Review of Spring Training in Baseball

Source: Pixabay

Spring Training is a period of training and exhibition play beginning in late February and lasting up to Opening Day of Major League Baseball.

For about four weeks, experienced players and rookies alike train and play at small parks in Arizona or Florida, getting ready for the beginning of the baseball season.  It is a unique baseball experience for fans, giving them up-close access to favorite players and a chance to see blossoming prospects who could go on to be the next big star. 

For me, the Baseball Contributor here on Review This and a huge baseball fan, Spring Training is a sign that the long, cold winter is nearing an end and warm weather and the joys of baseball season are about to begin.  I believe in the quote:

Spring Training

Baseball Spring Training Postcard

by tjssportsmania

Spring Training is nearly as old as baseball itself, although it was not the big business it is today with designated parks just for Spring Training games and winter excursion packages to games in Arizona and Florida for snow-weary fans. 

In bygone days, training games were held locally to save money, training indoors in inclement weather. Later, teams began training in the south, but there were no organized training leagues until after 1910.  Today it is as much a marketable enterprise as the regular baseball season with two distinct leagues, one in Florida and one in Arizona.

Cactus League in Arizona

Source: Pixabay

The Cactus League holds spring training in the desert for teams from both leagues (American and National). These teams are generally located around Phoenix and include:

• Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
• Arizona Diamondbacks
• Chicago Cubs 
• Cincinnati Reds 
• Cleveland Indians 
• Colorado Rockies 
• Chicago White Sox 
• Kansas City Royals 

Grapefruit League in Florida

Source: Pixabay

The Grapefruit League holds spring training in various parts of Florida, both the Gulf coast and the Atlantic coast. This league includes the following teams: 

• Atlanta Braves 
• Baltimore Orioles
• Boston Red Sox 
• Houston Astros 
• Miami Marlins 
• Minnesota Twins 
• New York Mets 
• New York Yankees 
• Philadelphia Phillies
• Pittsburgh Pirates 
• St. Louis Cardinals 
• Tampa Bay Rays 
• Toronto Blue Jays 
• Washington Nationals 

Following is a famous quote by Roger Hornsby, the well-known second baseman for the St. Louis Cardinals (1915-1919), that definitely says how I feel when there is no baseball.

Summary

Will  you be attending any Spring Training games this year, or have you done so in the past? Leave me a comment telling me where you went and what team you got to see. 

*Blog Note:  Mary Beth Granger, our own MbgPhoto here on Review This, travels with her husband to Jupiter, Florida each February to attend their beloved St. Louis Cardinals Spring Training games.

For the rest of us, join me in welcoming the beginning of the Major League Baseball season and the fact that this represents an end to winter and the return of the 'Boys of Summer'. 




For More Baseball Reviews, Check Out ReviewThisReviews: Baseball

Lets Play Ball! 

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Baseball's All-Star Game

Review of a Mid-Summer Classic

*Updated on 6/25/2021

Welcome to July baseball from Wednesday Elf, known as the 'baseball fan contributor' here on Review This!  It's time for a mid-season story about baseball's All-Star Game.

The All-Star Game

Stadium Seating - Source: FreeImages

The Mid-Summer classic known as the All-Star game has occurred (nearly) every July since 1933.  (No official MLB All-Star Game was held in 1945 due to World War II and was cancelled again in 2020 due to a worldwide panendemic.) 

In 2020, we again had a cancellation of this 'Summer Classic'. The All-Star game was to be held at Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles. Instead, they will host the All-Star game in 2022.

Coors Field in Denver

Now, the 2021 All-Star Game will be held July 13th in Denver at Coors Field ~ home of the Colorado Rockies. 

Facts About the All-Star Game

The All-Star game is held on either the second or third Tuesday in July to mark a symbolic halfway-point in the Major League Baseball season.  Known as the 'All-Star Break', no regular-season games are scheduled on the day before or for two days after the Tuesday All-Star Game.  A number of festivities are held the day before the All-Star game, including the 'Home Run Derby', a contest between MLB's top home runner hitters, which began in 1985.

2015 was the 30 Year Anniversary of the 'Home Run Derby' (1985-2015)

The participants (players) in this annual mid-summer event are chosen by the fans in both the National League and the American League.  Until 1947, the team selections were chosen only by the managers, but since then the fans get to select the starting lineup.  The pitchers are still selected by the managers.  Ballots used to be given out at ballparks throughout baseball for voting on players for the game.  That year (2015) was the first year that all voting is done entirely on the internet.

All-Star Game Venue

The ballparks chosen for each year's All-Star game alternate between the National and the American League, with venues selected for a variety of reasons by a MLB selection committee. The choices may be made to commemorate a particular historical occasion, the opening of a new ballpark, or a significant year. For instance, the game was held in Yankee Stadium (home of the New York Yankees) in 2008 as it was the final year for that stadium prior to the new Yankee Stadium opening in 2009. 

Available on Amazon

While waiting for the next All-Star Game in 2021, us baseball fans can catch up on past All-Star games with this great baseball reference book The Midsummer Classic.  It's a fun book for baseball fans who love reading and compiling statistics.  The book has facts and play-by-play game data of every All-Star game through the year 2000. (published in 2001). A comprehensive resource for fans, researchers and baseball historians.







Wednesday Elf , the baseball fan, has more stories about baseball be found at:

Baseball Moments and Memories Blogspot

More baseball stories on Review This by Wednesday Elf:

• Why I'm a Baseball Fan
• A Collection of St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Players
• Quiz: Do You Know Your Baseball Jargon?

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April Baseball

Source: Pixabay

Baseball fans love the month of April. It's a magical time which includes Opening Day of a brand new baseball season with all its promise of a successful winning season and the possibility of making and breaking records.

"Hammerin' Hank Aaron

Hank Aaron with the Braves 1960

One of the most famous 'broken records' occurred 40 years ago on April 8, 1974, when Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's 'unbreakable' home run record by hitting home run number 715. “Hammerin' Hank” would go on to have a career high of 755 home runs (a record broken by Barry Bonds in 2007, as baseball records are wont to do). Carolan Ross (Crosscreations) has included Hank Aaron in her HubPages article about the top ten baseball players Best in Baseball - MLB Heroes - worthy of April Baseball recognition.

Jackie Robinson Day

And the most special moment of April Baseball is celebrated every April 15^th – the day in 1947 that Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball. On that day, every baseball player on every team honors Jackie by wearing his number 42. Ellen Brundige (mythphile) tells us how this Baseball Player Changed the World.

Back in 1947, the father of Hank Aaron told his son that no black man would ever be allowed to play on a Major League team. Jackie Robinson changed that forever.

April Baseball Moments...

A few other 'April' moments in baseball...

• On April 4, 2003, Sammy Sosa became the 18th member of the 500 Home Run Club 
• On April 22, 2014, Albert Pujols became the very latest member of the 500 Home Run Club, an 'unofficial' honor held by only 26 players in the history of baseball.
• On Sunday, April 8, 2012, first baseman Prince Fielder recorded his 1,000th hit while playing for the Detroit Tigers.
• On April 29, 1986, Roger Clemens made MLB history by striking out 20 Seattle Mariners in a 3-1 Red Sox win. He would go on to win the Cy Young Award later that year and lead his team to the 1986 World Series. 
• There have only been 23 'Perfect Games' by pitchers in the entire history of Major League Baseball.  Two occurred in April - Charlie Robertson (#5) on 4/20/1922 and Philip Humber (#21) on 4/21/2012 - BOTH for the Chicago White Sox!

April baseball

My favorite time of the year when it all begins again!

Baseball reviews from Baseball Fan Wednesday-Elf.

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I'm the 'Baseball Fan Contributor' on Review This!

From the beginning of Spring Training to the last day of the World Series each year, my life is totally wrapped around baseball. I watch whatever game happens to be playing on TV each day, no matter what teams are involved. The first thing I check each morning is the scores and stats of the day before, and the times of the televised games coming up. As you may have guessed, I'm extremely passionate about Baseball. That's probably why Wednesday-Elf is the Baseball Fan Contributor on Review This. 

Grayson Stadium, Minor League Ballpark, Savannah, GA

Besides my 'daily dose' of TV baseball, I have been to games in person in a couple of Major League stadiums, and these days frequently go to our minor league Single-A team games, the Sand Gnats, here in Savannah, Georgia. Many a great major league player has come out of minor league baseball and Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Jackie Robinson once played here at our humble Grayson Stadium, the oldest (1926) working minor league stadium in the United States today.

 

March brings Spring Training each year as teams and players prepare for Opening Day of Major League Baseball beginning most years in early April.  This Baseball Fan is also busy this time of year, getting ready to follow favorite teams throughout the season.  I also spend time featuring baseball stories about this, our favorite sport, on my baseball blog "Baseball Moments and Memories" and reading baseball stories from others.   

For instance, our own Mary Beth (mbgphoto here on Review This) gives us a fun review of hers (and my) favorite team, the St. Louis Cardinals, at Spring Training in Jupiter, Florida where she attends the Cardinals' Spring Training games each season.

Many events take place throughout baseball season, one of the earliest being 'Jackie Robinson Day' on April 15 – the day every ball player on every team wears the number 42 (Jackie's number) to honor him and his contribution to baseball. Greekgeek has written a wonderful tribute to this special player. 

These are just a few of the people and pages I will continue to feature during baseball season as the 'Baseball Fan Contributor.' I invite all baseball fans to join me for the upcoming season... and beyond.

Quick Link:

For a list of all the baseball-related stories currently featured on Review This! ~ click here.
 

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For Love of the Game – a Movie Review

As the baseball season winds down once again, I begin to make plans for my wintertime baseball replacements.  I am a died-in-the-wool, I LIVE for This baseball fan who is not happy without a daily dose of baseball in some form or other.  This means that during that WINTER season (as per my favorite Bill Veeck quote “There are only two seasons – winter and baseball”) I find books and movies about BASEBALL to fill the time until Spring Training returns once again!

For Love of the Game

I have many favorite (baseball) movies I love to re-watch each winter.  One of the top ten on my list is For Love of the Game which stars the actor I consider the best and most believable at playing the part of a baseball player ~ Kevin Costner.

Costner's character in the movie is a Detroit Tigers pitcher named Billy Chapel.  Billy has an on-again, off-again girlfriend, Jane (Kelly Preston) who tells him she's leaving him and moving to England just before what is most likely Billy's last professional game.  It's the last game of the season against rival team the New York Yankees.  Vin Scully (playing himself) announces the game.

This 1999 movie was filmed in the real Yankee Stadium where a 40-year-old pitcher (Billy Chapel) is pitching the final game of his 19-year career. Battling a sore arm and coping with the news that the team has been sold and he will be traded, on top of learning that his long-time girlfriend is leaving to take a job in London, Billy enters the game fighting both physical and emotional limits.

The movie opens with Billy taking the mound to pitch.  The loud sounds of the crowd slowly diminish as Billy enters his 'zone' where he blocks out everything to concentrate on pitching, leaving a total silence as he winds up for the pitch.  We hear his thoughts as he approaches each batter and each pitch, giving us a glimpse into what a real life professional baseball pitcher goes through. 

What makes the movie most interesting is that the entire movie takes place during this one baseball game and the story of everything that led up to this day is reflected in flashbacks.  Girlfriend Jane is shown in subsequent scenes as she watches the game on TV at the airport while waiting for her overseas flight.  The suspense of the game builds as one out after another is recorded, leading toward the crowning glory moment for a baseball pitcher, a Perfect Game. 

Movie Trailer

 

Kevin Costner as Billy Chapel giving us 'one more day of summer' in the movie For Love of the Game. 

To me, For Love of the Game is the perfect title for this baseball movie, as it is exactly how I feel about the game of baseball.  My wintertime will be filled with this and my many other baseball movies and my home library of books about baseball until my favorite time of year (Baseball's Opening Day) returns. 

Enjoy the off-season and join me again when my favorite phrase resounds in baseball parks around the country ~ “Play Ball”.

For Love of the Game is available on Amazon.

*Kevin Costner has starred in several movies with a baseball-theme, such as Chasing Dreams, Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, For Love of the Game and The Upside of Anger. I own most of them!

*Review written by Wednesday Elf (10/31/2015)

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One Last Strike - Baseball Book Review

Available on Amazon

The Remarkable Story of the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals

I was living in St. Louis in 2011 watching my favorite baseball team, the Cardinals, on TV every day. As the season dwindled down, I watched and worried and agonized with the rest of the city with 'fingers crossed' while our team fell further behind, ending up more than 10 games out with less than a month left in the season. As we went through September, the Cardinals came close to catching up, but every one of the last 5 games of the regular season was an elimination game.

In "One Last Strike", Tony La Russa, the third winningest manager in baseball history, takes us through his Cardinals' 2011 season, which was also his last season as a baseball manager. He describes how the team came from ten and a half games back to make the playoffs on the night of the final game of the season and how they went on to win the World Series despite being down to their last strike 'twice' in a comeback like no other! At the beginning of September 2011, not even Tony could have foreseen the magical and memorable ride the Cardinals were about to take.
 

Manager Tony La Russa and his St. Louis Cardinals Team

You don't need to be a St. Louis Cardinals fan to enjoy this book. Any baseball fan will love the 'behind-the-scenes' look into how a manager makes game by game and inning by inning decisions to bring his team to a win. The Cardinals had to have those 'wins' over and over to first make it to the playoffs, and then to the World Series in this hard-fought 2011 baseball season.

 

Busch Stadium - Home of the St. Louis Cardinals

In his book "One Last Strike", Tony writes,

 “all the cliches we (the Cardinals) used about never giving up on yourself, believing in yourself, bouncing back from adversity – they're all true!”

Tony La Russa describes how he used his 33 years experience managing baseball teams from the Chicago White Sox to the Oakland A's to being the St. Louis Cardinals' longest serving manager to bring the Cardinals to their final game of the World Series .. and win. He gives great credit to team unity and determination.


 

Tony La Russa (Source: Wikimedia)

Tony La Russa's Rules as a Baseball Manager

La Russa had simple rules as manager.

• Don't do something to lose the game when on defense.
• Do something to win the game on offense.
• Be good enough and tough enough... and keep believing.

In a team meeting prior to the beginning of the 2011 MLB Baseball Playoffs, La Russa tells his players that sports are unpredictable. The best team or player can have an off day. Just come in as prepared as you can be and play the best of your ability.

He summed it up with “Play as if each game is the 7th game of the World Series --- or the last (baseball) game of your life, and play only one game at a time.”
 

Tony La Russa talks about his book "One Last Strike"

 

More Baseball Books...

 

Available on Amazon

Additional stories about manager Tony La Russa and his analytical manager mind applied to a game.

Written by Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights, Three Nights in August: Strategy, Heartbreak, and Joy Inside the Mind of a Manager is about a three-game series between the Cardinals and Cubs in 2003. It describes manager Tony La Russa's decisions for each batter and each inning of this 3-game series, based somewhat on computer data, but more importantly his experiences managing nearly 4,000 games. 

My 'Salute' to some special St. Louis Cardinals

• A Collection of (St. Louis) Cardinals Baseball Players

If I were to create my perfect 'Dream Team' for the St. Louis Cardinals, using players from the past to the present at each position, this is what it would look like.

Your Review This Baseball Contributor and Article Writer, Wednesday Elf, is a Big Baseball Fan!

When I'm not 'watching' baseball... or 'talking' about baseball, I love reading books about baseball. It was great fun to relive the St. Louis Cardinals' magical 2011 season through the eyes (and words) of manager Tony La Russa. What a wild ride he had in his final managerial season!

"One Last Strike" is their story. I enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed being part of the St. Louis Cardinals 2011 season while living in the team city!


Article Originally Written © 2014 Wednesday-Elf.  Updated for Review This! Blog on 8/31/2023.

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Little League Baseball is Over 75 Years Old

Little League World Series Stadium,
Williamsport, PA

Nearly eighty years ago, a man in Williamsport, Pennsylvania had an idea about establishing a baseball league for boys that would teach fair play and teamwork. His name was Carl Stotz and in the summer of 1938 he gathered up his two nephews and some of their neighborhood friends and they began playing some informal games. By the following summer, Carl and two of his friends were the coaches of a league of three teams, sponsored by different businesses in the area, and on June 6, 1939, the first 'league' game took place. 

The next year a second league was formed in Williamsport. It was the beginning of what would become Little League Baseball, which grew to become an international organization of nearly 200,000 teams in every U.S. state and over 80 countries around the world. Stotz' dream had come true.

Little League Used to be for Boys Only

Until 1974, Little League Baseball was for boys only. After a lawsuit, the rules were revised to allow participation by girls in the baseball program. Today, there are over two & a half million players in Little League Baseball worldwide, including both boys and girls in both the baseball league and the softball league.

Little League Begins Their World Series Championships

In 1947, the first Little League World Series was held. Today that event has become internationally known and is held each year in August at the Howard J. Lamade Stadium in South Williamsport, PA, where Little League began. My brother & friends have attended several times and say it is a most enjoyable time. 

Read a story about being in a Little League World Series

Available on Amazon

Play Ball (Little League) is an interesting story for ages 8 to 12 years about two cousins, one a pitcher and one a catcher, who grew up playing baseball and then find themselves in the Little League World Series where their team is on the verge of winning the championship.  

 

A Little League Baseball Batter

Not only is Little League an excellent training area for kids who love to play baseball, but many professional baseball players have come out of the program over the years. One of my favorites of the current players in the MLB is Lance Lynn, former pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals and now pitching for the New York Yankees. Little League Baseball is a wonderful organization and we salute them as they celebrate 75 years*.

*NOTE:  The Little League 75 Year celebration occurred in 2014.  The tradition continues to this day.

As a huge Baseball fan, I love talking and writing about baseball.  Did I mention my passion is Baseball? 

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Opening Day of the 2019 Baseball Season

A Quick Review of the 2019 Major League Baseball Season Openers

OPENING DAY BUTTON

by thehotbutton

The Opening Day of baseball for the 2019 MLB season is Thursday, March 28, the earliest beginning date ever at any traditional Major League ballpark.  This season, all 30 clubs will open on the same day

It's time for the 2019 baseball season!

World Series Champion 2018

 

Available on Amazon

The Boston Red Sox defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games. 

Available on Amazon

Highlights of 2019 in the World of Baseball 

Some of the highlights of the 2019 Major League Baseball season will include:

• March 28, 2019 – Official Opening Day
• April 15, 2019 – Jackie Robinson Day
• July 9, 2019 - 90th All-Star Game, Cleveland Indians Progressive Field
• October 22, 2019 – Scheduled first game of the World Series. 

Baseball is Back!

Bill James Handbook for 2019

This avid 'baseball fan' will be glued to the TV for each moment of these Opening Day games! (I LIVE for this!). 

If you are as 'Crazy about Baseball' as I am, the 2019 baseball season from Opening Day to the last game of the World Series will occupy your time and thoughts for the next 26 weeks.  The joy of baseball has returned!





*Quick Link:

• Reference guide to the complete lifetime stats on every baseball player currently in the majors, available on Amazon. 
• More baseball moments and memories from your 'Baseball Contributor',  Wednesday Elf 

(c) Wednesday Elf

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One Shot at Forever by Chris Ballard

 A baseball book review. 

This is the story of a magical baseball season with an unlikely coach in a small town in Illinois.  

Synopsis

The year is 1971. The town is Macon, Illinois, a very small rural farm community in central Illinois. The team is a rag-tag high school baseball team in a school population that is so small that the boys have to play every sport in order to have enough players to make a team (football, basketball, baseball). The unlikely coach of the baseball team is the school's English teacher with no coaching expertise. 

This is a charming true story of a small-town baseball team, playing in hand-me-down uniforms, who emerged from a field of 370 teams to make an improbable run to the State Final.  

The boys of Macon renew our understanding of why baseball matters.

Lynn Sweet arrives in Macon in 1966.  He's a long-haired hippie, a dreamer and an intellectual who brings progressive ideas to a town stuck in the 1950s. The son of a hard-driving Army Sergeant, Sweet is the opposite; fond of bucking convention and convinced the world is full of good people who occasionally have bad ideas. The students love him; the administration not so much! 

Call me 'Sweet' he tells his students on the first day of school. This in a school who wants and expects proper behavior, such as calling their teachers by Mr. & Ms/Mrs. His classroom has four round tables instead of desks. There are posters on the walls and rows of bookshelves. The bookshelves have novels and short stories unlike any before seen in Macon. There are also magazines and comic books.  But there are no grammar textbooks. Sweet teaches with unconventional assignments and tells the students “Have fun with it.”

Summary

When Sweet takes over the baseball team (because no one else wants the job) he becomes intent on teaching the boys as much about life as baseball. Inspired by coach's unconventional methods, the undersized Macon Ironmen embark on a postseason run that amazed everyone, infuriated rival coaches, and buoyed a little town that was suffering from a damaging drought and the shadow of the Vietnam War ~ a town in desperate need of something to celebrate. They became the smallest school in Illinois history to appear in the championship game, and that distinction still stands. The experience would change the lives of this high school baseball team forever. 

Author Chris Ballard

Chris Ballard is a senior writer at Sports Illustrated where he specializes in the narrative. One Shot at Forever is delightfully written in a gripping narrative as it tells the story of the members of that special 1971 team, and its coach. A true story well worth reading. 

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For more Baseball Stories, click on ReviewThisReviews: Baseball

*One Shot at Forever Book Review written by 

~Wednesday Elf, the Baseball Contributor on Review This Reviews

Book available on Amazon

*Image sources: Pixabay

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