This was something I had wanted to do for a long time, and the Tigers’ recent uniform changes gave me an excuse, and The Hardball Times actually paid me to do it. It’s a definitive history of the many (many) iterations of the Detroit Tigers’ Old English D, both the D’s on their jerseys and, more crucially, because previous to this there were no thorough resources for it, the D’s on their caps. It covers every Old English D in franchise history dating back to 1896, and includes at least a thumbnail image of each, nearly all of them taken from photographs of actual Tigers players in uniform.
Tigers fans and baseball historians may want to bookmark this one. Given how frequently the D has changed, this piece can be used to date photographs of Tigers players. It can also be used to expose just how inaccurate the Tigers’ caps in the Cooperstown Collection series by both New Era and American Needle are (though there are a few American Needle caps that get my stamp of approval available via Detroit Athletic Co.). If that sounds like a very specific pet peeve to you, you might want to avoid asking me about their St. Louis Browns caps. Unfortunately, I’m unlikely to get an excuse (or a paycheck) to do a history of the St. Louis Browns’ various cap logos.
Tags: baseball caps, Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Browns, The Hardball Times, uniforms
In the latest episode of The Infinite Inning podcast, after introductory tales about a nineteenth-century pitcher who took the wrong train and a real-life Cookie monster, Steven Goldman and I get serious about gun control, service time manipulation, expanded rosters, four-man rotations, bench depth, retirement decisions, the Yankees, Angels, Pete Rose, Joe Mauer, Lucas Duda, and more in a wide-ranging conversation that necessitates two breaks and a Blazing Saddles clip. Enjoy!
Tags: Brandon Drury, Hall of Fame, Joe Mauer, Kris Bryant, Los Angeles Angels, Lucas Duda, New York Yankees, Pete Rose, Steven Goldman, The Infinite Inning
The Twins came into the offseason with a clear need for pitching and a stated desire to go big in the pursuit of it. As we move into March, the Twins have added five arms (six if you include Rule 5 pick Tyler Kinley, a 27-year-old righty reliever out of the Marlins’ system who struggled in Double-A last year), but have they done enough to fend off the Angels and return to the Wild Card Game? My latest for The Athletic digs in to find the answer.
Tags: Addison Reed, Alex Cobb, Anibal Sanchez, Ervin Santana, Fernando Rodney, Greg Holland, Jake Odorizzi, Lance Lynn, Logan Morrison, Los Angeles Angels, Minnesota Twins, The Athletic, Tyler Kinley, Zach Duke
My latest for The Athletic looks at free agents who signed after the offseason was technically over, listing both the richest contracts handed out after pitchers and catchers had reported to camp and the top performances by players who signed that late. I pitched the piece in anticipation of this spring yielding both the richest contract handed out after pitchers and catchers reported and the most contracts with a guarantee of at least eight-figures agreed to at such a late date. Both records were set while I was researching and writing it, and there will be more where those came from given the quality of free agents still remaining on the market now a week past pitchers and catchers. My goal here, as it so often is, was to put all of that in context.
Tags: Andre Dawson, Andy Messersmith, Darrell Evans, Doyle Alexander, Eric Hosmer, free agents, J.D. Martinez, Kendrys Morales, Kevin Brown, Larry Walker, Mark Grace, Nelson Cruz, Rich Reuschel, Stephen Drew, The Athletic, Tim Raines, Ubaldo Jimenez
I don’t yet know the extent to which I will be taking part in The Athletic‘s baseball coverage this season, but I’m nonetheless very happy to have made my debut on the site. That comes via a ranking of the best batteries in baseball, in honor of pitchers and catchers reporting earlier this week.
This marks the first time that my writing has ever appeared behind a paywall online. That is no accident. I have long been an advocate of free access to content. However, given the realities of the industry these days, my frustration over the auto-play clutter burdening the articles at SI.com, and my strong belief in both The Athletic‘s approach to the written word and its presentation and the people putting that approach into practice, I had no hesitation in signing on to what they are doing.
If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can get a free one-week trial and 25 percent off for the first year. There may even be a free t-shirt involved.
Meanwhile, I’m already at work on my next piece for the site, due up early next week.
Tags: The Athletic
This is not my debut with The Hardball Times. I wrote a “Five Questions” Yankees preview for them way back in 2006. However, I always enjoy being able to dig into baseball history, and I’m particularly interested in the aesthetics of the game. Given my current free agency, I was thrilled to get a chance to nerd out with this look at the origins of the nicknames of every major league team. What acrobatic troupe was the source of a turn-of-the-century Dodgers nickname? How many American League nicknames originated in the National League? What the heck is a Phillie? Is Astro even a word? All the answers can be found here.
Tags: team names, The Hardball Times
CliffCorcoran.com 