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Ted Williams hit 12 home runs in 123 career at-bats against Virgil Trucks, more homers than he hit off any other pitcher. Needless to say, you have to be a good pitcher to even get into that many games.1 Trucks won 177 games in his 17-season major-league career, but not his start at Detroit’s Briggs […]

Ted Williams must have enjoyed his July and August 1939 visits to Cleveland. In a period of 45 days, he hit three game-winning home runs in Cleveland ballparks. On July 15, at Cleveland Stadium, he hit a solo home run off Johnny Broaca in the top of the eighth inning, breaking a 5-5 tie and […]

It was still relatively early in the season and only 6½ games separated the American League-leading New York Yankees from the sixth-place Cleveland Indians. The 16-10 Tigers and 14-13 Red Sox were in third and fifth place. Managers Red Rolfe of the visitors and Steve O’Neill of the home team announced their starters for the […]

It was just the third game of the 1947 season. The American League champions of 1946, the Boston Red Sox, had won their first two games at home, then left on a brief road trip, the first stop being Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The Athletics had opened their season at Yankee Stadium, winning their first […]

Ted Williams missed a couple of games in Cleveland as he was fighting off a heavy cold, but he always loved to hit in Briggs Stadium. When the Red Sox arrived in Detroit for a Friday afternoon game, he was in the lineup. “The closer we got to Briggs stadium, the better I felt,” said […]

This game’s win was secured by Ted Williams’s first game-winning home run off a future Hall of Famer. On May 30, the 20-year-old rookie right fielder had hit a first-inning homer off Red Ruffing — his first off a Yankees pitcher and first off a future Hall of Famer — but it had been Jimmie […]

Ted Williams bounded down the first-base line at Briggs Stadium like the kid he was. He clapped his hands twice as he neared the bag then bounded over it with a joyful skip as he made his way around the bases. Williams’s three-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth had just […]

The race for the American League pennant had tightened considerably. The Boston Red Sox came into the game just 2½ games behind the New York Yankees. It truly was a race. The Red Sox had been 12 games behind on the Fourth of July, seven back at the end of July, and as close as […]

The year 1959 was one Ted Williams may have wished he could forget. He suffered a really bad crick in his neck during spring training in Arizona. It turned out to be a pinched nerve and he was in traction for three weeks.1 He didn’t get into a game until May 12, when he went […]

On February 21, 1945, the major-league baseball All-Star Game for that year was canceled at the “request” of the Office of Defense Transportation.1 World War II was on in earnest in both Europe and the Pacific. The game was to have been held at Boston’s Fenway Park on July 10, 1945.2 The loss of the […]

The Boston Red Sox (12-9) hosted the Chicago White Sox (11-9) in the first of a two-game series at Fenway Park. Chicago had just been swept in a home doubleheader by the Detroit Tigers, 10-0 and 6-1, and the team was looking to rebound against Boston. For Chicago, 34-year-old right-hander Johnny Rigney started the game. […]

The 1946 Boston Red Sox spent only one day all season long out of first place—April 25. By the time this game got underway on July 14, nearly three months after that point, they had a nine-game lead. By the time the doubleheader was over, their lead was 11 games. The first game was close […]

Would Ted Williams trade 18 points off his batting average for a game-winning home run? We can’t know the answer. Probably the answer would be “yes,” in that there’s always time to build up one’s batting average. As it happens, Williams hit over .400 in 1953 anyhow. This game wasn’t long after Williams had been […]

This was a year in which every game between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox took on extra meaning as September came to a close. The two teams ended up tied going into the final game of the regular season. On August 9, however, New York had a 6½-game lead over third-place Boston. […]

The Boston Red Sox hosted a Friday afternoon game against the St. Louis Browns on September 14, 1951. The Red Sox were still in the hunt for the American League pennant. They were just 3½ games out of first place, and had won a walkoff game against the Browns the day before when Johnny Pesky […]

This one was not only a game-winner; it was also a pennant-clincher. And the only inside-the-park homer Ted Williams ever hit. The champagne that had traveled with the Boston Red Sox from Washington to Philadelphia and then to Detroit was again placed on a train and traveled on to Cleveland. One never would have guessed […]

In a game that ends 21-2, the hit that produced the third run is the hit that won the game – even though there would have been plenty of backup candidates had the losing team scored more runs. Ted Williams would have had the game-winning homer had the score been tied 16-16 after 6½ innings, […]

It was the next-to-last game of the 1947 season, played on a Saturday afternoon in Washington. The Senators were in seventh place and neither a win nor a loss would alter their place in the American League standings, but the Red Sox were in third place and just one game behind the Detroit Tigers. They […]

The Boston Red Sox were nearing the end of a homestand in which they won 10 of 13 games, including three extra-inning games and three games in which Ted Williams hit game-winning home runs.1 Williams’s third-inning homer was the game-winner against the Chicago White Sox in the second game of the homestand on May 18. […]

On the next-to-last day of the 1948 season, the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees had identical 94-58 records. They were tied for second place, both only one game behind the league-leading Cleveland Indians. If the Indians won on October 2 – which they did, beating the Detroit Tigers, 8-0 – whichever team […]

The Red Sox were still hopeful, even in the final days of August 1955. They were in fourth place, but the standings were tightly bunched and they were only five games behind the first-place New York Yankees. Before this day’s game, the Indians and White Sox were one and 1½ games back of New York, […]

It was early in the 1949 season, with only about a dozen games played. The New York Yankees were off to a 10-2 start; they hadn’t lost a home game yet, winning seven in a row at Yankee Stadium. The Boston Red Sox were 5-6. They were visiting the Stadium for three games and had […]

After the Cincinnati Reds stunned the “baseball dope” in Game One of the 1919 World Series by knocking out Chicago ace Eddie Cicotte, rumors were flying about the White Sox’ uncharacteristically poor performance. The whispers would only grow louder after Game Two. Because baseball’s powers-that-be had voted on using an experimental best-of-nine format instead of […]

Willie Mays hit the 660th and final home run of his career against Cincinnati Reds left-hander Don Gullett. (New York Daily News)   Willie Mays hit his first big-league home run in New York City on May 28, 1951, connecting off Boston Braves ace Warren Spahn in the first inning of a game at the […]