When I was a kid, I liked chocolate ice cream. Because I liked chocolate ice cream, I was, as a matter of principle, against vanilla ice cream. Oh, vanilla ice cream was good, but giving it any credit would somehow take away from chocolate's status. As time went by, I found myself increasingly preferring vanilla […]

Greg, welcome to the other side. We were beginning to wonder if we’d ever see you in these parts, but we’re glad you’re here.

The description of Shea I offer curious baseball fans who’ve never been there is that it’s like a DMV with a ballgame somewhere inside it. A couple of years ago I had my pregame […]

So I hope it was fun. It sure sounded fun.

What a difference a double shot of some payroll love makes. Thanks to Pedro and Carlos, I wasn't nervous as today's game unfolded over the radio. Not as Pettitte kept throwing zeroes. Not when we somehow turned a pickoff into a stolen base despite the presence […]

During one of the many, many godforsaken Jets seasons in which I’ve entangled myself while waiting for baseball to return, I recall they lost four of their first six games after spending prodigiously to produce a more favorable ratio. One of their Hessians insisted they were much better than their record indicated, that they were, […]

The Germans have handy words for lots of complex emotional states, most notably Schadenfreude,

defined for 40-odd years now as “the feeling of pleasure when the

Yankees don't win the World Series.” Do our crafty German friends have

a word for “the giddy high that one doesn't want to hear is in fact not

a high, but merely a […]

Ol' Case had a pitcher named Karma at Worcester, his first managerial

posting, in 1926. Karma went through the order once but never again.

Turned out what would go around didn't come around. So much for Karma,

Stengel said.

So much for this pitching staff, too. Mr. Martinez notwithstanding,

it's enough to make one long for the days of Astacio, […]

Here's a memory for the Old Perfesser that seems all too appropriate:

Once upon a time you warned of Ron Swoboda, shortly after he was seen

hopping up and down in the Met dugout trying to get a stomped-on helmet

off his spikes, “He thinks he's being unlucky, but he's gonna be

unlucky his whole life if he don't […]

I am not going to speak of any other sport. I am not here to argue about other sports. I am in the baseball business. I started in professional ball in 1910. I have been in professional ball, I would say, for ninety-five years. I have been employed by numerous ball clubs in the majors […]

Tonight I did the first thing I do when I panic — I listened to the FAN postgame.

It's a good way to calm down, because 90% of the people who call in

are, by comparison, completely insane. And indeed, apparently this is

all Kaz Matsui's spot, and he needs to be benched, moved to the 9 […]