Matthau, Madison, and Buttermaker

In the 1976 movie The Bad News Bears, Walter Matthau plays Morris Buttermaker, a former minor league ballplayer with the unenviable task of managing a team consisting of loudmouth Little Leaguers.  Matthau’s rumpled persona matches the Buttermaker character like...

The Story of Baseball

Sitting in my bookcase is a childhood icon.  The Story of Baseball by John M. Rosenburg. Random House published this oversized baseball history book for children in 1962 and several updated versions thereafter. It was the book that I read after Little League games, on...

The Other Wrigley Field

Wrigley Field is a baseball landmark. It thrives in nostalgia, our baseball memories contributing to its increasingly rich history. Not that Wrigley Field, “the ivy-covered burial ground” as described eloquently yet mournfully in Steve Goodman’s song A Dying Cubs...

Houston, You Have A Problem

A once venerable symbol of the future is on the precipice of being an ignored relic of the past. The Houston Astrodome. The first domed stadium. The 8th Wonder of the World. The echoes of its past glory are nearly silent as the Astrodome is a vacant remnant of an era...