So, giving more thought to the phenomenon that is Vin Scully … The secret to his popularity, I believe, lies in two areas. –His voice. It is a pleasure to hear. Well-modulated, mellifluous. Never shouting, never mumbling, easy to understand, easy on the ear. The voice of a natural storyteller. –His words. Scully uses proper […]

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Vin Scully plans to return next season for his 67th season as the voice of the Dodgers. Hurrah! The club made the announcement late last week, and then a few days ago Vinny, who will be 88 in November, talked to reporters about his decision. His planned return is great news for everyone who loves […]

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August has been an ugly month for the Best Player in Ball. Through games today, Mike Trout looked like a slow, tired impostor who somehow had gotten access to Trout’s No. 27 jersey. With two games left in August, the Los Angeles Angels outfielder was 18-for-93. That’s a batting average of .194. With five runs […]

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This was the year Yasiel Puig was supposed to put it all together. The kid who got MVP votes after a fairly solid second season would emerge as one of the game’s best players. Or, at least, his production would be so significant that we wouldn’t notice the things that pertain to his being a […]

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A topic that comes up, eventually, with everyone who plays fantasy baseball or football or basketball or soccer … When a player from your fantasy team meets up with someone from the team you support … to which side do you focus your psychic energy? Or, making it simple, whom do you want to come […]

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The UAE has just about anything you could want, but I am not at all sure that, in the whole country, we have a mechanized batting cage. And I feel like taking a few swings about now.

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The Dodgers melted down spectacularly in Pittsburgh tonight, blowing a 5-4 lead in a nine-run Pirates seventh inning. It ended 13-6, with the Pirates completing a sweep of the most expensive team in baseball. This game had the feel of a milestone, a turning point, even from the other side of the Atlantic. Consider: –Another […]

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The Baseball Hall of Fame wants some of the old sports writers off the voting rolls for the game’s greatest honor — admission to the Hall of Fame. I would take that personally … except that I think it’s a good idea. To see the headline is to think, at first: “Hey, ageism at work! […]

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“God hates (fill in city name)” was a meme Bill Simmons worked into the ground during his writing days. He could hardly go a month without revisiting the topic, tweaking it slightly, looking at it from another perspective. Sure, it usually came out with Cleveland and Buffalo near the top, as “most benighted sports cities” […]

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Back in February I looked at the list of the 10 bobblehead nights the Dodgers were planning for the 2015 season, and saw a name there barely familiar to me: Justin Turner. And I did a post entitled The Unknown Bobblehead … referring to this Justin Turner person, who for all I knew might have […]

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