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10:06 AM, Jul 11, 2012 • By THE SCRAPBOOK

Despite its Luddite tendencies, The Scrapbook is sufficiently au courant to be aware that many of its readers are no longer packing canvas bags of paperbacks for their summer vacations but loading up their e-readers of choice.

5:30 PM, Jul 10, 2012 • By LEE SMITH

During Major League Baseball’s All-Star game Home Run Derby last night, hometown Kansas City fans booed Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano with such gusto one could be forgiven for supposing there’s still a lively rivalry between the New York and Kansas City franchises—like there was back in the 70s and 80s. Or maybe after almost 29 years Royals fans just haven’t forgotten the pine-tar incident.

9:41 AM, Jun 14, 2012 • By WILLIAM KRISTOL

For those of us who think baseball is part of American greatness ("May the sun never set on American baseball"—Harry Truman), and who've worried about the declining status of baseball in American life (see Diana Schaub's "America at the Bat" in the Winter 2010 National Affairs), June has been a heartening month.

8:01 AM, Jun 9, 2012 • By JEFFREY H. ANDERSON

In trying to make the case that the Spanish national soccer team (“La Roja”) is having the greatest 5-year run of any team — in any sport — in history, the Wall Street Journal dismisses Casey Stengel’s 1949-53 Yankees because those squads, which won five straight World Series, “won only 71% of their World Series games.” Put otherwise, of course, the National League champions of 1949-53 combined to win just 29 percent of their World Series games.

10:29 AM, May 27, 2012 • By WILLIAM KRISTOL

Paul Mirengoff at Powerline has a post in his series, "This Day in Baseball History," reminding us that it was fifty years ago yesterday, May 26, 1962, that the Detroit Tigers defeated the Yankees 2-1 at Yankee Stadium:

Reflections from the thinking man’s knuckleballer.

May 14, 2012, Vol. 17, No. 33 • By JOSHUA GELERNTER

In June 2010, the nation’s capital was atwitter with stories of the Washington Nationals rookie Stephen Strasburg, a starting pitcher who threw 100 miles per hour with a wicked changeup. On days when he pitched, attendance doubled; television sports shows asked their panelists to weigh in on Strasburg Fever.

12:27 PM, Apr 10, 2012 • By GEOFFREY NORMAN

“This is the last time this person talks about politics.”

Good career move by Ozzie Guillen, manager of the Miami Marlins, who was indiscrete enough to tell Time magazine that he “loves Fidel Castro.”

2:25 PM, Apr 4, 2012 • By IKE BRANNON

A decade ago I found myself in a town on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, being given a tour of the local soccer stadium by the town’s mayor. During the tour he evinced great pride in their community’s support for the team despite the fact that it had not won a championship since the 1950s—the longest title drought endured by any professional sports team in the world, I was told.

7:00 PM, Sep 30, 2011 • By MICHAEL WARREN

Should we care that Chris Christie is fat?

Michael Kinsley says yes. So does Eugene Robinson.

Could Connecticut be a toss-up? (Probably not)

Why we can’t forget Sandy Koufax.

Oct 3, 2011, Vol. 17, No. 03 • By DAVID G. DALIN

7:00 PM, Sep 13, 2011 • By MICHAEL WARREN

Talking Points Memo: Elizabeth Warren will announce her run for the U.S. Senate in Massachusetts--against Scott Brown--tomorrow.

From the Aug. 1 issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD: Christopher Caldwell on why Elizabeth Warren is a closet conservative.

No, baseball was not invented by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown.

Sep 5, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 47 • By EDWARD ACHORN

We human beings seem to crave creation myths. The tale of Adam and Eve moved people for millennia, and still seems thrilling and sad, even though we know all about natural selection. And we still talk, however jokingly, about Abner Doubleday as the inventor of baseball.

Andrew Ferguson on what statistics don't show

Jun 20, 2011, Vol. 16, No. 38 • By ANDREW FERGUSON

If I were smarter than I am I might be able to argue myself into believing that there’s hope for the Washington Nationals. If I were more realistic than I am I would define “hope” downward to mean merely the possibility, however remote, that the team could win almost as many games as they lose this year. But I’m dumb and unrealistic enough to know this is a foolish fantasy: The Nats are cellar dwellers, doomed to defeat, this year and probably next.