Hey, Guys, Baseball is Serious Business

Problems of a Yankee pitcher:

The Yankees have been seeking a solution to Chamberlain’s first-inning struggles for some time, and Chamberlain acknowledged that it was a problem that has persisted since college, although he has not been able to pinpoint a reason for it.

“It’s starting to make me mad,” he said.

Chamberlain said that he would spend the next few days trying to solve the problem, whether by throwing more pitches in the bullpen before his starts — he threw a handful more Sunday — or by choosing different motivational music.

Music?

What is this? A seminar on motivational psychology?

One of Those Little Great Stories of Life

Arthur Richman...a longtime employee of the Yankees and the Mets, died Wednesday at age 83...

....The only president I met was George H.W. Bush. I saw Bush and a Secret Service agent walking through a hotel in Palm Springs, Calif. When I mentioned that I knew Arthur, the 41st president stopped and talked for 10 minutes.

...Speaking with Richman was like opening a baseball encyclopedia. He knew an army of people in every city the Yankees or Mets went. He called women “dollies” and he called his daily drinks “toddies.” Richman, who was Jewish, was so well connected that he secured Jim Thome a papal blessing from Pope John Paul II as a wedding gift. As a Catholic, I told Richman how impressed I was with what he had done for Thome. So he asked me if I wanted a papal blessing, too.

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