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July 4, 1921, fell on a Monday, giving baseball teams a golden opportunity for not only a potentially lucrative Sunday doubleheader, but also another twin bill on the holiday. The Atlantic City Bacharach Giants took full advantage of the calendar, hosting two games on Sunday against archrival Hilldale of Philadelphia, and two more on July […]

On the morning of Saturday, September 20, 1952, the St. Louis Cardinals had only the slimmest of mathematical chances to win the National League pennant. Since July 1, the closest the Cardinals had been to first place was on September 9, when they were within 6½ games of the league-leading Brooklyn Dodgers. When play closed […]

The hopes of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of repeating as division champion in 2008 appeared to be derailed by injuries before the season began. As players reported to spring training in Tempe, Arizona, number-two starter Kelvim Escobar suffered a reaggravation of a shoulder injury and was certain to begin the season on the […]

In a Monday-afternoon game at Wrigley Field, the “Cubs buried Philadelphia under an avalanche of twenty-four hits,” defeating the Phillies, 21-8.1 Every Chicago batter had at least one hit, reached base at least twice, and scored at least one run.2 Cubs center fielder Hack Wilson led the barrage with five hits, including the cycle. The […]

As the construction timeline for the new Yankee Stadium emerged, speculation that New York would host the 2008 All-Star Game ran rampant. Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Commissioner Bud Selig confirmed the rumors on January 31, 2007, at a press conference announcing that the 2008 midsummer classic would take place during the Stadium’s final season. Selig […]

Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Earl Wilson homered on Opening Day 1968 against his former club, the Boston Red Sox, but Red Sox left fielder Carl Yastrzemski upstaged Wilson with two late-game home runs, including an inside-the-park homer, as Boston pulled away for a 7-3 win at Tiger Stadium. The start of the 1968 season was […]

Gabby Street wanted revenge, so he went to the firm of Hallahan and Grimes. Street, in his second year as Cardinals manager, wanted to avenge his team’s loss to the A’s in the 1930 World Series, which Philadelphia won in six games. He had his chance as the day dawned on Game Seven of the […]

The ticker tape had barely settled from their World Series celebration in 1986 when the New York Mets faced an offseason of key departures and unwelcome headlines, the first signs that their reign might not last. On Opening Day 1987, however, the Mets again demonstrated championship form, parlaying Darryl Strawberry’s first-inning home run and Bobby […]

At 9:30 on the evening of September 30, 1951, the New York Giants, having clinched a tie for the National League pennant that afternoon in Boston by winning their seventh straight game, arrived at Grand Central Station to a welcoming crowd of approximately 2,500. Forty minutes earlier the Brooklyn Dodgers, who salvaged a tie for […]

“He was a missionary extraordinary for the game itself. … Wherever he went … Barrett talked and preached baseball.” i He was referred to as the King of Weeds, a play on words about scouts who “beat the bushes” for prospects. He signed the second most major-league players in baseball history, second only to his […]

Benny McCoy was the talk of every town in 1940 when the obscure rookie became baseball’s first big-money free agent. He failed to live up to the hype — who could? — and crumpled under the weight of great expectations. “Benny’s problem was too much attention,” Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Cy Peterman wrote.1 We’ll never know […]

Over the years, the Pittsburgh Courier, one of the nation’s leading African-American newspapers, used the following superlatives to describe Pittsburgh Crawfords infielder Chester Williams: Peppy, snappy, aggressive, hustling, scrappy, flashy. He was also referred to as sure-fielding, hard-hitting, a sparkplug, and even an inspired devil. From 1931 through the team’s demise in 1938, Williams was […]

“I got the name Show Boat in St. Louis with the Cards in 1930,” wrote George “Showboat” Fisher in a 1985 letter. “The show ‘Showboat’ was in St. Louis most of the summer, the fans liked what they saw, so they started to call me ‘Show Boat.’ I hit .374 to lead the club, and we won […]

When the expansion Kansas City Royals hired Cedric Tallis as the team’s GM, he assumed an almost impossible task. Before the first expansion season was even half over in 1969, Kansas City owner Ewing Kauffman was proclaiming that a glorious future was not far away. A hard-driving yet generous pharmaceutical entrepreneur, Kauffman publicly stated that […]

Who was Curt Walker? With a career .304 batting average, he might be the best hitter you have never heard of. A consistent, productive outfielder throughout the 1920s, he might be one of the most overlooked players of his generation. And playing at a time when Babe Ruth dominated the baseball world, Walker also had […]

I was strictly a submarine pitcher, a lot of junk. I had a good fast one, but I didn’t throw it when I didn’t have to. With the hard hitters, I’d time them. I’d throw mixed pitches – “56 varieties” they used to call me. And then when I showed them a good fast ball, […]

The 1923 World Series was tied at two games apiece as the venue moved to Yankee Stadium. The New York Giants were attempting to make it three world championships in a row, the first two at the expense of their neighbors from the Bronx. Perhaps a change of scenery was the medicine the New York […]

Danny Godby stood anxiously near home plate at Busch Stadium in St. Louis the night of August 10, 1974, as the moment he had dreamed of while growing up in the coalfields of West Virginia unfolded before him. He was there in the bottom of the sixth inning to pinch-hit for pitcher Bob Forsch with […]

Jeff Newman had a long career in professional baseball, spanning 36 years from 1970 to 2006. After six years in the Cleveland Indians’ minor-league system, he played nine years in the major leagues, mostly as a catcher for the Oakland Athletics and the Boston Red Sox. After his playing days, he was a coach for […]

A towering Southern farm boy with the mind of an engineer, pitcher Ernie Shore is forever linked with Babe Ruth. Teammates on three clubs and in two World Series, they together tossed what many fans and some historians long considered a perfect game—albeit an odd one in which the Babe faced the first batter and […]

Before signing a $100,000 bonus contract with the 1957 Milwaukee Braves, John Stephen DeMerit had been a standout athlete since he was a youngster. In the fifth grade he set a record for the 100-yard dash (12.1 seconds) at the Port Relays, an annual event held in his hometown of Port Washington, Wisconsin, 27 miles […]

Born and raised in the Bronx, All-Star and Gold Glove third baseman Frank Malzone was a Red Sox fixture for more than 60 years, save for one season playing for the California Angels. Born on February 28, 1930, he was a Yankees fan growing up but was signed out of Samuel Gompers High School by […]

Down two games to none to the Minnesota Twins in the 1965 World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers found themselves in a precarious situation after Don Drysdale lost Game One, 8-2, and Sandy Koufax, who refused to pitch the opening game because it fell on Yom Kippur, lost Game Two, 5-1. Left-hander Claude Osteen, scheduled […]

John Leo ‘Paddy’ Driscoll went directly from the purple uniform of Northwestern University to the Chicago Cubs in 1917. The diminutive infielder had been a three-sport star at Evanston (Illinois) High School before lettering in two sports at Northwestern.1 He played one season with the Cubs before entering the Navy during World War I. Back from […]