Harry Frazee, Ban Johnson and the Feud That Nearly Destroyed the American League

Jakubauskas Moves to Pirates; Indy Free Agents Also Finding Homes
The dust is just beginning to settle as major league organizations do a shakedown of their minor league rosters, and I can tell you I have not seen any certain winners so far from within the ranks of players who either started in or have played in Independent leagues. The promotion of players to the coveted 40-man rosters has taken place over the last few days with what appears to be an average of four to five players per organization getting the good news. Indy players have been shut out although 22 of them still have 40-man holdover slots. If there has been a winner so far it would appear to be Chris Jakubauskas, who Pittsburgh claimed off waivers from Seattle. The 30-ye

Ramblin On About My Glory Days: From Yaz to Perco to Ochocinco
Whenever I have a baseball coach’s clinic, I begin with a trivia question, “Who caught the last ball that Carl Yastrzemski ever hit in a major league game?” Not one person has ever answered correctly; until I gave them the hint, “The answer is so obvious, like it is right in front of you.” Every once in a while the “average Joe”(Jack Perconte) gets touched by “greatness” (Carl Yastrzemski). For the young coaches in the audience, I remind them that Yaz was the last player to win the Triple Crown, the league leader in homeruns, RBIs and batting average. What a great achievement, and that Yaz is the last player to do it over 40 years ago, speaks to its remarkable nature. N

The Debut of the DH
Starting in the 1973 season, the American League implemented the designated hitter rule, which allowed a player to hit for another player, which is almost always the pitcher. Here is a look at how the first designated hitters did for their respective American League clubs during opening day of the ‘73 season. April 6th – Boston Red Sox 15, New York Yankees 5 at Fenway Park NYY DH: Ron Blomberg (1-for-3, RBI, BB; batted sixth) BOS DH: Orlando Cepeda (0-for-6, 2 K; batted fifth) When Blomberg stepped up to the plate in the top of the first inning, he became the fi

Joe Klein Has Not Missed Out on Much in Majors Or as Executive Director of Atlantic League
One of the nice things about this time of year in the Independent Baseball-writing business is we sometimes can sit back without the daily buzz of games and think about some of the factors—and the people—that make this business go. I have written from time to time about some of the league commissioners and certain owners when something special was happening, perhaps giving credit if someone had stepped in and saved a franchise or maybe even a full league or earned a certain honor. Joe Klein gets mentioned every so often since he essentially oversees the day to day operation of the Atlantic League, especially when it comes to players. B

More Thoughts On The Cy Young
If you’ve not seen them, my selections for the Cardinal Bloggers Awards are below.  The votes are coming in from across the blogosphere and we should have some results maybe this weekend.I briefly touched on it yesterday, but I want to talk a little more about the aftermath of the Cy Young voting.  Apologies if there is some more than usual ramb