SABR turns 50: A history rooted in so much more than metrics [The San Diego Union-Tribune]
Tom Hufford means it when he says he was married to baseball long before he met his wife.
That first love blossomed as a boy in Pulaski, Va., where Hufford spent his days collecting trading cards and playing pick-up games in sandlots and his evenings surfing his bedroom radio dial for MLB games from New York to St. Louis to Houston. By the time he was studying architecture at Virginia Tech, his relationship with baseball had evolved to the point that he’d taken it upon himself to begin to unearth the player particulars that even the original Baseball Encyclopedia had lost to time.
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Phil Niekro, 300-game winner and Hall of Famer, passed away on Dec. 26 at the age of 81. He was the best knuckleball pitcher in baseball history. Niekro, often referred to by his knuckleball-referencing nickname of Knucksie, spent 24 seasons (1964 through 1987) in the Major Leagues and pitched until
Phil Niekro, 300-game winner and Hall of Famer, passed away on Dec. 26 at the age of 81. He was the best knuckleball pitcher in baseball history.
Niekro, often referred to by his knuckleball-referencing nickname of Knucksie, spent 24 seasons (1964 through 1987) in the Major Leagues and pitched until he was 48. He was the last active player born in the 1930s, and by the time he retired seemed like he had been around forever (his white hair and wizened countenance helped solidify this impression). Niekro s big league longevity makes it easy to forget that it took until 1967 when he was 28 to solidify himself in the Atlanta Braves rotation. He spent
In a year we were physically separated, we found community on the opinion page.
In my work for The Gazette’s Insight section, I take note of what I call wholesome letters positive notes, messages of gratitude or opinions about anything other than contentious political issues. They provide a soothing contrast to the bombastic and hyper-partisanship takes that usually fill the page.
Here are a few of my favorites from 2020.
April Neuendorf of Hiawatha (“What’s that racket out there?” May 20) wrote that her weekend housework was disrupted by a “racket.” When it turned out to be children playing outside, she took time to stop, watch and listen.