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The 53,302 fans at Dodger Stadium for Clayton Kershaw Bobblehead Night1 in July 2022 were treated to a cute opening act – the longtime Los Angeles Dodgers ace’s oldest three kids threw first “pitches” to their dad before the Dodgers-Washington Nationals game. (The 40,000 bobbleheads were apparently a big draw since the crowd exceeded the […]

With his 51st home run of 2006, hit off Johan Santana of the Minnesota Twins in the first inning on September 21 at Fenway Park, David Ortiz set a new Boston Red Sox record for the most home runs in one season, passing Jimmie Foxx, who hit 50 home runs in 1938.1 Foxx’s franchise record […]

Pitching on a staff with three established 30-something stars and sharing a dugout with the league’s best player, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 22-year-old southpaw Lefty Leifield probably recognized that copy would be hard to find during the 1906 season, but not this difficult. After Leifield tossed a darkness-shortened six-inning no-hitter against the Philadelphia Phillies on September […]

On September 20, 1981, rookie Minnesota Twins third baseman Gary Gaetti unwrapped a pregame piece of Bazooka bubble gum and found an auspicious fortune on the wrapper: “Something magical will happen today.”1 And it did. In his first major-league at-bat against the Texas Rangers, Gaetti hit a two-run home run, making him the third player […]

In the time it took the Mets and Expos to finish their game on July 9, 1977, they could have watched Luke Skywalker’s journey from farmboy to war hero in the summer blockbuster Star Wars twice.1 Ending after 4 hours and 17 minutes on a two-run homer by Lenny Randle, the Expos-Mets marathon was a […]

Hard-throwing Dazzy Vance was in agony. Brooklyn sportswriter Thomas W. Meany reported that Vance suffered from serious inflammation in his right shoulder caused by warming up too quickly six days earlier against the Pittsburgh Pirates.1 According to Robins beat reporter Thomas S. Rice, Vance’s right arm was “blue from the rupturing of a blood vessel,” […]

Going into 2017, not many in baseball had high expectations for the Arizona Diamondbacks or Colorado Rockies. Both were National League West Division afterthoughts after a 2016 season in which Colorado went 75-87 and Arizona 69-93. The D-backs had not made the postseason since 2011, the Rockies since 2009. When ESPN consulted 35 experts for […]

“Pretty humbled right now, the ways things have gone. Time might not be on my side.”1 These were the words of 42-year-old John Smoltz on August 6, 2009, after what turned out to be the final start of his seven-week stint with the Boston Red Sox. He had given up eight earned runs to the […]

On Monday, August 10, 2020, the New York Mets played the Washington Nationals at Citi Field. Entering the game, the Mets were 7-9, unusual given the month, but the COVID-shortened 60-game 2020 season had not begun until July 23. The Mets were a game ahead of the cellar-dwelling Nats, who were defending their 2019 World […]

The first and only season of the Union Association was coming to a merciful conclusion. Founded in September 1883 by St. Louis millionaire Henry Lucas, the league was beset by franchise and financial instability, as well as inequitable talent distribution. Despite conflicts of interest, Lucas purchased the best available players for his team, the St. […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ all-time roster boasts several home-run sluggers of historical significance, including Willie Stargell (who hit 475 home runs as a Pirate), Ralph Kiner (301), Roberto Clemente (240), and Barry Bonds (176).1 The Pirates have existed continuously since 1882, when they joined the major-league American Association as the Pittsburgh Alleghenys. In 1887 the Alleghenys […]

Mike Marshall did everything wrong, according to baseball’s establishment. He looked all wrong for a pitcher, standing just 5-feet-8½.1 He believed in pitching more, not less. He worked out with weights and ran long distances instead of wind sprints. He threw a screwball, which breaks the wrong way from a curve. He refused to sign […]

Statistics can tell you a lot about a baseball player. In the case of George Kelly, they don’t say nearly enough. The first baseman for the New York Giants when they dominated the National League in the early 1920s, he was a clutch hitter par excellence and an astonishing defensive player. A quick-wristed slasher who […]

The son of a successful Nebraska merchant, Henry Clarke was a well-educated young man who was athletic enough to play a little major-league baseball before the turn of the twentieth century. While on summer break from college and law school, he pitched six games and played three more in the outfield for the Cleveland Spiders […]

Guy Morton reported to New Orleans for spring training in 1914 with Cleveland. After a few workouts his manager, Joe Birmingham, was unimpressed. “He doesn’t know how to stand on the rubber even. He doesn’t know how to hold the ball.” What he did have was a tremendous fastball and Birmingham declared, “[O]nly one pitcher […]

Eric Wedge was a chronically injured catcher and designated hitter who appeared in 39 games with the Red Sox and Rockies from 1991 to 1994. Wedge then became an accomplished field leader, winning Manager of the Year awards three times in the minors and in the American League in 2007 as he led the Cleveland […]

Late in the evening of May 15, 1973, Amos Otis lifted a Nolan Ryan fastball to Royals Stadium’s spacious right-center-field gap. Angels right fielder Ken Berry “pulled it down,” Otis told the Kansas City Star. “Right there on the warning track. If Bob Oliver (whom Berry had replaced for defensive purposes) had been out there, […]

Tall left-hander Frank Scanlan was a top-flight prospect who reached the 1909 Philadelphia Phillies while still a teenager. Prior to that, he had been an underage pitching standout at the University of Notre Dame. In addition to a talented arm, the Phillies phenom also had impressive ballplayer bloodlines, having three brothers in the professional ranks. […]

A seven-game major-league career rarely affords a player much chance to leave a lasting impression on the game. Still, the imprint left by turn-of-the-century left-hander Warren McLaughlin is fainter than that of most marginal big leaguers. The availability of box scores from the era permits baseball reference works to construct a statistical line for McLaughlin, […]

The dreaded trip to the woodshed altered many a young life; however, in the case of a young Washington, D.C., native, the effort was futile. Luzerne Atwell Blue was born on March 5, 1897, in the District of Columbia. Lu always claimed he was the youngest of seven sons; however, a look at the 1900 […]

For a player who endured nicknames such as Twiggy Mini-Hawk, and Mighty Mouse for his light weight and short stature, Bud Harrelson is perhaps best known to the casual baseball fan getting into a fight. There’s no doubt that Pete Rose got the better of him in their brawl at second base during Game Three […]

The story of Jack Lohrke is the type of tale that would be rejected by Hollywood producers and major publishers if you were to make it up. The odds are too long, the events too improbable, the luck a little too good. The fact that a man born in the 1920s lived to be 85 […]

What’s in a name? Jacob Walter Miller’s nickname was Jake,1 but contemporary sportswriters preferred to call him J. Walter or Lefty. He pitched for the Cleveland Indians from 1924 to 1931. Cleveland Plain Dealer writer Gordon Cobbledick referred to him as Jake on only two occasions, once in 1929 and again in 1931. Miller, a […]

The San Diego Padres celebrated their 50th season in Major League Baseball in 2019. (SAN DIEGO PADRES)   San Diego’s quest for major-league baseball began earnestly in the mid- to late 1950s, around the time California’s largest cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco, ascended to “the bigs.” Home of the Pacific Coast League Padres since […]