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On September 11, 1946, Cincinnati and the Dodgers played 19 innings at Ebbets Field without a run being scored by either side: the longest 0-0 game ever played in the major leagues. Johnny Vander Meer pitched the first 15 innings of the scoreless game for the Reds, striking out 14 and allowing only seven hits. […]

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.  The next day, December 8, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan. Three days later, December 11, 1941, Germany and Italy, supporting Japan, declared war on the United States; America in turn declared that a state […]

Taylor Shaffer, brother of the “Orator,” shortchanged on playing record Taylor Shaffer, younger brother of George “Orator” Shaffer, has a short listing in the baseball encyclopedias: Born, July, 1870; Philadelphia Athletics, American Association, 1890. However, I find that Taylor was born in 1864, was 5-foot-7, weighed 155 pounds, and played in the 1884 Union Association […]

Reminiscing about players and teams from the the old Middle Atlantic League, which existed in various iterations from 1925 to 1951.While minor leagues have all but disappeared from the American scene; those of us who spent our youth in a minor league city still cherish the memories of times spent in the local ballpark, watching […]

There have been only a handful of major league pitchers who threw three no-hitters: Larry Corcoran, Cy Young, Bob Feller, Sandy Koufax, and Nolan Ryan. Similarly, only Johnny Vander Meer, Allie Reynolds, Virgil Trucks, Jim Maloney, and Nolan Ryan threw two nine-inning no-hitters in a single sea­ son. Bill Doak almost joined these two elite […]

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 […]

April 11, 1912, marked a new era in the history of the Cincinnati Reds. On that day the team inaugurated the season by playing its first game at Redland Field, which was renamed Crosley Field in 1934 in honor of the team’s owner, Powel Crosley. The new steel and concrete ballpark was located at the […]

This article was originally published in SABR’s The National Pastime, No. 14 (1994).   My most desired time-machine dream game happened on August 2, 1930. On a hot, humid summer night in Kansas City, Missouri, two men, one with smoke and the other with fire, engaged in a wild, free-swinging 12-inning contest that would result […]