All of us have read “Casey at the Bat” and probably we have heard it recited many times. But did you know that “Casey at the Bat” is considered one of America’s most enduring poems? Its closest rival for that honor is “Twas the Night Before Christmas,” to which we respond: bah, humbug! And did you know that the town of Holliston, MA, located 20 miles west [...]
In June I was honored to participate in a panel discussion to kick off the “'Impossible Dreamers': The Pennant-Winning 1967 Boston Red Sox" exhibition at the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston (http://www.masshist.org/calendar/event?event=2265). The MHS was nice enough to post video of the talk: https://youtu.be/4-uGCPSHPDo -- Recorded 24 June 2017 a [...]
Gene Conley, who passed away on July 4, 2017, was the proud owner of one World Series Championship ring, and three NBA World Championship rings. No one else can make this claim, and it is highly unlikely that anyone will ever duplicate his feat. Conley earned his World Series Championship ring pitching for the Milwaukee Braves in 1957. He earned his NBA Worl [...]
When the Boston Red Sox spring training camp opened in Winter Haven, Florida, in late-February 1967, nobody was talking about an American League pennant or humming Broadway show tunes in the team’s honor. The 1966 Red Sox had finished in ninth place, a distant twenty-six games behind the World Champion Baltimore Orioles, and the team had lost a total of one [...]
Carl Yastrzemski was selected to his first American League All-Star team in 1963. More than fifty years later he still clearly remembered walking into the locker room at Cleveland’s old Municipal Stadium. “Bill Monbouquette, Frank Malzone and Dick Radatz were all selected along with me. When we got to the park, the first player I saw was Al Kaline [Detroit [...]