Perfection on Mother's Day: Dallas Braden Makes Baseball History

Sunday was notable not only for the fact that it honored mothers everywhere (love ya Mom!), it also saw a rare perfect game pitched by Dallas Braden of the Oakland A's. (See the Los Angelas Times' coverage of the game). His amazing game was only the 19th perfect game ever pitched in the history of major league baseball. Braden was emotional after the game when he met his grandmother in front of the dugout. His mother died from skin cancer when Braden was a senior in high school, so his grandmother played a large role in his upbringing. This is the stuff movies are made of. 

Take a look at this gallery of the other 18 perfect games going back to 1880!

27 up, 27 down : FoxSports.com Photo Gallery

Here's a video of the last three outs of the game:

[Image via fantasyknuckleheads.com]

Opening Day and the Great American Game – Go Out There and Take It! (Go Sox)

Many people mark the beginning of spring in different ways - nicer weather, longer days, etc. I always welcome spring with the beginning of baseball season. Yesterday, I had the good fortune of attending the Mets’ opening day. The weather was great and the fans were rabid, and I just hoped all afternoon long that no one could tell that I am really a Red Sox fan.

            The Red Sox played their opening game against the Yankees on Easter Sunday. To open the game and the season, young Joshua Sacco performed his own version of Herb Brook’s “Miracle” speech (delivered prior to the United States’ Men’s Hockey team’s game against the Soviet Union during the 1980 Olympics). Here is his fiery rendition of the speech that might make all the Yankees’ fans out there cringe – especially in light of how the game ended. Enjoy!

[Image via gysba]

The Say Hey Kid Plans to Say Hey (In Print)

The NY Times is reporting that baseball legend Willie Mays has decided to cooperate with a biographer for the first time in telling the story of his hall of fame career. Willie Mays, The Life, The Legend by James S. Hirsch will allow Mays to tell the story of his childhood and baseball career (which will include references to other baseball greats according to the publisher’s webpage.) 

The NY Times piece expresses hesitation about Mays’ cooperation with the writing of his own history in terms of Mays’ skittishness at tackling controversial topics. For example, Mays does not view the segregation he faced in major league baseball as a hindrance, and in fact, attempts to spin it for its advantages (?) Mays also claims ignorance when asked to comment on the controversy of steroids in baseball today (His godson is Barry Bonds). Perhaps, and maybe because of, his idiosyncrasies I can imagine that Mays’ biography will certainly spark further discussion among baseball fans when it appears.

Here is one of the most famous moments of Willie Mays’ career, known simply as “The Catch.” Mays and the New York Giants were taking on the Cleveland Indians in the 1954 World Series. (The Giants went on to win the series)

[Image via achievement]

Batter Up! New Book on America's Favorite Pastime

The Library of Congress just released a book showcasing it's baseball collection. Read the NY Times review of the book here.

Check out the Library of Congress' historic baseball collection.

It's a great resource for exploring America's game.

[Image via indiebound]

The Sultan of Swat – Babe Ruth hits 60th Home Run of the season

Babe Ruth is known by many nicknames: The Sultan of Swat, the King of Crash, and the Colossus of Clout. On September 30, 1927, Babe Ruth entered the record books, and in doing so, continued to evolve into the mythic nicknamed character we remember today. In the 1927 season, Babe Ruth hit 60 home runs. No one would be able to touch Ruth’s single season home run record until Roger Maris in 1961. Most recently, Mark McGuire and Sammy Sosa vied to break Maris’ record, but their achievements have been tainted by the suspicion of steroid use. In a world in which home run records are increasingly paired with steroid allegations or some indication of an unfair advantage, Ruth’s record is all the more impressive today.

As a career home-run hitter, Ruth’s numbers are particularly incredible. Ruth entered the major leagues at the age of nineteen in 1914. In 1919, Ruth hit 27 home runs, which was considered an incredible feat for his time. Ruth’s hitting ability was bolstered by rule changes which benefited the hitter. In an earlier era of baseball, the rules made for a faster more strategy -ridden game. The object was not often to hit home runs with the towering swing Ruth made famous, but to instead get runners on base and then maneuver to advance them towards home. Economy was also a concern, so the same game balls were used until they literally came apart at the seams. When foul balls were hit into the stands, they were thrown back by the crowd and used in the same game.

After hitting 60 home runs in 1927, Ruth was unable to surpass his single season home run record in any of his subsequent seasons. In his last year in the major leagues, Ruth hit just 6 home runs. In popular culture depictions of Ruth, many focus on his own personal excesses, which seemed only to find their match in the grand scale of his baseball talents. That said, many films also focus on Ruth’s inability to walk away from the game he so loved at his prime. Ultimately, Ruth could not abandon the game that brought him so much joy. In his farewell address at Yankee Stadium in 1948 just months before his death, Ruth spoke of the power of baseball in his own life and in the life of the youth in general:

You know this baseball game of ours comes up from the youth. That means the boys. And after you’re a boy and grow up to know how to play ball, then you come to the boys you see representing themselves today in your national pastime. The only real game – I think – in the world is baseball.

Here is a clip from Ruth’s farewell address:

Check out this video which shows Babe Ruth hitting his 60^th home run of the 1927 season.

[Image via family-ancestry and NYDailyNews]

Take Me Out to the Ballgame…or Not - Commissioner Bud Selig Announces the Cancellation of the 1994 Baseball Season due to a Strike by Players

September 14^th also marks the 15^th anniversary of the cancelation of the 1994 baseball season after a strike by players. The main dispute was between Commissioner Bud Selig and the owners vs. the players. Selig and the owners wanted to impose a salary cap on the league, and the players wanted nothing of the kind. The strike lasted from August 12, 1994 to April 2, 1995. At the end of the day, Judge Sonia Santomayor (now Associate Justice of the Supreme Court) issued an injunction against the owners, which prevented the salary cap and effectively ended the strike before the start of the 1995 season.

Click here to read an interesting editorial by David Gregory on the legacy of the 1994 strike. For one thing, the Montreal Expos were the best team in baseball in 1994 before the strike, and the strike clearly denied them a shot at the World Series. Fifteen years afterward, the Expos have been reborn as the Washington Nationals. Who knows if the Expos would still exist had they been able to chase a World Series in 1994 and energize a whole new contingent of their fan base? Overall, it would be hard to calculate how much the teams and players lost in ad revenue, ticket sales and merchandise, but most of all: in the all important area of self-respect. With the start of the 1995 season, the anger felt by fans across the nation was evident as many felt that Americans lost out on their national pastime for no other reason than the shared greed of players and owners. Fans booed at season openers, and many were soured on the sport for good. Did the strike achieve anything lasting? Did it change the game for the worse? I can’t say, but I’m certainly open to opinions.

[Image via gooseradio]