Rangers. It seemed perfectly logical, since […]

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Here’s To the Regular Season of Life

Today’s baseball blast-from-the-past is this actual line up card from a Texas Rangers game on Sunday, October 2, 1977. I must have bought it at a memorabilia convention somewhere in the Dallas area. Probably at a Holiday Inn with bad carpet. It was in a box with a lot of my other baseball stuff that […]

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The Rangers’ Icarus

Among folks have a certain age in North Texas, saying you were present for the major league debut of David Clyde is akin to what folks say about Woodstock: A lot more people say they were there than who likely were even able to physically fit in that stadium.I think I was actually there. But, […]

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The Generational Joy of Baseball

This will be my first Texas Rangers World Series without my Dad. As I wrote the other day, I got so much of the joy/heartbreak of baseball from my Father. If I am honest, I put my baseball addiction away for months at a time. Sometimes it just gets to be too much. I only […]

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Sixty-Two Years. Two Times. One Game. One Strike.

Sixty-two years.Two Times.One Game.One Strike. Whatever you think of our passion for our Texas Rangers, I have more baseball math for you this morning. You may still think we (me) are (am) too cocky, brash, and abrasive in our joy over the Texas Rangers’ trip the World Series.Fine. I’ll stand in the box and take […]

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Vandergriff’s 50-Year Vision Comes True.

This morning, at the conclusion of a truly entertaining ALCS between the Texas Rangers and the Houston Astros, I am thinking of the visionary leadership of Tom Vandergriff. Vandergriff was a visionary not only because of his work to get the Texas Rangers to DFW, but because of his even greater vision for the entire […]

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Baseball Remembers The Cheaters

When I was a kid, my grandfather Mays gave me his copy of the “Encyclopedia of Baseball.” At the time, it was a one volume set that kept all the records of every team, every player, from the very beginning of the sport. More than perhaps any other sport, baseball is obsessed with its past, […]

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Pete Rose Was My First Hero

I can’t speak to Pete Rose fairly. I suppose I will ask that anyone who feels like they can refrain from doing so here. I know what you’ll say. I don’t need to hear it. You see, Rose was my first and all-time greatest sports hero. To say I worshiped the guy doesn’t come close. […]

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