By Mile High Mouth
BaseballBigMouth.com baseball news   

I don’t know if I can vie for the title of laziest writer at Baseball Big Mouth, but it’s definitely been a while since I’ve written for you guys. In case anyone liked my articles, my apologies. I’ll hopefully be writing more as my school year winds down (I’m a P.E. teacher in my day to day life). The school year ending is not all that’s been changing in my life. I’ve finished all my classes for my teaching license, and field day is now behind me. I’ll also be starting my summer work soon (maintaining trails in the foothills of the Rockies). However, the biggest change I am making to my life is the subject of today’s article.

Here at Baseball Big Mouth I have identified myself as a Red Sox fan. I can’t identify myself as that anymore. Yes folks, after taking up with the Red Sox upon my arrival in New England in September of 2000, I am renouncing them as my favorite team. The reason why can be summed up in one trip to Coors Field.

Red Sox nation now minus one, says Mile High Mouth

I get a text message during class. It’s my good buddy Dan. He wants to know if I want to come see the Rockies tonight. Of course I do! I love going to Coors Field, and nothing is as much fun as seeing a live baseball game regardless of the park. I check the schedule. The Twins are in town to take on the 2007 NL Champs. Being a man who has two favorite out of town teams, there are rules I follow. They went like this. Cheer for your favorite teams over the hometown team. If one of the favorite teams isn’t in town, you cheer for the home team. Since I had no particularly strong feelings about the Twinkies, I go home and put on my Rockies cap. I do like the Rockies after all.

I meet Dan at a bar just outside of Coors field and we hang out. Dan tests my intestinal fortitude as far as alcohol is concerned, and the group we’re with heads off to Coors Field. This is where it begins. As I’m walking I see them. Red Sox fans. How do I know they’re Red Sox fans? Hats. Shirts. And they’re talking about Fenway Park. They might have been wearing Red Sox underwear for all I know, but I didn’t check. I have to back track for a second here.

Since I moved to Denver, I kept on hearing (but not believing) the same line. Red Sox fans now are just as bad, if not worse, than Yankees fans. I hate Yankees fans. I consider them rude, callous, and obnoxious. I still do. To be compared to a Yankees fan is not something I take kindly to, but I just talk myself out of the idea. The 2007 World Series comes along, and the stories keep coming. I even have a friend who tells me he has to host his next door neighbor during Red Sox games because her husband (a Sox fan) becomes so obnoxious, that she can’t take it. I think that’s where this all started.

So there I am watching these people in their Sox gear, and Dan asks me a poignant question.

“Are the Twins in the same division as the Red Sox?”

“No,” I say “The Twins are AL Central. The Sox are AL East.”

This is when it hits me. These Red Sox fans are not nice fans. Here they are at Coors Field wearing the colors of a team that has robbed this town of it’s only potential World Series victory, and the team isn’t even in the same state that night. It’s rude, callous, and obnoxious. It dawns on me. They are just as bad as Yankees fans. But it gets worse for me. As the evening winds on, I see only a handful of Yankees hats in the stands that night. I see lots more people wearing the garb of the Fenway faithful. Then something else occurs to me. When I wear my Red Sox shirts….this is what people see. They don’t see someone supporting a team they love. They just see a jerk.

Frankly, I don’t view myself as a jerk and I have no interest in hurting other people’s feelings over baseball. I love baseball, but at the end of the day, it’s a game. It’s a great game, but it’s just a game. Baseball is something that’s supposed to make me happy. If it doesn’t it’s pointless. After the game I realize, being a Red Sox fan doesn’t make me happy. It just lumps me in with a crowd of people I can’t relate to anymore. So I renounce the Red Sox, but the aftermath to me is even funnier.

I tell a few friends, a fellow baseball writer, my sister, and some co-workers. I get a range of reactions. Some friends tell me that it’s interesting, others don’t care, most act like I was renouncing my religion. How do my friends in Boston feel? I haven’t told anyone. I have a serious fear that some people will stop being my friend over this decision. But to me, it doesn’t deter me from making the decision. In fact, it just reinforces it. Most people ask who will be my top team now. The Atlanta Braves of course. I’ve always loved the Braves, but I just liked the Red Sox more. However, I don’t feel like a Braves fan. I don’t feel like a Red Sox fan either. My sister asked me (without me mentioning the above part) “Are you in baseball limbo right now?” I guess I kind of am.

I don’t feel like a Red Sox fan anymore. I had a whole wall of my house dedicated to the Red Sox. Baseball hats hung on the wall surrounding a picture of Jason Varitek leaping into Keith Foulke’s arms after the 2004 victory and a wanted poster with the face of Johnny Damon on it. All of it’s gone now. I just hung Colorado sports hats up there (CU Boulder, Broncos, Avs, Rockies, and a hat from the school I work at). Why didn’t I make it a Braves wall? I’m not there yet. It’s an odd feeling. It’s like I lost a friend who got too into something they shouldn’t have. I don’t even recognize the Red Sox anymore. They aren’t the fighting underdogs with the hearts of gold. I remember Otis Williams of the Temptations said “Success makes you the person you really are.” The Red Sox fans have shown their true colors. I guess the same is true for me. We’ve parted ways, and all good things must come to an end. I just hope the Red Sox fans remember that when they are at the bottom again. All baseball teams go there sooner or later.

photo used with permission of Early Era Baseball Photos.com

All other photos/content copyright Baseball Big Mouth and The Heckler
- All rights reserved -

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By Ismael Nunez
BaseballBigMouth.com baseball news  

From 1947 to 1957 a New York City baseball team would win a championship in each respective season. The three major league teams present in New York City were the New York Yankees, New York Giants, and Brooklyn Dodgers. Those 10 years produced some of the greatest players and names that the game has ever seen. The Yankees would win the World Series in 1947. Then would go one to win five World Series Titles from 1949 to 1953, would again win World Series titles in 1956, 1958. The Dodgers would win their only title in 1955, while the Giants would win their last title in the year 1954 before both teams were to move to California in 1957. Yet does anybody remember  the other Gotham baseball club that also won a championship that year? Does anyone remember the New York Cubans?

Even the great Satchel bowed to Dihigo’s greatness

Yes the New York Cubans, who won the Negro World Series Championship 1947, the same year the Yankees won the World Series. It was also the year Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball. Yet no one talks about the NY Cubans. It’s a shame, because this Negro League team had players who were just as good as the Major Leagues Players back then. Here are some of the players who played on this team: The average baseball fan today most likely has never heard of them, but in the heart and minds of the Latin Community, they still exist.

Among them Martin Dihigo considered by many to be the greatest ball player who ever played in the Negro Leagues. The only ballplayer elected to four baseball Hall of Fames. In U.S.A, Mexico, Cuba, Venezuela. Long before Pete Rose became a All-Star in five different positions Dihigo did the same. He was called “El Maestro (The Teacher, or The Master). As a pitcher he won 256 games, ended up with a winning percentage of 653. With a bat he had a life-time batting average .303. Satchel Paige the greatest pitcher in the Negro Leagues said this when he was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971 “I’m not the best  — Martin Dihigo was!”

Tetelo Vargas (Dominican Republic) considered by many to be the “Father of Dominican Republic.” Long before fellow countryman Juan Marichal (elected to Hall of Fame 1987), Manny Ramirez, Vladimir Guerrero there was Vargas. He was known as the “Dominican Deer”. He excelled in defense, was a consistent hitter, good speed, base stealer. When you see Ramirez’s power, Guerrero’s arm, you see Vargas in spirit. Another outstanding player was Pedro Anibal “Perucho” Cepeda (Puerto Rico) who played the position of shortstop. He was the father of Baseball Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda. He was on their roster in 1941. An outstanding fielder and hitter finished with a .325 batting average, playing the position of shortstop. When you see Derek Jeter (NY Yankees), Miguel Tejada (Houston Astros) hitting those long balls that was Cepeda. Talk about the great hitting shortstops Honus Wagner and Ernie Banks, who knows how many records Cepada would’ve made

Could this team compete with the MLB Golden Teams 1947 to 1957? I say YES! Maybe the New York Yankees would’ve met their match! Martin Dihigo (a Hall of Famer elected in 1977) surely would have been ready for such a challenge.

EDITOR’S NOTE: We would like to welcome Ismael to our BaseballBigMouth.com family. His work will appear periodically on these pages. Well done, Ismael!

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Satchel Paige photo used with permission of EarlyEraBaseballPhotos.com

“People will come…They’ll watch and it’ll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they’ll have to brush them away from their faces. The one constant through all the year has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This game, this field, this ballpark: It’s part of our past. It reminds us of all that was once good and could be again. Oh, people will come my friend. People will most definitely come.”

-James Earl Jones “Field of Dreams” 1989 

What once seemed a distant, dreaded vision is now down to days: Tiger Stadium today truly stands within the shadow of death — not to mention the wrecking ball — as the contract for the Tiger Stadium demolition has been officially awarded.

As soon as work crews are organized, the former home of greats Ty Cobb, Hank Greenberg, Charlie Gehringer, Mickey Cochrane, Hal Newhouser, Harry Heilmann, Al Kaline, George Kell, Willie Horton, Mickey Lolich, Alan Trammell, Jack Morris, Lou Whitaker, Kirk Gibson and Cecil Fielder — not to mention visiting grounds for Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Lou Gerig, Joe DiMaggio, Bob Gibson, Bob Feller and virutally every other Major League Baseball Hall of Famer who ever played the game between 1895-1999 — will be no more.

Even saving a corner of the stadium from dugout to dugout is now in peril, with no guarantee even that will be left standing once the dust settles. For those that live in the Metro Detroit-area, it might not be a bad idea to take a drive over to the corner of Michigan and Trumbull to get one last look at her. This time, the end is truly nigh for the former Bennett Park, Briggs Stadium and Navin Field.

Forever in our hearts, you will never be forgotten. Like a fine wine, your memory will grow ever-sweeter within the confines of our nostalgic rembembrances. Time stands still for no man, or stadium. Long may people remember. Long may they remember . . .

- The Heckler

Top photo used with permission of Early Era Baseball Photos.com

All other photos copyright Baseball Big Mouth and The Heckler
- All rights reserved -

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