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☆ Knocked Off Their Perch, the Rangers Hope to Climb Back Up
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Tyler Kepner | More About Tyler Kepner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

This is the first season in Major League Baseball’s modern era in which all teams play each other. Consider the Mets’ current homestand, with series against the Los Angeles Angels, the Texas Rangers and the Seattle Mariners. Sure, the Mets abandoned the pennant race a month ago, but the American League West version is flourishing in Flushing. “Hey, you’re past those dog days,” said Rangers Manager Bruce Bochy, who has seen a race or two. The Mariners, baseball’s hottest team since the start of July, overtook Texas for the division lead, with the defending champion Houston Astros close behind.

Persons: ”, Bruce Bochy Organizations: Major League, Mets, Los Angeles Angels, Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners, American League, Rangers, ”, The Mariners, baseball’s, Texas, Houston Astros Locations: Flushing, “

☆ A Great Team, an Ambitious Plan and an ‘Existential’ Issue
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-21 | by ( Tyler Kepner | More About Tyler Kepner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

This is the setting, after all, that transformed professional sports as few other forces ever have, synergizing team and town and making the venue the star attraction. The team has risen (though never to the World Series) and fallen (often quite far) in the decades since, and now it is cresting again. John took a seat in the home dugout one recent afternoon while the visiting Mets took batting practice, pausing now and then to greet people by name. The clubhouse manager, Fred Tyler, whose family has worked for the team since it moved from St. Louis in 1954, got a hearty hello. “We had lost the Colts and there was some concern about the economics of professional sports and whether the Orioles might be attracted.

Persons: Peter Angelos, Peter, John, Fred Tyler, Louis, Grayson Rodriguez, Angelos, Buck Showalter —, Kurt Schmoke, “, ” Organizations: Oriole, Camden, Orioles, Mets, American League East, Colts, Stadium Authority Locations: St, Baltimore

☆ A New Generation of Oriole Magic
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-07 | by ( Tyler Kepner | More About Tyler Kepner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The past and the future blended seamlessly on Saturday at Camden Yards, alternate visions of glory trimmed in orange and black. Between innings, the scoreboard showed clips from the Orioles’ last championship clincher, 40 years ago this fall. A splash zone in the outfield stands — the Bird Bath — to hose down fans after big hits. Oriole Magic, revisited. And they’re doing that.”After a weekend sweep of the moribund Mets, the Orioles stood at 70-42, atop the A.L.

Persons: Eddie Murray, Rich Dauer, Mike Flanagan, Dennis Martinez, ”, Scott McGregor Organizations: Camden Yards, Orioles, American League, Philadelphia, Mets, Oakland Locations: Pittsburgh

☆ The Mets Trade a Star and Embrace the Future
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-29 | by ( Tyler Kepner | More About Tyler Kepner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Mets’ superfan owner, Steven A. Cohen, committed nearly half a billion dollars this season to learn a timeless lesson easily forgotten when pursuing World Series glory: Money guarantees nothing. Early Friday morning, the Mets shipped the team’s closer, David Robertson, to the Miami Marlins for two teenage prospects. As part of the deal, Scherzer will exercise his $43.3 million player option for 2024. “We put ourselves in this position,” Scherzer told reporters at Citi Field on Friday after beating Washington, the only team trailing the Mets in the National League East. I’ve had a hand in that for why we’re in the position that we’re at.

Persons: Steven A, Cohen, David Robertson, Max Scherzer, Luisangel Acuña, Ronald Acuña Jr, Scherzer, “, ” Scherzer, haven’t, I’ve, Can’t, ” Organizations: Mets, Miami Marlins, Hall of Fame, Texas Rangers, Luisangel, Citi Field, Washington, National League East

☆ ‘You Knew Who the Hall of Famers Were’
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Tyler Kepner | More About Tyler Kepner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Sometimes, a new Hall of Fame class fits neatly together in baseball history. Jimmie Foxx and Mel Ott, 500-homer sluggers in the shadow of Babe Ruth, went in together in 1951. Johnny Bench and Carl Yastrzemski, one-city institutions who met in a sublime World Series, took their turn in 1989. Both reached the World Series twice, winning once. More than anything else, the pairing of McGriff and Rolen is a powerful reflection of the changing standards for baseball’s highest honor.

Persons: Jimmie Foxx, Mel Ott, Babe Ruth, Johnny Bench, Carl Yastrzemski, Reggie Jackson, Fred McGriff, Scott Rolen, McGriff, Rolen Organizations: of, Star, Contemporary Baseball

☆ Honoring the Last of the ‘Boys of Summer’
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Tyler Kepner | More About Tyler Kepner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

It is the first inning, you might say, and Carl Erskine does not have his best stuff. A camera crew has set up in his living room, and a filmmaker, Ted Green, gently tries to guide Erskine through a short speech. There has always been something inviting about Erskine, a welcoming look that draws you in warmly and melts away the decades. “He’s a 96-year-old guy,” Green says, “with 12-year-old eyes.”Soon the eyes are dancing and the memories come rushing back. Erskine keeps one beside the lamp on the end table, an out pitch he can always reach.

Persons: Carl Erskine, Ted Green, Erskine, Erskine apologizes, “, ” Green, he’ll, ”, Betty Erskine Organizations: Brooklyn Dodger, Ebbets Field

☆ How Do You Pitch to Stan Musial? Very Carefully.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-17 | by ( Tyler Kepner | More About Tyler Kepner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“The Coliseum was like the Polo Grounds had been in the National League, very short down each line and deep in the outfield. So it was not so much of a shock to pitch in the Coliseum, because it reminded all of us of the Polo Grounds. His identity is his comment: positive thinking. In fact, he wrote a book, ‘The Power of Positive Thinking,’ and it’s a powerful book. And I think he’s right.”

Persons: ”, it’s, Norman Vincent Peale —, there’s Organizations: National League

☆ An Unlikely Hero Emerges to End an All-Star Losing Streak
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-12 | by ( Tyler Kepner | More About Tyler Kepner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

If he could have scaled Mount Rainier to spread the message from on high, Rob Manfred surely would have. “What do they call it — a virtuous cycle, right?” Manfred said Tuesday afternoon, before the 93rd edition of the All-Star Game. “The rule changes are good, the players stay positive, it makes the fans even more positive about them because the players are positive about them. So it’s really been great for us.”On one point, though, Manfred acknowledged that baseball had simply caught a break. “The culmination of Ohtani and Trout, you can’t plan that.”

Persons: Rob Manfred, Manfred, ” Manfred, it’s, ”, Mike Trout Organizations: Major League Baseball, Los Angeles Angels, Japan Locations: Rainier, “

☆ The Hottest Thing in Baseball Is a Grid of Nine Blank Squares
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-11 | by ( Tyler Kepner | More About Tyler Kepner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Those Hall of Famers — like Stan Musial, Derek Jeter and so many other greats — had something in common: Except for the All-Star Game, they never changed teams. That singular identity gives their stars extra glimmer, but largely removes them from a new game sweeping the baseball landscape. The name is Immaculate Grid, and with apologies to the surging Atlanta Braves — who had eight selections for the National League’s team in Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Seattle — it’s the hottest thing going in the sport. The grid — named for the immaculate inning, in which a pitcher strikes out the side on nine pitches — is a daily quiz in the form of a tic-tac-toe board designed by Brian Minter, a software developer in suburban Atlanta. He said the game averages about 200,000 players every weekday.

Persons: Ted Williams, Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken, Stan Musial, Derek Jeter, —, Brian Minter Organizations: Cal, Cal Ripken Jr, Famers, Immaculate Grid, Atlanta Braves —, National League’s Locations: Detroit, Pittsburgh, Seattle, Atlanta

☆ At the All-Star Game, Learning Opportunities Abound
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Tyler Kepner | More About Tyler Kepner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The All-Star Game is baseball’s ultimate learning lab: the best of the best, teammates for a moment, swapping stories and secrets. The days of Bob Gibson snarling through the festivities, impervious to camaraderie with enemies turned teammates, are gone. “I’m looking forward to learning as much as I can.”López is not alone. The All-Star Game — scheduled for Tuesday at the home of the Seattle Mariners — was once the setting for Roy Halladay learning a cutter grip from Mariano Rivera. He was more of a shaman, a possessor of wisdom who inspired teammates by his mere presence.

Persons: Bob Gibson snarling, who’ve, ”, Pablo López, “, Seattle Mariners —, Roy Halladay, Mariano Rivera, Halladay, Rivera Organizations: Minnesota Twins, Seattle Mariners, Hall of Fame Locations: Cooperstown

☆ M.L.B. Draft Trades Magic for Efficiency
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-07 | by ( Tyler Kepner | More About Tyler Kepner | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On Sunday in Seattle, for the fourth year in a row — enough for a full class of college prospects — Major League Baseball will hold a streamlined version of its amateur draft. From an event with unlimited rounds to one with 50 rounds, then 40, and now just 20, the draft is exclusive and efficient, in keeping with baseball’s restructured minor league system. But efficiency has a cost: the countless long-shot careers that may never be realized. Dozens of current major leaguers turned pro after being drafted in rounds that no longer exist. Chosen 941st overall from a community college in Illinois, he has won three Gold Gloves, played in the World Series and earned more than $60 million in an 11-year career.

Persons: ”, Kevin Kiermaier, ” Kiermaier Organizations: — Major League Baseball, baseball’s, Toronto Blue Jays, Tampa Bay Rays Locations: Seattle, Illinois

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