Willie Mays, the greatest living baseball player, turns 81 today. 

The first image is of him gracefully sliding into home in his rookie season, 1951.

The second one is the 1973 Topps card for Willie. His face is contorted to look like a Met.

“A totalitarian like Steinbrenner would have gleefully battered people with that kind of power, which is why it’s so entertaining to find him railing against Vincent’s application of the clause in the Spira case. But there’s a meta-irony on top of the mini-irony: In protesting the Spira decision so vociferously, Steinbrenner helped force Vincent out as commissioner and install a replacement who, in 20 years, has almost never used the “best interests” clause within baseball because he’s almost never stood in any real opposition to owners. What vestiges of independent authority remained in the commissioner’s office got boxed up with Vincent’s three-hole punch as he exited the building.”

From Deadspin’s How George Steinbrenner Helped Kill Off Baseball’s Last Real Commissioner.

Barry Larkin elected to Hall of Fame »

Larkin spent his entire major league career with the Reds from 1986-2004, hitting .295 with 198 home runs, 960 RBIs, 2,340 hits and 379 stolen bases. He won three Gold Gloves and the 1990 World Series.

The 2013 ballot figures to be the most controversial, with seven-time MVP Barry Bonds and seven-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens eligible for the first time along with Craig Biggio, Mike Piazza, Curt Schilling and Sammy Sosa.

Torre Resigns to Pursue Dodgers Deal »

Having managed in Los Angeles, Joe Torre now wants to return to the Dodgers, but this time as part of an ownership group.

Torre resigned from his job as executive vice president for baseball operations for Major League Baseball on Wednesday to join a group seeking to buy the Dodgers. The group is led by Rick Caruso, a Los Angeles real estate developer best known for the Grove, a successful retail and entertainment development near the Farmers Market in the city.

Old Time Family Baseball: Transactions of Note and Import »

oldtimefamilybaseball:

Transactions of Note and Import

Royals Sign Jonathan Broxton. The Royals have their hot prospects, their young guns, their gritty freeswingers, but until now they didn’t have their fat guy. For $4 million, they got their fat guy.

Tigers Sign Ramon Santiago. Ramon Santiago has quietly been one of the most productive and dependable utility men of the last few years. His .685 OPS over the past three years, albeit it in part-time duty, compares pretty favorably to Rollins’ .720 mark over the same span.

Cubs Sign David DeJesus. Who’s the winner in all of this? His wife, Kim DeJesus. David DeJesus will also appreciate getting out of the Coliseum who saw his career .289/.360/.427 mark sink to .240/.323/.376 last year, while the Cubs will appreciate an outfielder who can both a) field and b) take a few pitches.

Glad to see DeJesus land with Chicago. I used to play ball against him in High School. He was the center fielder of my rival town; I played first base. We played against each other in AAU, Babe Ruth and Little League All Stars, as well. He went on to play in the Major Leagues (he’s been a big leaguer for 8 years), I sit in front of a computer all day. He has no idea I exist, as I’m among the thousands of kids he played against. But I’ve followed his career, as my town’s biggest export, I believe, is Jim Nantz. Unfortunately for DeJesus, his hometown’s biggest star happens to be The Situation. New Jersey. Fuck yeah.

Some Loosely Put Together Thoughts on Sport

Should the NBA forfeit its season, my generation will have witnessed 2 of the 4 major US sports to lose a season due to labor disputes. The NHL lost the 2004-2005 season. Unfortunately for fans, this is a recurring trend over the last 30 years. Since 1982, all 4 major US sports have sustained work-stoppages. Baseball: 1981, 1994-1995; Football: 1982, 1987, 2011; Hockey: 1994-1995; 2004-2005; Basketball: 1998-1999, 2011-2012.*

Maybe I’m grasping here, but over the past 30 years, as we’ve seen the inequity between haves and the have-nots (or, in today’s parlance, the 1% vs the 99%) rise, it’s quite amazing how the fans, those who ultimately pay the salaries of the rich (the athletes) and the uber-wealthy (the owners) remain loyal to these non-essential industries. Perhaps there’s a story in here for an economist to see if there’s some type of connection between the rise of sports (from popularity to revenue) from the late 1970s on to to the rise in inequity.

Of course, there’s a deep connection between fan and sport. Love for a player and team connect generations, as parents and children can bond over a hot dog at baseball game or at tailgating parties at football games. But what happens when these rituals get suspended? Baseball suffered through low ratings and low ticket sales after the 1994 strike, only to pick up after the steroid-tainted home run derby season of 1998. The NHL hasn’t bounced back from its 2004-2005 season loss.

In these dark economic times, there’s somewhat of a dialectical tension occurring for fans: on one hand, sport is an escape from the troubled news of the day; on the other, it’s become cost-prohibitive for many to actually go to a sporting event. Yes, we can watch on TV or the Web or listen on radio, but there’s nothing like walking through a tunnel at your favorite stadium and seeing/smelling the greenest grass or polished hardwood. And when we see the millionaire athletes and billionaire owners squabble over economics (no matter if you agree with the players or the league) while the rest of the nation is hurting, it becomes a tough pill to swallow.

Sports are intertwined with our nation and our culture. The actors upon this great stage are heros to kids, youthful remembrances for adults. And when the producers of the play tinker with the actors, the audience gets unnerved and responds by keeping their wallet in their pants.

No matter how the NBA lockout ends, will fans come back? Yes. But it might take longer than the owners and players realize.

*years indicate work stoppages that affected seasons, as opposed to work stoppages during the season where games were eventually made up, like the 1985 MLB strike.

“But baseball was different. Schwartz thought of it as Homeric - not a scrum but a series of isolated contests. Batter versus pitcher, fielder versus ball. You couldn’t storm around, snorting an slapping people, the way Schwartz did while playing football. You stood and waited and tried to still your mind. When your moment came, you had to be ready, because if you fucked up, everyone would know whose fault it was. What other sport not only kept a stat as cruel as the error but posted it on the scoreboard for everyone to see?”

The Art of Fielding, by Chad Harbach (page 259). 

'Field of Dreams' property sold »

Mike and Denise Stillman have a simple business plan: If they build more baseball fields, more people will come.

The Stillmans said they plan to preserve the iconic diamond while building about a dozen other fields and an indoor training dome on the 193-acre property, turning the land into a Midwestern hub for youth baseball and softball practice and tournaments.

newyorker: Roger Angell’s Game Six scorecard Roger Angell’s scorecard, in which he recorded every error, lead change, and clutch hit from last night’s wild Game Six. Also, click through to read Angell’s take on Game 6: http://nyr.kr/vtJScW Wild and exciting game, but there’s a piece of me that refuses to put this in the ‘greatest games ever’ category due to the 5 errors and multiple blown saves. That said, very much looking forward to game seven and rooting for the Yankees of the National League.

newyorker:

Roger Angell’s Game Six scorecard

Roger Angell’s scorecard, in which he recorded every error, lead change, and clutch hit from last night’s wild Game Six.

Also, click through to read Angell’s take on Game 6: http://nyr.kr/vtJScW

Wild and exciting game, but there’s a piece of me that refuses to put this in the ‘greatest games ever’ category due to the 5 errors and multiple blown saves. That said, very much looking forward to game seven and rooting for the Yankees of the National League.