Fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates, of whom I was one in my younger years, can look at their latest development in one of two ways. They can see the Pirates’ ascent over .500 as another tease, just like last year, or they can see it as a positive step forward in the team’s attempt to end its major league record streak of 19 successive losing seasons.

One-third through the season, the Pirates entered their game in Cincinnati Wednesday evening in second place in the National League Central with a 28-26 record, two games behind the Reds.

Their winning record and proximity to first place were reminiscent of their experience last season when on July 18 they beat the Reds, 2-0, and supplanted Milwaukee at the top of the division by half a game. A week later the Pirates led the division by one percentage point with a 53-47 record.

Then their fantasy ended.

Keep reading...

If I had to select a person – player, manager, coach or executive – who was, to me, the most impressive figure I have covered in all of my years of baseball coverage, it would have to be Nolan Ryan.

A Hall of Fame pitcher since 1999, Ryan will one day be elected to the Hall again, the second time as an executive. In my opinion, he has already done enough to merit selection as an executive.

As president and chief executive officer of the Texas Rangers, Ryan rescued the Rangers from the sink hole in which Tom Hicks, the former owner, had buried them and built a team that has won two consecutive American League pennants and was a whisper away from winning a World Series.

At least as impressively, if not moreso, Ryan has revolutionized the culture of pitching in Texas and has boldly staked a claim to the restoration of pitching as he knew it when he began pitching in the major leagues in 1966.

Keep reading...

The beauty of the long baseball season, I have come to appreciate over many years, is that so much can happen over 162 games. The peril of the long baseball season, I have also learned over many years, is that so much can happen over 162 games.

Only 30 percent of the season has been played, and we have seen the effects of what some people refer to as the baseball marathon.

The Orioles and the Indians, for example, spent a substantial segment of the first two months in first place but slipped out before the end of the second month. They obviously have more than enough time to reclaim their division leads, but both teams might have already used up their quota of first-place time.

For some teams, the season has already lasted too long.

Keep reading...