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Fans of the 1958 Philadelphia Phillies had little to cheer about at the end of a rather dismal season. When the final standings were posted, the club was firmly planted dead last in the National League. One bright note was the team’s pinch-hitting performance: It led both major leagues with an impressive batting average of […]

In 1946, Warren Giles, then the president of the Reds, added a section of temporary seats in front of the right-field bleachers. This section must have suggested an animal pen to the writers and other ballpark denizens, for it soon became known as “Giles’s Chicken Run” and later the “Goat Run.”1 The result was twofold: […]

On June 3, 1971, the Boston Red Sox purchased the contract of Luis Tiant from their minor league affiliate in Louisville. Three years removed from be­ing the best pitcher in the American League, Luis had been released at the end of spring training by the Twins, had spent thirty days with the Richmond Braves, and […]

Until the Dodgers and Giants come to their senses and return home to New York, Casey Stengel remains the only figure in history to have worn the uniform of these four New York City teams: the Dodgers, Giants, Yankees, and Mets. The coincidence of this was no small thing to Casey, who died in 1975, […]

How does one assess an individual player’s contribution to his team’s score? Baseball statisticians have attempted to answer this question countless times. It’s not just the runs he scores himself because that often relies on who batted him in. And it’s not just the runs he bats in, because that depends on who batted previously. […]

It is highly unlikely that the Philadelphia Phillies would have won the 1950 National League Pennant without reliever Jim Konstanty, who was so dominant that he was named the National League’s Most Valuable Player. And so it is worthwhile to consider whether Konstanty would have won the MVP and had the year he had without […]

Maryville College is a fast-growing co-educational institution, located in St. Louis County.  As a part of our innovative approach to higher education, I originated an accredited course in baseball history during the spring semester of 1973. Entitled “The Thinking Fan’s Guide to Baseball,” which I adapted from Leonard Koppett, the course was designed for the […]

Cy Young said he didn’t have the speed he once had but could still “lob a hook up there.” (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)   The reader probably knows that Cy Young is baseball’s all-time winningest pitcher with 511 victories and that his 22-year career ranks as one of the greatest in baseball history. […]

When I first became interested in baseball as a little leaguer in 1960-61, my reading and TV ex­periences eventually led me to San Diego’s Westgate Park (opened two years earlier), home of the Pacific Coast League Padres. There I could see Gary Peters, Suitcase Simpson, and the locals in person. When a player got hurt, […]

Is the batting average the most important morsel of information concerning a player’s offensive ability? It most assuredly is not! It is baseball’s most misleading number. It has pacified and fooled generations of players, fans, managers and media, masquerading as its grandest  garment, but in reality resembling a certain Emperor’s uniform. What can the matter […]