Baseball Archives - Hal Phillips

World Series 1975 Revisited: Recapturing an All-time Classic, via iPhone

Hal Phillips — Thu, 16 Oct 2025 00:59:00 +0000

It’s often argued that the 1975 World Series — contested 50 years ago this month — ranks among the finest in baseball history. In terms of legendary personalities and the competitive iconography that framed them, Game 6 featured enough fairy-tale moments all on its own: a not-yet-befouled Pete Rose bellyflopping into third then popping up […]

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It Was 20 Years Ago Today: Marking the Birth of Modern Red Sox Fandom

Hal Phillips — Sat, 07 Oct 2023 14:11:29 +0000

AUBURN, Maine (Oct. 6, 2023) — The Red Sox, for whatever cosmic reasons, have proved remarkably championship-prolific at the beginning of centuries. By 1918 they had claimed more World Series titles (5) than any team in Major League Baseball. That they wouldn’t win another until 2004 has been, erm, well documented. But listen: They had […]

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Count Me Out of Any and All Baseball Hall of Fame Melodrama

Hal Phillips — Thu, 11 Feb 2021 20:13:26 +0000

In my dotage, I find myself at the heart of Major League Baseball’s core demographic. After all, I still watch playoff and World Series games in their entirety — not later, online, via some highlights package. I get choked up when Henry Aaron and other icons from my youth pass from the scene. I even […]

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Clayton Kershaw’s more Clemens than Koufax

Hal Phillips — Mon, 21 Oct 2019 16:07:14 +0000

STOW, Vt. (Oct. 21, 2019) — So, sports are cruel, whether the participants are professionalized adults or mere school children. But sports are real, which is what makes them so damned compelling — in a way that lays bare the mockery of a sham that “reality” TV truly is. The latest case in point: Clayton […]

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How Gene Michael & the Post-Miracle Mets Built a Red Sox Fan

Hal Phillips — Mon, 11 Sep 2017 14:18:53 +0000

NEW GLOUCESTER, Maine (Sept. 11, 2017) — I’ve got work to do, but here I am getting misty writing about Gene Michael — a New York Yankee no less! I support the Red Sox but here’s the thing: His passing last week jolted me back to a time when my baseball allegiances were new, and […]

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The Ted Willams Dilemma: Removing the Splinter from the Collective Red Sox Subconcious

Hal Phillips — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 15:40:29 +0000

By Hal PhillipsPORTLAND, Maine (Aug. 17, 2002) — I never saw Ted Williams play. Not in person, not on television. We Red Sox fans born in the 1960s never had the chance. All we got were gilt-edged glimpses served up in black and white: the triumphant but out-of-context film clip, the seemingly staged on deck […]

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Pre-Pitch Clock Flashback: Three Rules to Shorten MLB Games

Hal Phillips — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 13:10:28 +0000

NEW GLOUCESTER, Maine (Aug. 19, 2015) — See here three simple rules for the betterment of baseball and the country whose pastime it remains, to the extent that anyone can sit through an entire 9-inning game these days without the aid of a DVR. • First, give the ball to the pitcher and oblige the […]

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The Long Game: Sox Even Series with Cardinals

Hal Phillips — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 15:43:49 +0000

I’m not young, but in the long arc of Red Sox fandom, some would argue I’m too young to have bona fide demons. My family moved to New England in 1972, in time to endure three-plus decades of an 86-year World Series drought. I recall first-hand Luis Aparicio’s stumble around third base, Jim Rice’s broken […]

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Add Béisbol to Casa de Campo’s Rich Sporting Life

Hal Phillips — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 04:01:30 +0000

Casa de Campo bills itself as enabler of The Sporting Life, and they deliver on that claim in myriad ways: golf, of course, but shooting, polo, tennis, yachting and several more I’m sure I’m missing. But there is baseball, too, and tonight we got a thoroughly entertaining taste. La Romana, the city of 250,000 that […]

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James Connects Unlikely Dots Between Dewey, Pitt & my Wife

Hal Phillips — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:05:27 +0000

Out of the blue Thursday night the wife suggested we order, On Demand, one of the movies nominated for Academy Awards. It came down to Tree of Life, Midnight in Paris or Moneyball. We went with Moneyball and both found it extremely enjoyable. Some 12 hours later, I happened upon an all-too-rare but typically brilliant […]

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