Baseball fever gripping nation

Updated: October 10, 2003, 12:27 PM ET
By Jim Baker | MLB Insider
  • As it was so it shall always be. Ballplayers -- regardless of the era in which they played -- will invariably compare current players poorly to those of their time. When asked by Steve Buckley of the Boston Herald which Red Sox team he prefers , the current edition or the one with which he did battle in the 1970s, guess which one Reggie Jackson picked?

  • Do you get sick of hearing how nobody cares about baseball anymore and how it will soon be eclipsed by curling, luge and women's professional squamish in popularity among Americans? I sure do. Here's some good news from Larry Eichel of the Philadelphia Inquirer: the television ratings for the playoffs so far are looking good.

  • Not every hometown kid ends up playing in his hometown. Kansas City lad Joe Carter never played an inning for the Kansas City Royals, for instance. When Manny Ramirez first showed up in Yankee Stadium in a Cleveland uniform in 1993, he drew a huge throng from the Washington Heights neighborhood. Ten years later, he is still playing for the enemy. Roger Rubin explains why in today's New York Daily News.

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    Jim Baker is an author at Baseball Prospectus and a frequent contributor to Page 2. You can e-mail Jim at bottlebat@gmail.com.

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