ClimbingSky

Why Baseball, Books, and the Grateful Dead matter


DAILY BLOG

  • Brad Radke

    On August 9th, 1997, Twins pitcher Brad Radke had his  winning streak end at 12 consecutive starts when Luis Sojo doubled home the go-ahead run in the eighth inning to give the Yankees a 4-1 win before a crowd of 42,151, the second-largest gathering of the season at the Metrodome. Radke (16-6) remains tied with Scott Erickson (1991) for the… Read more

  • No dew; no dewy cobwebs. The sky looks mist-like, not clear blue. An aurora fading into a general saffron color. At length the redness travels over, partly from east to west, before sunrise, and there is little color in the east. There is no name for the evening red corresponding to aurora. It is the… Read more

  • Throwback Thursdays” at ClimbingSky feature posts I wrote over a 15 year period for various blogs. This was first posted on October 23, 2012. Frontier moves… like a receding wave that leaves smooth, unbroken sand behind. In American history that wave receded west across the continent and then turned north to the Alaskan frontier. All places… Read more

  • On August 6th, 1967, against Chicago White Sox, future, Hall-of-Famer Brooks Robinson hit into the fourth triple play of his career for a major league record. Yesterday ClimbingSky featured a bad day by an obscure rookie named, ironically Sam Hope. Today we feature one by The Greatest Third Baseman of All Time, Brooks Robinson (pictured above… Read more

  • Sam Hope

    On August 5th, 1907, Philadelphia Athletic Sam Hope pitched in his first. Major League game. In one third of an inning, he gave up 3 hits and one unearned run. He never pitched in another Major League game. Sometimes for Major League prospects, a “cup of coffee” only lost a few minutes. For Sam Hope… Read more

  • HE WAS SITTING ON HIS HEELS IN THE COLD LIGHT of the dawn, drawing pale flames through a handful of twigs and dry crushed grass. Beside him was his source of fuel: a degenerate juniper tree, shriveled and twisted, cringing over its bed of lava rock and sand. An under-privileged juniper tree, living not on… Read more

  • A Sunday Sermon

    For a brief period early in my life, I preached a Sunday sermon. When I left that vocation behind, I could not imagine ever wanting to write a “sermon” again. The current times have changed all that. In the face of Post-Truth, Donald Trump, FoxNews, and the intentional de-semination of un-Truth, the best defense we have to redeem ourselves… Read more

  • Kevin Maas

    On August 2nd, 1990, Yankees rookie Kevin Maas hit his tenth home run in just 77 at bats, the fastest any player had ever reached that mark. But the Yanks lost to Detroit 6-5 in 11 innings. In Mid-Summer of 1990, Kevin Maas was the talk of New York and of Fantasy and Rotisserie Baseball owners everywhere.… Read more

  • It is discouraging to talk with men who will recognize no principles. How little use is made of reason in this world! You argue with a man for an hour, he agrees with you step by step, you are approaching a triumphant conclusion, you think that you have converted him; but ah, no, he has… Read more

  • Throwback Thursdays” at ClimbingSky feature posts I wrote over a 15 year period for various blogs. This was first posted on July 31, 2011. Here in the North Country, the climatological pendulum we live under has reached the longest and hottest end of its summer arc. Our minds are on things of summer: cold beer,… Read more