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Brandon's Bio

A graduate student at D'Youville College in Buffalo, New York. My passion is following baseball despite having only a handful of career at bats outside of high school P.E. Thus, I am a baseball fan first, a Bisons fan second and an Indians fan through association.

Recently, I have been brought aboard to write for Baseball Digest Daily. In addition to this, I maintain a blog of exceptional length.

Brandon Writes About

The Short List facts and information about Brandon Heikoop

Favorite Sports Teams

Cleveland Indians, Buffalo Bisons, Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres, New Jersey Nets

Bulletin Board (30) Post a note »

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  1. by L.J.
    about 1 month ago

    OK, after much research I have deduced that my average grades from female teachers hovered around the 'B' mark and my male teachers oppressed my anarchist individuality with a steady stream of 'D-''s...excepting 'A+''s from Mr./Ms. McClain who was gay and who, in hindsight, probably had a crush on me.

    I might attribute this to 'Authority Issues' and patriarchal conflict within my extended family i.e: Grandfather's suggesting military service (Infantry) during the Vietnam conflict rather than the usual familial free ride through N.C. State.

    I'm thinking therapy.

  2. by L.J.
    about 1 month ago

    I have been considering this since you posted my profile and, wow, that's intriguing. While thinking about your subject I actually dug out my old, old, old cuniform Report Cards (thanks momma, you knew) and I'll be getting back to you.

    If we make a shift in education policy, back to boy's and girl's schools it will mean the end of most teacher / student sex scandals and a loss of revenue for The Enquirer and Fox News.

    Are you prepared to accept partial responsibility for that?

  3. by L.J.
    about 1 month ago

    Que es your thesis subject?

  4. by L.J.
    about 1 month ago

    Hell no.

    The only high points from '75-'87 was Ronny Reagan's voodoo economics, the birth of the neo-con movement and the fall of the Soviet Union...which, sorry to bust anyone's bubble, would have collapsed regardless of the 'Star Wars' defense shield procurement. The Soviet Union was bankrupt long before we outspent them.

    Goebbels would have been proud.

    The stock market crash of '88 exposed the fallacies of Reagan's economic programs and was a smack of reality. Not that a different administration would have improved the situation but...I had one of the hottest, recession proof restaurants on the Chesapeake Bay that decade and I had to lay off people that I needed badly.

    I truly believe that the dot com era, in spite of it's failures, has either saved us or distracted us from hard reality and disaster. Only time will tell.

  5. by L.J.
    about 1 month ago

    It's good that we can bury the hatchet. After reading your work, and it is excellent work, it's obvious you're a true fan of the game and that means a lot to me.

    I feel that the fall of Baseball in the '70's was more than just socio-economics, it was a the tipping point for America's view of their immediate world around them. Joe Namath had shown that American humility was passé in what would become this country's biggest sports stage, we had just been embarrassed militarily and backed out of a war that we won on the ground but lost in the media, a pretty good President lost his mind and our political future was gunned down. Violence in some form became daily front page news and continues to do that this very day. We've become fascinated by it...it's like a Judeo-Christian porn.

    I think the controlled and managed violence of football became an outlet for the average Joe Blow to vent his frustrations. Football gives us the outlet to turn on each other and revel in our neighbor's defeat, "us" against "them", city vs city, school vs school, because we feel emasculated on the world stage. Football became our new war...a war that we can win every Sunday...unless you live in Phoenix. Our country was split into regional, racial, social and philosophical factions that desperately needed confrontation. There is no better example of it than "Disco Demolition Night" at Comiskey in '79...it was about MUSIC for cripe's sake...they almost burned the house down.

    The beauty that is Baseball will never give you that, it's like comparing Checkers and Chess.

    My favorite football game is the iTunes snap-to-whistle version of Boise State vs Oklahoma. I can watch it in less than 30 minutes and never miss a down.

    You can't do that with Baseball. When that pitcher steps off the mound for that rosin bag...something is going on out there, a decision is being made for two outs later....unless it's Greg Maddox, then it's two innings down the road.

    Start writing your book now.

  6. by L.J.
    about 1 month ago

    Your last post has a good feel about it and I don't want to keep escalating this debate. We have made it personal and I probably threw that first stone but, as our debate so clearly shows, this 'issue' has created a deep and painful divide among passionate Baseball fans that very, very often falls along generational lines.

    It's a divide that used to limited to a lighthearted DiMaggio, Williams, Dodgers, Yankees and Koufax, Marichal style debate. This one has turned ugly as you and I, the Nazi and Zander well know.

    I wasn't putting BDD down so much as complimenting your writing abilities and thinking they would compliment a bigger stage.

    I can only speak for myself, my sons and my friends who are or used to be rabid Oriole fans (that naturally excludes people of your generation) when I tell you that we are no longer the fans that we used to be because of the steroid issue. We no longer have season tickets or read morning box scores, we don't call each other in the middle of work to say "did you see that!" and we don't wear our O's caps as much as we used to. We are terribly disappointed and we have a right to be and no amount of debate can alter that opinion, just as none can alter yours.

    We deserve more respect. When you speak of Baseball going bankrupt in the '90's it was just as bad in the '70's if not worse, when Baseball was just a passé sports oddity that no one really understood or cared about anymore. It was those of us who bought extra tickets and gave them away just to help our teams. It was us who bought season tickets in the nosebleeds and showed up 4 nights a week when gas was more expensive than it is now. It was us old guys that would talk non-stop about a 2-1 game that 'Cakes' won in front of 3,302 fans. It was us that made Baseball cards important again. It was in the 1970's that real fans and Reggie Jackson actually 'saved' the game in spite of itself.

    That would be a great article for you to write someday, how Baseball disappeared for a whole decade but survived the '70's.

    You and I are two immovable objects and the best we can do is agree to disagree, which I am willing to do. But you really should interview some old timer fans about what we went through when the NFL took center stage away from the real game.

    I can't question your love for the game, it's obvious you're dedicated to the day in day out mechanics of it more than I, but don't dare question my level of love ... yeah, I said it, love ... for the game.

    And...you'd be surprised what the 10" mound has done to innings pitched/season and how it made failed starters into millionaire left handed relief specialists.

    And...on occasion I wear my Chief Wahoo hat to formal functions solely because of Rocky Colavito so we have a slight Indians thing in common.

    And...don't get pissed at me but I edited a syntax thing on your "Clubhouse Warriors" piece.

    Peace.

  7. by L.J.
    about 1 month ago

    I appreciate you recognizing my being a sports fan, specifically a Baseball fan.

    I still can't justify your stand.

  8. by Jeff
    about 1 month ago

    OK, let's assume it was encouraged by MLB to its players. I've no problem with that assumption, since I never said it wasn't. Acceptance still doesn't make an illegal behavior "legal", it only makes it accepted.

    If you want to enlighten me on exactly how MLB had the legal authority to "override" the laws of our country as they pertained to anabolic steroids, I'm all ears. Otherwise, we are essentially arguing semantics - and endless exercise that doesn't interest me.

  9. by L.J.
    about 1 month ago

    Al Downing used steroids? Other Braves from 1974 used steroids?

    Your credibility just went zilch.

    I can see this is going nowhere, it's that way with casual fans of the game.

  10. by Tim
    about 1 month ago

    I hear ya.. I just think you forgot he was kinda old for a first-year player. Rookie ball is generally for the rookies who didn't go to college, or maybe if they're signed early and put into action right away.

    For example, Matt Wieters was drafted by the Orioles and went straight to High-A. He moved up to Double-A after 285 plate appearances. That's an extreme example, but him being 22 has a lot to do with it. If he were 19 and being as awesome as he is, that would be less likely to earn him such a quick promotion.

    What does that site have over firstinning? I haven't used it much, so maybe I'll give it a shot.

  11. by Tim
    2 months ago

    Hey Brandon,

    I said "nice job breaking it down," meaning you did a good job analyzing the trade from every angle. Then I said try to "break it up," meaning with subheads, etc., so that it doesn't look as long to a reader. When you write a long piece, it helps to break it up into smaller parts sometimes. This wasn't super-conducive to integrating subheads in there, but keep that in mind for the future.

    It was all good stuff, it's just that sometimes the average person doesn't want to start reading something that looks like a big stretch of text.

    Take it easy,
    -Tim

  12. by Bryan
    2 months ago

    And as for the attitude and stuff, I'd like to think we weren't still 'hungover' in 1998. The crowds in the mid-90's were some of the most enjoyable I've ever been to and some of the most intense I've ever seen—sure there may have been fewer people aware of the team, but don't mistake that for a lack of passion. The people that showed up to the 'Dome did so consistently and built a realistic relationship with the team.

    Today, the entire city is aware of the team because the in-city marketing has improved—it's allowed more people to take notice, but the crowd is extremely different and extremely docile and incoherent when it comes to the sport.

    Given the choice, I'd take the limited crowds of the 90's and the feeling of being at a legitimate baseball game over the slightly larger crowds today that give off the feeling of 'just being there'. I would say a majority of people don't legitimately care or understand whats going on when they attend the game, and the only way to have a coherent baseball conversation is with someone from out of town, following their team.

    That and the team has become exceptionally gimmicky now—one of the slogan's on this year's campaign says "It's not the peanuts cracking under your shoes, the crack of the bat, or every pitch that's thrown—it's what happens between the pitches"—essentially it would be the anti-baseball motto.

    I have no idea if I'm even on topic anymore or just ranting again, but needless to say the 90's crowds were legit—moreso than todays :)

    BT

  13. by Bryan
    2 months ago

    Yea definitely, as I had said, I wasn't up on the rumors, so it was something that had caught my eye...

    And yea, their Front office is great....too bad we can't get a park that anyone aside from Adrian Gonzalez can produce in....

    BT

  14. by Ryan
    2 months ago

    I'm extremely sorry Brandon. I didn't mean to negatively affect your piece, and thank you for pointing it out to me so similar mistakes won't be made in the future.

    On a side note, could you explain the pun to me? I'm not a huge follower of the Rays.

  15. by Bryan
    4 months ago

    I just sent it to you because I know you put a lot of stock in that stuff...in all honesty, I couldn't make it very far into it because a) I'm basically the opposite of you (as we've already found out! haha) and b) The entire explanation of that made my head spin...just figured you'd find it interesting is all!! haha

    Nice on the 40 year old virgin quote too ;)

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