Kuzul

Tucked onto the corner of 18th and Vine Streets in Kansas City, Missouri sits one of the more culturally significant museums in the United States. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (NLBM) tells the story of how these segregated leagues evolved from creation until eventually being fully integrated with Major League Baseball. Podcast to be Named Later had the privilege Monday afternoon to interview NLBM President Bob Kendrick about the museum, the Negro Leagues themselves, pioneers such as Jackie Robinson and Buck O’Neil, along with the legacy and stories that still mean so much today. The foremost impression you get from hearing Kendrick speak is his obvious pride. From the first question forward, you discover the smile on his face when all you hear are words. When asked what he hoped people would take away from the museum, he answered: “You will walk away with a newfound appreciation for just how ...

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming.This is indeed a sad day, as we acknowledge the end of something. In many ways, though, this also should be a happy occasion,  time to remember and celebrate what was.If you'll please be seated, we'll begin the ceremony of saying goodbye to the Philadelphia Phillies and the dynasty that could have been. The Beginning of the EndThe Phillies have failed to make it above .500 this season—they're 16-21 through Friday—but the downfall of this once-proud franchise started well before 2013.If we were to paint a picture of the very moment this club went from potential dynasty to impending travesty, it would look a little something like this:That's Ryan Howard, the highly paid slugging first baseman, slumped on the ground, unable to even run to first base after meekly grounding out and wrecking his Achilles on the final out of the 2011 NLDS against the Cardinals.Heading ...

Baseball is a game with many faces. Pitchers, catchers, big bats, managers...There are so many intricate parts to a great team, and the St. Louis Cardinals are historically one of the greatest teams. Making one's mark as a player is not easy, and unfortunately some slip through the cracks, never truly getting the attention they deserve. In no particular order, I've picked out 5 players from Cardinals history who I would consider underrated. Each of these individuals has given 10 or more years to the Cardinals organization. None of them ever received any high honors, the exception being All-Star bids. And none of them are currently on the team. (Sorry, Allen Craig! We don't know where your superstar status will be been you eventually retire.) Lastly, almost all of them were overshadowed by other players. The definition of the word "underrated" implies a player who's name doesn't often come up in conversation, so there ...

Another example of the baseball card collector's "holy grail" is on the auction block.  Just a few weeks after a T206 Honus Wagner tobacco card brought $2.1 million, another one of the 1909 rarities is up for bid.New Jersey-based Robert Edward Auctions is offering the card once owned by actor Charlie Sheen.  Just over a week into the bidding, it stands at $330,000.  Graded PSA 1 (poor), the card shows wear, but has quite a story behind it.In the 1990s, Sheen loaned the Wagner and several other vintage cards from his collection to the All Star Café in New York.  It was a popular attraction at the sports-themed restaurant and apparently too tempting for a pair of chefs.Two of them, along with a manager, plotted to steal the card and replace it with a copy.  Their idea worked for a while and they tried to cash in by selling it ...

Mr. October’s most famous pinstripes are going on the auction block. As first reported by Sports Collectors Daily, the jersey Reggie Jackson was wearing October 18, 1977, when he hit three homers in Game 6 of the World Series will be up for auction this spring. SCP Auctions will offer Jackson's size 44 No. 44 home white button-down in its catalog auction in April.Experts anticipate that it will sell for a minimum of $500,000. Some of the proceeds from the sale will go to Jackson's Mr. October Foundation for Kids. David Kohler, president of SCP Auctions, says he believes the Jackson jersey could bring more than any other sports jersey sold in the modern era. He wouldn't be surprised to see the sale reach seven figures at the conclusion of the bidding. A Babe Ruth jersey worn in the 1920s was sold at an SCP Auction last year for $4.4 ...

Dale Murphy has once again been left out of baseball’s Hall of Fame, and this time for the Atlanta Braves great, it’s for keeps. Or, well, sort of. A few days have passed since the BBWAA offered its ruling on this year’s MLB Hall of Fame class (or lack thereof).  And in that time, much has been made of the writers’ silent protest against allowing steroid users, alleged or admitted, into baseball’s holy land.  Yet so little has been made of the snub of Murphy in the national media. This was the 15th and final try at being elected via the BBWAA ballot for The Murph, who, according to Baseball Reference, hit .265 with 398 home runs over the course of a career that lasted 18 seasons, including 15 in Atlanta.  And while his career average may not turn many heads, his home run totals are respectable, especially for a ...

The Washington Nationals had a historic season in 2012.  The Nats made the playoffs for the first time since moving to Washington in 2005.  It was the first playoff appearance for the Nationals/Expos franchise since 1981.  And it was the first playoff appearance for a Washington baseball team since the Senators lost the World Series in 1933.  But if the Nationals' dream season had gone according to plan, then Washington would have won the first World Series in the city's history since 1924. Now, as the current World Series is being played, let's take a look back into baseball lore and revisit the 1924 World Series.  The 1924 Washington Senators were managed by player-manager Bucky Harris, and finished with a 92-62 record.  They won the American League pennant by 2.0 games over the New York Yankees.  The Senators faced off with the New York Giants, who were managed by one of the ...

There are four teams that are still alive in the Major League Baseball postseason: the Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals.These storied franchises combine for 93 pennants and 48 World Series titles. They have had a combined 175 Hall of Famers—over half of the players inducted into Cooperstown.Between 1922 and 2006, the four teams faced off in the World Series 15 times, with the Yankees and Giants meeting seven of those times (1922-24, 1936-37, 1951, 1962). The Yankees are 5-2 all-time against the Giants in the World Series .The Yankees and Cardinals have met five times, with St. Louis winning three of those. St. Louis has also beat the Detroit Tigers in two of the three World Series that they have faced off, the last one in 2006.The quest for the AL Pennant beings tonight at 8:30 when the New York Yankees take on the ...

As we enter the final days of the 2012 season, Detroit Tigers third baseman Miguel Cabrera is trying to do something no ballplayer has done in 45 years—win a Triple Crown. The last Triple Crown winner was Boston's Carl Yastrzemski, who led the American League in all three major batting categories in 1967. If Cabrera wins out, he will become the second Tiger in history to win a Triple Crown, joining all-time batting leader Ty Cobb, who won the honor in 1909. Here are 10 things you may not know about the MLB Triple Crown. There have been 17 Triple Crowns in baseball history, with 15 different players winning the honor. The American League has seen nine Triple Crowns and the National League seven. Canadian Tip O'Neill of the St. Louis Browns was the only player from the American Association to ...

There was a time, in the not-so-distant past, when a no-hitter in MLB was so infrequent that you could remember the names of the pitchers who tossed such gems over the past several years. The moments were recalled on the yellowed newspaper clippings of your memory. The no-hitters dotted recent history, delicious in their stubborn and insistent rarity of occurrence. You were sometimes lucky to see one a year. The no-hitter was Armageddon-type headline stuff for the newspapers. Part of the beauty, too, was how the no-hitter often plucked mediocre pitchers from virtual anonymity and shoved them under baseball’s spotlight, all because for one game, that guy with the losing record and the ERA of 4.86 put it all together. It’s part of my fascination with baseball—how the game has a wonderful way of occasionally making heroes out of the Walter Mittys who play it. The list of men who ...