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Embracing pitcher-friendly baseball

Whenever baseball stumbles upon a pitching-dominant era, people get nervous. “Outlaw the spitball!” they shout. Then, fifty years later: “Lower the pitcher’s mound!” After all, it was Babe Ruth’s hitting, not his pitching, that caused increased interest, ballooning attendance, and even built a ballpark. And it was Mark McGwire’s and Sammy Sosa’s hitting, not Greg […]

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Engel Stadium now 82 years old

A milestone of sorts last week in Chattanooga, where Engel Stadium, the former home of the Chattanooga Lookouts (Class AA; Southern League), marked its 82nd birthday amid efforts for renovation. One of the great old ballparks of baseball, Engel Stadium was opened by the entrepreneurial Joe Engel in 1930, beginning with a series of exhibition […]

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Rascals to honor Maris, the True Home Run King

It’s the 50th anniversary of Roger Maris’s legendary 61-homer season, and the River City Rascals (independent; Frontier League) are honoring the former Yankee and Cardinal great with a bobblehead proclaiming him the True Home Run King. Maris’s accomplishment, already memorialized in film and the subject of memorials this season at Yankee Stadium, grabbed the attention […]

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Crosley Field / Cincinnati Reds

When baseball fans think about Cincinnati, they think about firsts. The first professional baseball team. Charter members of the National League and the American Association. The first night game. The first pitch of the season. For six decades this city of baseball firsts played its games at the “old boomerang at Findlay and Western,” Crosley […]

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