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Carlton Fisk knew how to rise to an occasion. His dramatic home run off Fenway Park’s left-field foul pole, punctuated by a tense hop-and-skip down the baseline and an exuberant leap, won Game Six of the 1975 World Series for the Boston Red Sox. Six seasons later, after a mistake by Boston’s front office made […]

When the 1960 season ended, Washington Senators fans had good reason to be optimistic about the team for the following season. The Senators narrowly missed out on a fourth-place finish, which would have been their highest since 1946. Losing 11 of their last 12 games of the season scotched hopes for the higher finish. The […]

Henry Aaron hits his 713th career home run to left-center field on September 29, 1973, at Atlanta Stadium. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   The barometer was stuck. It was installed only a few weeks earlier, at the City of Atlanta’s request, to replace Hartsfield International Airport’s “Welcome to Atlanta” sign. By the night of September 29, 1973, […]

The Atlanta Braves were grinding down the upstart Washington Nationals’ NL East lead 84 games into the 2005 season, eager to regain their accustomed first-place perch. Atlanta had won the division every year a pennant had been awarded since their stunning “worst to first” 1991 season.1 They had just ridden Horacio Ramirez’s complete-game three-hitter and […]

When the Houston Astros hosted the Los Angeles Dodgers for a midseason series in July 1967, struggle and disappointment were themes applicable to both clubs. For the 28-47 Astros, their 10th-place standing represented an all-too-familiar spot. The Sporting News cited relief pitching that failed to materialize, bad infield defense, and overall poor team play as […]

The Philadelphia Phillies arrived in Montreal on August 16, 1977, to play the Expos in search of their 13th straight win. If achieved, the win would give them the longest winning streak in their modern history.1 The Phillies had taken over the National League East during the streak, increasing their lead to 4 1/2 games […]

His team losers of seven straight between June 17 and June 24, New York Mets manager Terry Collins had a problem. With the Mets scoring only nine runs in those losses, it was obvious what that problem was: “We are not hitting, end of story that’s pretty much it. We’ve got to start hitting.”1 Missing […]

Slugger Fred McGriff had been an Atlanta fan favorite since he joined the Braves on July 20, 1993, and hit 19 homers and drove in 55 runs in 68 games to help the Braves rally from nine games behind the San Francisco Giants to win the NL West title in 1993. But he was struggling […]

On August 3, 2015, the Texas Rangers opened a three-game series with their in-state and division rivals, the Houston Astros. Although the Rangers (51-53) sat eight games behind the AL West Division-leading Astros (60-46) with about two months left in the season, the home team had won four of its last five games and was […]

In the summer of 1904, the Zanesville, Ohio, baseball team had a game scheduled with a team in neighboring New Concord. “When the time arrived for the boys to take the bus, there was one player missing, so the bat boy had to be used in right field to complete the team. As luck would […]

John Milner idolized Hank Aaron, lockered next to Willie Mays, and on his best days could hit home runs with as much authority as either man. While injuries and inconsistency prevented Milner from becoming an elite slugger, he carved out a 12-year career for the Mets, Pirates, and Expos, helping each of those clubs reach […]

There aren’t many in baseball who have had the thrill of catching the ball, thus making the final play that seals their team winning a world championship. In the bottom of the ninth inning of Game Four of the 1990 World Series, Cincinnati Reds first baseman Todd Benzinger took his position and hoped the Reds […]

Joe Borden, an amateur who broke into professional baseball at the age of 21, had a short but notable two-year major-league pitching career, playing in 39 games and posting a record of 13-16 with an earned-run average of 2.56. Although his record appears unassuming, he is best known for pitching professional baseball’s first no-hitter, in 1875, […]

It would be easy to mock someone with a nickname like Fothergill’s, but Fatty Fothergill couldn’t have been too fat.  Once after hitting a home run at Fenway Park for the Detroit Tigers, he rounded the bases and did a front flip landing on home plate. At 5-feet-10.5 inches he struggled with his weight and […]

Many images come to mind when one hears the name Yogi Berra. One of the more obvious is that of a winner. Berra won three American League Most Valuable Player awards and appeared in 14 World Series as a player and another five as a manager or a coach. He won 13 championship rings and […]

In September 1976 Hall of Fame inductees Yogi Berra and Warren Spahn were only the two most prominent names among a large field of managerial candidates available to the expansion Toronto Blue Jays. But the Jays startled the baseball world by selecting the hardly-household-name Roy Hartsfield as the franchise’s first skipper. But the surprise may […]

Frank Warfield may be one of the least understood and appreciated stars of the Negro Leagues, and possibly one of the most unjustly maligned. He stood just 5-feet-7-inches tall and was slight in stature, but he was feisty, fast, and, some would say, furious. Yet few player-managers in the Negro Leagues achieved as much as […]

“He has nothing but a little curve and confidence,” Giants manager John McGraw said of his rookie pitcher Al Demaree in 1913.1 Yet after a late arrival to the majors, the right-hander contributed to four pennant-winning staffs over an eight-year career. Demaree also chronicled baseball, with humor and insight, as a cartoonist for several decades. […]

After the Red Sox purchased his contract in the middle of the season, Neal Ball played in only 18 regular-season games for Boston in 1912, collecting nine hits. To the baseball world, Ball is better remembered for a defensive play he made against Boston three years earlier while playing shortstop for the Cleveland Naps: the […]

After Fred Thomas of the Boston Red Sox left for the Navy in July of 1918, third base was a tough position for manager Ed Barrow to fill. Catcher Wally Schang played there on occasion, but the hot corner was mostly played by a succession of career minor leaguers. All had strengths and weaknesses as […]

With his 29th pitch of the game on October 21, 1975, Cincinnati Reds relief pitcher Pat Darcy retired his sixth consecutive Boston Red Sox batter, Carl Yastrzemski, on a weak grounder to shortstop Dave Concepción to end the 11th inning and keep the score tied in the most pressure-packed game of his life: Game Six […]

There may have never been a more prepared baseball player to enter the professional ranks than Will Clark. He had participated in World Series competition at the Babe Ruth, American Legion, and Division I College levels, as well as the Olympics. During his first five major-league seasons starting in 1986, he helped restore the San […]

To use a 2011 expression to describe a 1911 happening: minor-league baseball rocked in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania a century ago and Wilkes-Barre Barons pitcher James John McCloskey was the city’s rock star. He won 20 games in 1911, following a 17-win season in 1910, and led the Barons to a third consecutive New York State League […]

Here are the SABR Bookshelf listings for Winter 2016. To get your NEW book listed on The SABR Bookshelf, make sure a review copy is sent to: The SABR Bookshelf, Cronkite School at ASU, 555 N. Central Ave. #416, Phoenix, AZ 85004. An e-book file will also suffice; please send the e-book in PDF, EPUB […]