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Jacob Pomrenke

@buckweaver

Curling, cats, and crimes. And occasional baseball. (Also, baseball crimes.) Living in Chicago with @pulhitzherprize.bsky.social. Never quite sure which century I’m in. https://jacobpomrenke.com

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Latest posts by Jacob Pomrenke @buckweaver

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Manny Machado with a ridiculous throw from third base for the out.

07.03.2026 02:57 👍 133 🔁 29 💬 3 📌 25
Preview
Before he faced Aaron Judge, Joseph Contreras had to finish his high school classwork The 17-year-old Team Brazil righty, son of former MLB pitcher Jose Contreras, got out of a huge jam against Team USA's star-studded lineup.

A 17-year-old got Aaron Judge to ground into a bases-loaded double play on Friday night. First, he had to finish his social studies homework. Math homework kept him busy on Thursday. Meet Joseph Contreras, José's son and the youngest player in WBC history - www.nytimes.com/athletic/709...

07.03.2026 03:10 👍 117 🔁 26 💬 1 📌 2

This may also be the top highlight of the season for White Sox fans, too.

07.03.2026 01:57 👍 20 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

Bat 'sploded too

07.03.2026 01:49 👍 232 🔁 54 💬 4 📌 12
Quasi-Cycles — Better than Cycles? – Society for American Baseball Research

Great work! Have you seen this article on 4-XBH games? sabr.org/journal/arti...

06.03.2026 23:35 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Good luck! Have you tried to get in touch with James Brunson? Send me your email and I’ll be happy to connect you. He might know of other local sources (if any exist.)

06.03.2026 23:31 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Lemme share w/ y'all a ⚾ mystery that's haunted me for the last few years: In my hometown of Tyler, from 1883 through at least 1900, a pioneering black baseball team called the Tyler Athletics competed, and searching for them has been a lot like chasing ghosts. 🧵

06.03.2026 19:20 👍 12 🔁 2 💬 2 📌 1

It’s like a fun, quirky SABR presentation in a thread 😍

06.03.2026 18:51 👍 12 🔁 3 💬 3 📌 0

One day!

06.03.2026 20:44 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Mount Hope is where Buck and Helen Weaver were buried many years later.

bsky.app/profile/buck...

06.03.2026 04:59 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Michigan has become the first men’s basketball team since the 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers to finish the Big Ten season undefeated in road games.

06.03.2026 04:15 👍 42 🔁 9 💬 0 📌 0
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Prejudice ‘follows us to the grave’: The segregated past of Chicago cemeteries Mayor Harold Washington is buried in a cemetery that was once for “whites only.” Protests and legislative fights desegregated area cemeteries.

I wrote about that in this story. Her husband had purchased the family plot before Oak Woods before the cemetery began its policy of segregation. www.wbez.org/curious-city...

06.03.2026 04:22 👍 22 🔁 3 💬 2 📌 1
Another notable burial during this time period was that of great civil rights leader and journalist Ida B. Wells Barnett following her death in 1931.

Wells was one of the founders of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). These burials were the few "exceptions" made during this time period. It is likely that they had purchased plots prior to the cemetery's
attempts to restrict black burials all
together, or that white families purchased the plots on their behalf.

Another notable burial during this time period was that of great civil rights leader and journalist Ida B. Wells Barnett following her death in 1931. Wells was one of the founders of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). These burials were the few "exceptions" made during this time period. It is likely that they had purchased plots prior to the cemetery's attempts to restrict black burials all together, or that white families purchased the plots on their behalf.

She was one of the rare pre-1963 exceptions, according to www.hydeparkhistory.org/oak-woods-ce...

06.03.2026 04:15 👍 13 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
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Rev. Jesse Jackson to be laid to rest at Oak Woods Cemetery, 'part of the city's unrivaled historic fabric' The 173-year-old cemetery — solemn, historic and picturesque — will be the final resting place of the Rev. Jesse Jackson this week.

Today's column looks at what will be the final resting place of the Rev. Jesse Jackson: 19th Century landscape designer Adolph Strauch's solemn and picturesque Oak Woods Cemetery on the city's South Side.

05.03.2026 13:20 👍 80 🔁 24 💬 1 📌 1
John Cusack as Buck Weaver in “Eight Men Out”

John Cusack as Buck Weaver in “Eight Men Out”

You probably know my answer …

sabr.org/eight-myths-...

06.03.2026 03:25 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
1889 newspaper question and answer column that ruminates on the baseball of a decade earlier, when bettors and gamblers nearly ruined the game

1889 newspaper question and answer column that ruminates on the baseball of a decade earlier, when bettors and gamblers nearly ruined the game

1889, when sportswriters looked back on the era of sports gambling as a haunted time for baseball

06.03.2026 00:00 👍 8 🔁 6 💬 2 📌 0

I should have added per my link to the SABR bio, that George Burns is one of my historical favorites because he did so much - unassisted triple play, gave Joe Sewell his bat and Sewell used that bat (Black Betsy) in a HOF career, & much more. Damn fine career; underappreciated but excellent.

05.03.2026 02:39 👍 29 🔁 5 💬 2 📌 0

Awesome! Good luck with the book. Happy to help in any way I can.

05.03.2026 18:36 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I don’t know if people quite understand just how unbelievable @justmckinney.bsky.social is at this. If biographical sleuthing was an Olympic sport, first of all, heck yeah. Second of all, Justin is winning Gold and setting unbreakable records.

05.03.2026 17:47 👍 10 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 2
Original sketch for World Baseball Classic logo by Todd Radom, 2005

Original sketch for World Baseball Classic logo by Todd Radom, 2005

Original sketch, World Baseball Classic logo, 2005. Everything starts with something, somewhere, somehow. Back then you got a sense of what the event's potential could be, but you had to squint a little bit and project forward, far into the future.

05.03.2026 16:14 👍 85 🔁 17 💬 1 📌 1
Preview
Effectively Wild Episode 2447: 1-2-3, WBC

Thanks very much to @benlindbergh.bsky.social and @megrowler.fangraphs.com for having me on Effectively Wild to preview the World Baseball Classic and talk about my book, We Sacrifice Everything to Baseball.

blogs.fangraphs.com/effectively-...

05.03.2026 00:20 👍 30 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0

Thank you!

05.03.2026 00:25 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Gonna rec some things about the Black Sox scandal.

It's a really important thing, if you care about sports. Topical, now. Given that MLB is jumping in w/ both feet.

First up, Eight Men Out gets some important details wrong, for dramatic reasons.

04.03.2026 20:21 👍 14 🔁 2 💬 3 📌 1

Steve is being treated like a domestic terrorist only for reporting on the Trump anti-immigrant “blitz” in the Chicago area.

He was detained but NOT charged - yet punished.

This is purely to deter those who question power or even observe what’s being done by DHS.

Again - #JournalismIsNotACrime

04.03.2026 21:44 👍 79 🔁 52 💬 2 📌 0
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In 1953, Toni Stone became the first woman to play professional baseball in a major men's league, showing immense courage in the face of overt racism and sexism.

More Women's History Month spotlights: https://info.sports-reference.com/whm-spotlights

04.03.2026 22:26 👍 39 🔁 9 💬 1 📌 1

Oh, this would be wonderful to have again. I spent many years adding my games into the wonderful Sports Passport app. But then it was acquired by Momento (www.acmomento.com) and lost all of their stat-keeping export functions.

04.03.2026 20:09 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
A photo of the Chicago skyline viewed from the north across a stretch of open blue water. The skyline is silhouetted against a light pastel sunrise sky

A photo of the Chicago skyline viewed from the north across a stretch of open blue water. The skyline is silhouetted against a light pastel sunrise sky

A wintry photo of the Chicago River surrounded by the dense downtown cityscape. There's an elevated train crossing a bridge in the foreground

A wintry photo of the Chicago River surrounded by the dense downtown cityscape. There's an elevated train crossing a bridge in the foreground

A photo looking along elevated train tracks towards the distant Sears Tower under a bright blue sky

A photo looking along elevated train tracks towards the distant Sears Tower under a bright blue sky

A photo of the Chicago skyline from the south taken from a park full of yellow winter grasses

A photo of the Chicago skyline from the south taken from a park full of yellow winter grasses

Happy birthday Chicago!

"Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning."

04.03.2026 13:34 👍 204 🔁 53 💬 2 📌 4
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Will Art Institute expansion leave Louis Sullivan’s Chicago Stock Exchange room in the cold? No decision has been made, but the museum says "the east side of the building — where the Trading Room is located — represents the area where gallery space could increase the most."

My architecture column today. Art Institute tells the Sun-Times no decision has been made on the old CSE trading room, but adds "the east side of the building — where the Trading Room is located — represents the area where gallery space could increase the most."

04.03.2026 18:54 👍 51 🔁 15 💬 2 📌 5
Preview
Wheelchair curling drama: 2 rocks stolen from Paralympic venue ahead of competition | CBC Curling drama has arrived at the Paralympics even before the first competition rock has been thrown. Two curling stones have been stolen from the Cortina Curling Olympic Stadium.

JUST IN

Two curling 🥌 stones have been stolen from the Cortina curling venue ahead of Paralympic competition.

Authorities are investigating. Competition will not be affected. Here’s what we know at this point: www.cbc.ca/sports/paral...

04.03.2026 17:34 👍 78 🔁 18 💬 15 📌 31

Devon Market is a treasure trove, and I love it.

04.03.2026 16:35 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0