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When he took the mound on April 7, 1954, Chicago Cubs outfielder Hal Jeffcoat hadn’t pitched professionally since being hit hard in five games in the low minors eight years earlier. Yet, as spring training was ending, he held the Baltimore Orioles to two bloop singles and just one walk over five innings.1 This unexpected […]

Many people can go through an entire life without a lifelong friend and even if they have one, at some point they will be separated for many years. The friendship of Jim Frey and Don Zimmer not only has endured for many decades since childhood, but the two spent the bulk of their friendship in […]

Few major-league careers have begun as auspiciously as Bill Duggleby’s. On April 21, 1898, the rookie pitcher made his debut with the Philadelphia Phillies against the visiting New York Giants. At bat in the second inning, with the bases loaded, Duggleby caught a Cy Seymour fastball “right on the pickle, and it sailed out of […]

Patsy Tebeau was a pugnacious competitor from the mean streets of St. Louis who sought any advantage he thought he could gain. His tactics delivered a brand of baseball that clearly was much dirtier than you see in the modern game. Bill James has written about 19th century baseball: “The tactics of the eighties were […]

Mike Smithson, a 6-foot-8, 215-pound righty, pitched in eight seasons as a big leaguer from 1982 through 1989. He won 15 games for the Minnesota Twins and led the AL in games started in both 1984 and 1985, and finished his career with the Boston Red Sox, who had originally selected him in the fifth […]

When Rocco Baldelli emerged as a young star in the minor-league system of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, he drew comparisons to Joe DiMaggio. Though that association was almost certainly setting him up for failure, the speedy outfielder had been more earnestly compared to a young Andre Dawson or Dale Murphy. Within a few years, […]

Darrell Dean Johnson worked in baseball as a catcher, a coach, a manager best known for taking the 1975 Red Sox to Game Seven of the World Series, and as a scout. He was born in the small community of Horace, Nebraska, on August 25, 1928, but grew up on the West Coast, so much […]

On November 29, 1971, the Cleveland Indians dealt pitcher Sam McDowell to the San Francisco Giants. Sudden Sam had struck out more than 2,000 batters in his 11 years with the Indians, but his career spiraled downward in 1971, when he posted a 13-17 record with a 3.40 ERA. His 192 strikeouts were his fewest […]

The 1958 Chicago Cubs started spring training with relatively low expectations following their 62-92 record for the 1957 campaign, which tied them with the Pittsburgh Pirates for a last-place National League finish. The Cubs’ spring-training roster consisted of 33 players, seven below the major-league roster limit of 40 players. An unidentified source commented that “the […]

On May 16, 1957, “a day after Sandy Koufax lost his bonus-baby status, meaning he could be farmed out by the Dodgers,”1 he and two Chicago Cubs pitchers, Moe Drabowsky and Turk Lown, combined to tie the record for the most strikeouts in a National League game: 23. The record lasted until the Philadelphia Phillies […]

Veteran New York sportswriters were impressed with 21-year-old Sandy Koufax’s overpowering four-hitter with 11 punchouts at Wrigley Field in the Brooklyn Dodgers’ one-sided win over the Chicago Cubs on August 1, 1957. “Sandy’s strikeout record against the Cubs is remarkable,” declared New York Times scribe Roscoe McGowen.1 Dick Young of the Daily News quipped, “Koufax, […]

San Diego Padres hurler Steve Arlin could hardly be classified as a headhunter. Coming into his August 17, 1971, start against the Montreal Expos, he had hit only four batters in 197 big-league innings. That didn’t stop the pugnacious Ron Hunt, who was usually fine with reaching base on a hit-by-pitch, from grumbling when Arlin […]

The Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers concluded a critical August four-game series with a scorcher. Playing on a Monday night before a crowd of 26,852, the Reds and Dodgers endured “the 93-degree heat which had simmered down from an even 100 at 3 p.m.”1 Frank Robinson’s 10th-inning walk-off grand slam was the shattering and […]

After winning the first two games of their July 1976 series at Fenway Park against the Chicago White Sox and climbing over .500 for the first time all season, the defending American League champion Boston Red Sox couldn’t complete the sweep on July 7. They lost the final game in 10 innings, 6-3, after several […]

A rivalry between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox has existed in various states of contentiousness since at least December 26, 1919, when Red Sox owner Harry Frazee infamously sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees. Subsequent deals between the teams spurred the creation of the Yankees’ first championship-caliber teams. It was during […]

The Cubs called up Puerto Rico native Hector Villanueva on June 1, 1990, midway through his sixth minor-league season. The heavyset 25-year-old catcher burst onto the big-league scene with a homer in his first game and three in his first six. He quickly became a Wrigley Field fan favorite, batting .272 in 114 at-bats with […]

“Dodgers – Sold Bob Borkowski to St. Paul; optioned Pitcher Jim Hughes to St. Paul; purchased Pitcher Don Bessent from St. Paul; purchased Pitcher Roger Craig from Montreal.” – “DEALS of the WEEK,” The Sporting News, July 27, 1955.1 They fill the extra spaces in the sports pages of a newspaper, but the story is […]

The saying “Lightning never strikes twice in the same place” may not be true, but few of the record 67,550 spectators at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum would have expected it to strike for a third time when the 1959 World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers opened their 1960 season at home against the Chicago Cubs.1 […]

Chicago Cubs rookie Billy Williams helped his team avoid a dubious distinction on October 1, 1960. Williams’s first major-league home run – a two-run blast at Los Angeles’ Memorial Coliseum – gave the Cubs a three-run lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the top of the ninth inning. The Dodgers tied the score in […]

Exciting, well-played baseball action was in limited supply for fans of the expansion Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres in 1969. The two newcomers to the National League posted identical 52-110 records in their first seasons, finishing a combined 89 games out of first place. Late in the season, though, teams of Expos and Padres […]

A new day was dawning for New York baseball fans. After the Dodgers and Giants had left town, 4 years had passed without a National League team in New York. Now National League fans had one. The New York Metropolitan Baseball Club had been formed in March of 1961 and quickly became known as the […]

In 1987 Candido “Candy” Maldonado was in his second season with the Giants. After five years with the Dodgers, Maldonado had been traded to rival San Francisco after the 1985 season (for catcher Alex Trevino). Maldonado quickly became the everyday right fielder for the Giants. In 1987 he had arguably his best year in the […]

“Was just telling you that boy could hit that long ball this year and he just did it.” – Al Helfer1 The baseball season is about to burst into bloom. Examine the Opening Day starting lineups closely. You may recall stories of favorite players or the memories of visits to the ballpark. Perhaps a rivalry […]

“The [Chicago] Cubs, who haven’t won a world championship since 1908, have had only one winning season since 1972,” wrote Sports Illustrated’s Steve Wulf in his assessment of the National League East prior to the start of the 1989 season. “You can be certain this will not be their second.”1 Wulf was not alone. Several […]