Are you playing high school baseball in some "one horse town?" Don't think you or your talents will ever get noticed by the state college or university baseball program you have pinned up on your bedroom walls? Worried you will "only" play D3 baseball, or "worse" JUCO baseball? Play in a state that is known... Continue Reading →
A Friday Afternoon Visit to Bud Metheny Baseball Stadium for Old Dominion vs Northeastern
As a native New Englander, anything over 50 degrees in March in Rhode Island is considered a gigantic bonus. Heck, it's T-shirt weather compared to the typical 30s, 40s, blizzard type conditions of late February and early March. Winter lasts for several months in New England, unlike other areas of the country which experience the... Continue Reading →
Baseball’s Future Plays This March In Spring Breakout 2024
I enthusiastically applaud Major League Baseball for its newest promotional series called Spring Breakout 2024. What is Spring Breakout and who will be playing? Good question. 30 Major League teams have submitted rosters filled with top minor league prospects - hitters, pitchers, catchers, fielders - essentially the future of their organizations. These rosters will play... Continue Reading →
Tales Of The Quonset Flyers Baseball Team – John Patrick, The Missing Man
Last month here in Norfolk, Rachel and I went to an incredible photography exhibit at the Chrysler Museum. The exhibit, believe it or not, was not about baseball. Rather, it was about one of my other passions in life - music. Paul McCartney's "Eyes Of The Storm" photography exhibit featured some incredibly personal photography, shot by McCartney himself,... Continue Reading →
The Fields Where The Quonset Flyers Faced NAS Norfolk, Little Creek Baseball Teams
In the Spring and Summer of 2023, I began researching baseball played at North Kingstown's Quonset Point Naval Air Station. Quonset Point or the Quonset Development Corporation, now a thriving business community, was once a commissioned naval air station and occupied a massive acreage in my hometown of North Kingstown. It had airfields and barracks and commissaries... Continue Reading →
My Top 8 Professional Baseball Predictions for 2024
If you watch sports on TV, your phone, your computer these days, you will most likely have seen the following. Former professional athletes joined at a desk or round table by one or two sports journalists, plus a few on TVs to the left and right of the screen at any given time. Their purpose - to... Continue Reading →
The Neighborhood Backyard Baseball Games We Played – First to 500
The Major League Baseball Winter Meetings are set to begin today, December 3rd, in Nashville, TN. Trade rumors and free agent potential landing spots for coveted pitchers, fielders, home run hitters are being debated on social media sites, airport gate benches, barber shops, grocery stores, and indoor baseball facilities. I just received notification that the... Continue Reading →
The Baseball Connection Linking Virginia Beach to Newport, RI – Chris Taylor
Baseball has a wonderful way of connecting communities, states, generations through players, stats, and fun facts. You can be a stranger in a new town and see a baseball picture on a wall in a retail store, point out to the clerk "hey is that Johnny Pesky in that photo?" then a woman comes out... Continue Reading →
The Ripken Experience – Is This Baseball Utopia? No It’s Aberdeen
For the youth baseball family, at least those that I have covered over the past 10 years or so, there are places on the baseball map that just seem to be a little more special than the rest. Off the top of my head, Williamsport and the Little League World Series, Cooperstown Dream Park, Baseball... Continue Reading →
Tuesday Afternoon Trip To Visit The Aberdeen Iron Birds, Leidos Field at Ripken Stadium
Tuesday afternoon, following my work assignment in Baltimore with ABF Freight, I hopped in my rental car to take a trip east to Aberdeen, MD. My visit had two purposes, one of which I will share with you now. The Aberdeen Iron Birds, the High-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles, play their home games at... Continue Reading →