Search Results

With the Detroit Tigers seizing a two-games-to-one lead in the 1935 World Series on the Chicago Cubs after a wild extra-inning affair in Game Three, managers Charlie Grimm and Mickey Cochrane were compelled to shuffle their lineups. “The two managers, reckless in their manipulation of talent in the turbulent concluding innings, forced themselves into a […]

The New York Mets came into existence in 1962 as the National League expanded for the first time.1 Casey Stengel’s ragtag “Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game” Mets stumbled to a 40-120 record in their first season, finishing dead last of the league’s 10 teams, 60 games out of first place.2 By 1966 the Mets […]

When New York Mets and Kansas City Royals faced off in Game Two of the 2015 World Series on October 28 both teams may have been a bit tired. The night before, Game One had lasted more than five hours before the Royals won 5-4 in 14 innings. Although no one got much sleep, the […]

The Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax bested the Phillies’ Jim Bunning in the first-ever meeting between pitchers who had thrown perfect games. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   The 2005 US House Government Reform Committee hearing that put Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, José Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro, and Curt Schilling on a witness panel to testify on steroid use is a […]

Tommy Davis. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   In late September 1963, the pennant races were winding down and it seemed likely that the Los Angeles Dodgers would meet the New York Yankees in the World Series. Only some individual honors were yet to be determined on the final day of the season – including whether Tommy Davis […]

Rich Reese had a .322 batting average in 1969 for the Minnesota Twins. He was platooned at first base with Harmon Killebrew, who usually moved to third when a left-hander was pitching. With most of his plate appearances (nearly 80 percent) against right-handers that season, Reese figured he wouldn’t be in the lineup against Baltimore […]

In 1964 Connie Mack Stadium was described as a “sprawling network of steel and concrete, hemmed in by a drab, dreary, fraying residential district”1 Nevertheless, 26,381 spectators jammed into the stadium on a Saturday afternoon for Knothole Day, a promotion where free tickets were given to kids 14 and under (the paid attendance was only […]

After committing three errors and losing a pop foul in the sun the previous day, veteran Chicago Cubs third baseman Ron Santo redeemed himself by hitting two home runs and driving in eight runs in the second game of a doubleheader against the Montreal Expos on July 6, 1970. “Big days in the major leagues […]

“A Cub hits two home runs and drives in seven runs — but it isn’t Sammy Sosa. A starting pitcher takes a no-hitter into the eighth inning with nine strikeouts — but it isn’t Kerry Wood.”1 As Chicago Tribune sportswriter Bob Foltman observed, unlikely heroes do tend to emerge when September call-ups get a chance […]

The major-league season started 18 days late in 1995 because of the players strike, which had begun in August 1994 and forced cancellation of the 1994 postseason. Each team played a 144-game schedule in 1995. As the season progressed, one of the most compelling races took place in the American League West Division. The California […]

Entering Game Seven of the 2016 World Series at Cleveland’s Progressive Field, both the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians were trying to end long droughts without a championship. The Cubs had not won a World Series in 108 years and “The Curse” continued to surround them. Many Cubs fans blamed Steve Bartman for the team’s […]

Though the calendar had yet to turn to June, the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Braves were already having seasons to forget. Despite Glen Hobbie’s outdueling Warren Spahn in a 2-1 Cubs victory the day before on Memorial Day, Chicago was mired near the bottom of the league. The one club keeping the 15-29 Cubs out […]

The names Ed Spiezio, Steve Huntz, Dave Ricketts, and Eddie Bressoud dotting manager Red Schoendienst’s lineup on September 20, 1967, at Connie Mack Stadium were not typical ones for the St. Louis Cardinals. Yet, the men whom the strange platoon was replacing – Brock, Javier, McCarver, Maxvill, and others – had already completed their work. […]

A celebrated base ball character” was A. G. Spalding’s succinct description of Bob Addy, who was his teammate on three separate clubs.1 Others who knew Addy well referred to him as a philosopher or as a wag or as the “Honorable Bob.” The reasons behind that last tag remain unknown, but it certainly sounds like the sort […]

During the summer of 1913, a left-handed pitcher from the Philadelphia Phillies named Addison Brennan gained notoriety and a place in baseball lore when he was fined $100 and suspended for five days for punching New York Giants manager John McGraw after a game in Philadelphia. During the seventh inning of the contest between the […]

Julio “Monchy” de Arcos (1922-1966) was a Cuban executive and scout. He was associated with the major leagues as early as 1941, when the Brooklyn Dodgers trained in Cuba’s capital, La Habana. Thanks to his friendship with Leo Durocher, then Brooklyn’s manager, he was the Dodgers’ interpreter and batboy. In the mid-1940s, de Arcos became […]

More than 9,000 men played in the major leagues before Chuck Lindstrom, but he was the first to achieve an incredibly rare distinction. In fact, 15 more years passed before another player matched him. He is also among the few twentieth-century major leaguers whose fathers were Hall of Fame players, and though none of these […]

Bill Campbell could be excused for deeming life as unlucky as a crooked draw. His mother died giving birth to him on September 7, 1923, in Atlantic City. Dad kept the secret from him till Bill was 11. He lived with his father, a traveling paint salesman, then aunts, then Dad again, changing schools six […]

Soon after the 1967 World Series ended, Fleetwood Recording Co. released a long-playing phonograph record, The Impossible Dream, a reprise of the Boston Red Sox magical same-year pennant. Narrating, Sox announcer Ken Coleman hailed “an affair twixt a town and a team,” telling how the Boston American League Baseball Company used wonderwork to wave 1967’s […]

By most lights, Adolfo Phillips, a 22-year-old rookie who was a September call-up with the 1964 Phillies, owned the physical talents of a major-league star. It’s almost as apparent that Phillips was not temperamentally suited for long-term success in the major leagues. At least not in the 1960s, his prime years. Phillips was born and […]

Hard-throwing right-hander Dave Boswell debuted with the Minnesota Twins in 1964 at the age of 19, and was a valuable contributor to the Twins’ pennant-winning team the following season. Despite chronic blisters on his pitching hand, and arm, shoulder, and back miseries, Boswell averaged 14 wins and 210 innings over a four-year stretch with the […]

A talented African-American athlete and a fleet-footed outfielder who raced through the minor leagues with flattering comparisons to Willie Mays and Jackie Robinson, Ted Savage had the unique distinction of having to seek legal assistance in confronting one major-league team in order to stay with the franchise that ultimately promoted him to the big leagues […]

SABR Salute: Mark Rucker Editor’s note: The SABR Salute, first bestowed upon writer Fred Lieb in 1976, was designed as a manner of recognizing the contributions of some of the older members of the Society. Subsequent SABR Salutes appeared in the SABR Membership Directory and honored members who had made great contributions to baseball historical […]