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A morning downpour threatened to postpone a Thursday afternoon game at Metropolitan Stadium, the Minnesota Twins’ home in their second season after moving from Washington. Cleveland, the visiting team, may have preferred not to play. It had lost its last six games and eight of its last nine, including a 14-3 drubbing the day before […]

The Philadelphia Phillies finished 81-80 in 1962, the franchise’s first winning season in nine years, but by June 23, 1963, they were nine games under .500. The ’63 Phillies’ fortunes turned, however, after a three-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates at Forbes Field, highlighted by right fielder Johnny Callison’s hitting and throwing in a 13-4 […]

The Wednesday afternoon game between the Cleveland Indians and Minnesota Twins produced a modern-era major-league first when the Twins’ Bob Allison and Harmon Killebrew blasted first-inning grand slams in the 14-3 blowout victory.1 The same team hitting two grand slams in one inning has been matched only four times since Allison and Killebrew accomplished the […]

National League President Warren Giles would have been excused if he had thought that somebody in his office screwed up and sent the 1962 New York Mets to play Game Two of the World Series against the Minnesota Twins instead of the National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers. By committing three errors and allowing poor […]

The California Angels were trying to get out of the cellar. The team arrived in the Twin Cities and broke a four-game losing streak with a win on Friday, June 2, in the series opener. The Twins were trying to stay relevant in the American League pennant race. After Friday night’s loss, they were 21-23. […]

On July 14, 1966, two days after the All-Star Game, the San Francisco Giants started a six-game road trip in Philadelphia. The Giants were in first place in the National League and had been for most of the season, but they had been inconsistent since a 12-game winning streak in May. When they arrived in […]

The surprising Senators, riding a three-game losing streak, entered the May 12 game tied for fourth place in the American League with a 14-14 record, four games behind the front-running Cleveland Indians. The Tigers, winners of four straight and seven of their last eight under new manager Jimmy Dykes, were 9-16, 6½ games off the […]

At the dawn of the 1966 season, 24-year-old Dick Allen was entrenched as a central player on the pennant-hopeful Philadelphia Phillies. Allen burst onto the major-league stage in 1964, winning the National League Rookie of the Year Award with 29 home runs and league-leading stats in runs, triples, and total bases. He supplemented that exceptional […]

Through mid-May of 1962, Sandy Koufax owned a modest 4-2 record, not having dented the win column since the previous month. But after an 18-win 1961 season while striking out 269 batters in 255 2/3 innings, Koufax sported “the best strikeout average of any pitcher who ever lived.”1 A 4-1 April with three complete games […]

After seven years out of contention, the New York Yankees started a three-game home series with the Milwaukee Brewers on August 11, 1972, in third place but only two games behind the first-place Detroit Tigers in the American League East Division. Milwaukee was deep in last place, 14 games behind the Yankees. A strike at […]

The 1958 season was one of change in minor-league baseball, especially at the highest level. With the migration of the two New York National League teams to California, there was a realignment of locations and affiliations. New Pacific Coast League teams were established in Spokane, Phoenix, and Salt Lake City. Minneapolis of the American Association […]

The Philadelphia Phillies returned home on September 21, 1964, holding first place in the National League after winning six games on a three-city road trip. With 12 games to play, Philadelphia’s lead was 6½ games over the second-place Cincinnati Reds and St. Louis Cardinals. The city and team were looking forward to the World Series. […]

Camilo Pascual was one of the original Minnesota Twins. The hard-throwing Cuban right-hander with a big curveball was on the Washington Senators roster when the franchise moved to Minnesota for the 1961 season. In that first season in Minnesota, Pascual led the Twins with 15 wins, tied for the American League lead with eight shutouts, […]

Houston Astros third baseman Doug Rader had hit two home runs in 164 at-bats over his team’s first 44 games. One was a three-run bomb in a 5-2 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 13, while the other was a solo shot that aided a 4-0 win over the Cincinnati Reds on May […]

Since the beginning of professional baseball, players were assigned to and thus played a specific position. There have always been a few instances when players have switched (among the outfield or infield), but not until 1911 did fans see the true exception. The Philadelphia Phillies’ Jimmy Walsh was the first major leaguer to play all […]

In the 1870s it was Hartford, not New York, that was Boston’s biggest diamond rival. As with the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry of recent vintage, a dislike existed between the Hartford and Boston clubs and charges of buying the pennant were alleged against each. The pinnacle of this rivalry occurred on May 18, 1875, when the […]

The Philadelphia Phillies were a year away from their infamous 1964 season when they arrived at Dodger Stadium in mid-May for a two-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Gene Mauch’s team had a mediocre 15-16 National League record, four games behind the first-place San Francisco Giants. However, the Phillies had reason for optimism. They […]

Not every pitcher starts his career on a high note, but Juan Marichal certainly did. The first major-leaguer he faced — Phillies shortstop Ruben Amaro — took a called third strike. Amaro was the first — and last — of 19 consecutive batters Marichal retired to begin his initial game on the mound for the […]

Twins manager Sam Mele was not happy. His team had lost four of its last five games. The night before, fielding lapses, particularly a botched rundown, turned a 2-2 game into a 7-2 defeat at the hands of the last-place Washington Senators. So before the game on July 17, 1964, Mele held a drill to […]

Fathers’ Day in 1964 was a beautiful, hot summer day in New York. At Shea Stadium that day the team with the best record in baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies, was scheduled to play a doubleheader against the team with the worst record in baseball, the Mets. On the mound for the visitors in the first […]

1986 Sportsco Living Legends baseball card featuring Harmon Killebrew, Al Kaline, Warren Spahn, and Hoyt Wilhelm (Trading Card Database)   “Give me an Old-Timers Classic over the All-Star Game any day,” wrote Tom Boswell in the Washington Post on the eve of the June 29, 1987, game. “I’m trying to remember the 1986 All-Star Game. […]

When Major League Baseball announced that interleague play would begin in 1997, it allowed for the unique opportunity for cross-city rivals to meet in a regular season game that counted. It also created the chance for some teams to take a trip to their former homes. The Braves didn’t look back after leaving Boston in […]

On April 16, 1915, an overflow crowd jammed newly constructed Harrison Park to witness a historic event: the home opener of the Newark Peppers of the Federal League, the first major-league club based in New Jersey in more than 40 years. And, sadly to Garden Staters, the last. When the renegade circuit disbanded the following […]

Earl Jesse Battey, Jr. was one of the top defensive catchers in the American League in the early 1960s. His Twins teams were in contention for the pennant in 1962 and 1967, and won the pennant in 1965, losing the World Series to Sandy Koufax and the Los Angeles Dodgers in seven games. Battey was […]