ClimbingSky

Why Baseball, Books, and the Grateful Dead matter

BASEBALL

  • What Matters

    Believe it or not, this blog posting for the first Saturday of March 2025 is actually being written on December 23rd, 2024. That is how far ahead I am working now on ClimbingSky. I am not certain if that is a good thing or a bad thing from a reader’s point of view. But for… 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: The Twins collapsed last year due to a combination of injuries and poor situational hitting. They enter this season with injury questions around three key position… 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

  • Rickey

    Last week, a text from my friend Bob alerted me to the sad and surprising news that Rickey Henderson, “The Man of Steal,” was dead just a few days short of his 66th birthday. Here is my post from earlier this year occasioned by the death of another G.O.A.T. Read more

  • Let’s Go Mets

    Tonight the Mets begin their NLCS series against the Yankees of the West Coast. This first game of the series will be on FOX which means I will actually get to see it. Some numbers: None of that though matters. Right now, the Mets are playing better. Hitting for more power. Driving in more runs.… Read more

  • A Mid-Week Rant

    During the regular season, I have a subscription to MLB.com. It allows me to watch just about any baseball game I wish to watch. So during the regular season when I wanted to catch the Mets, it was an easy thing to do. Not so though now that playoff games have started. In a misguided… Read more

  • First World Series – 1903

    On Tuesday, October 6th, 1903 after two days of rest, Pittsburgh Pirate Deacon Phillippe threw his third complete game victory of the series against Boston American Bill Dinneen, who was making his second start of the series. The Pirates won the game and took a commanding 3–1 series lead. But they would end up losing… Read more