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In the midst of a career year with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2008, 29-year-old Xavier Nady was hitting .330 with 13 home runs and 57 RBIs in 89 games when he was dealt to the New York Yankees, along with Damaso Marte, for four players1 on July 26. Nady’s arrival at his new home field […]

Walter Johnson was on a roll of historic proportions as he prepared for his final start of the season. Beginning with his three-hit shutout against the New York Yankees in the second game of a doubleheader on September 5 for his 30th victory of the season, the Washington Senators hurler had yielded only two earned […]

National League hitting and scoring declined during the early 1890s, with pitchers like Cy Young of the Cleveland Spiders on the rise. To boost offense, the NL adjusted its rules in 1893, most prominently by increasing the distance between batter and pitcher to 60 feet 6 inches. In their first game at the new distance, […]

Cubs announcer Harry Caray began his WGN-TV broadcast on May 27, 1984, by proclaiming it to be “a beautiful day for baseball at Wrigley Field in Chicago as the Chicago Cubs take on the troublesome Cincinnati Reds.”1 Troublesome, indeed. The Reds won the first two games of the three-game weekend series. The losses put a […]

Chick Gandil and Tris Speaker were cut from the same cloth. They were both intense, loud, hard-nosed players who weren’t interested in making friends on the baseball field. They also weren’t shy about expressing their opinions and, when challenged, neither backed down from a fight. So it seemed almost inevitable that the two veterans would […]

The St. Louis Cardinals held a three games to one lead before what could be the last game of the 1967 World Series. “It’s as one-sided as a cat eating a canary,” wrote Jim Murray in the Los Angeles Times.1 The Cards had overpowered the Boston Red Sox. They out-hit, out-ran, and with the exception […]

In early May of 1980, Boston’s Fred Lynn was playing like there was no tomorrow. In fact, many in baseball felt that a strike was imminent, and that the national pastime might cease to be played. Players had gone on strike late in spring training, forcing the final eight days’ worth of games to be […]

The Cincinnati Reds were little more than a year from winning the 1961 National League pennant, but that was a faraway possibility when they concluded a four-game series in Wrigley Field with the hapless Chicago Cubs in early August of 1960. With a 43-56 record, the Reds trailed all of their NL rivals except the […]

Pud Galvin stood 5-feet-8 and weighed 190 pounds. Despite that stocky frame, Galvin won 365 major-league games, including a no-hitter for the National League’s Buffalo Bisons against the Detroit Wolverines on August 4, 1884. Buffalo and Detroit played five games in Detroit from August 2 to 8 and Galvin started four of them. He pitched […]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times in 1972 for Atlanta Braves superstar Henry Aaron. After signing a record-breaking contract before the season to become the first player ever to make $200,000 a year, he struggled after moving from his comfortable right-field position to a “disliked” full-time slot at first […]

There was no lack of fan interest in the pennant races in 1908. Baseball fans were immersed in two of the great pennant races in modern history. As the curtain came down on September, no fewer than six teams, three in each league, had a shot at the league pennant in 1908. In the NL, […]

Baseball is a game of inches, but it is also a game of numbers. On April 8, 1974, Number 44 hit Number 715. Every baseball fan in America knew what that meant: Hank Aaron had just surpassed Babe Ruth to claim the career home-run record. The Atlanta Constitution showcased Aaron’s feat on its front page, […]

The winningest pitcher to ever come out of Maine did not, alas, reside in his native state for very long. “The Steamer” – Bob Stanley – was 2 years old when his family packed up and moved from East Kidder Street in Portland to Kearny, New Jersey, Stanley’s mother’s hometown. And it’s where job prospects […]

With a population of just over 10 million, the Dominican Republic has produced approximately 450 big-league pitchers as of May 2021. Hall of Famers Juan Marichal and Pedro Martinez are easily the most famous, and most successful; however, no hurler from the Caribbean nation had a reputation as a harder thrower than Mario Soto. A […]

Drafted out of high school, Don Aase began his professional baseball career with what might have seemed like something of a nightmare season for a pitcher — he was 0-10. When he made it to the major leagues five years later, he was hailed as almost the Second Coming for his debut year with the […]

Baseball is no stranger to big personalities. The game has seen colorful characters ranging from Mark Fidrych and his strange mound antics in the 1970s to Adrian Beltre simply being his ridiculous self after the turn of the century. On the opposite end of the spectrum, players like Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens are better […]

Half of the most famous version of the “Pretzel Battery,” catcher Heinie Peitz was a noted “coacher”—more of a bench jockey in modern parlance—whose mouth gained him nearly as much attention as his play. For nine years of his 16-season (1892–1906, 1913) career, he was a Cincinnati Reds mainstay. When he retired, Peitz ranked 12th […]

On November 12, 1982, Joe Altobelli was named the seventh manager in Baltimore Orioles history. Piloting one of the 26 major-league teams was surely an enviable position to hold. Unfortunately, for Altobelli, he was supplanting a legend. Earl Weaver, Baltimore’s field manager from mid-1968 to 1982, led the Orioles to six division titles, four pennants […]

Born and raised in the Bronx, All-Star and Gold Glove third baseman Frank Malzone was a Red Sox fixture for more than 60 years, save for one season playing for the California Angels. Born on February 28, 1930, he was a Yankees fan growing up but was signed out of Samuel Gompers High School by […]

Jackie Robinson was the trailblazer who integrated major-league baseball in the 20th century. However, many other pioneering players were the first to integrate particular states or teams, and their proper acknowledgement took much longer. Bill Greason, a right-hander who began his baseball career with the Nashville Black Vols in 1947, is a case in point. […]

“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-handed Jack O’Connor used his competitiveness and baseball intelligence, along with a penchant for playing multiple positions, to appear in the major leagues during 21 different seasons. His longevity includes him in the group of 29 players who have appeared in a game in four or more different decades. “Peach Pie” was his rookie handle, […]

On February 27, 1999, Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas, rededicated its baseball park Katt-Isbel Field in honor of Ray Katt, the Bulldogs’ head baseball coach from 1971 until his 1992 retirement.1 For Katt it was a bookend event to a lifetime spent in baseball, including eight full or partial seasons (1952-1959) in the majors […]

This article was published in the 1996 Baseball Research Journal (Volume 25).   While there have been 565 1-0 major league games won by a home run since 1876 (Ted Williams did the honors five times), diligent research into the last 100 years has uncovered only sixteen 1-0 games won by a steal of home. […]