ClimbingSky

Why Baseball, Books, and the Grateful Dead matter

BASEBALL

  • Money Ball

    On April 2nd, 1997, for the first time in Major League Baseball history, the salary of one player surpasses the payroll of an entire team. In 1997, the Chicago White Sox will pay Albert Belle $10 million for the season which is $928,333 more than the entire Pittsburgh Pirates payroll. The first officially all-professional baseball team was the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings (Reds).… Read more

  • Opening Day Record

    On April 1st, 1997, the Padres score 11 runs in the bottom of the sixth inning en route to a 12-5 rout of the Mets. Setting a record for the most runs scored in one inning of an Opening Day contest this century. Chris Gomez, Rickey Henderson, and Quilvio Veras lead the attack with back-to-back-to-back… Read more

  • The End of an Era

    On April 28, 2024, the last Opening Day game for the Oakland Athletics took place between the then Oakland A’s and the Cleveland Guardians . I have been lucky enough to be in person for a few moments of Baseball History. All of them have been joyful occasions with the exception of this one, the… Read more

  • Opening Day

    Finally, the long dark night of the soul is over. Tomorrow there will be boxscores that matter again and game summaries worth reading closely. It is Opening Day! My local nine, The Minnesota Twins, are in St. Louis to play the Cardinals today. While the Mets are in Houston and the Pirates in Miami. Baseball… Read more

  • Too Much Football

    Spring has made its way to the North Country and the baseball season starts in less than 2 weeks. Everything is right with the world. Each morning I open the sports page of the StarTribune hoping to read about spring training. Inevitably there is more coverage of the Minnesota Vikings and the NFL. Don’t get… Read more

  • FRIDAY FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Hank Aaron on Failure

    “Failure is a part of success. There is no such thing as a bed of roses all your life. But failure will never stand in the way of success if you learn from it.” – Hank Aaron Read more

  • Kirby

    On this day in 2006, Kirby Puckett died at the young age of 46. In honor of Kirby, I am reposting this that I wrote and posted in July here at ClimbingSky: I was lucky enough to move to the Twin Cities and to begin going to Twins games regularly in 1986. That meant I… Read more

  • Musings on The Game

    With Opening Day less than a month away, my mind turns more and more to The Game. This year the teams that I will be following most closely are: Minnesota Twins New York Mets Pittsburgh Pirates The Twins collapsed last year due to a combination of injuries and poor situational hitting. They enter this season… Read more

  • A Need for Speed

    Anyone that has visited ClimbingSky by now knows that my favorite player is Rickey Henderson, the epitome of speed on the base paths. Getting on base, disrupting a pitcher’s timing/concentration by being a threat to steal makes it easier for your teammates to do their job: advancing runners and knocking in runs. My local nine,… Read more

  • Spring is Here

    I have long been silent on baseball here at ClimbingSky. For some reason, it is hard for me to write about baseball when there are no games going on. In the past, during the offseason, I would read baseball books to get me through the dark days. But for the past few years, I have… Read more