8 March 26

Some baseball greats born on 8 March:

• 1942 - Dick Allen, American baseball infielder (7 × MLB All-Star; NL Rookie of the Year 1964, Philadelphia Phillies; AL MVP 1972, Chicago WS), born in Wampum, Pennsylvania (d. 2020)
• 1953Jim Rice, American Baseball Hall of Fame left fielder (AL MVP 1978; 8-time MLB All Star; Boston Red Sox),born in Anderson, South Carolina
• 1939 - Jim Bouton, American baseball pitcher, author and broadcaster (NY Yankees), MLB All Star 1968, "Ball Four"), born in Newark, New Jersey (d. 2019)

2 February 23

Today is Groundhog Day, and you can go back a few days in my tie blog to see my groundhogs tie! My baseballs tie helps celebrate the founding of the National League: "On this date in 1876, baseball teams from Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Hartford, Louisville, New York, Philadelphia, and St. Louis formed the National League. It would be another 25 years before the American League was founded."

22 August 21

Today's significance in major league baseball: 

 1989 – Nolan Ryan strikes out Rickey Henderson to become the first Major League Baseball pitcher to record 5,000 strikeouts. By 1993 he had 5,714 strikeouts, unsurpassed maybe forever.

Birthdays: 1857 – Ned Hanlon; 1939 – Carl Yastrzemski; 1949 – Doug Bair; 1950 – Ray Burris; 1956 – Paul Molitor; 1972 – Steve Kline.

The colors of my shirt match the purple and white uniforms for the Colorado Rockies, the team honored with great attention by my son Jonathan. He and his family will be at Empower Field, aka Mile High Stadium, for a Rockies game later this year!

6 May 20

Wearing my baseballs tie to honor the birthday of Willie Mays (1931). The "Say Hey Kid" played for 22 years with the New York/San Francisco Giants and the New York Mets.

8 October 18

It's time to check in to the current status of the 2018 baseball playoffs! As of today, five teams are left: Houston Astros, New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Brewers. You can see the postseason bracket at https://www.mlb.com/postseason.

1 August 17

Jonathan Albert Kleppinger turns 29 years old today! He asked me to wear my baseballs-on-black tie, and I'm sporting it on my purple-and-white striped shirt to honor his favorite Colorado Rockies. And I'm including a photo from his own tee ball days in 1995, which inspired his lasting Rockies fandom. Today the Rockies are in third place in the NL West, just barely behind the Diamondbacks, and they have the fifth-best overall record among all MLB teams.

20 October 16

Today's baseball tie honors the birthdays of star players Mickey Mantle (1931-1995), Juan Marichal (1937) and Keith Hernandez (1953). This year's World Series starts next Tuesday, featuring the Cleveland Indians and either the Chicago Cubs (!!!) or the Los Angeles Dodgers. I don't know whether actor Bela Lugosi (1882-1956) and rapper Snoop Dogg (1971) -- also born on this day -- care about baseball, but I will guess that physicist James Chadwick (1891-1974) was decidedly neutral. (Chadwick discovered the neutron.)

12 April 15

Baseball season has begun! Our family's favorite teams are doing very well so far -- the Colorado Rockies are 4-1 and the Detroit Tigers are 5-0 (going into today's games).



Update on Sunday evening: The Detroit Tigers are still perfect (6-0), while the Rockies are still in first place in the West NL division (4-2).

6 February 13

"Babe" Ruth's birthday, 1895.

29 March 11

It's Cy Young's birthday, so here comes the pitch. Cy Young (March 29, 1867-November 4, 1955) was a major league pitcher from 1890 to 1911, playing for five different teams: the Cleveland Spiders, the St. Louis Perfectos, the Boston Americans/Red Sox, the Cleveland Naps and the Boston Rustlers. His record of 511 career wins tops the all-time list and is almost certainly guaranteed for history, 94 games ahead of second place (Walter Johnson) and hundreds ahead of any active players. His name lives on in the Cy Young Award, presented annually to the best pitcher in both the American and National Leagues. In the photo I'm wearing a replica of a 1910's-era Detroit Tigers baseball cap, borrowed from fellow EKU philosopher (and baseball trivia buff) Ron Messerich. In 1904, Cy Young pitched the first "modern era" perfect game against the Tigers. The new baseball season starts on Thursday!

14 July 10

Last night was the MLB All-Star Game, which was won by the National League team for the first time since 1996. Today begins the "second half" of the baseball season, with our family-favorite Colorado Rockies tied for second place in their division.

06 April 10

Yesterday was the first day of baseball season.

07 October 09

This is the first day of the 2009 playoffs for Major League Baseball. This year's octet includes the Yankees, Twins, Red Sox and Angels from the American League, and the Phillies, Rockies, Cardinals and Dodgers from the National League. The first game, this afternoon, pits our family-favorite Colorado Rockies against the Philadelphia Phillies. So I'm wearing my "baseballs" tie (for the very first time) on a solid purple shirt.