The Library of Congress has made a bunch of old baseball photographs available over at Flickr. The photo above is of Les Nunamaker, a catcher for the Red Sox, Yankees, Browns, and Indians from 1911 to 1922.
Nunamaker’s career line: .268/.332/.339. Among his 10 most comparable players are the excellently named Johnny Peacock and Clyde Kluttz, as well as “The Colonel,” Hall of Fame broadcaster Jerry Coleman.
This particular photo was taken in 1912. Little did Mr. Nunamaker realize that a century later, folks all over the world would be able to watch him playing catch on something called the Internet…

   Photo by TomGazpacho   some rights reserved
I’ve been thinking about ways to bring you stuff that just isn’t available anywhere else. News and analysis is great, and I’ll certainly continue to do my share of that, but one thing I thought might be fun is to use Baseball-Reference’s “random” function and highlight whoever happens to appear when I give it a spin. We’ll do this every Wednesday because, well, in keeping with the spirit of things, I actually chose the day at random.
Anyway, our first player is Harry Lord, a left-handed hitting third baseman who played for the Boston Americans/Red Sox, Chicago …read more

The St. Louis Cardinals have signed right-hander Matt Clement to a 1-year, $1.5 million deal with a club option for 2009. He was pretty darned good for the Cubs from 2002 to 2004, but hasn’t done much since.
Clement made just 12 starts in 2006 with Boston and missed all of last season while recovering from shoulder surgery. Maybe he has something left, but I wouldn’t count on it.

For your amusement, and mine…

More great games, fewer Congressional investigations.
A commissioner who isn’t one of the owners. Yeah, I know technically he isn’t one of the owners anymore, but he’s one of the owners.
Hall of Fame enshrinement for Bert Blyleven, Goose Gossage, and Tim Raines.
Enough with the Red Sox already. It was kinda cute the first time, but now it’s just annoying.
A real owner for the Marlins, and not someone who only knows how to destroy big-league franchises.
One more season for Julio Franco.
Seventy wins for the Royals and Pirates.
No domed stadiums, designated hitters, or All-Star games that determine home-field advantage …read more

Just time enough for haiku today…
Glavine returns home
Will one year in Atlanta
Erase his last start?
White Sox ship Garland
To Angels for Cabrera,
Have no pitching left
Three years of Lowell
Only in Red Sox Nation
Is he a bargain
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Curt Schilling himself says, “it’s looking good” (have I mentioned lately that I love the fact that Schilling has a blog?), where “it” is the prospect of nailing down a 1-year deal that will keep him in Boston. I don’t have much to add in the way of analysis, so I thought I’d look back a little. This is from Bill Mazeroski’s Baseball ‘92:
In April [Astros manager Art] Howe handed the ball to Curt Schilling, who responded by converting five of his first six save opportunities. Hitters, though, eventually caught up to Schilling. His fastball has movement, but he overthrows …read more

I
Seventeen base hits
weren’t all that doomed the Rockies –
too much Josh Beckett
II
Schilling kept things close
before bullpen sealed the deal
despite Matt’s four hits
III
No DH, no prob –
surge in the sixth and seventh
couldn’t beat Red Sox
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So much for invincibility. Now that the Rockies can’t rely on that anymore, they’ll have to pick themselves back up and start playing good baseball.
The bad news is that Colorado got spanked in Game 1. The good news is that a 12-run loss counts exactly the same as a 1-run loss, so there’s plenty of time to regroup. Seriously, ask the 1960 Pirates.
Unfortunately, if the Rockies are going to make a stand, they’ll have to do it behind a kid making his 19th big-league start (Ubaldo Jimenez). Oh, and they’re facing a guy with 216 regular-season wins under his belt …read more

Well, that certainly was exciting. Boston beat the Rockies, 13-1, in the first game of the World Series at Fenway on Wednesday night. Colorado left-hander Franklin Morales, working in relief of starter Jeff Francis, had a particularly rough outing:

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Half a million of my neighbors have been forced from their homes by wildfires that surround San Diego, so you’ll forgive me if I don’t really give a damn about baseball just now. That said, the World Series starts on Wednesday night (first pitch, 5 p.m. PT), and I expect you’ll be wanting some cogent analysis.
Might I recommend Purple Row for Rockies coverage and, er, pretty much anywhere on the Internet for Red Sox coverage. Oh, I have to pick just one? Okay, give Fire Brand of the American League a shot.
Good luck to your team. Good luck to my …read more