Hope everyone had a safe and exciting holiday eve and is for a relaxing day- Go Buckeyes!

There are two Hall of Famer’s born today- Tim Keefe, who played from 1880-1893 and Hank Greenberg who played from 1930-1947.  Also born today is Fernado Tatis who is 35 today.

Wee Willie Keeler, a Hall of Famer who played for a year for the New York Giants, the Original Baltimore Orioles from 1893 to 1898 and then for the  Brooklyn Trolley Dodgers 1899-1902 ad finally for the Yankees 1904-1910.  With the Baltimore Orioles, Keeler helped develop many modern baseball plays, including the old Baltimore chop, where a ball is bunted hard just in front of the plate, and with some careful groundskeeping, the ball bounces off the hard ground way into the air, allowing a speedy runner to make it to first before the ball can be fielded.   Keeler is also known for his quote in answer to how he manages to be so successful: “I keep my eyes clear and I hit ‘em where they ain’t.”    That last part is the title of one of the finest books about the birth of modern baseball by Burt Soloman titled Where They Ain’t: The Fabled Life and Untimely Death of the Original Baltimore Orioles, the Team That Gave Birth to Modern Baseball. If you have any interest in the older history of the game, its a very worthwhile read. (Pretty light too!)

Again, Happy New Year!