At the urging of editor Pete Kerzel and videographer Olivia Witherite of MASNsports.com, who for reasons only they can explain wished to be part of another season of this column, here we meet again.

So one more for the year. First, my sincerest thanks to Olivia Witherite, our videographer and digital editor, and Pete Kerzel, our content editor. They are the best. Their earnest interest in Hitting ...

Well, he did - just not for the Orioles. The venerable MASN play-by-play man, whose home run calls pack so much unbridled joy and enthusiasm into mere seconds, is working for ESPN during the Fall ...

There are books in the upper echelon of make-you-think works. B.F. Skinner's controversial (to this day) book on human behavior, "Beyond Freedom and Dignity," is high on that list. Skinner was a ...

George Mitchell should have been president. He was a U.S. Senator, the Senate majority leader, a Federal District Court judge, the lead negotiator in the Northern Ireland peace accord, the special ...

One of the joys of broadcasting sports is the great people you get to meet that are involved in the business. With this "Hitting the Books," I get to speak of two of my favorites. Bill King was a ...

MASN broadcaster Gary Thorne may just be one of the most interesting men in the world. The longtime play-by-play man, who was recently inducted into the UMaine Sports Hall of Fame, is known for his ...

The Grand Master recognition for mystery writing is a major achievement in the profession. Lawrence Block has been so recognized - and has about every other award a mystery writer could accumulate. He ...

For decades, The New Yorker magazine was the elite repository of literary expression. The best of writers longed to have their talents recognized there. James Thurber was not only recognized there, he ...

Doris Kearns Goodwin. This historian/writer loves history and she loves baseball. If there is such a thing as a sweet read, this is it. Goodwin departs from her award-winning series of historical ...

Perhaps it is because it was so simply written from the heart. Perhaps it is because the story has no end. Perhaps it is because we continue to hope the reality of this book will someday sink in.

As time moves on, we hear less and less about those baseball players who went into the service in World War II. As time moves on, fewer and fewer of them are still alive. Their sacrifice was neither ...