Trailing 2-0 going in the bottom of the sixth inning of Friday night’s playoff game, the Washington Nationals, stymied thus far by San Francisco Giants pitcher Jake Peavy, were finally mounting an offensive threat. The capacity hometown crowd loudly came to life as Nate Schierholtz led off the inning with a double and, two outs later, Jayson Werth followed with a walk. But hold everything... 

Three days ago, on Sunday, September 28, Yankees icon Derek Jeter, the 14-time all star and 5-time world champion, played his last game after 20 seasons in the Major Leagues. You would be hard pressed to find a single baseball writer in the entire country who will not agree that Jeter should be elected to the Hall...

Last Thursday, Mets pitcher Bartolo Colon was ejected from a game against the Nationals when home plate umpire John Tumpane ruled that he intentionally hit Nats batter Jason Werth with a pitch...

When Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants was chasing Hank Aaron's career home run title in 2007, dozens of fans in kayaks routinely gathered in the bay beyond the fight field wall of AT&T Park hoping the record-breaking homer would clear the wall, splash down near them, and...

This past Tuesday, MLB issued a clarification on Official Baseball Rule 7.13, the controversial “Collisions at Home Plate” rule that went into effect before this season started. Some call it the “Buster Posey rule” because it sought to prevent the kind of catastrophic home plate collisions between runner and catcher that seriously injured...

Following up on my post about the obstruction rule, a clearer example – and a history-making one at that – came during last year’s World Series between the Red Sox and the Cardinals... 

Thursday, August 28, Oakland A's at Los Angeles Angels, score tied 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth inning. The Angels' leadoff batter, Erick Aybar hits a high bouncer down the first base line. The pitcher, Dan Otero, runs over to get the ball, the first baseman Brandon Moss runs in to get the ball, and Aybar, meanwhile, is running up the foul line right towards them both....

To fully grasp the meaning and ramifications of the trade assignment waiver rule, which we started to discuss in my last post, one should be aware that when a team places a claim on a player, it sometimes does not have the lofty egalitarian goals of the rule in mind. Real life can be a little more cut throat than that..

August 31, which is fast upon us, is an important date in the application of the famously complicated trade assignment waiver rule, also know as the revocable waiver rule, which governs the ability of MLB teams to transfer or trade players in the latter part of the season... 

In my last post, we reviewed a play in which, in an August 8th game against Cleveland, Derek Jeter hit a ball to the left side of the infield and was called safe at first when the first baseman failed to catch the throw from the infielder. Jeter was awarded a base hit. We reviewed the... 

Derek Jeter is batting in an August 8th game against the Cleveland Indians. Jeter smacks a hard grounder that is fielded cleanly by the Indians shortstop. Jeter looks like he is going to be out by a mile at first base, but the shortstop's throw to first is a bit wide...

In the seventh inning of last night's Yankees game, Yankee batter Stephen Drew hit a slow grounder up the first base line. As he raced down towards first base, Orioles catcher Nick Hundley charged out from behind the plate, grabbed the ball and threw down to the first baseman Steve Pearce...

A little less than six years ago I began an email correspondence with my cousins in England in which they promised to explain soccer to me if I would explain baseball to them. They finished their explanation after a few short emails, but it took a lot longer for me to finish mine. Those emails have now led to the publication of my new book, BASEBALL EXPLAINED...