Ballpark Digest / August Publications

There are plenty of great names for baseball superstars—meal tickets or cash cows—but the more interesting names are for the worst players, the muffins, as Jesse Goldberg-Strassler explains in this week’s Tales from The Baseball Thesaurus.

If you are a player, you don’t want to be known by these names: a KP (can’t play), an NP (non-prospect) or a JAG (just a guy), among an abundance of derisive monikers. Yet these players get signed, and once they are they are riders of the lonesome pine, a benchwarmer, a bench polisher. 

A great term, however, is a muffin, a term created way back in 1868 by the legendary Henry Chadwick: a player who is both practically and theoretically unacquainted with the game. Under the early management of the game, however, the muffins would actually play: after the regular competition, there would be a muffin game, to the delight of all. And the impact of the muffins continued to this day: when an error is made on an easy play, the fielder is said to have muffed the play.

Goldberg-Strassler shares his insights on the colorful patois of America’s Pastime in this weekly podcast. You can find The Baseball Thesaurus at augustpublications.com.

With six panels and a consistent design topped by a squatchee, a baseball cap is an enduring symbol of the game. Jesse Goldberg-Strassler explains how baseball caps evolved in this week’s Tales from the Baseball Thesaurus.

Baseball players didn’t originally wear baseball caps on the field: they wore straw hats in the fashion of the day. By 1858, however, teams like the Brooklyn Excelsiors introduced rounded caps to the mix. Pretty soon you saw other variations, including green visors and sunglasses attached to the cap itself, as well as the popular pillbox style and the “Philadelphia style” cap featuring four rows of stitching fronted by a brim attached to the crown itself.

When MLB expanded in 1969, teams saw fit to experiment further. The Seattle Pilots introduced embroidered leaves representing pilots on the cap front, while the Montreal Expos went a step further with the colorful red, white and blue pinwheel design—a design criticized at the time by purists but now regarded as a classic. And, we also saw the 1970s Pittsburgh Pirates bring back the pillbox cap to commemorate the founding of the National League.

Goldberg-Strassler shares his insights on the colorful patois of America’s Pastime in this weekly podcast. You can find The Baseball Thesaurus at augustpublications.com.

Tom Nichols, Voice of the Dayton Dragons, joins Jesse Goldberg-Strassler and Kevin Reichard to share his favorite baseball stories, including the arrest of a player in the middle of a game, in this week’s Ballpark Digest Broadcaster Chat.

Nichols began his career as a fill-in broadcaster for the Indianapolis Indians under Howard Kellman, then spent several years as the Voice of the Mobile BayBears and stints in Peoria and Fort Wayne before landing with the Dragons, one of MiLB's best operations. In this week's chat, Nichols shares some of the notable stories gleaned over his career, including a memorable series at Orlando's then-Cracker Jack Stadium where a BayBears player tangled with a Disney entertainer on the field and then was arrested the next day in the midst of a game, called in from his outfield position. He also tells tales of his most interesting broadcasting gigs, including a stint with the Kinston Indians, where he called his first game at Durham Athletic Park, where the broadcast area was basically a third dugout right behind home plate. The stories come fast and furious in this episode.

The Baseball Thesaurus term of the week: Texas Leaguer, dating back to the spacious outfields of the old Texas League, where outfielders played deep to prevent doubles and triples. That made it easy for a batter to bloop a hit over the infielders and far from the outfielders.

Jesse Goldberg-Strassler is the Voice of the Lansing Lugnuts and the author of The Baseball Thesaurusand The Football Thesaurus from August Publications.  Kevin Reichard is publisher at August Publications and Ballpark Digest.

If replacement batters are called pinch hitters, why aren’t replacement pitchers called pinch pitchers? They originally were, as explained by Jesse Goldberg-Strassler in this week’s Tales from the Baseball Thesaurus.

Relief pitchers are used in a pinch, and today they’re used in a variety of specialized roles: closers, set-up men, middle relievers, long and short relievers, or a mop-up man. If a relief pitcher pitches poorly, they’re known as a gas can: throwing fuel on a fire by taking a bad situation and making it worse. On the other hand, the best pitcher in the bullpen is the fireman, who puts out that fire. 

Perhaps the finest relief job came in 1917, when Ernie Shore replaced Babe Ruth—who had been thrown out of the game after Ruth punched home-plate umpire Brick Owens in a dispute over balls and strikes for leadoff batter Ray Morgan—and after Morgan was thrown out trying to steal second, proceeded to retire the next 26 batters. Relief for Shore, a no-hitter for Boston.

Goldberg-Strassler shares his insights on the colorful patois of America’s Pastime in this weekly podcast. You can find The Baseball Thesaurus at augustpublications.com.

Jesse Goldberg-Strassler and Kevin Reichard are joined by Derek Sharrer and Sean Aronson of the St. Paul Saints to discuss the return of Triple-A ball to the Saintly City in this week’s Ballpark Digest Broadcaster Chat.

With the MLB makeover of Minor League Baseball for 2021, three teams—the Saints, the Sugar Land Skeeters and the Somerset Patriots—came over from the independent ranks. But both Sharrer, executive vice president and GM, and Aronson, VP/director of broadcasting and media relations, had both worked in affiliated ball before for the Goldklang Group in Fort Myers and Charleston. The chat centers on moving to affiliated ball—both anticipate few changes—and what it’s like working with parent Minnesota Twins with Target Field just on the other end of the Green Line from CHS Field. Both expressed their surprise when the Saints went affiliated—neither were expecting it and had frequently downplayed any such possibility, saying mountains would need to move for it to happen—and both expressed satisfaction with the working environment with the Saints in a wide-ranging chat about the 2021 season.

The Baseball Thesaurus term of the week: bang, as when a player wants to know when a game will be banged, or called, due to rain. This is anti-term, sure to draw some ire from Sharrer. This led to a discussion of the rain turtle, another baseball-only term.

Jesse Goldberg-Strassler is the Voice of the Lansing Lugnuts and the author of The Baseball Thesaurusand The Football Thesaurus from August Publications.  Kevin Reichard is publisher at August Publications and Ballpark Digest.

Two games in the same day is heaven for fans looking forward to the twin bill, double dip or the doubleheader, as explained by Jesse Goldberg-Strassler in this week’s Tales from the Baseball Thesaurus.

There are all sorts of descriptive phrases used to describe various iterations of a doubleheader. Two day games represent a double-barrel matinee. Two night games represent a twi-nighter. And two separate games requiring two separate tickets is a day-night doubleheader. A doubleheader represents a big spot in baseball history—you can go back all the way to 1873 and Boston for the first recorded twin bill. There are variations, of course: some doubleheaders involve three teams, and some doubleheaders involve two ballparks.

Goldberg-Strassler shares his insights on the colorful patois of America’s Pastime in this weekly podcast. You can find The Baseball Thesaurus at augustpublications.com.

Jesse Goldberg-Strassler and Kevin Reichard discuss the opening week of the MLB season and a visit to American Family Field, home of the Brewers, in this week’s Ballpark Digest Broadcaster Chat.

Being able to watch baseball virtually all day has been a boon to fans—begin with the afternoon matinees and end with the late-night West Coast matches. And as a bonus fans have been allowed into ballparks across the MLB board. The home of the Milwaukee Brewers, American Family Field hosted games to start the 2021 MLB season with limited capacity and concessions offerings. Despite that, fans seemed to follow the rules regarding mask usage and staying in their seats, and there was a festive atmosphere. (You can read the story about the visit here.) Some teams are just opening the doors in relief, while others are treating it as a typical year with new food offerings and promos. (The Brewers’ fans seemed content with the Sconnie basics: beers and brats.) Other topics of discussion after the first week of play: How striking Shohei Ohtani is when healthy, why the Mets are playing better, and how this season will be a season of change, as capacity limitations and operating restrictions are regularly revisited.

The Baseball Thesaurus term of the week didn’t come from the book, but rather a phrase attributed first to former player and manager Dusty Baker: a “one-hand Fred,” describing a swing where the batter is fooled, the top hand flies off, and he ends up following through with only one hand on the bat. Many times, a one-hand Fred turns into a whiff, but sometimes there’s limited contact and, in the case of Ruben Sierra, can lead to an amazing homer.

Jesse Goldberg-Strassler is the Voice of the Lansing Lugnuts and the author of The Baseball Thesaurus and The Football Thesaurus from August Publications.  Kevin Reichard is publisher at August Publications and Ballpark Digest.

What is the purpose of the purpose pitch?  Jesse Goldberg-Strassler explains it for you in this week’s Tales from the Baseball Thesaurus.

A term attributed to baseball pioneer Branch Rickey, a purpose pitch is designed to "separate the batter's head from his shoulders." This is different than a bean ball, a pitch intended to hit a batter by being thrown at a batters' head, or bean. Instead, a purpose pitch is designed to unsettle a batter, giving an upper hand to the pitcher. And that means moving a batter off the plate, getting inside the kitchen and controlling the plate.

Goldberg-Strassler shares his insights on the colorful patois of America’s Pastime in this weekly podcast. You can find The Baseball Thesaurus at augustpublications.com.

Kevin Reichard flies solo in this week’s Ballpark Digest Broadcaster Chat, discussing lessons learned from spring training for the regular season and previewing upcoming book releases and Ballpark Digest coverage.

With MLB teams beginning play today, we’re in the midst of season previews on the site, focusing on teams opening the season at home. Most are hewing to the MLB operating guidelines, with some teams, like the New York Yankees, adding more restrictions after discussions with state and local health officials. Many of the MLB operating guidelines were implemented in spring training, and we asked readers of Spring Training Online to provide feedback after seeing them in action. Comments split along two topics: the high price of spring-training tickets (an annual complaint) and mask enforcement, with half the respondents complaining about the lack of mask-usage enforcement and the other half complaining about too much enforcement of mask usage. We expect MLB teams to grapple with mask issues this season. We’ve run many regular-season previews and will continue through the end of the week. 

In book news: My 1961 is at the printers and will be released at the end of the month. (Easter egg: there’s a book giveaway offer in this podcast.) Andy Strasberg’s fascinating account of the 1961 Roger Maris home-run race, written from his viewpoint as a 13-year-old, covers more than just baseball, but also coming of age at a pivotal time in American history in the midst of the JFK era and the Cold War. Preorder at August Publications and we’ll throw in some exclusive goodies.

Kevin Reichard is publisher at August Publications and Ballpark Digest.

You may bring in a base runner with a run batted in (RBI), but you don’t actually need to get a hit to do it, as explained by Jesse Goldberg-Strassler in this week’s Tales from the Baseball Thesaurus.

You could walk, hit a sacrifice fly or get hit by a pitch to notch an RBI—even if it’s an intentional walk, as was the case once with Barry Bonds, who was issued the intentional pass to first base to avoid greater damage from the slugger. The phrase dates back to 1879, when a Buffalo newspaper noted an occurrence, and in 1880 the Chicago Tribune started tracking RBI—but stopped when fans protested. The same protests and debates continue today about the effectiveness of the RBI as an evaluative tool. And yes, there are different terms for the RBI—a ribby, a ribeye or a steak, among them.

Goldberg-Strassler shares his insights on the colorful patois of America’s Pastime in this weekly podcast. You can find The Baseball Thesaurus at augustpublications.com.