Connections


Connections

The Legend of Donnie Baseball

Roger Schlueter | Friday, November 7, 2025

Today’s guest writer, James Potocki, spent 25 years creating content for Major League Baseball as a cinematographer, editor and producer. If you’ve been a baseball fan over that time, you might have seen some of his work – This Week in Baseball, Prime 9, The World Series Film and the documentary series, MLB […]


Connections

Title, TBD

Roger Schlueter | Friday, October 24, 2025

A brief history of the timeline connecting the dots between teams repeating as World Series champions begins in 1908, when the Cubs of Tinker, Evers and Chance (along with Steinfeldt and a quartet of pitchers) took down the Tigers in five games.  Soon after, the Athletics (1910-1911), Red Sox (1915-1916) […]


Connections

Center Pieces

Roger Schlueter | Saturday, September 13, 2025

By the time Ken Griffey, Jr.’s fourth MLB season was behind him, the Mariners’ center fielder may have had to build an addition onto whatever space had been erected to display the signifiers of excellence and prominence:  three Gold Gloves; a Silver Slugger; three All-Star nods as a starter for […]


Connections

The Best of Both (Sides)

Roger Schlueter | Saturday, August 16, 2025

A ballplayer has all kinds of entry points that beckon for organization:  age, league, experience, team affiliation, and – so integral to whatever sort of classifying is at hand – position and what real estate he occupies when batting.  The greatest teenage seasons, the most productive debut or final seasons, […]


Connections

Transfer of Power

Roger Schlueter | Saturday, August 2, 2025

Mike Schmidt officially introduced himself to the Major Leagues on September 12, 1972, subbing in for the Phillies’ starting third baseman, Don Money.  Schmidt officially said goodbye to the big leagues on May 28, 1989, starting at third and batting cleanup for Philadelphia.  The 12-time All-Star didn’t go yard in […]


Connections

(A)Look to the Left

Roger Schlueter | Saturday, July 19, 2025

Casting an evaluative glance back 91 seasons, the choice for the AL’s starting pitcher in the 1934 All-Star Game appears as easy and devoid of controversy as any.  25-year-old Lefty Gomez entered the pause in regular season action pacing the circuit outright with 14 wins and a 2.03 ERA while […]


Connections

Risen

Roger Schlueter | Saturday, July 12, 2025

During his famed run from 1921 through 1925, Rogers Hornsby scripted a slash line that reads like some fantastical pull from another dimension:  a .474 on-base percentage and .690 slugging mark to support the inconceivable three digit number that begins it all – a .402 batting average.  Yes, the baseball […]


Connections

Royalty

Roger Schlueter | Saturday, July 5, 2025

120 years ago, a Reds center fielder named Cy Seymour emblazoned his 10th Major League season with a line so far beyond anything he’d accomplished before and anything he’d do in his final six years after this pinnacle:  a startling, awe-inspiring mountain flanked by short, rolling hills. In 1905, left-handed […]


Connections

Two Pair

Roger Schlueter | Saturday, June 28, 2025

Yes, pace can be a dangerous navigator, a “The sign is pointing askew” proposition – blindly follow the arrow’s point toward the extrapolated destination and all sorts of problematic surprises might await, perhaps camouflaged by regressions to the mean or hiding behind rocky slumps or lying among Injured List stints.  […]


Connections

Clayton, the Giant(s) Slayer

Roger Schlueter | Saturday, June 21, 2025

One week ago, Dodgers southpaw Clayton Kershaw layered in another rewrite to his work-in-progress Hall of Fame plaque – one more victory to expand his difference between career wins and losses to a plus 120; five more strikeouts to creep within a dozen punchouts of an even 3,000; yet another […]