A Historic Fluke? My latest for The Hardball Times

In my latest article for The Hardball Times, I take a look at a historic oddity regarding Jim Leyland, Mike Scioscia and Ozzie Guillen.Each of them managed a World Series winner without a clear Hall of Famer on their playoff roster. And the only other teams to have won the World Series without a future Hall of Famer (the '81 and '88 Dodgers and the '84 Tigers) had Hall of Fame managers.So is this

Hey Astros… don’t wait too long. Retire J. R. Richard’s number!

The Houston Astros should avoid a mistake that the Detroit Tigers made in terms of honoring one of their greats.The Tigers are retiring the number 11 in honor of Sparky Anderson. It is a wonderful tribute by the team to immortalize the Hall of Fame manager along with the other Detroit legends.No doubt his entire family will be there, as will members of his colossal World Champion squad of 1984.

Rest in Peace, Sparky Anderson

One of my favorite figures in all of baseball died today. Sparky Anderson was one of the great managers of all time and don't let any moron tell you differently.He turned the Cincinnati Reds into one of the great teams in history without a legit Cy Young contending ace.He turned around a Detroit Tigers team and put together one of the great all together ass whuppin' seasons of the past three