The San Diego School of Baseball was backed by hitting stars such as Tony Gwynn and Alan Trammell, but it was the pitching minds that gave the early 1980s baseball camp its charm — and its legacy.

Brent Strom and Tom House had been teammates at the University of Southern California and then, later, journeyman pitchers in the major leagues. Aside from lineage, they also shared deep-seated hunches that there was more to learn about baseball than previous generations had taught.

So when the day’s instruction was over, they sat in the dugouts of Grossmont College or ventured to a local watering hole, tossing ideas back and forth: the things they loved about the game, the things they thought were wrong, the things they wanted to change.

Once, during a baby shower for another coach’s wife, the men were scolded when they were found in the corner of a room, playing back film of pitchers. They were all obsessives, and the San Diego School of Baseball was their offseason oasis — a place where they could gather and discuss, without judgment and scorn, some of the very concepts that decades later would alter the balance of baseball.

“A summit,” House called it, “of smart baseball minds.”

Before PITCHf/x and Statcast could measure progress, before internet message boards and…

The call came on the evening of Jan. 9, as the Caray family gathered in the living room in St. Augustine, Fla.

Sitting on pins and needles, St. Louis Cardinals broadcaster Chip Caray, his wife, Susan, and three of their children Summerlyn, Stefan, and Tristan, waited with bated breath as a fourth child, Chris Caray, answered the phone. His agent, Lou Oppenheim, was on the line, and he had a couple of pertinent questions.

NBC Sports California, the regional cable network of the Oakland A’s, had spent the offseason conducting a search for a new play-by-play voice. Chris was a finalist, and the network had circled Jan. 10 as their internal deadline. Oppenheim began the call with some logistic inquiries. If Chris was hired, a cross-country move would need to take place. Where would he live? What would the transportation situation be like? Would he get an apartment?

“I said, ‘Dude, I can’t even answer these right now,’” Chris recalled with a laugh.

The response from Oppenheim?

“Well, you better come up with answers pretty fast, because you got the job.”

Chaos erupted in the Caray household. A fourth generation of the family had made it to the major leagues. At 24 years old, Chris was officially a big-league broadcaster, the same age as his father when he landed his first…

Jenny Cavnar continues to climb the broadcasting ranks, and this time, she’s making history in her new gig as the Oakland A’s play-by-play announcer.

The A’s announced Cavnar’s hiring Tuesday, making her the first female primary play-by-play voice in MLB history.

“It is a dream come true to join the broadcast team for the Oakland A’s and their rich baseball history,” Cavnar said in a statement. “Growing up the daughter of a baseball coach, I have loved the game from a young age, along with the stories, history, and relationships the game provides.”

Cavnar will work alongside NBC Sports California color commentator Dallas Braden, who welcomed her to the broadcast booth in a video on social media.

A dear friend, a true professional & Major League Baseballs first female PxP broadcaster….

Welcome to the Town @jennycavnar I can’t wait to get it goin’ homie! pic.twitter.com/wOZYGsS3Rn

— Dallas Braden (@DALLASBRADEN209) February 13, 2024

Cavnar heads to Oakland after working as a Colorado Rockies reporter, backup play-by-play announcer and pregame and postgame host over the past 12 years.

In April 2018, she became the first woman in 25 years to call TV play-by-play for an MLB game when the Rockies hosted the San Diego Padres. It was a fitting first game for her…

The Hall of Fame is made for players like Adrián Beltré. As a pure hitter, reliable slugger and slick third baseman, Beltré had few peers: No other infielder in the history of baseball has 3,000 hits, 400 homers and five Gold Glove awards. Beltré, now 44, was a lock for the Hall of Fame.

As a first-time Cooperstown candidate, Beltré did not need to follow the breathless tracking of public ballots this winter. Yet he still could not feel secure, he said, until his wife and son assured him on Tuesday that election day looked promising. He could savor it.

“That made me relax a little bit more, and I kind of forced myself to try to enjoy this moment,” Beltré said from his home in Southern California, moments after achieving his sport’s greatest honor. “It was going to be a nice moment, and probably the last moment in baseball that I was going to accomplish, being at the pinnacle of the game.”

Beltré had company at the summit on Tuesday, with Todd Helton and Joe Mauer joining him in the new class of Hall of Famers. Former manager Jim Leyland, elected by the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee last month, will also be inducted at the ceremony July 21.

Candidates must receive 75 percent of the ballots from 10-year members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of…

Chicago police believe the gunshots that wounded two women at Friday’s White Sox game at Guaranteed Rate Field came from inside the stadium, interim police superintendent Fred Waller said at a CPD ceremony at Navy Pier on Monday.

“We’re dispelling a lot of things,” Waller said Monday. “(A shot) coming from outside is something we’ve almost completely dispelled. We’re still looking at every avenue. It’s still under investigation. Something from inside, it could’ve happened that way. We’re looking at every avenue, exploring every lead and everything that we can get.”

There was a question as to whether stray shots from outside the stadium struck the fans in the bleachers. There has been no official update from the police or the team since early Saturday morning when they released separate statements. The White Sox also released a short security video showing people reacting in the section.

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Two victims sustain gunshot wounds in White Sox’s stadium during game

The initial police report that The Athletic obtained noted “(Chicago Police) Chief (Brian) McDermott was requesting the Sox stop the game for public safety reasons.” The game continued on, but a postgame concert was canceled.

“At one point in time it was requested as a precaution, but we had…