Search Results

    John Wathan of the Royals seemed an unlikely candidate to set a new season record in 1982 for stolen bases as a catcher. He was 32 years old and had served as a back-up first baseman and outfielder as well as a catcher. He also lacked the reindeer proportions with 205 pounds spread […]

As Major League Baseball moved toward a possible players’ strike in 1981, the Chicago baseball scene had plenty of drama: the White Sox signed future Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk, the Wrigley family sold the Cubs, and beloved broadcaster Harry Caray moved from the South Side to the Friendly Confines. A possible 1980 players’ […]

On September 12, 1992, in the fifth inning of a game between the Dodgers and the Giants at Dodger Stadium, Michael Joseph Piazza hit his first major league home run and his road to the catcher career home-run record began.1 This first four-bagger was a hard shot to right center with men on second and […]

This is a story about the day Thurman Munson dropped three third strikes for my benefit. It happened in the early 1970s when Thurman’s “feud” with Boston rival Carlton Fisk was just beginning to heat up. The Yankee catcher, who died in the crash of his airplane in August 1979, genuinely disliked his counterpart, whom […]

Sometimes a pitcher and a catcher (battery) come together as a fully charged duo outperforming all other battery com­binations for either player. In some cases the result of this pairing has been a full point or more below both the pitcher’s and the catcher’s individual ERA. On the other hand, the battery can fall a […]

In January 1976 the members of the Society for American Baseball Research were asked to select the five outstanding games of the last 100 years in order of rank. A sample listing of 17 games was provided with the invitation to write in others which might be preferred. The members did write in others, as […]

Kirk Gibson of the Detroit Tigers and Carlton Fisk of the Chicago White Sox led baseball’s free-agent class going into the 1985 Winter Meetings.1 Kansas City Royals GM John Schuerholz was so interested in slotting Gibson into the team’s cleanup spot that he asked a team representative to host him on a hunting trip to […]