Today’s tour of all things baseball is all about taking you to other places on the internet. This is something I had planned to do when I started this blog and well… better late than never, right? Look for me to do this more often moving forward.
First up, is a story that’s bigger than any baseball game. It’s really about the mission of Jamie and Karen Moyer. Jamie is a major league pitcher currently with the Philadelphia Phillies. He and his wife Karen started Camp Erin…
Rather than try to explain what Camp Erin is all about here, I invite you to watch this video instead:
There are a great many baseball players like Jamie Moyer (and his wife) trying to make a difference in the world (many are listed on the left). The Moyer’s mission is “to offer encouragement, comfort and support to children enduring a time of profound emotional, physical or financial distress.”
One of my missions is to bring stories like that of the Moyer’s to you.
To learn more about the Moyer Foundation, please visit their web site.
Ready for more?
Next up on today’s tour is Joe Posnanski. Posnanski is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated, who worked as a columnist at The Kansas City Star from 1996-2009. During that time he was voted the best columnist in America by the Associated Press Sports Editors. If you’ve ever read Posnanski’s material, you know why. If you haven’t, I invite you to read this piece about “The Heart of Los Angeles.” I promise you; you will not be disappointed.
Joe Posnanski is my favorite sports writer. He also happens to blog and his web site: Joe Posnanski – Curiously Long Posts should be a frequent stop for anyone who loves baseball and sports in general.
Something Joe wrote in a post he had written about the Harlem Globetrotters’’ opponent for years and years – The Washington Generals and their coach Red Klotz inspired me. His blog focused on Klotz and what Posnanski called “The greatest quote ever,” but it wasn’t Klotz’ quote that caught my attention; it was something Posnanski wrote about himself as he was talking about the quote.
Posnanski said, “I have tried hard to write about the fun side of sports, the optimistic side of sports, the bright side of the street.”
That little statement has stuck with me and is part of the inspiration for this blog. I’ve given you just a taste of Posnanski here and with the link above. Again, I invite you to explore his material in greater detail.
Last, but not least today I invite you to think about something Rob Neyer had to say about the “Limits of our Knowledge” in his blog the “Sweetspot.”
Neyer makes a great point in that piece about the way we analyze and scrutinize what our baseball teams do or don't do. He talks about how there are limits to what we can know about what happens behind the scenes. Check out Neyer’s piece and keep what he says in mind the next time your team makes a move that you can’t understand. It really appreciated his perspective.
One more piece from Neyer that I enjoyed a great deal is about a letter he wrote to Chadd Hartman, who was a minor league ball player in the San Diego Padres system. It’s the kind of piece I just love to read. It’s about a baseball player, but not one who did his job in the spotlight of the national media or before 40,000 fans. It’s one of those "off the beaten path" kind of stories that’s easy to relate to.
It’s about statistics and numbers, but not in the dry lifeless sense, it’s about bringing numbers to life in a way that only baseball can do it.
And that concludes today’s tour. Again, I hope to do this more often. If you have an idea that you think I should check into, please don’t hesitate to contact me (contct information is on this page). I promise you that I will give your thought every consideration. Also - I’m still open to receiving “letters” about why you love baseball.
Until next time….
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