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Remembered in Detroit as the pitcher who won both games of a doubleheader to effectively clinch the 1909 pennant, Ed Killian was also one of the stingiest pitchers in baseball history when it came to the home run. In his entire big league career, the left-hander surrendered just nine homers, and he once went nearly […]

In his memoir, former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Steve Blass extolled the virtues of the non-verbal communication between a catcher and pitcher. “The reality of a pitcher’s relationship with his catcher is that if he is on a roll, he is almost his own decision maker…But Manny knew me just as much psychologically as the nuts […]

Two rookies made their major league debuts for the Providence Grays at St. Louis’s Union Grounds on September 18, 1885. One of them, 19-year-old third baseman Denny Lyons, went on to compile a .310 batting average in 1,121 games over 13 seasons. The other, a 27-year-old southpaw named John Foley, pitched a complete game that […]

“Henry Aaron in the second inning walked and scored. He’s sittin’ on 714. Here’s the pitch by Downing. Swinging. There’s a drive into left-center field! That ball is gonna be … outta here! It’s gone! It’s 715! There’s a new home run champion of all time, and it’s Henry Aaron!”  — Atlanta Braves’ announcer Milo […]

Right after the Shibe Park public address system announced, “Now batting for the Philadelphia Phillies, number 14, Del Ennis, left field,” either Gene Kelly or later Byrum Saam — both of whom did radio play-by-play for the Phillies — would say, “It’s Ding Dong Del” or “Here comes Ennis the Menace.” The radio listener could […]

Right-hander Jay Ritchie was a durable, rubber-armed pitcher who toiled patiently for 7½ years in the Boston Red Sox farm system before making his big-league debut as a reliever in August 1964. After leading the Red Sox staff in ERA in 1965, he was traded to the Atlanta Braves as they prepared for their inaugural […]

Silas Kenneth Johnson, who pitched for four National League teams over 17 seasons, was born in Danway, in north-central Illinois, on October 5, 1906, the second of four sons of Norwegian-Americans Nels and Tillie Johnson. The family soon moved to the nearby town of Marseilles, where they operated a 460-acre farm. Nels had been a […]

In the American League’s first-ever season-ending tiebreaker, the Cleveland Indians’ rookie sensation, Gene Bearden, faced the Boston Red Sox on October 4, 1948 at Fenway Park. At stake was who would face the Boston Braves in the World Series. Bearden’s last two starts had been shutout victories, giving him a 19-7 won-lost record for the […]

Loyd Christopher hit a home run on the first pitch he ever saw in professional baseball. He was playing for the Akron Yankees in 1938. New York Yankees scout Bob Coltrin had signed him the year before, and the team had assigned him to the Class-C Middle Atlantic League Akron team to start his career.1 […]

“Mystique” is a word often linked with Sandy Koufax. He was dubbed “The Left Arm of God” for his pitching feats – especially over the five years from 1962 to 1966. A long litany of statistics attests to his brilliance during this period, but perhaps the most salient points are these. Koufax became the first […]

Robert Taylor Walker was born on August 20, 1914, in Arboa, Florida. For many years, the legend was that his mother had named him after the actor Robert Taylor, but as the motion-picture star was born just three years before Walker and did not make his movie debut until 1934, that particular tale seems implausible. […]

On July 7, 1910, in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the hometown New Bedford Whalers squared off against the Lowell Tigers in a Class B New England League game. On the mound for the Whalers was 20-year-old Tommy Griffith who, in his second professional season, was on his way to winning 19 games for the pennant-winning New […]

The man who broadcast Jackie Robinson’s first season with the Dodgers recalled that, as a boy in Sanford, Florida, “I saw black men tarred and feathered by the Ku Klux Klan and forced to walk the streets. I had grown up in a completely segregated world.” Red Barber confessed that when he learned the Dodgers […]

For many years, “Hartford” Jack Farrell’s baseball record showed him making three appearances as an 18-year-old for his hometown club in the National Association in 1874. Eventually it emerged that the remainder of his big-league career consisted of two games in 1882. And when one looks under the surface, one finds that Farrell enjoyed 15-plus […]

Selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the second round of the 1983 MLB amateur draft, Bob Milacki garnered little attention with a pedestrian record of 16-21, 3.79 in his first 290 innings in the minor leagues. “I’d been in the organization [three] years and never impressed anybody,” the right-hander later acknowledged.1 In 1988, as the […]

Starting in 1970, John Curtis played in the major leagues for 15 years. He was a respectable left-handed pitcher — 89 wins and 97 losses, with a lifetime ERA of 3.96 — praised as much for his eloquence as his fastball. John Duffield Curtis II was born March 9, 1948 in Newton, Massachusetts, the second […]

The fireworks arrived a few days before the Fourth of July. On Wednesday, July 2, 1947, the Brooklyn Dodgers blasted the New York Giants, 11-3, in the first of a four-game series at Ebbets Field to gain sole possession of first place in the National League. The next day, the Giants exploded with five home […]

In The Science of Hitting, Ted Williams wrote, “I had a higher percentage of game-winning home runs than Babe Ruth.”1 Research shows that Ted Williams had 110 game-deciding home runs, among the 521 he hit (21.11 percent). Ruth hit 126 game-winners of his own total of 714 (17.65 percent). A “game-winning home run” is defined […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants began a three-game series at Ebbets Field on the evening of Friday, April 22, 1955. The Dodgers started the season winning their first 10 games while the Giants, winners of the 1954 World Series by sweeping the Cleveland Indians, had lost five of their first seven. The […]

“What a happy world this would be if every one was accomplished as George Herman Ruth.” – Copeland C. Burg, September 29, 19301   On September 20, 1919, at Boston’s Fenway Park, Babe Ruth started on the mound for the Red Sox in the first game of a doubleheader against the Chicago White Sox. Staked […]

On July 9, 1930, the New York Yankees defeated the Philadelphia Athletics by a 12-6 score at Yankee Stadium. The loss dropped the reigning World Series champions into second place in the American League. Connie Mack’s club trailed the Washington Senators by a scant half-game. The Mackmen won their next eight games, from July 10 […]

The New York Mets were 4-4 nine days into the 1977 season. All of those wins had come from two of their starters, Tom Seaver and Nino Espinosa. The Chicago Cubs had arrived in town two days earlier, beating the Mets in the first game of their three-game series at Shea Stadium on April 15. […]

The Setting The baseball world has been captivated this summer by a home run chase, pitting New York hero Mickey Mantle and last year’s MVP Roger Maris against each other, as well as against a legendary ghost, Mr. George Herman (Babe) Ruth. But, as Arthur Daley pointed out in this morning’s New York Times, “Winning […]

When Game One of the 1972 American League Championship Series between the Oakland Athletics and Detroit Tigers went into extra innings, A’s rookie Gonzalo Márquez turned to teammate Dagoberto “Bert” Campaneris and made a bold prediction. “If I get to pinch-hit,” Márquez said in Spanish, “I’ll win the game.”1 Márquez got his chance in the […]