Lockport's Field of Dreams

Lockport White Sox vs Jamestown Falcons
opening day at Outwater Stadium

It’s been a month or so since the Toronto Blue Jays were playing major league games in Buffalo, after making the Queen City their temporary home for good portions of the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Regular season major league baseball in Buffalo had not been seen since the 1915 Buffalo Blues of the short-lived Federal League played there. Of course, there had been a few exhibition games featuring major league teams, most notably the New York Yankees taking on the International League All-Stars in 1963 at War Memorial Stadium, and a preseason game between Toronto and Cleveland in 1987. However, did you know the Chicago White Sox played an exhibition game in Lockport smack in the middle of their 1942 season?

Literally the Best Reviews: The Cactus League

 The Cactus League - Emily Nemens

Farrar, Straus, & Giroux

288 Pages

In full disclosure, I was supposed to do a joint book review with Howie Balaban for this book. He gave me a copy of The Cactus League by Emily Nemens with exactly that in mind. However, his schooling life got in the way and the joint review kept getting delayed. In the meantime, I figured I could just review it now, and if he wanted to discuss it later, we could still do that. Getting his degree worked on is far more important. That, and I can sometimes be impatient.

Howie Balaban Book Reviews: The Wax Pack

The Wax Pack - Brad Balukjian
University of Nebraska Press
280 Pages

Subconsciously, I suppose I am missing baseball more than I realize. Last week in this space I discussed a bit of baseball history after reading the excellent biography on Oscar Charleston. Today, another baseball book takes the mound. Just recently released, The Wax Pack is a book that will pitch a perfect game for many of its readers. (And as far as book covers go, this one is just gorgeous!) Told expertly by Brad Balukjian, this story isn’t so much a book about baseball, but is, I feel, a book about life’s chapters. Or to keep up the baseball metaphors, a series of baseball games.

Howie Balaban Book Review: Oscar Charleston

Oscar Charleston: The Life & Legend of Baseball's Greatest Forgotten Player - Jeremy Beer
University of Nebraska Press
429 Pages

If you’re a baseball fan, chances are you’ve heard of some of the great names of the game’s past and at least a few of the game’s present.

Babe Ruth. Ty Cobb. Satchel Paige. Josh Gibson.

How many of you have heard of Oscar Charleston?

Howie Balaban: Looking for the Write Stuff Vol. 4

Here's a saying that many of us have either heard or used at one time or another:

"The best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray."

Given that the last time I updated you on my writing progress was a month ago, I suppose you could say it fits me right now.

Howie Balaban: Looking For the Write Stuff Vol. 3

Finally!

By the time you all read this, it is likely that I will have started to actually write rather than map out a story. As for the story itself, it took a turn I didn't expect.

Originally, my intent for a novel was to pick and choose little-known old-time baseball players and combine them with members of a political machine to create an historical fiction narrative that illustrated how both sport and politics are interwoven. By the time I finished outlining my story, though, I had done something unforeseen: I'd made a story that took place over 30-plus years.

Howie Balaban: Notes From a Novel Writer Vol 1.

Tammany Hall

Earlier this week I mentioned that while researching for the book I am working on, I came across an interesting tidbit of information regarding a connection between the New York Yankees and Tammany Hall. For those of you unaware, Tammany Hall was a great political machine based in New York City and it had a huge amount of control in American politics for almost 180 years. Its sphere of influence effectively ended just over 50 years ago.

Howie Balaban: Looking for the Write Stuff Vol. 2

This past week has marked a few nice things. For instance, the countdown to real baseball for every team in the majors is down to days, not weeks. And as the saying goes in ballparks and fandoms across America, "hope springs eternal." Oh, speaking of spring, that officially arrived this week, too, although you wouldn't know it from walking outside.