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On their way to the World Series championship in 2018, the Boston Red Sox won more than 50 regular-season games at home (57) and more than 50 on the road (51). They won precisely twice as many games as they lost, 108-54. The 108 victories were the most in franchise history; the prior high had […]

Inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939, Eddie Collins is considered one of the best second basemen of all time. Renowned manager John McGraw, whose New York Giants clubs were defeated by Collins’s teams in three World Series, said, “Eddie Collins is the best ballplayer I have seen during my career on […]

In Game Four of the 1946 World Series, the visiting St. Louis Cardinals had rapped out 20 hits. In Game Five, they got only four.1 It was the Red Sox who hit into double digits this time — but won only thanks to a three-run flurry in the seventh inning. Unheralded Joe Dobson, 13-6 during […]

The St. Louis Cardinals had their most exemplary offensive performance of the 1921 season on June 21. Mother Nature had provided a brief hiatus for the team; this game was initially scheduled for a day earlier, but “[a] terrific rain, hail, and wind storm hit the town just before game time”1 and forced rescheduling of […]

These St. Louis Cardinals were a gang of swaggering roughnecks who deferred to no one, not even the defending world champions. Their preening and trash-talking started even before the World Series began and continued during and after their 5-2 loss in the opener. In Game Two Philadelphia turned to a tall, well-bred gentleman from the […]

Given Satchel Paige’s reputation and talent, his assignment to pitch on Opening Day 1935 should come as no surprise. Unfortunately, racism and Paige’s skin color kept him from displaying his skills for any National League or American League club until 1948. Further, in 1935 a contract dispute was keeping Paige from gracing a roster in […]

With their 7-3 victory over the Oakland Athletics on April 20, 2018, the Boston Red Sox improved their season record to 17-2 – the best start in franchise history. It was their eighth win in a row, with only one intervening loss following a prior nine-game winning streak. The Red Sox had lost on Opening […]

It wasn’t your typical August day in San Diego. With temperatures in the 70s and a lot of clouds, it wasn’t the picture-perfect setting for baseball. For the Padres, it was their first year under the ownership of Ray Kroc, and the team was struggling. The Padres were 44-65 and in the midst of a […]

“Batting and playing first base for the Boston Red Sox: Mary Elizabeth Murphy. First base: Murphy.” You can almost hear Sherm Feller, the longtime Red Sox public-address voice, announce her – the first female ballplayer for the Boston Red Sox. It never happened, though. It’s well-known that the Red Sox were the last big-league team […]

The earliest known connection between dentistry and the Boston Red Sox is Fred Anderson, a pitcher. You’ll find him in the record books, as playing for the Red Sox in 1909 and then again in 1913. It is said that he passed up an opportunity to join the Red Sox until he finished his dentistry […]

Charlie Moore played in the major leagues for 15 seasons, spending the first 14 with the Milwaukee Brewers and finishing up with a short stint with the Toronto Blue Jays. He is remembered as a key member the young Brewers teams that reached the American League playoffs in 1981 and the World Series in 1982. […]

Vern Hoscheit’s career in professional baseball spanned six decades. Signed as a catcher by the New York Yankees in 1941, he had little hope of making the major-league roster with Bill Dickey and later Yogi Berra ensconced behind the plate. The Yankees front office took notice of Hoscheit’s leadership potential and made him a player-manager […]

A life in baseball is how one might best describe the life of Fred Mitchell. He pitched in the very first game ever played by the Boston Red Sox franchise (an exhibition game in Charlottesville, Virginia), and 18 years later managed the Chicago Cubs against the Red Sox in the 1918 World Series. His major-league […]

“One of the greatest scholastic pitchers ever turned out in Louisiana,”1 Seth Marvin Morehead was seemingly on a fast path to stardom. In 1957, Cincinnati manager Birdie Tebbetts dubbed him the “best young left-hander in the National League and a pitcher who has the potential to be a 25-game winner. Morehead has the natural equipment […]

The Cincinnati Reds did not seem a bit concerned about their opponent from the junior circuit. The Big Red Machine were the bullies on the beach, waiting to kick sand in the face of their rival, the Oakland Athletics. Pete Rose viewed the coming 1972 World Series as anticlimactic. “The real World Series was between […]

Best known as the host of the 1960 television series, Home Run Derby, Mark Scott’s career encompassed acting, serving as a television broadcaster for the Cincinnati Reds in 1956, and five-seasons (1952-55; 1957) as the radio play-by-play voice of the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League. Scott was born Samuel Marks Solomon on February […]

Mexico had given two pairs of brothers to Major League Baseball as of 2018: the Romos (Vicente and Enrique) and the Treviños.1 Of this quartet, U.S. fans saw the least of Carlos Treviño, also known as “Bobby.” The outfielder played in just 17 games for the California Angels in 1968, and he spent just three […]

Serving as the pitching coach for the Big Red Machine is a bit like being the drummer in Billy Joel’s band. Even if you’re an integral part of an exceptional team, only the most devoted and hard-core observers will ever know your name as opposed to the headline-grabbing main attraction. While the Reds’ offense and […]

A southpaw off a Missouri farm, Oscar Fuhr pitched big-league ball for parts of two seasons and all of a third in the majors, 1921 with the Chicago Cubs and 1924-25 with the Boston Red Sox. The Cubs finished seventh and his Red Sox teams finished seventh and eighth. Fuhr was 0-0 with Chicago and […]

Taylor Phillips had an outstanding career in armed-services baseball, good seasons in the minor leagues, and a six-year major-league career highlighted by being part of the 1957 world champion Milwaukee Braves. William Taylor Phillips was born on June 18, 1933, in Atlanta, Georgia, to parents Amos and Jewell Phillips. He had a kidney disease as […]

San Francisco’s Mike Finn was a pioneer professional as a California baseball player and manager. A versatile performer, he was an adept infielder, outfielder, and catcher, but was, in the Oakland Tribune’s opinion, “a pitching star of magnitude.” His managerial legacy was five championships during the California League’s formative years (1886-1893), more than any other pilot. An established […]

William Angelo Consolo was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 18, 1934, the same day as Roberto Clemente. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was a child, and at the age of 8, he began playing baseball alongside his brother Horace, who preferred third base. While on the local playgrounds he met George […]

This outfielder was the first member of the Lumbee people of Robeson County, North Carolina, to play in the majors. Throughout his playing days, Gene Locklear’s skill as an artist also got attention. “They are both individual things, and you have to have talent. You can’t just have desire,” Locklear said in 2005.1 One of […]

The baseball team known as the Braves makes its home in Atlanta, but traces its diamond ancestry back through Milwaukee and to Boston, where it began in 1871. In fact, the Atlanta Braves are the only baseball team that has played every season consecutively since 1871, outdating even the National League itself. While forgotten by […]