Kuzul

When Boston’s Craig Breslow airmailed a throw to third base in the seventh inning of Game 2 of the World Series, he allowed the decisive run to score for St. Louis. The result immediately drew the ire of Red Sox fans across the nation. Bostonians have a right to be disappointed by the play, but they should not be surprised, as costly errors by pitchers have become a consistent theme in the MLB postseason.

Indeed, Breslow could join an unfortunate fraternity of hurlers who have thrown away baseballs, and with them their teams’ title hopes. The most famous example is Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees. He threw Damian Miller’s bunt into center field in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 2001 World Series. The error contributed to the Arizona Diamondback’s comeback and stands as one of the few blemishes on Rivera’s postseason resume.

But there have been more recent occasions that were equally important. The Cardinals have won two World Series in the past decade, but it might have been more had their pitchers been able to defend their position. Jason Marquis’ bobble of a Craig Biggio bunt in Game 4 of the 2005 NLCS allowed the winning run to score in a series the Cardinals would eventually lose to the Houston Astros.

St. Louis took a 3-1 series lead in the 2012 NLCS to the Giants, but squandered a chance to end the series at home in Game 5. The key play? Lance Lynn threw away a potential double-play ball in the fourth inning, leading to four unearned runs in a 5-0 loss. When asked about the play, a dejected Lynn could only offer, “Weird things happen,” according to ESPN.com’s Michael Knisley. The Giants won the next two games in San Francisco to advance to the Fall Classic.

Even in this year’s Series, the Cardinals were victimized in Game 1 when Adam Wainwright miscommunicated with his Gold Glove battery mate Yadier Molina and allowed a routine pop-up to drop between them. But St. Louis has also benefited from fielding ineptitude on the part of opposing pitchers. Their 2006 championship was aided by a World Series record of five errors by the Detroit Tigers pitching staff.

Finally, the 2009 Yankees waltzed into the World Series after a Game 6 victory over the Los Angeles Angels in the ALCS. A close game was made decidedly less so when Scott Kazmir somehow botched a seemingly un-botchable thirty-foot throw en route to a 5-2 loss.

It’s hard to be certain why pitchers continue to make such mistakes. In general, they are worse fielders than the average defensive player, logging a .961 fielding percentage in the 2013 regular season compared to .985 for all other players, according to ESPN.com. The gap is actually greater than the numerical discrepancy shows, however, since pitchers have far less difficult plays to execute than the guys playing behind them.

The low degree of difficulty might actually be the reason for the errors, though. Pitchers can get psyched out by the apparent easiness of a simple throw to a base, especially since they are so accustomed to making one throw over and over again—pitches to the plate.

Take Breslow‘s error as a case study. While many have questioned whether he should have even attempted a throw in the first place, the video replay clearly shows an opportunity for an out. Breslow himself explained, “I looked up and I saw that I definitely had a play there,” according to MLB.com.

But the moment he picked up the loose ball behind home plate, an error was imminent. Instead of making a quick throw to third base, he inexplicably took a big crow hop, as if firing to home from the outfield. By the time he actually released the ball, the runner Jon Jay was almost at the base and Breslow had been overthinking the throw for a few seconds. His error was almost predictable.

Baseball fans should keep an eye on pitchers’ fielding abilities as the World Series shifts to St. Louis. It’s typical for pundits and forecasters to size up a playoff matchup by examining the teams’ more obvious assets: the back end of the bullpen, the middle of the lineup, and so on.

But when two teams are as evenly matched as the 2013 Red Sox and Cardinals, it may come down to which team’s pitchers can execute routine throws, especially if history serves an any indication.

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When Mariano Rivera retires after the 2013 MLB season, his cutter will also leave the sport forever. All active players who have been victimized by it will rejoice, knowing that they’ve outlasted a near-unhittable pitch.

How does it compare to baseball’s filthiest offerings ever? That’s what we’ll be ranking in the following slides.

Thanks to the evolution of pitch-tracking technology, it’s now possible to determine which particular pitch is being thrown in any situation. Using that information, we can see precisely how unhittable a pitch is in terms of the batting average against it, and how often it results in contact, a home run or a strikeout.

These advances, unfortunately, didn’t come along until the 21st century. Therefore, in creating this list, we needed to rely quite a bit on broader statistics and personal testimony.

You will hopefully find it enlightening, nonetheless.

*Stats provided by Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise noted. Updated through the games of Sept. 20, 2013.

Begin Slideshow

September 17th marks Roberto Clemente Day around the MLB, as the league honors the legacy of one of the all-time greats.

He made his impact felt on and off the field during his 18-year career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, before his life came to a tragic end in a plane crash at the age of 38.

Clemente was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers prior to the 1952 season out of Puerto Rico, but he never took the field for the Dodgers big league club before being selected by the Pirates in the 1954 Rule 5 draft.

He immediately took over as the Pirates everyday right fielder as a 20-year-old in 1955, hitting .255/.284/.382 and flashing plenty of future star potential.

The first five seasons of his career saw him make slow progress towards being the superstar he would one day be, as he hit a combined .282/.311/.395 and batted over .300 just once. Things took off in 1960 though, and he would quickly join the ranks of the game’s elite.

He hit .314/.357/.458 that season with 16 home runs and 94 RBI to finish eighth in NL MVP voting. He also made his first of what would be 12 All-Star appearances that season, and helped the Pirates to a World Series title.

From then until the end of his career, he was perhaps the best pure hitter in all of baseball, winning four batting titles and topping the 200 hits mark four times. He finished in the top 10 in the batting title race every year from 1960-1971, on his way to exactly 3,000 career hits and a .317 career batting average.

He was more than just a one-dimensional offensive player though, as he ranks as perhaps the best defensive right fielder to ever play the game 

With a cannon arm and fantastic range, he took home 12 Gold Glove awards and posted a 204.0 UZR for his career. His 254 outfield assists from right field rank as the most all-time, which is good for 16 more than anyone else.

He would take home 1966 NL MVP honors, and lead the Pirates to another World Series title in 1971 when he went 12-for-29 with two home runs to claim WS MVP. That capped off his Hall of Fame resume, and solidified his place as one of the best of all-time on the field.

It was his work off the field that would complete his legacy though and make a true legend.

Clemente did a good deal of charity work in the offseason throughout his career and when Managua, Nicaragua was hit with an earthquake on December 23, 1972 he set to work organizing relief efforts.

When he found out that the first three waves of relief supplies never reached their intended destination, he decided to come along with to help make sure they made it all the way to Managua. The plane was overloaded and wound up crashing into the ocean off the coast of Puerto Rico shortly after take off.

The Hall of Fame held a special election prior to the 1973 season for Clemente and he was inducted that summer after receiving 92 percent of the vote. His No. 21 was also retired by the Pirates in 1973 and MLB named the award for off-field work which had previously been known as the Commissioner’s Award the Roberto Clemente Award.

In 1973, he posthumously was given the Presidential Citizen Medal by President Richard Nixon, and in 2003, he earned the Presidential Medal of Freedom from George W. Bush, the highest civilian award.

All of the honors and praise bestowed on Clemente during his career and after his untimely death are more than deserved, as he goes down not only as one of the greatest players of all-time but a truly great human being.

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The long summer months of Major League Baseball have perennially been referred to as “the dog days of summer.” In 2013, fans are now actually able to bring their dogs to the baseball games, as this handy schedule of “dog day” events illustrates—Sept. 9 “Puppypalooza” in Cleveland, anybody?

Thursday night, I was watching the 11 p.m. SportsCenter—cliche, I’ll admit—when a brief segment concerning Major League Baseball’s obscure and nuanced past caught my eye: “This Day in History.”

It mentioned, as ESPN.com can attest, that on August 22, 1886, a Louisville Colonels player named Chicken Wolf hit a walk-off inside-the-park home run.

But that was not the unusual part.

William Van Winkle Wolf—it seems “Chicken” couldn’t have been much worse—hit a long fly ball that didn’t clear the fence. The outfielder was unable to return the ball to home plate on time. Actually, due to a dog nipping at the outfielder’s heels—no, literally biting his leg—the fielder never even reached the ball.

Apparently, the dog had been sleeping by the outfield fence.

We have heard of Angels in the Outfield, a fictional movie released July 15, 1994, and despite our doubts as kids of such an occurrence, many of us believed a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt.

But Chicken Wolf is real, and he really accrued statistics and accolades over his 11-year career with the Colonels—who were known from 1882-84 as the Eclipse—and the St. Louis Browns; they are not flashy, however.

As per Baseball-Reference, he not only won the 1890 American Association (AA) batting crown (.363 in 134 games), but he made $216 as a 20-year-old Eclipse player in 1882.

Rather than continue a discussion of our new friend, Chicken, I’ve hand-picked three interesting Major League Baseball obscurities from this day in history.

The information is derived from Nationalpastime.com, a fantastic database whose slogan is “Touching Base with History.”

That said, let’s get into a few quick stories from August 23 and touch base with some obscure history.

1906: A 19th Consecutive Victory, Chicago White Sox

The Chicago White Sox beat the Washington Senators 4-1 at American League Park in Washington, D.C. for their 19th consecutive win.

The American League record would stand for almost 100 years, until the Oakland Athletics won 20 straight ballgames in 2002.

Sound familiar?

The 21st century win streak is glamorized, romanticized and probably remembered from 2011’s Moneyball, in which Brad Pitt plays general manager Billy Beane.

1961: A 12-Run, 10-hit, Five-Home Run Ninth Inning, San Francisco Giants

At the time, this home run parade tied the 1939 New York Giants’ record for a single inning. The dozen runs within the final frame were part of a 14-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field.

The home-team Reds committed three errors during the inning—because no rally of those proportions is without the simultaneous implosion of the losing team.

The five sluggers for the Giants included Orlando Cepeda, John Orsino, Felipe Alou, Willie Mays and Jim Davenport—his was an inside-the-park round-tripper. 

1989: The First Team Mascot to Be Ejected, Montreal Expos

The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Expos 1-0 in a whopping 22 innings at Olympic Stadium. The more interesting loss was of the Expos’ bright and hairy mascot, “Youppi!”

Manager Tommy Lasorda—who has encountered his fair share of embarrassment, when he was knocked to the ground at the 2001 All-Star Game by a Vladimir Guerrero broken bat—complained to the umpires in the 11th inning and Youppi! was subsequently ejected, the first in history for a mascot.

From Nationalpastime.com:

Dodger manager Tommy Lasorda complains to the umpires about the hairy orange giant’s behavior at Olympic Stadium. The L.A. skipper takes exception to the loud noise caused by the hairy creature’s running leap onto the visitors’ dugout before sneaking back into a front row seat.

Stay tuned for more nuances, obscurities and stories from the final few dog days of summer, though I can’t guarantee I’ll see you at “Bark at the Park” at Citi Field on Sept. 14.

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Back in 1996, on a rainy day in Appleton, Wisconsin, the Seattle Mariners bought major league baseball to a small town in a way that nobody ever expected.

In an effort to churn up interest in their minor league affiliates, the Seattle Mariners went on a barnstorming tour, bringing the major leagues to a handful of minor league parks around the country for some exhibition baseball.

That included a stop at Fox Cities Field to take on their Single-A affiliate, the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.

With a packed house that stayed, despite the rain, growing restless, Seattle manager Lou Piniella refused to send his team on the field even if the rain subsided, pointing to the fact that he wasn’t about to risk one of his stars getting injured on a wet field in a meaningless game while the team was in a pennant race.

But, should the rain come to an end, the teams needed to do something for the masses.

So Mariners catcher Dan Wilson hatched an ingenious plan: Home Run Derby.

Wilson, Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez, who started his career in Appleton back in 1994, would take on any three players that the Timber Rattlers dared send to the plate. Little did they know, the home team had a ringer.

After watching Junior struggle to hit the ball out of the yard, generating some good-natured ribbing from the fans in attendance, up to the plate stepped a relatively unknown 20-year-old first baseman by the name of David Ortiz.

And he put on a show.

Ortiz hit moonshot after moonshot, leaving Griffey speechless and Rodriguez conceding the contest to his future contemporary, exclaiming “I ain’t got a chance” as Ortiz crushed another pitch.

Who would have imagined that, nearly 20 years later, all three players would have Hall of Fame-caliber numbers—but that only the guy who couldn’t go deep would have a clear path into Cooperstown’s hallowed halls?

Irony at its finest.

*H/T to CBS Sports’ Matt Snyder for the find.

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In the tumultuous but ultimately disappointing, three-game series in St. Louis, there was a consolation prize: Pirate fans got a chance to see “what else” the team got in the trade for closer Octavio Dotel, made in 2010.

That “what else” was Andrew Lambo, who made his debut Tuesday night.

Lambo is a right fielder—a position that the Pirates badly need to fill with a better player than the three incumbents: Jose Tabata, Alex Presley and Travis Snider. The Pirates tried and failed to trade these weak hitters for for a replacement before the July 31st trade deadline. 

Lambo‘s claim to fame is his power, but he strikes out a lot, which is why there is doubt as to whether he will hit for average.  He lived up to his billing in the recent series when he struck out twice in nine plate appearances, but got on base twice, with his sole hit being an RBI double (he also walked once). In these regards, he somewhat resembles slugger Pedro Alvarez.

The first installment of the Dotel trade was James McDonald, whom the Los Angeles Dodgers had pegged as a relief pitcher after a few outings. His debut as a Pirate featured six innings of a shutout start against the Colorado Rockies in the summer of 2010.

The team could certainly have used that performance this past weekend.

After that, McDonald was an on-and-off starter before his injury early in 2013. He wasn’t consistent enough to be a true ace, but he actually put up “first starter” numbers for half a season or so in both 2011 and 2012 before regressing. As such, he was a valuable stopgap during those two rebuilding years.

But the Dodgers were onto something when they designated McDonald for the bullpen.

Time has shown that he lacks the endurance to be a consistent starter over the course of a whole season. Given the current strength of the Bucs’ rotation, he will probably find a place in the bullpen if his health allows, although that would certainly not rule out his being used as a substitute starter from time to time.

Dotel commanded so much in the trade because the Dodgers wanted a closer for a playoff run (that ultimately failed). This trade was somewhat reminiscent of another trade in the Pirates’ history: The 1998 trade of reliever Ricardo Rincon for outfielder Brian Giles, who was flipped in 2003 for another outfielder, Jason Bay, starter-turned-reliever Oliver Perez (and a minor leaguer who never made it to the majors).

A fair return for a good closer might be a middle-inning reliever and a utility position player. Lambo is at least a utility player, and, as a sometime starter, McDonald has been decidedly a better pitcher than Oliver Perez, never mind the average middle reliever. If Lambo turns out to be better than a utility outfielder and more like Alvarez, or even Bay, the trade of Dotel for those two will probably have been the deal of the decade.

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If I had myself a private audience with the Pope of the Tigers, Jim Leyland, I’d pretty much just have one question for him.

The question wouldn’t be about his team’s bullpen, or why his catcher can’t hit or what the deal is with that 3-9 record in extra innings. I wouldn’t ask about Nick Castellanos’ potential, or what we should expect from Bruce Rondon or why his catcher can’t hit.

The subject wouldn’t be his smoking or whether Miguel Cabrera is the best he’s ever seen or why his catcher can’t hit.

I’d have one question, and it would go like this.

“What was it like when the Pittsburgh Pirates were winners?”

Leyland ought to know. He remains the last Pirates manager to guide the Bucs to a winning record. It happened in 1992, before Bill Clinton was elected president—the first time.

The Pirates were three-time defending National League East division champs after the 1992 season. The World Series eluded them all three years, but they were a pretty decent group of ballplayers, led by none other than Barry “Before and After” Bonds.

Leyland was a young 47 in the 1992 baseball season. His voice wasn’t as gravelly. Sports talk radio wasn’t nipping at his heels. From 1990-92, Leyland’s baseball year would go like this: Win the division, lose in the playoffs. That was pretty much it.

In 1993, the Bucs finished below .500, at 75-87. Pittsburgh baseball fans probably figured ’93 was a bump on the log, a blip on the screen, a good old fashioned fluke.

It turned out to be a 20-year bump/blip/fluke.

The Pirates became the Keystone Kops of baseball. They were the National League’s Washington Generals. Baseball’s version of the Los Angeles Clippers.

Leyland was fired after the 1996 season, on the heels of four straight losing seasons. His successor was none other than Gene Lamont, Leyland’s coach on the Tigers for the past eight years. Lamont lasted four years as Pirates manager, and he gave way to Lloyd McClendon, who also has been on the Tigers’ coaching staff since 2006.

Cue the spooky music.

So will the Pirates only be losers for as long as Leyland, Lamont and McClendon are together with the Tigers? Is there some sort of curse? Because we all know that sports fans love a good curse.

If the Pirates are cursed, it’s been the curse of poor drafting, questionable trades and free-agent busts.

The past 20 years of losing records have been deserved. You don’t play 162 games and call your end result an aberration. And you especially don’t lose for two decades and blame it on outside forces.

The Pirates have been losers since 1992 because they haven’t had very many good players. And they haven’t had very many good players because they haven’t done a good job of beating the bushes—in this country and elsewhere—in finding them.

The few so-called stars that the Pirates have had since 1992 have all eventually bolted Pittsburgh for greener pastures—which has been just about any team you care to name—or have been traded in lopsided deals.

So it’s been 20 years of win totals in the 60s or 70s—which is appropriate, because prior to Leyland’s arrival as Pirates skipper in 1986, the last time the Pirates enjoyed real success was in the 1960s and 1970s.

Pittsburgh has seen its share of bad baseball. The Pirates teams of the 1950s were mostly dreadful. Joe Garagiola, who played on some of those horrid Pirates teams in the ’50s, used to while away many minutes of dead air in his broadcasting career recalling those years, when Pittsburgh was home to the absolute worst that baseball could offer.

Then came the resurgence in the 1960s, starting with the 1960 World Series win over the mighty New York Yankees. The Pirates fielded pretty good teams throughout the decade, then continued winning in the 1970s, adding two more world championships to their total (1971 and 1979, both against Baltimore).

The well ran dry until Leyland took over and built the Pirates into a mini-dynasty from 1990-92. Actually, it was more of a National League East dynasty, but it was still pretty impressive.

The Pirates, in recent years, have teased their fans into thinking that the string of losing records may be ending.

In 2011, the Pirates were 54-49 on July 28. They trailed the first place Milwaukee Brewers by just 1.5 games in the NL Central (where the Bucs moved in the mid-1990s when baseball re-jiggered itself). August was nigh and the Pirates were in the thick of things!

You heard it all back then as giddy writers and fans had visions of the playoffs dancing in their heads. The ugly duckling was turning into a swan and all that rot.

A 10-game losing streak ensued, and just like that, the Pirates were the Pirates again. They were 54-59 and had sunk to fourth place, 10 games out. They finished 72-90, which was how they usually finished. The only difference was the 103-game tease that accompanied it.

In 2012, the Pirates did it to their faithful again.

July 28 once again was the team’s undoing.

In a spooky coincidence that only the Pittsburgh Pirates could pull off, the Bucs for the second consecutive year saw their high water mark come on July 28. For on that date in 2012, the Pirates were 58-42 and just two games behind the first place Cincinnati Reds. This was even better than 2011’s 54-49 on July 28.

Again, Pirates fans had cause to believe that the streak of losing seasons, which at this point stood at 19 years, was about to end. The 2012 Pirates had some players, most notably star center fielder Andrew McCutchen, who was being mentioned in league MVP talk.

So naturally, the Pirates stumbled and bumbled their way to a 21-41 finish (9-22 after August 29), to end up at 79-83.

The streak of losing seasons reached an even 20.

Have you looked at the standings lately? Pirates fans sure have, and you can forgive them for being as doubting as Thomas.

As I write this, the Pirates are 56-38. Someone named Jason Grilli (remember him?) was just on the cover of Sports Illustrated magazine, for his closing exploits and for his role in leading a terrific bullpen that calls itself The Shark Tank.

July 28 is eight days away.

Something tells me that Pirates fans will be watching the remainder of this season with one eye closed. Also appropriate, given their logo is a pirate with an eye patch.

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The sports memorabilia world is still buzzing over an auction result that can rightly be considered an upset.  For the first time ever, a 1914 Baltimore News Babe Ruth rookie card sold for more money than the famed T206 Honus Wagner. 

It happened at Robert Edward Auctions (REA), where one of only about 10 known examples of the Ruth card sold for a record price of $450,300.   That was nearly $48,000 more than a 1909 T206 Wagner, which was offered in the same grade and was once the subject of an FBI “card hunt” after it was stolen from a restaurant display in the 1990s.

The red-bordered Ruth card shows a young Babe as a pitcher with the Baltimore Orioles not long after he was signed out of St. Mary’s Industrial School for Boys.  It was apparently issued as part of a set created as a promotion for the newspaper.  A Ruth rookie graded PSA 2 (Good) sold privately last year for an amount that netted the seller a tidy profit over just five years.  The transactions illustrate the explosive growth of the 99-year-old card over the past several years. 

The T206 Wagner remains the most recognizable baseball card ever made, but with several dozen known to exist, it isn’t as rare as the Ruth.

The two cards were among several lots that brought record prices in the REA auction, which traditionally attracts some of the most avid and determined baseball memorabilia collectors in the world.

The selling prices all included an 18.5 percent buyer’s premium.  There were hundreds of rare individual cards, sets and pieces of memorabilia dating back to the 19^th century offered by REA, which specializes in rare baseball memorabilia.

The Wagner card carries quite a story.  It was once owned by actor Charlie Sheen and subsequently stolen from a New York City restaurant in the 1990s; it also set a new record for its PSA 1 grade.  Most Wagner cards have been profitable investments over the years.

Also selling in the auction was one of only two 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle cards graded PSA 8.5 (NM/MT+) which totaled $272,550.  The last 8.5 Mantle had sold at auction for about $118,000 less just three years ago.  High grade Mantle cards from what was the first major set ever issued by Topps are in high demand by advanced collectors.  PSA graded cards (and those authenticated by competitors SGC and Beckett) utilize a numeric grading scale to rate the condition of cards, which are then encapsulated and labeled.

Joe Jackson baseball cards also continue to attract strong interest.  Shoeless Joe’s 1910 Old Mill tobacco card, which pictured the slender outfielder as a New Orleans minor leaguer, is his most sought after.  The REA auction included one graded SGC 30 (Good), which sold for $118,500. 

Some memorabilia also required six figure winning bids.  A PSA/DNA 8.5-graded ball signed by Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig realized $343,650, a new record price for a signed baseball.   Most collectors prefer their autographed baseballs to carry a single signature but Ruth-Gehrig would be an example of the exception to that rule.

A 1963 Sandy Koufax game-worn Dodgers jersey in outstanding condition rocketed to $201,450 in the auction, the most ever paid for a Koufax jersey.

In all, more than 1,800 lots were sold in the auction for a total of $10,177,000.  

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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 great this country really is.”

Kansas City was the birthplace of the modern Negro Leagues. Rube Foster, an extraordinary pitcher in his own right, organized the Negro National League a block and a half away from the museum in 1920 at a local YMCA. His story could (and should) come right out of Hollywood.

“He did everything. A great player, great manager and a great owner. And—believe it or not—he died in an insane asylum.

Kansas City was also home to the Monarchs. Their most famous player—among Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell and Ernie Banks—was Robinson, of course, who played his rookie season there in 1945.

The stars of the recent movie “42,” including Harrison Ford (Branch Rickey) and Chadwick Boseman (Robinson), put on a fundraising screening in Kansas City that drew over 1,400 viewers.

Kendrick explains the impact:

“We could not be happier to see the film be so successful at the box office. We owe a great deal of gratitude to the folks at Legendary Films and Warner Brothers…for making this epic opportunity happen for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.”

The cornerstone of the museum is the “The Field of Legends.”

Twelve life-sized statues adorn this field and are positioned as if they were playing a game of baseball but, as Kendrick explains, reaching it is not easy.

“You have to earn that right and you do so by learning their story. By the time you bear witness to everything they endured to play baseball in this country, the very last thing that happens is now you can take the field. In many respects, you are now deemed worthy to take the field with 10 of the greatest baseball players to have ever lived.”

The Kansas City Royals have also embraced the continued influence the Negro Leagues still play in modern society.

Recently for a Sunday game at Kauffman Stadium, fans were encouraged to “Dress to the Nines.”

Instead of the usual ballpark attire, fans dressed in formal clothing like they did for after-church doubleheaders generations before.

Not only was there an overwhelming response, other clubs with rich Negro Leagues heritage such as Washington and New York are considering such events in the future.

The Museum, and Kendrick himself, portray the establishment and success of the Negro Leagues as a celebration.

When asked why the history of the Negro Leagues was important to remember, his response was short and profound:

“Because it is the history of this country.”

Podcast to Be Named Later was privileged to speak with Bob Kendrick. Listen to the interview here or by visiting the website. Enjoy.

Follow @P2BNL_Podcast

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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 End

The 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 into that postseason, the Phillies were considered the favorites after finishing the regular season with the best record in baseball—by a wide margin—at 102-60, carried primarily by their star-studded, built-for-October rotation of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt.

But in that decisive Game 5, the Cardinals beat the Phillies 1-0, as ace Chris Carpenter was just a little bit better than Halladay, and of course, the Cards would go on to win the World Series—a destiny that many expected of the Phillies.

The End Itself

Coming off that disappointment, the Phillies’ window of opportunity already was closing fast, but unfortunately the club was never really able to get going in 2012.

Sure, the Phillies briefly looked back to their old selves (pun intended) when Howard, Halladay and second baseman Chase Ultey finally were all healthy at the same time. In fact, after spending almost the entire season well under .500, Philly actually got back above that mark in mid-September, thanks to a furious run.

But that was just false hope. The franchise that had earned five straight NL East titles, made two straight World Series appearances and won it all in 2008 would miss the postseason for the first time since 2006.

Reality, by this time, was starting to set in, if it hadn’t already.

Saying Goodbye

Now? Well, now things are bad and likely to get worse.

You’ve heard about Halladay and how the once-indomitable ace will undergo surgery that could end his season—and perhaps his career as a Phillie, seeing that the right-hander is in line to be a free agent.

Speaking of free agents, Utley is in the final year of his contract, too. There have been rumors that Utley, the longtime heart and soul of this club who performs like an All-Star but approaches every game as if he were fighting tooth and nail to remain on the 25th man roster, could be traded if the club decides to go the seller route.

And while that, too, will be a sad day, if and when it comes to pass, trading Utley might be the right move for general manager Ruben Amaro Jr.

Fact is, when you look at the ages, performances and recent injury history of the Phillies’ stars—Halladay, Utley, Howard, Lee and shortstop Jimmy Rollins—almost all of them are going too far in the wrong direction in at least one of those aspects.

The Long Climb Back

Perhaps the biggest factor in all of this is the competition.

While the Phillies front office has been hoping to squeeze every last drop out of a core that had the best record in the National League from 2007 through 2011—the Phils went 473-337 (.584) over that five-year stretch—the dynamic of the division they once dominated has changed dramatically.

The Nationals had baseball’s best record a year ago, and the Braves have one of the youngest and most dangerous lineups around. The Phillies aren’t nearly as good and certainly not as young as either of those clubs.

And while things don’t look as promising for the Mets and Marlins right now, both teams have already begun their rebuilding process, so they have a head start on Philadelphia in that respect.

In other words, the Phillies might have a few long seasons ahead of them.

The Good Times

But rather than dwell on the future, let’s remember the Phillies’ proud past. After all, there are still plenty of memories from the great years.

Like when Howard won the 2005 NL Rookie of the Year, then MVP a year later, triggering a string of individual awards and team-wide successes.

Or like when Rollins’ 2007 performance earned more MVP hardware.

Or like Halladay’s perfect game, followed by his postseason no-hitter, followed by his Cy Young win—all in 2010, his first year in town.

And of course, who can forget what left-hander Cole Hamels did in the 2008 playoffs, culminating in a strong performance in the World Series-clinching Game 5, which ended a curse and brought the first major sports championship to the city of Philadelphia since 1983.

That seems like as good a note to end our service on as any. So, folks, we’ll ask that you bow your heads in respect and remember what the Philadelphia Phillies achieved.

Could they have done more? Was there supposed to be another title along the way? Should this team—with Utley, Howard, Rollins and Hamels, just an insane run of homegrown talent all clumped together in the mid-aughts—have become a dynasty?

Rather than harp on what could have been, it’s better to appreciate what actually was.

And hold onto those memories. It might be while before the team can make some more.

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