№59: Reggie Jackson

Jim Sundberg told me not too long ago that Reggie Jackson was the smartest hitter he ever matched wits with as a catcher. Now, it is true that Reggie Jackson was standing right next to us when Sundberg said it — Reggie nodded kind of knowingly — but Sundberg has said the same thing on other…

№67: Harmon Killebrew

This is a fuller version of the column I wrote in the last hours of Harmon Killebrew’s life in 2011. I called it, “The Gentleman Called Killer.”

The gentleman the sportswriters somewhat desperately called “Killer” was just 23 years old in 1959 — but by then Harmon…

№52: Wade Boggs

I’m always amazed by people who can see beyond convention. Great comedians do this. They find ways to step out from the simple comforts of every day life and see something that should be obvious to everyone (and BECOMES obvious once they say it). There are obviously countless examples of this, but I…

№50: Al Kaline

Let’s begin with an ending: Al Kaline never hit 30 home runs in a season. He only had 100 RBIs in a season three times, only scored 100 runs in a season twice. He never stole 20 bases in a season, never led the league batting or hits after he turned 21, did not hit .300 for his career and did not…

№64: Eddie Murray

Here’s a question: How good was Los Angeles’ Locke High School baseball team in 1973? Eddie Murray was the first baseman. Ozzie Smith was the shortstop.

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In 1979, during the Baltimore-Pittsburgh World Series, New York Daily News columnist…

№54: Rod Carew

Rod Carew was almost named Margaret. You might know this story — he was born on a segregated train in Panama. His mother was in one of the segregated back cars when she went into labor. A nurse happened to be on the train, and she comforted Carew’s mother. She was so kind that she later became Carew’s…

№41: Pete Rose

The question is this: Can any boy with moderate athletic ability simply will himself into becoming a great baseball player? I’ve thought about this a lot. When I was a kid, I wanted to play Major League Baseball. Every kid I knew wanted that. I was small and not obviously talented (or even subtly…

№42: Jackie Robinson

The story of Jackie Robinson has been deconstructed a million different ways … let’s try something a little bit different. Let’s try to look at his familiar and well-worn story through a very specific lens. Let’s try to see him not as the great Jackie Robinson, American hero, baseball…

№46: Sandy Koufax

I was working on a completely different essay about Koufax. But in light of events in Overland Park, where I used to live, I expanded on something I wrote about Sandy Koufax on October 13, 2005 in the Kansas City Star — forty years after the Yom Kippur game.

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