JANE’S ROAD TRIP

In Pictures

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IN THE BEGINNING

My grandmother Celia Zelda Fellenbaum lived one long, loud foul ball from home plate at Yankee Stadium…

You could see her building from the upper deck of the Stadium (top right.)

The Sammy Esposito model glove she bought for me off the left hand of a mannequin standing in the window of Saks Fifth Avenue.

…which is how I ended up here

…and here, at Eldredge Park, home of the Orleans Firebirds in the Cape Cod Baseball League.

Eldredge Park — Orleans, MA

Bette the dog, my eight-year-old, parti labradoodle, serves as part-time mascot. Her team picture. Credit: Sam Montanez

Coach Kelly Nicholson lets her take infield with the guys, throwing her grounders and pop ups.

He says nothing gets by her. Credit: Sam Montanez

When she needs to take a break she seeks refuge under a short stack of aluminum bleachers, the only real seats in the park, known as Miss Sue's bench. Credit: Sam Montanez

We had been yakking about how to fix baseball since 2011.

The parallels that enchant and instruct.

One night, two of baseball's most original thinkers, Bill "The Spaceman" Lee, still playing senior league games at Eldredge Park, and Dan Okrent, creator of Rotisserie League Baseball, challenged me to find out just how much baseball has changed.

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KANSAS CITY, KS

At Legends Field in Kansas City, the site of my first encounter with the Savannah Bananas, I started to understand why New York magazine said, “Baseball will never be this much fun.”

Savannah Bananas at Legends Field In Kansas City

The Spaceman, their most enthusiastic and recognizable attraction, climbed out of the stands, chugging a beer he had appropriated from a fan and blew me a kiss behind home plate.

Even Bill James, pater familias of sabermetrics, smiled.

NEW YORK, NY

At Citi Field, batting averages were banished from the Mets’ 17,400 square foot video board in favor of the analytically-preferred metric OPS and OPS+.

At Yankee Stadium, the decibel level generated by the Digital Processing System routinely creeps into the auditory danger zone.

Philadelphia, PA

At Citizen’s Bank Field in Philadelphia during the 2022 World Series, I saw what now passes for a no-hitter, a collaborative effort by four of Dusty Baker’s best.

DRIVELINE — KENT, WA

At Driveline in Kent, WA I visited the epicenter of the analytic revolution.

The no-bullshit training floor doesn't look that different from other gyms.

Framed jerseys of notable alums line the cinder block walls.

Sometimes they play volleyball with twenty-pound medicine balls. Other times they hurl weighted balls at walls.

Yu Darvish, the elegant but aging San Diego Padres hurler, came in search of a splitter and the fountain of youth, checking the results after every heave.

His disembodied image on another monitor.

His Blob, Driveline's visualization of the unique characteristics of each pitch, looked to me like Donald Trump's hair when he needs a dye job.

But Driveline isn't just for pitchers any more. I was there to meet Jason Ochart, creator of Driveline's data-driven hitting program.

Jason Ochart had just been hired to oversee the Red Sox minor league hitting program. That's him with Roman Anthony, then #1 prospect in baseball.

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The Mariners sent shortstop J.P. Crawford to Driveline to reshape his tepid swing.

Trackman tracked one ugly swing.

Manager Scott Servais demonstrated J.P.’s problem.

BOSTON, MA

At the 2023 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston there wasn’t much baseball.

I didn't understand a word of either of the two student baseball presentations in the Research Competition, especially Connor Heaton's -Learning Contextual Event Embeddings to Predict Player Performance in the MLB.

...until his last slide. It was all about edges and odds for fans of the action as opposed to the game.

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WEST PALM BEACH, FL

It was a relief to get to spring training in West Palm Beach, home of the Washington Nationals and Houston Astros on the day pitchers and catchers reported. Baseball still sounded like baseball.

When baseball still sounded like baseball

The new pitch clock was waiting for them.

Also new, at least to me, was the mannequin in the Nats clubhouse dressed in the uniform of the day. There are now so many to choose from; so many opportunities to sell.

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Sharing the complex that weekend were the Savannah Bananas embarking on their 2023 World Tour. “It’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen but I loved it,” said ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian.

Split, the Bananas' mascot, is not exactly what Savannah resident Lynn Moses had in mind when her entry in a contest to name the team was chosen. She thinks Split is kind of scary.

All you have to do is look at the kid's face to see the appeal. You can touch the game. And players come to you.

They're not just for kids any more. Very important Banana Mike Berkus wore his Banana best to a game in Cooperstown.
They're not just for kids anymore. Very important Banana Mike Berkus wore his Banana best to a game in Cooperstown.

Hall of Famer Ted "Simba" Simmons [right] had to be dragged off the field in Cooperstown. Hall of Famer Lee Smith [left] said the Bananas ' popularity demonstrates the need to let "fans be a little more active in the game."
Hall of Famer Ted "Simba" Simmons [right] had to be dragged off the field in Cooperstown. Hall of Famer Lee Smith [left] said the Bananas ' popularity demonstrates the need to let "fans be a little more active in the game."

Former Nats general manager Mike Rizzo wasn’t charmed. "For me, the game on the field is the carnival." His father Phil, an old-school scout, was the first guy Mike hired when he got the job.

Former New York Mets manager, Buck Showalter, batting champion for the Hyannis Mets of the 1976 Cape League, put on a Bananas jersey for a game in Baltimore in July 2025. Not his color.

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CARY, NC

At the USA National Baseball Training Complex in Cary, NC, I met Scott Hatteberg, Patient X in the Moneyball revolution, now scouting for the A’s. He gets the irony.

Sixteen of the top prep teams in the country had been invited to the USA Baseball National Invitational, which made it the place to be for a big league scout. The boys from Brother Rice High School in Chicago arrived with purpose.

The boys from Brother Rice High School in Chicago arrived with purpose

And with style. Their zoot suits were way cooler than Nike’s city connect get-ups. Baseball doesn’t have to be boring.

The life of an elite high school baseball player, competing in showcases, travel ball and high school ball, is exhausting. We were tired too. Over dinner, we realized it was opening day of the 2023 season.

PITTSBURGH, PA

At PNC Park, I met Janet Marie Smith for the Pirates home opener to see MLB’s new rules in action and her enhancements.

Pirates fans weren’t depressed (yet) on opening day 2023. Their attire was in reply to a summons from prodigal son, Andrew McCutchen, to stage a classic Pittsburgh black out. Where it’s now Miller Time now in the outfield, Janet Marie Smith removed six rows of bleachers to create a place where fans can “live in the view” of both the Allegheny River and the game.

The Riverwalk after. Credit Josh Lavalle

The outfield before. Credit: Pittsburgh Pirates

PNC gets ready to party. Credit Josh Lavalle

Janet Marie Smith in Pittsburgh mufti mingling with the people.

Rich Hill, the oldest player in baseball, started and lost on opening day, giving up seven runs in the ballpark where he threw nine perfect innings in 2016 and lost on a 10th inning home-run.

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STILLWATER, OK

I toured the new $70 million home of the Oklahoma State Cowboys, which is a recruiting tool as well as a nice place to play.

Coach Josh Holliday, brother of All Star Matt, uncle of first round picks Jackson and Ethan, throws bp because even though nearly 75 percent of players drafted in 2025 came out of NCAA programs they are allowed only four assistant coaches.

Robin Ventura, who still holds the NCAA record for longest hitting streak, returned to campus to finish his degree and volunteer as a student assistant coach, a postion eliminated when the NCAA granted approved a fourth assistant coach.

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ATLANTA, GA

At Truist Park I met third base coach and drill sergeant Ron Washington, MLB’s minister of particulars, who helped make Austin Riley into a third baseman.

We bonded over the newer, bigger bases and the advantages Wash says today's players wouldn't need if they learned how to do the right thing in the first place.

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Infielders Orlando Arcia and Ozzie Albies showed up two hours before the first pitch for their daily dose of Wash’s famous infield drills, ones that made Scott Hatteberg, the washed up catcher, into a first baseman.

I couldn’t tell whether his fungo bat was an autographed Ron Washington model.

Upright and armed with Wash’s pancake glove, they progressed to game like tasks.

The rhythm of repetition, softness of their hands & deftness of Wash's bat control were mesmerizing.

The rhythm of repetition, the softness of their hands and the deftness of Wash’s bat control were mesmerizing

COLLEGE PARK, GA

Twenty miles away at Bill Evans Field in College Park, former Braves All-Star Marquis Grissom watched kids from the team’s RBI program compete on a field he played on as a boy. The town turned down a $2 million dollar offer from Grissom’s baseball academy and Morehouse College to remake the field into a modern facility for underserved kids in favor of a $1.5 million mixed use development.

The town turned down a $2 million dollar offer from Grissom's baseball academy and Morehouse College to remake the field into a modern facility for underserved kids in favor of a $1.5 million mixed use development.

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VERO BEACH, FL

At the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, which used to be Dodgertown, Marquis showed me around the most visible and successful part of Rob Manfred's program to rebuild baseball in the inner city.

The old screened porch where I met Sandy Koufax is a vestige of old Dodgertown. Building 42, a new indoor training center, is built on the site of Branch Rickey's string area where Dodgers learned to hit the corners.

Artist John Groth's rendition of Dodgertown for Sports Illustrated in 1955 shows the way it was when there were so many players in camp they had to be assigned different colors.

Inside Building 42 more evidence of the difference between then and now. The kids are masters of efficiency.

Players from Marquis's elite travel team lost in the finals of the inaugural Breakthrough 1Series 17U championship but he was fine with that. They have to learn what the best is, he says.

Revamped Holman Stadium from the office of Tony Reagins, MLB's man in charge of making kids give a shit about baseball. His image hovers over the campus.

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WORCESTER, MA

Polar Park, the last collaboration between Larry Lucchino and Janet Marie Smith, is an aspirational ballpark charged with the responsibility of reviving the moribund Canal Area.

Some critics were hoping for something grander for the Woo Sox, the Red Sox Triple A team.

But Smith understood that the industrial design was in keeping with the old industrial neighborhood.

I had been invited to see the Robo Ump in action but was ejected from what the team called the “Taj Mahal” as quickly as Jacob Heyward was ejected for arguing balls and strikes with a machine.

The last collaboration between Larry Lucchino and Janet Marie Smith

Pretty swanky for Triple A.

In deep right field, there’s an echo of the architectural past and the future home of some of the Woo Sox — a mini-monster like the one at Fenway Park only painted Polar blue.

EASTLAKE / CLEVELAND, OH

At Classic Auto Group Park, home of the Cleveland Guardians Class A Lake County Captains, I caught up with Chase DeLauter [far left], MVP of the Cape League in 2021 and the 16th pick in the 2022 draft.

I asked him to show me his unorthodox scissor swing that made some doubtful about his big-league future, compromised by bad luck and injuries. He had barely faced live pitching since being drafted.

Chase DeLauter's unorthodox scissor swing

His mother, two grandmothers, his girlfriend and the third string mascot of the Cleveland Cavaliers had come to see if he could stay healthy.

With one swing in the bottom of the ninth, he won the game, showed his speed, his power, his batting eye and what coaches call his "want to."

Grandmother Lisa braved the decibels generated by on-field host Andy who shrieked, "HE IS HIM! HE IS SO THAT GUY!"

This is where he wanted to be. Progressive Field, home of the Guardians, was eighteen miles and an eternity away.

In the big leagues, even a garden hose can be a thing of beauty.

Progressive Field is also home to the bat Babe Ruth used to support himself as he climbed the dugout steps for his last appearance at Yankee Stadium, which belonged Bob Feller, had come to rest in the crack of Babe's butt.

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ELDREDGE PARK — ORLEANS, MA

I promised myself that if the Firebirds made it to the championship series, I’d go back to the Cape for the deciding game. The view from Miss Sue’s bench before the first pitch.

They took a 2-0 lead and were six outs away from the championship when their defense and bulllpen faltered.

Firebirds make it to the championship series

When an uncouth player on the Bourne Braves celebrated a home run with an airborne pirouette and screamed in the catcher’s face, the home plate ump warned both benches. Miss Sue let him have it. He was not happy with Miss Sue. “I can’t believe we have to feed them,” Miss Sue moaned.

With one strike left in the season, the hillside rose to salute the Firebirds.

The victorious Bourne Braves pile-driving each other into Eldredge Park dirt. "And on our mound," said Miss Sue. Credit: Cape Cod League

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The Birds got a round of applause as they made their way across from the diamond to the clubhouse in deep centerfield.

A Bird’s fan in mourning at “The Catch,” an Eldredge Park landmark.

CAMDEN YARDS — BALTIMORE, MD

I was sitting on the aisle beneath the overhang on the night Cal broke the record. A ball, fouled back by Brady Anderson, landed between my legs.

I was sitting on the aisle beneath the overhang on the night Cal broke Lou Gehrig’s record for most consecutive games played. A ball, fouled back by Brady Anderson, landed between my legs.

In August 2023, I visited Astros manager Dusty Baker in the visiting dugout,
watching his struggling third baseman, Alex Bregman, take extra batting practice and talking about what his eyes told him that analytics couldn’t. — In August 2023, I visited Astros manager Dusty Baker in the visiting dugout, watching his struggling third baseman, Alex Bregman, take extra batting practice and talking about what his eyes told him that analytics couldn’t.

I went back to Camden Yards for the last game of the 2023 season when the Orioles won their 100th game and claimed the American League East division title.

I watched the game from the broadcast booth with HOFer Jim Palmer and Ben McDonald, who made one start for the Orleans Cardinals after being picked first in the 1989 draft by the Orioles.

The O's won their 100th game and their first division championship since 2014.

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The championship was not official until the Bird showed up with the championship flag and players donned celebratory t-shirts and caps now de rigeur in professional sports.