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The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim were in the midst of a six-game losing streak when they visited the Detroit Tigers on May 4, 2006. The Tigers were the clear favorites to win.1 But unbeknownst to both the Tigers and the 24,879 in attendance at Comerica Park, Angels manager Mike Scioscia had a secret weapon: […]

They just don’t make doubleheaders like they used to do; in fact, they hardly make them anymore. Long a fixture of the national pastime, the twin bill has become a relic; forgotten, antiquated, like wool uniforms and train travel. In 2016 only 14 “doubleheaders” were played, all due to weather-related rescheduling of prior games.1 None […]

On a pleasant summer Sunday at Fenway Park, before a packed crowd of 32,358, Ted Williams “enjoyed one of his more spectacular days, contributed seven hits, scored two runs, batted in three and generally demoralized the Brownie pitching.”1 The first-place Red Sox swept a doubleheader from the sixth-place Browns, and Williams was the main reason […]

The Boston Red Sox-Milwaukee Brewers Opening Day game of April 5, 1974, was not one to remember for fans of either crisply played baseball or proper decorum. The on-field action included three runs scored on wild pitches or passed balls, subpar outings for both starting pitchers, and relief pitching that allowed six of six inherited […]

Henry Aaron’s first game-winning home run came against the Chicago Cubs. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   After finishing his opening month in the big leagues batting .333, Henry Aaron slumped to a mere .182 in the first half of May. While Aaron sat on the bench over the weekend against the Pittsburgh Pirates and in both games […]

As the Boston Red Sox pounded the Cleveland Indians in front of 11,410 fans at Cleveland Stadium on July 3, 1943, Boston rookie Leon Culberson became the first player of the season to hit for the cycle. The New York Times reported that “Culberson’s contributions formed the major share of a 12-hit barrage laid down […]

After losing two games at home, the St. Louis Cardinals headed to New York in a deep hole in the National League Championship Series. No other team had come back from a two-game deficit in the NLCS after losing the first two at home (although it had happened several times in the World Series.) Mark […]

After they were thumped 10-2 by the New York Giants on June 1, 1903, it seemed unlikely that the Pittsburgh Pirates would go on to win their third consecutive National League pennant. Since May 1, Pittsburgh hurlers had surrendered an uncharacteristic 5.2 runs per game, dropping the Pirates into third place, 4½ games behind the […]

As June started in the 1950 season, the Detroit Tigers traveled to Philadelphia for a two-day, three-game series against the Athletics at Shibe Park, which included a doubleheader played before a crowd of 17,449. Winners of four of their last five, the second-place Tigers (22-12) trailed the New York Yankees by three games in the […]

Talk about a spree, in which one player had a huge impact in three consecutive games. The second of the three games was the greatest comeback in Red Sox history. The Boston Red Sox entered the first game of the June 18, 1961, doubleheader with a dead-even record of 30-30. The sixth-place Washington Senators were […]

The St. Louis Cardinals were operating at a deficit as the 1946 World Series unfolded, having won Game Two with a 4-0 shutout but losing Games One and Three to the Boston Red Sox. They scored only a total of five runs over the first three games. The Cardinals batters faced Tex Hughson in a […]

As the spring of 1974 turned to summer, the San Francisco Giants were slumping. They were 33-36 and in fifth place in the six-team National League West Division, already 12 games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers. By Friday, June 21, as they arrived in Los Angeles to open a three-game series with the Dodgers, […]

Pitcher Tom Metcalf came from a small town in central Wisconsin but got to fulfill the dreams of his childhood when he spent two months in America’s largest city as a member of the New York Yankees in 1963. The righty’s major-league career was limited to eight appearances on the mound that season, in which […]

In March 1956, New York Yankees manager Casey Stengel watched in “amazement” as Rod Kanehl, the club’s versatile 22-year-old prospect, “scaled the fence in a do-or-die effort to catch” a home run ball during a meaningless practice game.1 The effort left a lasting impression on Casey that when the New York Mets hired the future […]

He arrived on the big-league scene like a bolt of lightning through the evening sky. Fred Lynn played in his first game on September 5, 1974, and proceeded to smash major-league pitching to the tune of a .419 batting average and a .698 slugging percentage over his first 15 games. He followed that up with […]

In 1970, Tommy Harper became a member of what was once among the most exclusive “clubs” in baseball. That year, his first with the Milwaukee Brewers, he hit 31 homers and stole 38 bases, thereby joining the “30-30 Club.” At the time, the only other members of the club were Hank Aaron, Bobby Bonds, Willie […]

Babe Ruth was irreplaceable. So when the end finally came for Ruth during the first game of a doubleheader on May 30, 1935, Boston Braves manager Bill McKechnie sent in outfielder Hal Lee to replace the irreplaceable. Lee was accustomed to playing in the shadows of other stars of the 1930s, including Chuck Klein and […]

If anyone knew the definition of pain, it was right-hander Al Nipper, who toiled for parts of seven seasons in the big leagues (1983-1988, 1990), most notably for the Boston Red Sox. His list of injuries and maladies seems hard to fathom: nerve problems in his neck and elbow, chronic elbow inflammation, a blood disorder […]

A turn-of-the-20th-century left-hander with a singular first name, Welcome Gaston’s brief major league career included events out of the ordinary, as well. During his October 1898 audition with the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, for example, Gaston started four National League games – but only two made the record books; his other two outings were called off before […]

It was a dreary, overcast day in Brooklyn on April 15, 1954. The visiting Pirates were at Ebbets Field to face the Dodgers. The home team had jumped out to a 7-1 lead courtesy of home runs by Roy Campanella, Jim Gilliam and Jackie Robinson. Tex Ricard, the Dodger PA announcer announced a pitching change […]

Bud Beasley Elementary School in Sparks, Nevada, opened in the fall of 1995. It was named for Arvel Lewis “Bud” Beasley, who served northern Nevada for more than 60 years as a schoolteacher and athletic coach. From 1944-54 he was also a minor-league pitcher, a colorful left-hander who delighted fans with his antics. Southpaws have […]

Tommy Tucker’s career highlight came in 1889, when he hit .372, becoming the first switch-hitter to win a major league batting title. But scant attention was paid to such arcane matters then; he was a household name during his time not because of anything he accomplished on the diamond, but because a nursery rhyme bearing […]

John Thomas Winsett was the son of a farming couple, John D. and Ida M. Winsett, in McKenzie, Tennessee – a small community of just over 1,300 people, 120 miles due west of Nashville. He was born on November 24, 1909, the fifth child in the Winsett family. Jack (the nickname he himself reported, and […]

Many major leaguers who have died while still active have met their ends in dramatic accidents. Their careers have been cut short by cars, trucks, airplanes, boats, guns, and—in one case—the Niagara Falls. George Prentiss’s death in 1902, one of the first recorded in the American League, was less sensational. Yet the 26-year-old Prentiss had […]