Centuries before the hit-and-run, Aristotle said, “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” Then came baseball, and then came Gary Carter. “Nobody loved the game of baseball more than Gary Carter,” New York Mets Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver said. “He wore his heart on his sleeve every inning he played.” Carter […]
No one I know thinks of Babe Ruth as an intellectual giant. Ruth, born on this date in 1895, partied his way through life, going for all the gusto he could. He lived that way both on and off the field. “I hit big or I miss big,” he once said. “I like to live […]
For the second time in four years, the New York Giants have won the Super Bowl. And they couldn’t have done it without a great shortstop. Shortstop? Yes, back when Eli Manning was going through a rough stretch as a rookie quarterback with the Giants, he received a phone call from Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter. […]
One day Hall of Fame baseball player Ted Williams watched a teammate return to the dugout after striking out. “Tell me,” Williams said. “When you swung and missed that ball, did your bat go over the ball or under it?” “What difference does it make,” the teammate wanted to know. “Either way, I struck out.” […]
Getting drafted by a pro team guarantees nothing. History is filled with people who are picked high but who never live up to their potential. No one can ever say that about Barry Larkin. If anything, he went beyond expectations. Taken as the fourth overall pick in the 1985 draft, Larkin has landed in the […]
It’s a scene played out all over the country — and even outside the country — during baseball’s off-season. Big-league players make appearances, either for money, as a favor or out of a sense of gratitude. Whatever the reason, you never know what effect these visits can have. It’s like a stone thrown into a […]
Years ago, there was a young musician in the Bay Area who made a living giving banjo lessons. Each of his students came on a certain day of the week. One evening, however, the teacher was waiting and waiting for someone to show up for a lesson. No one did. This puzzled the teacher, who […]
No subject interests me as much as how and why people improve. Just now on TV, hockey expert Stan Fischler did a piece on “Diamonds in the Rough,” a look at the top five players who reached the National Hockey League despite not being drafted. Each player represents a story that is hard to believe. […]
When you look at what Albert Pujols has accomplished in the big leagues — things no player has ever done — you wonder how teams could have passed over him on draft day. Yet it happened. Through 12 rounds of the 1999 draft, every single franchise looked at Pujols and decided there was someone better […]
Duke Snider’s recent passing brought some memories from New York Post columnist Peter Vecsey. Snider, a Hall of Famer who died last month at age 84, was playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers when Vecsey, then in seventh or eighth grade, went to a game. You can read the details here, but the short version is […]