Harmon Killebrew, Lew Burdette, and the Red Seat

When Harmon Killebrew died in 2011, obituaries recalled the statement of former Baltimore Orioles manager Paul Richards:  “Killebrew can knock the ball out of any park, including Yellowstone.” Killebrew’s power resulted in 573 home runs in a 22-year...

1969

As described by German Prussian politician Otto von Bismarck, politics is the art of the possible.  So is baseball.  When the New York Mets defeated the Baltimore Orioles to win the 1969 World Series, possible elevated to miraculous. Once again, National League...

The Death of John McGraw

John McGraw was to baseball what Henry Ford was to the automobile.  They did not invent their respective industries.  They reinvented them. Straddling the line separating the 19th and 20th centuries, McGraw ended his career as a baseball player by performing the...

The Odd Couple’s Triple Play

The New York Mets have a treasure chest of memories, moments, and merriment—Tom Seaver winning the National League Cy Young Award three times, Mr. Met serving as the first three-dimensional mascot for Major League Baseball, and the 1969 Mets performing a baseball...

Mary Dobkin a.k.a. “Aunt Mary”

This weekend, America lost a television treasure.  Jean Stapleton. In the 1970s, television audiences empathized Stapleton’s alter ego, Edith Bunker, on All in the Family.  Edith was optimistic, sunny, and kind to balance Archie Bunker’s grouchiness.  But...