Glory Days, They'll Pass You By

Last night, I attended a lively discussion on "The Cambridge Companion to Baseball" with the book's editor, Lenny Cassuto, and Caryn Rose (aka Metsgrrl). As it turned out, they had a connection even stronger than baseball - Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

When I heard the terrible news about Clarence Clemons late Saturday night, I emailed Lenny. We have both been to at least 40 Bruce shows over the years, most of them with the E Street Band. I included in the email a link to a touching obituary on the main Springsteen fan site backstreets.com.

It was after I sent the email that I discovered that the obituary was written by the same person who was going to interview Lenny two day later.

(Read Clarence Clemons obituary written by Caryn Rose and Glenn Radecki and other Clarence tributes here.)

Though I suspect Lenny might have been just as happy to talk about Clarence, Caryn was coming off a string of radio and TV appearances as well as further updates to Backstreets, so once the evening officially got underway, all talk turned to baseball.

Since we were in Brooklyn (at the Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene), it was only appropriate for Caryn to begin by asking Lenny about an essay in the book on Walter O'Malley.

Caryn also asked if many of the writers identified themselves in the book as fans of specific teams. Lenny said that there was one Met fan, so I immediately jumped up, only to have Lenny remind me that it was actually a different writer.

Since my piece on the origins of free agency included a part on George Steinbrenner, it's probably just as well that I didn't identify myself as a Met fan in the book's bio section. But Squawker Lisa can verify that I was strictly objective when writing about the other Boss.

When the topic of fantasy baseball came up, Caryn said she was not a fan, so I decided not to mention that I have three teams and write on it for The Faster Times. But I should have mentioned that my fantasy football team is called the Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out.

Overall, it was a fun event. I got to meet Metsgrrl, and had the chance to talk about Clarence with a writer from Backstreets, all at the same time.

Omar Minaya Appears at Fordham; Mets Keep Winning

When the Mets were in free fall earlier this month, I grew sick of Terry Collins' postgame news conferences, when he kept insisting that the Mets would turn it around and go on a long winning streak. At one point, I think he mentioned winning nine of eleven, another time, something like winning six straight. I just wanted the Mets to win one straight.

Turns out Terry was right - the Mets have now won five straight. 5-0 since Jason Bay returned. And 5-0 since R.A. Dickey, after the team's last loss, said:

We can't just keep telling ourselves, 'Oh, we’re a better team than this.' We may not be. And we've got to be honest about that, and identify what we're doing wrong, and do it better. That's the only way you have any real growth…

Dickey is one of the few Mets to show leadership qualities. Now let's hope he can snap his own losing streak Wednesday and help the Mets continue to win.

Before the game, I went to see a panel discussion at Fordham moderated by Lenny Cassuto, co-editor of "The Cambridge Companion to Baseball." The panel included former Met GM Omar Minaya, baseball historian John Thorn, baseball writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist Alan Schwarz and Matthew Jacobson, a Yale professor and contributor to the Cambridge book.

It was a lively discussion on topics ranging from the declining number of African-Americans in baseball to instant replay. Some of the sharpest exchanges revolved around steroids. Thorn saw no need to make any changes to the record book, even going so far as to suggest that if Babe Ruth played today, he would be Matt Stairs. Schwarz said that he did not look forward to telling his young son that the home run record was held by Barry Bonds. Thorn replied that Bonds was the best hitter he's ever seen, and Thorn had seen Ted Williams play.

The panel was also not always in agreement on baseball's popularity in the U.S. When Minaya said that he saw plenty of baseball fields whenever he was on a plane coming in for a landing, Schwarz asked if anyone was on those fields and Cassuto said that he had just read that more and more baseball fields are being paved over.

When Minaya said that his purest experience of seeing a baseball game might have been in Cuba, Schwarz noted that "they have a hell of a salary cap."

Minaya said he would not want to see a robot determining balls and strikes because you need to be able to "go out there and argue."

Minaya mentioned that he had played ball in Tuscany, which made me think of Rick Peterson's statement when the Mets got rid of him that they were replacing a hardwood floor with Tuscany tile.

I'm still not sure that the Mets are better off with Dan Warthen, but the way the pitching has been the last few days, the Tuscany tile is looking pretty good.

Stunner: Subway Squawkers Snubbed Again for Award

Given that this month marks the fifth anniversary of Subway Squawkers, I was hoping this would finally be the year we'd get recognized with some big ol' award. You know, like a Pulitzer, a MacArthur Genius Grant, something like that. No such luck so far. They announced this year's Peabody Awards today, and we were shut out again. This was my reaction:




On a happier note, while we might not be getting any awards, the Squawkers are featured in two different books. Jon and I are contributors to the Graphical Player 2011 book. And Jon's work is featured in the new Cambridge Companion to Baseball book. Jon and I will both be attending a signing event for the book tonight at Borders in Columbus Circle at 7 p.m. this evening. If you're in the city, and feel like stopping by to say hi, please do!

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Baseball Book Talk and Signing Thursday

Leonard Cassuto, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Baseball, will talk about the book and sign copies at Borders Books at Columbus Circle on Thursday, March 31 at 7 pm. The book is a collection of essays on topics such as baseball in the movies and baseball in Japan and Latin America. Interspersed are features on iconic baseball characters such as Pete Rose and Walter O'Malley.

I contributed a piece on the origins of free agency, with the focus on Charlie Finley, George Steinbrenner and Andy Messersmith. It was a fascinating time in baseball and I had a great time researching and writing about it. Readers of this blog are quite familiar with Steinbrenner, but for those less familiar with Finley, the A's owner might have been an even more vivid character.

Hope to see some of you Thursday. If you can't make it to the Borders event, you can check out The Cambridge Companion to Baseball on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.