Welcome to the BellaOnline Baseball Newsletter!

We’re going to call it “Buzhardt’s Bella Baseball Blast”. It’s alliterative, and I pay homage to the late pitcher John Buzhardt who became my hero in 1961 when he halted the Philadelphia Phillies’ horrible 23-game losing streak. It’s the handle I use when I post on baseball discussion groups, and the forums on Bella.

We are awash in baseball news, from your local newspapers to ESPN, MLBN, Fox, etc. etc. etc. As such, I am planning on making this more of a place to complement the articles I post (hopefully!) on a weekly basis. I’ll take a look at some upcoming events, e.g., the Draft on June 7, the All-Star game, etc.

I will cull tid-bits from some of the chat boards I frequent and the MLB team sites. I might cast the newsletter in terms of things a lot of fans often don’t think about, focusing on “The Biz of Baseball”. That’s a subject I find to be fascinating and it really does impact the team that you cheer on. If they have good management and sound practices, they will likely contend and put a good product on the field. If they don’t, well, baseball is like anything else, there are good operations and not-so-good operations.

I hope that some of the items I report here will generate discussion on the Bella Baseball Forum and I invite you to e-mail me with your reactions, questions, etc. That means if you don’t like what I’m doing, as well.

Baseball is kaleidoscopic with an infinite array of possibilities and outcomes. For me, the game in all its complexity (on and off the field) is one of the great pageants of life. I will try to convey that excitement and I will even write about my experiences attending games (infrequent, but several times each season…mostly MLB games at Washington’s Natstown and the minors at Potomac Nationals (Class A) and Richmond Flying Squirrels (Class AA, a San Francisco Giants farm club).

I am the kind of guy who will stop and watch kids playing sandlot ball, or a Little League game, or a high school game or an American Legion game. I recently discovered we have a semi-pro team in Fredericksburg with some former MLB farmhands playing and I’m excited about that, too.

I hope I can convey some of that excitement both in my features and in my newsletter, and I hope you will participate with me. Play Ball!