Now that Opening Day is in the current year, more and more of my thoughts are turning to one of my serious but not life threatening obsessions.

Apparently others can say the same, as I’ve received from MillersTime readers the following two links to baseball articles, both of which I gladly pass on to others who may be equally obsessed and looking for something to read other than warmed over Hot Stove material.

The first link is to an article written by Richard Ben Cramer who just passed away and comes from a 1986 Esquire piece he wrote on my first baseball hero Ted Williams.

Some folks seem to think What Do You Think of Ted Williams Now: The Furious Saga of Teddy Ballgame is one of the better pieces of baseball writing.

See what you think of this long article (14,746 words) and of “Teddy Ballgame”, the ‘Kid’, after read what Cramer wrote.

 

The second article is from yesterday’s NYTimes, written, obviously, to coincide with Wednesday’s announcements of the latest sportswriters votes for the Hall of Fame, that Cooperstown place where both good and not so good guys have been enshrined. If you’re reading this post, you no doubt know no one was elected this year — for the first time in 16 years and only the second time since 1971.

(Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, left, presided over baseball’s segregationist era. Tris Speaker, center, was implicated in a game-fixing scheme. Orlando Cepeda, imprisoned on a drug charge in the 1970s, was voted into the Hall of Fame in 1999. Pix from NYTimes.)

See what you think about Baseball Hall of Fame Has Always Made Room for Infamy by Bill Pennington.

 

And as always, I’m looking for baseball articles that teach me something about the game, about the players, about the history of baseball, etc.  Feel free to pass on your favorites and/or any new ones you read.

Finally, I’m still searching for a new question or two to add into the 2013 MillersTime Baseball Contests. Please send any ideas you may have.