Paul Newman’s World Series Pranks and Franks

As dusk anticipated relieving the sun of its duties during the twilight of October 3, 1956, Paul Newman hustled through the stage entrance of the Mansfield Theatre, an august Broadway institution on West 47th Street in Manhattan.  Yes, that Paul Newman. Newman was...

Bouton, Baseball, and “Ball Four”

Jim Bouton peeled back the veneer protecting Major League Baseball in his 1970 exposé, Ball Four. It reads like a friend sharing secrets with you over a couple of beers at a baseball game. Bouton, a quasi-phenom pitcher in the early 1960s with the New York Yankees, he...

A Woman’s Place Is At Home Plate

Don’t cheer for Mesa Preparatory Academy in Phoenix. It just won the Arizona Charter Athletic Association’s baseball championship game by forfeit. The team wanted to compete rather than win a forfeited game. And don’t cheer for Our Lady of Sorrows, the opponent school...