The 1972 Milwaukee Brewers offense had a rough go of it all season, which was a big reason why the team finished in 6th place at 65-91 in the AL East. Catcher Ellie Rodriguez led the team in batting average with .288, but he wasn’t even quite an everyday player, as he had 355 at…
The last couple weeks have been crazy for me – quite surreal, to put it mildly. First, Clayton Trutor from Down the Drive on SB Nation contacted me about the Brewers book. We had a great conversation over topics ranging from the one thing I’d like readers to take away from the book to my…
The 1988 Baltimore Orioles are remembered as being one of the worst teams in franchise history, as they staggered to a 54-107 record (only eclipsed by the 2018 team with a 47-115 mark). They had the worst start to a season in MLB history with an 0-21 record. Meanwhile, the Milwaukee Brewers were enjoying a…
When I submitted my book proposal to McFarland, one of the items was an Abstract. It’s a fancy way to say outline/descriptive table of contents. My original Abstract had around 14 chapters and a larger scope for the book. I wrapped up the book in 2004 when Bud Selig’s family sold the team to Mark…
Maverick Oakland A’s owner Charlie Finley experimented with baseball rule changes in 1971, namely going to a three-ball walk to cut down on length of games and promote more offense. Milwaukee Brewers General Manager Frank Lane agreed with Finley, and in fact, had proposed the idea several years earlier. “I suggested it a dozen years…
I recently finished reading Phinally and must say, it is most certainly a winner, and a book that will be worth revisiting again and again. Written by J. Daniel and published by McFarland & Company, it covers exactly what the title says – the 1980 baseball season with a bit more focus on the Phillies…
Over the weekend leading into MLK Jr. Day, I again found myself holed up in a hotel room with a laptop, working on various writing projects while my wife was in a conference hall scrapbooking. This year the stars aligned and we both had a blast! She made some great progress in her book with…
Not surprisingly, the top 5 most visited posts of 2018 on my site have Milwaukee Brewers content. Here they are from #5 to #1, with a little background on each: #5 – Gaylord Perry’s 15 Inning Marathon In the course of doing research for my Milwaukee Brewers historical book, I stumbled on a box score…
Milwaukee Brewers Historical Book News: In March I received peer and editor feedback on my manuscript. I had a few typos and spelling errors I could have kicked myself over, but the biggest blunder on my part came in the second half of the manuscript. I went in a completely different direction and started recapping…
This Craig Counsell kid has a trophy too! (with outfielder Dion James) Milwaukee Brewers reliever Rollie Fingers spent the first two months of the 1981 offseason adding hardware to his trophy case. First, he won the Cy Young Award as the American League’s top pitcher, and then he took home honors as the league’s Most…
It was a deal destined to probably never happen, but for a short time in the fall of 1973 the Chicago Cubs inquired about acquiring highly touted catching prospect Darrell Porter from the Milwaukee Brewers. They had been shopping around 14-year veteran Ron Santo and had him on the table for Porter. It’s…
This upcoming Monday brings another birthday for yours truly, and another potential trip around the sun. Some years ago on the eve of my 18th birthday, I wrote the following rather bleak piece on where I was in life. Last year I wrote a reply to that young punk from “Future Me” to offer a current perspective:…
