Author Bio & Stories

Matthew Callan

Matthew Callan gripes about the Mets at AmazinAvenue.com and about everything else at Scratchbomb.com. You may have seen his writing in McSweeneys, the New York Press, and Best American Non-Required Reading. If so, please return it to him. Follow him @Scratchbomb.

  • October 2, 2012
    Called Out: The Forgotten Baseball Umpires Strike of 1999

    In 1999, Major League Baseball and its umpires came to the brink of labor armageddon, with the vast majority of the game's veteran umpires threatening to retire en masse as the season came down the stretch. A decade and change later, it's all a distant memory—and both sides seem, belatedly and improbably, to have gotten what they wanted.

  • September 11, 2012
    Consider The Umpire

    When the veteran American League ump Ron Luciano wrote The Umpire Strikes Back in 1982, it was a bestseller as a quintessential Dad Book: a safe, sports-y Father's Day gift. Thirty years later, and 17 years after Luciano died by his own hand, the book looks like something altogether stranger, sadder, and more interesting. This may be the saddest baseball book ever written.

  • July 20, 2012
    The Night Bobby Valentine Lurked

    The night that Bobby Valentine donned the worst disguise in baseball history wasn't exactly the most important moment in the New York Mets' odd and almost-wonderful 1999 season. But, as this excerpt from Matthew Callan's e-book Yells For Ourselves proves, Valentine's eye-black-aided transformation into "The Lurker" had a goofy significance of its own.

  • June 5, 2012
    Getting To No, With Johan Santana (Or Anyone) — The Clog

    After a 50-year wait for a no-hitter, Mets fans were happy to accept Johan Santana's streak-snapping gem. But Santana has provided more than just the organization's first no-no—and earned more than respect in the process.

  • March 2, 2012
    Bud Selig Continues To Be Bud Selig — The Clog

    As a commissioner, Bud Selig makes a pretty great owner. The seemingly inevitable expansion of the MLB Playoffs is just another example of Selig Doing Selig, for all the usual reasons.

  • February 17, 2012
    Kids

    Gary Carter was a bright and proudly uncool presence on a some great and greatly dark Mets teams, but he was more than that. For the late catcher, "Kid" wasn't so much a nickname as a state of mind that approached a state of grace.

  • January 25, 2012
    Time To Wallow In The Mire, or Ray Manzarek Ruins Basketball — The Clog

    There's no reason to put Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek in a documentary about UCLA basketball, really. But until you actually watch Manzarek's performance in a documentary about UCLA basketball it's hard to understand why not. Let's fix that.

  • December 13, 2011
    Baseball's Hall of Shame

    In terms of their cover art, The Baseball Hall of Shame series of the 1980s look a lot like VHS boxes for lower-end teen comedies. But what's between those covers sounds uncannily like today's irrereverent, obsessive sports internet. There's a good reason for that.

  • December 9, 2011
    Bad Parenting, Albert Pujols, and The YouTube Temptation — The Clog

    Plenty of people were sad when Albert Pujols bounced on the Cardinals. But only one visionary jerk thought to videotape himself making his child cry about it, and then put the video online.