Professional baseball players, managers, and coaches love to use the word “surreal.” In the understatement of the century, after the final game of the World Series the Dodger manager Dave Roberts said, […]
The surreal 2020 World Series
Droids dream of electric Series?
The Dodgers are in the World Series for the third time in four years, and it’s starting to look like that’s as sure a sign of fall in Los Angeles as the […]
The Yips beat Jose and Astros
As has been previously noted, the distribution of divine justice by the Baseball Gods can be a seemingly random affair. But sometimes they will apply it with a telling vengeance. Such was […]
Myth-making: a national pastime
Major League Baseball has always traded heavily in its history and nostalgia. The tendency to romanticize and sentimentalize the past has been a characteristic of a lot of baseball fans, and MLB […]
Astros: 2020 “Sinderella” team?
Like all gods, the Baseball Gods are fickle and inconsistent when it comes to handing out divine justice in this world. “Anything can happen” is the commonplace phrase when describing the MLB […]
Ain’t nothing like the real thing
Before this simulated season of empty ballparks I would arrive at Angel games in Anaheim a little early. Anaheim Stadium is one of the older ballparks in the major leagues and isn’t […]
Dodger dynasty and Angels agony
Last July a writer for Sports Illustrated made a surprising World Series prediction, perhaps under extreme duress “during the stress of these times,” that inspired in me an afternoon of wistful pipe […]
The mystery of the strike zone
Dear Mr. Howard, The Umpire-Defender has logged on. I am the guy that turns on the game to see the umpire. We exist. We are valid. Apparently that’s news to you. When […]
Are robot umpires the future?
In July of 2019 a “robot umpire” made its debut at the Atlantic League All Star Game in York, Pennsylvania. It’s decisions were limited to balls and strikes which were relayed immediately […]
Living in the “Ghost Season”
The baseball season has reached the point of what would be, in a non-Pandemic season, the All Star break. The Midsummer Classic has always been a glittering exhibition of the game’s finest talents. […]
