Hank O'Day's Tavern: 2016

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

Center Field at Griffith Stadium

I pulled up an article from MLB.com regarding the end of the center field mound, Tal's Hill, at Minute Maid Park. In the article, the writer included some historic examples of ballpark quirks. One of the examples is in D.C. at Griffith Stadium. Here is the write up:

When a fire destroyed a wooden baseball park in northern Washington, D.C., the owners of the Senators built a new steel structure in the span of half a season. But when they built what came to be known as Griffith Stadium, they were unable to convince the owners of five duplex houses to sell their property in center field. That's how one of the strangest center field walls in baseball was born, with a section of fence jutting directly back into the field at a right angle to accommodate the row of houses. The houses were so close to the field that one of them featured a yellow line of paint on its exterior as part of the stadium's ground rules. The landlords showed their entrepreneurial sides by constructing bleachers in their backyards. Griffith Stadium was demolished in 1965, but many of the homes on U Street are still standing today.

Until next time!

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

MLB Versus the Drag Queens

Check out this article in today's New York Post: http://nypost.com/2016/12/13/mlbs-new-rule-stop-making-rookies-dress-like-women/ The pic of Brad Ziegler dressed as Sailor Moon is awesome! Oh, and it doesn't shock me at all that Jeff Kent would have a tantrum about this back in '92.

Talk to you soon!

Thursday, April 28, 2016

Baseball History Mural in Philly

I love it when communities embrace their baseball heritage. In Philadelphia, a baseball history mural is going to be painted on the side of a new urban youth academy building. Take a look at the mural, created by artist Mark Stockton:

According to the Passyunk Post blog (www.passyunkpost.com): "The portraits will be selected based on the level of connection to baseball, art and civic history in Philadelphia. The mural will primarily be broken into a color scheme of red, blue, green and yellow. The images represented in yellow will show the African Americans involved with the Negro leagues, blue will represent youth baseball, red will show Philadelphia baseball players and green will represent the creative and civic leaders with some connection to the sport."

Saturday, January 23, 2016

Judge Landis Gives Shoeless Joe the Smackdown

This week also marks the a denial for Shoeless Joe Jackson and his hopes of reinstatement. In 1932 (well after the infamous World Series), Jackson was shot down by Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, despite his pleas of innocence in the Black Sox Scandal fix. In fact, current Commissioner Rob Manfred said that he would not overrule the decision of Landis or the other commissioners who decided against Jackson's innocence. So, it looks like the giant arms of Major League Baseball will never embrace one of the greatest hitters of his or any generation. At least Jackson acted humble and appreciated what he had lost, unlike another tarnished player I can think of...