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Over the course of his 18-year major-league career, Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder Roberto Clemente recorded 4,514 putouts at the position.1 He earned 266 outfield assists, throwing out that number of baserunners – an average of a little more than 14 per year. As one looks through Clemente’s career, one comes across the occasional game in […]

Not since 1958 had the Boston Red Sox had a winning team, and they’d finished in ninth place in 1966, just a half-game ahead of the last-place Yankees. Under new manager Dick Williams, the ’67 Sox played .500 ball for three months, but after the All-Star break, they reeled off a ten-game winning streak that […]

On Campy Campaneris Night1 at Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium, a crowd of 21,576 showed up to witness a different kind of baseball history. Bert Campaneris of the Kansas City Athletics became the first major leaguer to play all nine positions in a game.2 The event was dampened as the Athletics lost to the California Angels […]

The New York Giants were at the end of a grueling Western road trip in the dog days of summer, likely anxious to return home after 15 days on the road.1 There were no off days for the Giants on their 18-game, four-city trip, marked by steamy train travel and beginning with a stop in […]

“I know it’s happening, but I can’t believe it,” said a fan in the stands in a hushed voice, trying to suspend disbelief.1 “Thirty-nine years and here we are at last,” marveled longtime Chicago columnist Mike Royko.2 It was the opening game of the best-of-five National League Championship Series, and the first postseason game at […]

The 39,170 spectators who packed Wrigley Field on September 12, 1998, weren’t so much interested in the visiting Milwaukee Brewers (70-78 and 25 games behind the Central Division-leading Houston Astros. Their focus was on the Cubs, who with an 82-66 record were tied with the New York Mets in the National League wild-card race and […]

Leaving your mark in a graceful manner can be quite difficult. “I’ll probably never do it again,” said the Chicago Cubs’ Mark Grace about hitting for the cycle against the San Diego Padres in the Windy City. “I don’t hit many triples.”1 Grace’s three-run home run in the bottom of the ninth almost capped the […]

The Phillies’ home opener on April 20, 1961, was a cool spring day at Connie Mack Stadium. The afternoon was cloudy with temperatures in the low 50s. Philadelphia fans should have left happy with an Opening Day win. The Braves had done almost everything wrong heading into the top of the ninth inning. The Phillies […]

During the peak years of his 14 major-league seasons, before two knee injuries slowed him, Randy Hundley was regarded as a super-durable defensive player whose glove and leadership made him nearly indispensible to the Chicago Cubs. In 1970, when he suffered his first knee injury, manager Leo Durocher lamented, “If there’s one player I hate […]

In what could be billed as one of the wildest games in major-league history, the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs met on a Thursday afternoon in front of 14,952 fans at Wrigley Field. The wind was blowing out at 18 mph.1 A little more than four hours later, the Phillies emerged victorious, securing a 23-22 […]

Billy Martin preferred to make points with his fists, but the weapon of choice in his home opener as a major-league manager was The Blade. Martin had prepped all his life to be a big-league manager. He’d been a major-league player and coach, a minor-league manager and a student ready to learn from an assortment […]

It is common knowledge that Cleveland Indians Hall of Famer Bob Feller tossed the only Opening Day no-hitter in major-league history against the Chicago White Sox at Comiskey Park on April 16, 1940. On the 75th anniversary of the event, Major League Baseball’s official website touted it as “the first — and to this day […]

After splitting the first two contests of the 1935 World Series in Detroit, the Tigers and Cubs trekked westward to Wrigley Field for Game Three. With no travel day scheduled, the players struggled to catch up on their rest, with a few of them dozing off as their trains caromed around the southern shore of […]

The Cubs were playing mostly for pride in Game Four of the 2017 NLCS, the pride of defending world champions not wanting to surrender the pennant without a fight. But they were also playing for plausibility: to nudge the idea of a series comeback back into the realm of the possible. A win would leave […]

The Boston Bees and the Brooklyn Dodgers raced the sun for 23 innings, over 5 hours and 15 minutes, on June 27, 1939, at the Beehive in Allston, and the sun won. Despite 179 plate appearances and 33 base hits,1 the two second-division teams ended tied 2-2 when plate umpire Babe Pinelli called the game […]

Pitcher Paul Hartzell played four complete major-league seasons (1976 through 1979) and parts of two others (1980 and 1984). He was a swingman, starting 77 of the 170 games in which he appeared. He threw 22 complete games yet also posted 12 saves, a statistical combination that is difficult to imagine in today’s game. His […]

Joseph Rudolph Nossek spent 43 years in professional baseball as a player, manager, and coach. Seven of those years were as a player with a high point being his season with the 1965 American League champion Minnesota Twins. Nossek was born in Cleveland on November 8, 1940. He loved baseball and enjoyed listening to Jimmy […]

Marc Sullivan started 35 games in 1986 as backup to All-Star catcher Rich Gedman. He made the squad in spring training because of his defensive skills, but many critical Red Sox fans and beat writers would not overlook his offensive shortcomings. He hit only .193, with 23 hits in 119 at-bats, and seemed to be […]

Curtis Brown’s one game in the majors came on May 27, 1973. He played left field for the Montreal Expos at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, going 0-for-4 against Ron Bryant. Less than two weeks later, the 27-year-old was sent back to the minors, never to return. For reasons unknown, he just didn’t have any […]

By his second year in the majors in 1958, sweet-swinging Harry (The Horse) Anderson of the Philadelphia Phillies was one of the premier left-handed power hitters in the game. But after his fourth year, he was back in the minor leagues, struggling to regain the batting stroke that had abandoned him as quickly as it […]

Robert Francis “Red” Daughters appeared for the Boston Red Sox in a game against the New York Yankees on April 24, 1937, and for the next five decades could reminisce about how he’d played with Bobby Doerr, Joe Cronin, Lefty Grove, Pinky Higgins, and Doc Cramer against Lou Gehrig, Bill Dickey, Frankie Crosetti, Red Rolfe, and […]

For 40 years, the Chicago White Sox wandered in the wasteland of baseball as the Israelites had once wandered in the Sinai desert. Was it punishment for their sinful dealings in the 1919 World Series? No one can say for sure, but in 1959, absolution was at hand. A member of that 1959 White Sox […]

Saturday Night Live’s Garrett Morris popularized the line “Béisbol has been berry, berry good to me.” Long before that sketch, pitcher Bob Harmon was living proof of what a baseball career could do for the life of a player. He carefully managed his paychecks and invested in oil fields while still pitching for the St. […]

In his last major-league at-bat, after 29 failed attempts spanning three months, Cleveland Naps rookie spitball pitcher Harry Fanwell finally got a base hit. Two innings later, the injured Fanwell limped off the field, never again to play in a major-league game. He ended up as a one-for-30 “one-hit wonder.” But Fanwell fans will always […]