How the Great Falls Voyagers Got Their Name

More than a moniker, the name of a sports team may reflect local history, culture, and myth.  Baseball, certainly, has contributed to this linguistic equation. San Diego is the site of the first Franciscan mission, hence the name Padres. The West Virginia Power, the...

Greg Brady vs. Danny Partridge

In the first half of the 1970s, two clans ruled Friday night television—The Brady Bunch and The Partridge Family.  Both shows aired on ABC. Dodgers legend Don Drysdale met the Bradys in the episode “The Dropout” as a client of Mike Brady, America’s...

Robinson vs. Buckley

Jackie Robinson, the black knight who rescued baseball from the claws of segregation, accomplished his mission neither immediately nor solitarily.  His was a burden of entrenched bigotry, racial taunts, and blind ignorance.  When Branch Rickey selected Robinson, his...

August 4, 1985

Tom Seaver was no longer the pitching phenom with the boyish face, unparalleled precision, and Herculean right arm on August 4, 1985.  He was a legend with achievements guaranteeing a passport to Cooperstown.  From 1968 to 1976, for example, Seaver had nine straight...

World’s Finest

Baseball’s history is highlighted by its heroes. Lou Gehrig revealed unimaginable courage in his “Luckiest Man” speech as he faced the debilitating, horrific, and fatal disease of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis that took his life nearly two years...

Now Pitching for the New York Yankees

There is another kind of pitching in baseball, one that has nothing to do with curveballs, strikeouts, or a catcher’s signs.  Pitching products is a cornerstone of the National Pastime.  As a spokesman, a baseball player uses his fame, personality, and...