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Puerto Rico has long been a baseball hotbed. The sport has also thrived in Hawaii, thanks largely to Americans and Japanese. Yet unless one is very familiar with Hawaiian culture, one might not realize that Puerto Rican immigrants embraced the game there too. John Matias, who played 58 games for the Chicago White Sox in […]

In 1971 The Sporting News reported “Joe Moeller, the sometime starter, sometime relief pitcher of the [Los Angeles] Dodgers [was] a ‘situation’ pitcher.’ ‘The problem,’ Moeller [joked] ‘is that they haven’t found the right situation.’”1 Dubbed the hardest thrower in the Dodger stable of flamethrowers in 1962—a remarkable claim considering the presence of future Hall […]

Before Ray Chapman, Mickey Cochrane, Tony Conigliaro, Dickie Thon, and Adam Greenberg, the list of careers compromised by pitched baseballs claimed Danny Hoffman. On July 1, 1904, a Jesse Tannehill fastball caught the dynamic Philadelphia Athletics outfielder above his right eye, nearly killing him. Hoffman returned after months of recovery, and, despite significant damage to […]

War was raging in Europe as the 1941 baseball season came to a close. News of the fighting kept fans justifiably preoccupied, while the pennant races served as a badly needed diversion. The New York Yankees captured the American League flag, and then defeated the National League champion Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series. A […]

“I’ll never forget the experience of going to spring training for the first time. Then, there was our first opening day against the Mets in New York. We came back to Denver for our first home game and Eric Young hit the home run leading off the bottom of the first inning. The home run […]

Lon Knight’s career was one of firsts. He threw the first pitch in National League history, was likely the first player of Italian descent to play professional baseball, and was the first to hit for a natural cycle in major-league history. So who better to lead the Athletics into the 1883 season than the Philadelphia […]

Benigno Ayala lives up to his given name, which means “kind” or “friendly.” Following a productive career as a role player, he has bestowed greater gifts on the baseball world, through his work with the Baseball Assistance Team (BAT). Quite a few of his fellow Puerto Rican pros have fallen on hard times since they […]

Dave Robinson was the first player signed by the San Diego Padres in 1968. The National League expansion team’s press conference on July 31 featured Hall of Famer Duke Snider, a fellow Southern Californian who had inadvertently discovered Robinson at San Diego State College.1 “He told me he went out to see [outfielder] Jim Nettles […]

Right-handed pitcher “Wild” Bill Luhrsen spent three weeks in the major leagues, winning each of his first three games, only to lose to Christy Mathewson in his final appearance. Advancing from the low Class D Cotton States League to the majors in two months, the spitballer was a minor bright spot during the tail-end of […]

Guy “Moose” Morton Jr. made his major-league debut with the Red Sox on September 17, 1954. It was the only day he appeared in a big-league box score. His father, Guy Morton — the “Alabama Blossom” — was a right-handed pitcher in the majors for 11 years (1914-1924) with the Cleveland Indians, overcoming a 1-13 […]

Longtime scout Joe Stephenson once called Ken Brett “a combination of George Brett [his brother], Fred Lynn, and Roger Maris. He was the best prospect that I ever saw.”1 Ken Brett’s numbers never quite lived up to the reputation. “The worst curse in life,” Brett would later offer, “is unlimited potential.”2 After becoming the youngest […]

Stefan Wever’s “ticket to ride” was a fastball clocked at 95 miles per hour. The 6-foot-8, 245-pound right-hander dominated the minor leagues and became the tallest player in New York Yankees history1 when he took the mound against the eventual American League champions, the Milwaukee Brewers, on September 17, 1982. His dream-come-true quickly turned into […]

In the summer of 1952 the Eau Claire Bears, the Boston Braves’ affiliate in the Class C Northern League, featured two young African-American outfielders who would go on to have long careers in the major leagues. One was Hank Aaron; the other was Wes Covington. Aaron went on to become one of baseball’s all-time greats […]

Ask any serious Tigers fan over a certain age and they’ll tell you that the sound of Tiger Stadium was always a little bit louder than normal when Gates Brown was announced as a pinch-hitter. And why not? After 13 seasons in Detroit, not only did the “Gator” retire as the American League’s all-time pinch-hitting […]

The game appeared to be merely the first in a meaningless, end-of-the-season doubleheader between two teams that many weeks earlier had been eliminated from the 1954 pennant race. The sixth-place Washington Senators trailed the league-leading Cleveland Indians by 39 games and the Philadelphia Athletics were even further out of contention: 51½ games back. However, as […]

“For me, Friday the 13th was a good day.”—Darryl Strawberry 1 One could forgive the New York Mets and Pittsburgh Pirates for feeling a bit superstitious before opening their four-game set at Shea Stadium on Friday, June 13, 1986. After winning seven of the first eight meetings between the National League East clubs, the first-place […]

Sandy Koufax was on the fringes of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitching staff early in the 1960 season, his sixth in the majors. Shaky control and hard luck left him with a 0-4 record and a 5.16 earned-run average entering his May 23 start against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Facing the hot-hitting, rally-prone, championship-bound Pirates, however, […]

When Paul Molitor crushed a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth inning to give the Toronto Blue Jays a four-run lead, 52,195 fans in a delirious SkyDome were certain the Blue Jays would coast to a Game Six victory and a second straight World Series title. After postseason veteran ace Dave Stewart […]

The Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies took wildly different paths to the 2007 World Series. From April 18 on, the Red Sox held first place in the AL East, never to be dislodged. The New York Yankees pressed them in September but finished two games back. Under manager Terry Francona, Boston’s 96-66 record tied […]

The Homestead Grays were a dynasty in Negro League baseball in the 1940s. They had won back-to-back world championships in 1943-1944 and seven Negro National League pennants in eight years. Their roster was full of a who’s who of Negro League stars, several of whom would one day be recognized for their greatness in the […]

The Braves’ move from Boston to Milwaukee in 1953, the major-leagues’ first franchise relocation in 50 years, installed a rival just 90 miles north of Wrigley Field. The timing was terrible for the Cubs; their new neighbor ascended to dominance in the National League while the Cubs were stranded near the cellar. By 1957, the […]

It was 92 degrees, with humidity that made it feel like triple digits. The suffocating torpor that hovered over Philadelphia was a metaphor for the Athletics’ season and where the franchise was headed. Two years earlier they had won their third straight American League pennant, but by 1933 the splendid Al Simmons was gone, stalwart […]

“Always stand on principle … even if you stand alone.” — John Adams1   During the 1970s, four American League games ended in forfeit. Three were the result of fans throwing caution to the wind – near the end of the Senators’ farewell to Washington in September 1971, during the Cleveland Indians’ 10-cent beer night […]

Los Angeles’s Wrigley Field in was built and opened in 1925 as the finest minor-league park in the country. Some called it the best park in the country — majors or minors. From its earliest years Wrigley Field was home to multiple baseball teams, many other sports and community events. The history of Wrigley Field […]