by David Krell | Apr 10, 2017 | David Krell
As America recovered from its Bicentennial hangover, Hank Aaron clubbed a home run in the Brewers-Angels game on July 20, 1976. It was not, in any way, a cause for ceremony. It was, however, highly significant. Aaron’s solo smash off the Angels’ Dick...
by David Krell | Mar 7, 2017 | David Krell
When Jim Bouton’s book Ball Four hit bookshelves in 1970, it exploded myths, revealed secrets, and offered tales of baseball, theretofore kept protected from the public. If reporters knew about Mickey Mantle’s alcohol problem, for example, they...
by David Krell | Mar 3, 2017 | David Krell
During the summer that William Holden escaped Stalag 17, Audrey Hepburn gallivanted around Rome, and Burt Lancaster kissed Deborah Kerr on a Hawaiian beach, two sluggers edged toward a batting championship decided by one thousandth of a point—Al Rosen and Mickey...
by David Krell | Jan 30, 2017 | David Krell
Bob Aspromonte fit nicely with the cultural paradigm built upon a “boys will be boys” philosophy in the 1960s, the decade when Joe Namath swaggered while Dean Martin swigged, offering touchstones for male fantasies of being famous and female fantasies of...
by David Krell | Dec 10, 2016 | David Krell
Baseball is a game marked by milestones of achievements—3,000 career hits, 300 career pitching victories, 100 RBI in a season. It’s also a game marked by milestones reached when opportunity meets happenstance. Players attain an illustrious position in the...