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“You dream of things like this, but you never think of it happening to you. It’s something out of the movies.” — Mike Devereaux, October 15, 1995, after being named NLCS MVP1   Mike Devereaux became an instant hero on an Atlanta Braves team filled with future Hall of Famers. Having played with five different […]

Tadahito Iguchi’s favorite motto is the Japanese proverb “The boughs that bear most hang lowest.” The literal translation describes how rice stalks, as they ripen and bear more grain, bow down due to the weight. This metaphor for human behavior suggests that the more you achieve in life, the more modest you become as a […]

Tony Oliva stands at the forefront of an exceedingly select group – one that also includes Tany (Atanasio) Pérez, Rafael Palmeiro, and Orestes “Minnie” Miñoso. These are the few unrivaled candidates for recognition as the greatest major-league hitter ever to emigrate to the professional big time from the baseball-rich island nation of Cuba. Palmeiro (with […]

“For an all-too-brief time, the pitcher who didn’t look or throw like anybody else could pitch better than everybody else.”1 From 2008 to 2011, San Francisco Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum won two successive Cy Young awards, led the National League in strikeouts for three consecutive seasons, and was selected to the All-Star team four times. […]

Few, if any, baseball players have ever had as many peaks and valleys in their careers or in their lives as José Rijo. Raised in poverty in the Dominican Republic, he signed a contract with the New York Yankees at age 15. After three years in the minor leagues, he made it to the majors […]

From early July 1889 until the removal of the franchise to the West Coast following the 1957 season, the New York Giants played baseball – often exciting and sometimes championship-caliber – at the northern Manhattan ballpark known as the Polo Grounds. Inexorably over the decades, Giants players, managers, club owners, front office personnel, sportswriters, and […]