Month: November 2016

Arthur Rhodes Pitched 20 years for nine different teams. 87-70 record, 4.08 ERA, 33 saves, 15.0 WAR, 3.1 WAA Pro argument: The man pitched forever. Con argument: Lefty specialists are to be cherished but not enshrined Deserves to be in Hall?: No Will get elected this year?: No Will ever get elected?: No

Ten years ago, I sat in a room with Bill Snyder … and we talked. We had “talked” dozens of times through the years, of course, because I was columnist for the Kansas City Star and he was head coach at Kansas State. Our paths crossed often. But this was different. Snyder had just retired as…

I hope you saw Sean’s response to my thoughts on the role that Baseball Reference WAR played in the Cy Young battle between Rick Porcello and Justin Verlander. I thought it was thoughtful, especially considering that he wrote it while on vacation. I want to discuss it in a bit more detail here. At the…

This photograph makes me so happy. It was taken at the White House, of course, on the day that 21 people received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I first saw it on Vin Scully’s Instagram page. I am thankful that Vin Scully has an Instagram page.

The Cleveland Browns lost their 11th straight game this season, and they endured one of the nastiest displays of disrespect in recent memory, and there is every indication that they will start imploding now. So, of course, I want to talk about a completely meaningless drive at the end of the game. Before getting to…

For some reason I don’t understand, my friend Sean Foreman’s response to my Baseball Reference WAR piece went into spam. Sean is president and founding partner of Baseball Reference and someone who has been hugely helpful to me through the years. And he makes his expected excellent points here. I have pulled his response out…

One thing that ticks me off in sports is when an announcer says one thing, the replay clearly shows something else, and the announcer refuses to back off. You see it all the time. An announcer (often Phil Simms) will explain a quarterback sack away by saying that there was nobody open downfield or praise…

First of all, no offense at all to Kate Upton, but you could make a strong argument for any of the three. We’re talking American League Cy Young Award here, and anyone who would argue that Justin Verlander, Rick Porcello or Corey Kluber definitely DID NOT deserve the award is being a bit disingenuous, I…

From “The Soul of Baseball” Buck would have turned 105 on Sunday. For his friend and mine, Bob Kendrick, I pulled out the story about Buck O’Neil’s best day.

The Cleveland Browns are 0-10 which sounds just about right if you are someone who believes that the better football team should win the game. The Browns are never the better football team. There are days, of course, when the Browns have a little mojo going or when they face a better team that flounders…