I was at a party recently and laid out on the coffee table was a passionate letter from a Mariners fan, which I’m going to share with you below. That I just happened to have to write a preview about the Mariners for the Box later that month was one of the great coincidences of my life.

There have been numerous prospect lists published recently by the usual Baseball Websites. Trying to rank some prospects for a forthcoming fantasy draft I got hopelessly confused, so I threw a few sets of results, that were freely available, into a spreadsheet and ranked them. The results seemed interesting enough to share.

Here are the players that the fans peceive as the best and worst fielders in the league.

I tell you something, I know what you're thinking.

While jumping around baseball cyberspace, this juicy article from 1996 was brought to my attention by Doug Pappas, who in turn credits a Primate for the link.

This is the story of how a lowly member of a 22-person ownership group rose to control the Milwaukee Brewers, before moving on to play Commissioner.

Having been born in 1983, I became a baseball fan just in time to watch the Minnesota Twins win the World Series in 1991. It was, in fact, the very first World Series I remember watching. It was thrilling to see my team win, but certainly not quite as thrilling as if, say, I had been a fan of theirs for more than six months.

To greet you with a smile.

When Mark Shapiro succeeded John Hart as General Manager of the Cleveland Indians in 2001, he was faced with a challenge. Hart had overseen several poor drafts and left the prospect cupboard nearly bare. By the time Shapiro took the job, the core of the Indians' championship teams was suffering from attrition - many of the old guard had left via free-agency or soon would. The Indians were at a crossroads: Would Shapiro continue to bring in veterans to prop up an aging core, or would he cash in his chips? Stay tuned.

The latest news & views from Spring Training.

Plenty of good seats are available at The Ballpark In Arlington. Every so often, I attend a game by myself and pick the best seat available on game day. Four years ago, I sat in the 3rd row behind the first base dugout. Last year, I sat in the 10th row behind home plate. This year, I expect to sit in the dugout and play a couple of innings in left field.

Plenty of good seats are available at The Ballpark In Arlington. Every so often, I attend a game by myself and pick the best seat available on game day. Four years ago, I sat in the 3rd row behind the first base dugout. Last year, I sat in the 10th row behind home plate. This year, I expect to sit in the dugout and play a couple of innings in left field.

Here's the latest from Spring Training and beyond.

Sometimes I wonder if we don't misinterpret as a sportswriter's malevolence what is actually just his ignorance.

With the ownership situation settled, and Paul DePodesta taking over as General Manager, the Dodgers can finally get down to business. While it is unfortunate that he did not arrive in time to engineer a big trade or free agent signing, DePodesta's General Managerial acumen will help. The formula for 2004 is simple enough: score more runs. In 2003, the Dodgers had the National League's worst offence and best pitching. That does not account for park factor, but Chavez Ravine is the hand that they were dealt: no Jacks. Maybe it was not such a good idea for this team to trade its Ace to the Yankees.

The K.C. Royals
Two Thousand and Four Preview
‘Building on Last Year’