The afternoon David was fired for stealing company office supplies and reselling them in an office superstore parking lot,... more

We the children were out there in the alley again, digging holes in the asphalt with our shovels, digging holes in the... more

My father told me tollbooths were drive-thru dentists. The orthodontists were the lanes labeled EXACT CHANGE ONLY. "They change your... more

Most baseball fans remember the late Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis for his June 12, 1970 no-hitter against the San Diego... more

Four hours before my 3rd shift, Sertaun is behind home plate calling balls and strikes and I am hung over as shit standing... more

Episode 1
Humble Beginnings

The first official Little League was played in 1882 on a balmy summer afternoon... more

The Catcher showed his pointer finger, the signal for a fastball. Two fingers issued a polite... more

Mike Hampton - P

When I wore my Astros hat and jersey to see them play the Cubs at Wrigley Field, someone threw a... more

Craig Griffey ate snowflakes because he thought it would make him better at baseball.

When Craig Griffey was six he almost retired... more

Pitcher (1)

Often the biggest and most talented. Best arm on the team. A steady fastball, a heady game. Wise beyond... more

Girls, sweating in their polyester knickers, await their turns at the plate. Ankles clacking, mouths breathing, “We want a pitcher, not a... more

Renteria almost hits one out in the bottom of the ninth of a 3-3 game against Cleveland. It’s been a nightmare season of almosts... more

They said the scar tissue would break up in your shoulder, and that this could be a painful process. You imagine it cracking like dry earth... more

We are working toward converting all of the old into the new. We are not forsaking our past! But... it's going to take time. In the meantime...

the ARCHIVES!

My boss’s dealer was an Israeli guy named Amir who lived in Highland Park with his girlfriend and drove a Porsche. I met him one afternoon my... more

I’ll be the blonde-haired pony and you be the three-toed sloth on LSD. You be “altered.” You be “tripping... more

The chemistry started in biology class. It was first period, and Roo had just gotten her first period. She could smell... more

My father, when he tried to quit smoking, used to suck on aquarium stones he sterilized at work. He claimed they worked better than candy... more

Presume a bathroom and a row of yellow and hotly round fluorescents above the mirror. Presume a young woman with her hip to the... more

You are a good-looking man. You know this because people tell you all the time, sometimes out of nowhere. You assume that people... more

After the divorce, my uncle Nicolai became an amateur taxidermist. His first attempts were on roadkill, then the... more

This is the story about how I lost my husband.

Jamie had been in the hospital getting blood work and... more

The Mayor, after several days of grieving, emerged from his hacienda at the hour that was once called lunch. He passed his guards, then slowly—laboriously—carried his voluminous frame through the streets, stopping at the square's one remaining café and ordering a well-cooked steak. The sun glared down from the cloudless sky and illuminated the Mayor, capturing him in full as he spread himself across a stool and held his knife and fork in a rehearsed display of indefatigable hope. There was still meat, he wanted the people to see. There was still a mayor. There was still a town, present and alive in that square.

I arrive at the party and there are about four people there—wait, there are ten more in the back room. Now there are six more at the... more

It is Sunday when the dogs come. The church bells ring and ring and my mother says to my sister like she does every week... more