Home run hitters tend to have nicknames. Babe Ruth was “The Bambino,” Dave Kingman was “Kong,” David Ortiz ”Big Papi” and Frank Thomas the “Big Hurt.” Bill “Moose” Skowron was a power hitting first baseman for the Yankees in the 1950s, but his nickname had nothing to do with anything he did on the field. “My grandfather shaved off all [...]

David Wright set a historic team record last night when he homered off Mark Buehrle to give the Mets a 2-1 lead, a game they ultimately would win 5-1. Those two RBI were the 734th and 735th of his career, setting the Mets record that was previously held by Darryl Strawberry. It’s amazing that he’s [...]

On Saturday, I attended a screening of Knuckleball! at the Tribeca/ESPN Sports Film Festival. The documentary, by award-winning filmmakers Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg, follows knuckleballers R.A. Dickey and Tim Wakefield during the 2011 season. Stern and Sundberg also tell the story about how both pitchers came to embrace and master this unique pitch.  Charlie Hough, Phil Niekro, Jim Bouton  and long-time White Sox [...]

Jose Reyes returns to New York tonight as a member of the Miami Marlins. It will be weird to see the former Mets shortstop decked out in the silly art deco Miami uniform. This is not the first time in team history a star is returning to his former place of employment. The Mets have done [...]

Great day I walked on to the field and then flexed for the crowd got a loud possitive cheer loved it — Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) April 21, 2012 The beauty and downfall of social media is that it allows complete transparency into the world of people. The invisible wall that once separated fans from who [...]

The Braves ended R.A. Dickey’s streak of 14-consecutive quality starts that fell just short of Dwight Gooden’s team record set in 1985. Ironically, it was the Braves that ended Doc’s on July 4th of that season. That was the infamous 19 inning game that ended at 4:00 AM. Dickey’s streak has been over two seasons, [...]

Are the first 10 games a precursor of things to come? Normally you wouldn’t think so since the baseball season is 162 games long. It represents exactly 6% of the total schedule. There are, however, some trends in how a team performs the last decade. ACTA Sports produced this analysis in their latest “Stat of [...]

As I mentioned during last night’s radio program, I am giving away a free VIP admission to the baseball documentary Knuckleball! The winner and a guest will sit in a special reserved section at the premiere and receive a signed movie poster by R.A. Dickey, Tim Wakefield, Charlie Hough, and Jim Bouton. The first person [...]

Join me during the Yankees-Angels game for this week’s radio program at 8pm. We will kick off talking Yankees baseball. Is Mark Teixeira on the way out? What do the Yankees do with Phil Hughes? How do the Bombers look now that they have righted the ship after a 0-3 starter? Hear NYBD contributor Joe Delgrippo and Stevem [...]

On the second night of Passover, a simple dinner discussion that evolved into an argument between the Matzo Ball Soup and the Brisket was the impetus for this list. Going through the Internet to find any definitive list, this wonderful piece by the ubiquitous Jonah Keri from 2007 was discovered  listing the Top 18 Jewish [...]

Looks like Jose Canseco is playing the lottery these days. He’s asked the Mets, Red Sox, A’s and Blue Jays for jobs over the last couple of years, but no one seems to want to take a chance on the 47-year old.  He even said he would play baseball for free, if he won the [...]

It’s never easy to say goodbye to an icon. Yesterday, the Indianapolis Colts released their franchise player, Peyton Manning, as they look to move into a new era with the #1 draft pick that will undoubtedly be Stanford QB Andrew Luck. There was some debate on the radio about how the decision to move away [...]

All reports indicate that MLB will expand its playoff system this year to include a second Wild Card team. MLB continues to be the only sport that doesn’t get it. What I mean by that is they don’t have the understanding or ability to create an economic system where the disparity in local revenues between [...]

The minor-league deal. The non-roster invite to spring training. It’s like one of those phrases you hear in passing and ignore. There are two types of non-roster invitees, as former Dodgers GM Fred Claire pointed out to me the other day. “There’s the promising young player that you would like to take a long look [...]

New York and Manny Ramirez has been talked about for years. Omar Minaya nearly acquired Ramirez a few times when he ran the Mets. The Yankees flirted with the idea as late as last season, but elected to pass. It appeared that Ramirez’s career was over after he elected to retire instead of serve his [...]