Hot Stove

Hot Stove Special Edition – Landing on the Moon – The Day Baseball Stood Still

07-15-19 Womens World Cup
~ Lonnie Shalton

Fifty years ago today, at 3:17 Kansas City time, the first humans landed on the moon. At that moment, there were eight major league games in progress. It was the Sunday before the All-Star break.

The title of this post is borrowed from the science fiction classic The Day the Earth Stood Still, a movie I saw in 1951 at the age of ten. I was reminded of the film this past week by a headline in the Washington Post: When Apollo 11 landed on the moon, major league baseball stood still. The Post article featured what happened at Yankee Stadium fifty years ago, and I took to Google to find out what happened at some other stadiums.

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Hot Stove #103 – Wimbledon in 1989 and 2019; Saying Goodbye to Jim Bouton, Tyler Skaggs and Dave Bartholomew

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~ Lonnie Shalton

I’m going to start with tennis, but if Wimbledon is not your cup of tea (get it), please feel free to skip to Jim Bouton and Tyler Skaggs for some pure baseball.

Breakfast at Wimbledon: Rita and I attended “Breakfast at Wimbledon” on Saturday and Sunday. Via ESPN.

We were also there thirty years ago. But that time at Centre Court. And closer to lunch time.

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Hot Stove #102 – Five Stadiums in Five Days – Minneapolis to Cincinnati

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~ Lonnie Shalton

The All-Star game is tomorrow night in Cleveland. Below, something to keep you busy between innings and during mound visits.

Rita and I recently completed our fourth annual stadium tour. We were joined on the bus by 43 other baseball fans from around the country. As always, the tickets, hotels and other details were superbly handled by Darren Zinser who runs Triple Crown Travel (click here if you have an interest in a future trip). First stop, Minneapolis…

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Hot Stove #97 – Thank You Charles Curry, Alex Petrovic and Charlie Wheeler – Harry S. Truman Sports Complex

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~ Lonnie Shalton ~ 1 Comment

Charles Curry. Alex Petrovic. Charlie Wheeler. Three men – county administrative judges – who were instrumental in saving both major league baseball and pro football in Kansas City. The year was 1967. It was the 13th season for the A’s in Kansas City – it would also be their last. The Chiefs had moved from Dallas in 1963, but playing in a retrofitted baseball stadium was not going to work in the long run. These three men held the key.

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Hot Stove #96 – New York Mets Spring Training with Bill Wakefield, Sidd Finch and Bruce Springsteen

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~ Lonnie Shalton

It’s April Fools’ Day. Delay reading this post at your peril.

I have previously written about Bill Wakefield, Sidd Finch and Bruce Springsteen. It’s time to connect the dots. This post is a little shorter than normal, so TL;DR should not be applicable (for those who don’t recall, that’s editor shorthand for too long; didn’t read).

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