Foul Territory Baseball
Phil Regan Hiring Brings Underperforming Mets Back to the Future
With MLB teams now choosing pitching coaches from colleges and other diverse sources, given the new science of pitching, only Brodie Van Wagenen and the New York Mets would have chosen an octogenarian. Even though that octogenarian had been a …
Dave Dombrowski, Brodie Van Wagenen: Help! We Need Relief!
This has been a maddening baseball season for Brodie Van Wagenen of the New York Mets since day one, and now that Dave Dombrowski and the Boston Red Sox were thoroughly mauled by the Yankees in London last weekend, he …
All-Stars, London Games, Yanks Home Runs, McKay Called Up, Mets Memorial
Hey Now! You’re All Stars… The 2019 All-Stars Game rosters are out for the Midsummer Classic at Cleveland’s Progressive Field on July 9. The superstars of the sport and plenty of new faces were selected for outstanding performances so far …
Chin Music is Back Thanks to Men in Black
There they are. See them? Behind each base. Those men in black are not Tommy Lee Jones or Will Smith, they’re MLB umpires. And they’re witnesses to the rebirth of chin music. The home plate umpire is the one who …
Steroids, Launch Angles and Spin Rates—Not My Grandfather’s Baseball
After more than a century, is the game played on baseball fields around the country still the same game as it was played 50 or 100 years ago? I’m afraid to say that what I see these days is not …
From Gambling to … Gambling
Baseball has come full circle. From gambling to … gambling. From its roots with professional gamblers in the earliest days of amateur baseball to its growth as a business that provided athletic thrills to paying fans, many of whom bet …
Montreal Rays, Pujols Returns, Callaway Curses, Montas Suspended, Alonso Crushes
Ex-Rays… The Rays have received permission from MLB’s executive council to explore a plan in which they would play home games in both the Tampa Bay area and Montreal. Nobody was more surprised to hear about this unusual solution than …
Baseball Magic, Sixties Style
A friend once asked me why I loved baseball so much as a kid. “Baseball magic,” I said. “What’s baseball magic?” she asked. I thought about the idea for a few moments. What was baseball magic? Several thoughts came to …
Daily Fantasy Baseball Gambling on Pete Rose
Breaking News from The Off-Base Newsdesk* at Foul Territory… NEW YORK – With Draft Kings and Fan Duel vying for maximum market share of the ever-expanding daily fantasy sports (DFS) market, they each have set their sights on a spokesman …
Because this John Means Business
While I prefer not to admit it, I watch Baltimore Oriole games when John Means pitches. Perhaps because he pitches quickly, efficiently, and has worked to an ERA of 2.67 so far this season. Meaning that Means makes Baltimore baseball …
