Baseball Essays
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October 6, 2018 at 7:00 am
Calling the Pen: Showalter and Duquette deserve our thanks
In my professional career — one that has now spanned more than 10 years — I’ve only “played hooky” from work once. (Apologies to AOL, my employer at the time.) The date was Sept. 13, 2012, and the Orioles were in the midst of an exciting push toward the playoffs that caught...
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September 27, 2018 at 12:05 pm
Calling the Pen: Oriole fans get a final chance to show that all is not lost
Passion and compassion. Passion for one’s team. Compassion for its players, when it’s evident the struggle is real. A Sports Illustrated story about Chris Davis triggered these thoughts as the Orioles come home to play the Houston Astros in their final games of the season. It’s fan appreciation weekend in a season...
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September 22, 2018 at 7:00 am
Calling the Pen: Rich memories and big-time names from a childhood in Brooklyn
Last week was the end of an era for my family. For the first time since April 1955, someone other than a Dubroff owns what was our house in Brooklyn. My mother lived there for nearly 63 years, and neither my brother, his children nor I had any interest in keeping it....
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September 15, 2018 at 9:44 am
Calling the Pen: He couldn’t hit left-handed, but everything else was right
Before organized sports became, well, organized, the kids in our neighborhood did it ourselves. We loved to be outdoors playing ball during the day and hide-and-seek at night. There were a lot of us close to the same age and a lot of parents who had simple rules — be home for...
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September 8, 2018 at 7:00 am
Calling the Pen: Cal Ripken once lost out to Jimmy Foit on an All-Metro team, and his dad didn’t like it
During an Orioles game in the 1980s, Keith Mills, Mike Marlow and I sat toward the back of the press box at Memorial Stadium. We had worked together at The News American in the 1970s and were swapping stories as quietly as we could, although not quietly enough. We each had worked...
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August 25, 2018 at 7:00 am
Calling the Pen: That time when Doc Edwards came to our house, and I was disappointed
The Orioles’ signing of a 16-year-old from the Dominican Republic this week got me thinking about my missed opportunity. I blame it on Doc Edwards. To be honest, Edwards couldn’t have been kinder to me. In 1964, after he caught a Saturday afternoon game against the Orioles for the Kansas City A’s,...
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August 18, 2018 at 7:00 am
Calling the Pen: Celebrating a mom who just missed hitting the century mark
This year has been unlike any other for me. Covering a team that has been far worse than anyone could have imagined, a midseason job switch that brought me to BaltimoreBaseball.com, and the deluge of Orioles trades and declaration of a rebuild. This was also the year that I lost my mother....
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August 4, 2018 at 7:00 am
Calling the Pen: Oriole fans get cold splash of business, try not to take it personally
It was a 30-minute swim, but when it was over, there were ripples throughout the Baltimore baseball community. My wife, Barb, got in the water just before 4 on Tuesday afternoon to do laps while I sat near the pool on my laptop, checking for player movement as the non-waiver trade deadline...
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July 21, 2018 at 7:00 am
Calling the Pen: Orioles’ trade of Machado first step toward restoring hope and long-term healing
Dr. Jon Simon was in his office late on a summer afternoon. He was there to discuss what an MRI revealed about a rotator cuff injury to a patient whose best pitching days were with a Wiffle Ball when the Orioles were winning four American League pennants and two World Series in...
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July 7, 2018 at 7:00 am
Calling the Pen: Rob Hiaasen was a big man with an even bigger heart
Back when he was working for the Palm Beach Post, Rob Hiaasen would tell co-worker Frank Cerabino that they should go out for lunch. Cerabino knew what that meant. Hiaasen would drive to a park in West Palm Beach, open the trunk of the car and pull out two gloves and a...
