Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
June 14, 2004
Ralph Wiley Dies
Permalink

Ralph Wiley has died from heart failure at age 52. I didn't always agree with Wiley, but I enjoyed the rythmn of his writing. I'll miss his work. My condolences go out to his friends and family.

Posted by StatsGuru at 05:33 PM | Comments (18) | TrackBack (0)
February 26, 2004
Lewis in SI
Permalink

Jon Weisman at Dodger Thoughts is encouraging people to read Michael Lewis's follow up to Moneyball in the latest Sports Illustrated.

Posted by StatsGuru at 11:10 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
February 17, 2004
Ritter Dies
Permalink

John Rogan sends me details of the death of Lawrence Ritter, chronicler of baseball history.


In the early 1960s, when reel-to-reel tape recorders were bulky and unwieldy, Mr. Ritter traveled 75,000 miles in a five-year period to hear the voices from an era when roughneck ballplayers came out of farms and small towns with battered suitcases, when baseballs were dead and spitballs were alive.

Mr. Ritter located old-time baseball stars living in obscurity and asked them of a time when their deeds were the stuff of headlines. ``The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It,'' published by Macmillan in 1966, became a classic of baseball history.


The nice thing is that those tapes are in the Hall of Fame, so they will be available to generations of researchers. We all owe Mr. Ritter thanks for his work. My thoughts are with his friends and family.

Posted by StatsGuru at 03:21 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack (1)