This essay won the Society for American Baseball Research Negro Leagues Committee Scholarship contest in April 2010.

On April 14, 1947, Major League Baseball was a whites-only sport. Not since the expulsion of black players in 1888 had a non-Caucasian man swung a bat or thrown a pitch in the Big Show.

That changed on April 15, 1947—64 years ago today—when Jackie Robinson suited up for the Brooklyn Dodgers at Ebbets Field.

You know what I did yesterday? I wasted seven hours and a day off watching Mets baseball at Citi Field. That's right. I woke up early and took two trains just so I can sit and watch the Colorado Rockies pound the Mets into the ground in both games of a doubleheader.

Waste of money? Only $20.

Waste of time? Absolutely.

Last night's game was the last straw for the New York Yankees!

Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter have proven finally and forever that they should not be at the top of the order for the Yankees.

Gardner struck out three times in the game against the Baltimore Orioles, stranding runners in critical situations and proving that he is just not ready to hit leadoff on a major league roster.

It was another great day around the league, so let’s take a look at all the stories from yesterday’s games.

Gio the Great...

Gio Gonzalez tossed 6.0 shutout innings, allowing just two hits with six K, so it had to be a good start, right? Well, that’s not really accurate, as he walked six batters. Yes, the results have been there with a 0.47 ERA (one ER over 19.0 IP), but he’s already walked 12 batters on the year. Consider these numbers:

Spoiler alert!  The Red Sox will be on this list.

I was at the Jays 2008 home opener when we hosted Boston.  It was difficult to concentrate on the game with all the Sox fans screaming in broken English, yelling nonsense like "wicked pissah' and "hoobangah".

If that wasn't bad enough, as the Jays pulled away the drunker of the Sox fans started to pick fights in the stands.

Although in their defense, Canadian beer actually contains alcohol.

So without further ado, here is a list of the most hostile fans in baseball.

It's been a little over a day since Josh Hamilton was injured, and I've had time to think about how his absence in the lineup will affect the Rangers. There is no more "knee-jerk reaction" in this article.

Let's face it. Texas lost its reigning AL MVP after he carried them to the World Series.

Or did they?

Baseball is continually subject to outer-space explosions.  Young stars blowing up to become full-blown elite talents is a part of the MLB's evolution.

Quick starts, position hitters, fast throwing pitchers, and Usain Bolt speedsters, all accumulate into the next class of superstars.

Joe Mauer did it in 2006, Troy Tulowitzki and Ryan Braun in 2007, Evan Longoria in 2008, Tommy Hanson in 2009, and Mat Latos and Carlos Gonzalez last year. 

**This is an article I wrote after Harry Kalas passed away on April 13, 2009.**

Things certainly will not be the same in the Phillies' press box this 2009 season; despite the following-up of a most memorable championship campaign. Philadelphia, a city which has been gifted with the greatest of voices the world has seen, now have lost quite possibly the best of them all: Harry Kalas.

The everyday grind of the baseball season wears on you.

By the time the dreaded "dog days of August" are upon us, the division races have already been plodding along at a torturous pace, front runners and top contenders registering gains and losses too slowly to be worth the average fan's notice.  In a culture that rewards only those stimuli that provide instant gratification, the baseball season—macrocosmically speaking—generates little interest.

The endless string of opinions and predictions after Jayson Werth departed from Philadelphia last December were finally given some answers Tuesday night. In the first meeting between the Phillies and their former right fielder, Werth and his Washington Nationals got the upper hand and bested the first place Phils, 7-4.