Search Results

It was a delightful morning on April 4, 1994, when the Colorado Rockies and defending National League champion Philadelphia Phillies began batting practice on Opening Day at Mile High Stadium in Denver. The temperature was near 70 degrees,1 but weather reports called for falling temperatures, with wind and snow developing before the end of the […]

Heading into the game that came to define his career, 21-year-old rookie left-hander Rick Ankiel wasn’t nervous. “I was not hurt. I was not afraid. I was not sick or distracted or particularly anxious,” he wrote 17 years later. “In game one of the National League Division Series, on a warm and sunny afternoon with […]

When Tommy Greene graduated from Whiteville High School in June 1985, the North Carolina native was one of the most sought-after young pitchers in the country. As a senior he had a 0.10 ERA with 151 strikeouts in 67 innings.1 For his high-school career, he tossed nine no-hitters. The Atlanta Braves selected Greene in the […]

The Montreal Expos were finishing up a road trip in Atlanta going 7-5 entering the game of July 6. They had lost the first game of their series with the Braves on Thursday, scoring just one run. But they exploded in the next two games. As they amassed 29 hits, the Expos overpowered the Braves […]

The Mets and the Braves had become intense rivals towards the end of the 1990s. The 1999 season ended with the two teams playing a dramatic league championship series that the Braves won in six games. With the Mets’ fortunes rising, the Braves finally returned to Shea Stadium on June 30, 2000. It was Fireworks […]

The wind was blowing in from center field at 18 mph as the Los Angeles Dodgers took on the Colorado Rockies at Mile High Stadium in Denver on May 19, 1994, in front of 51,515 fans. It was the final game of a four-game series before the Dodgers headed to Cincinnati for a three-game series […]

The Montreal Expos completed a four-game sweep of the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday, August 16, 1987, by rallying from a three-run deficit to defeat the Bucs 10-7 in front of 26,134 fans at Olympic Stadium. Tim Raines hit for the cycle while Tom Foley delivered the big blow with a three-run home run to lead […]

On a typical workday in Tokyo, rush-hour traffic is notorious for being among the busiest on the planet.1 One can only imagine what it was like on Wednesday, September 18, 1996, at 4:30 P.M. (Tokyo time) when word began to spread about the possibility of a no hitto no ran (the Japanese words for “no-hitter”).2 […]

It is known in Expos history as “The Tim Raines Game” and if ever there was a game meant to be named after a player, it was this one. The 1986-87 offseason was an odd one in Major League Baseball as it lacked business and busy-ness. Prominent free agents like Raines, Ron Guidry, and Jack […]

There were plenty of storylines entering this intrastate battle on October 5, 2001. The season was on the line for the San Francisco Giants: a loss meant elimination from playoff contention. For the major leagues, this game was part of a larger picture. Initially scheduled for September 14, it was rescheduled after the September 11 […]

Good hitters have high batting averages; good sluggers have high slugging percentages. Early in his career, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman John Mabry was characterized as a good hitter for average, but not much of a power hitter. In his 1995 rookie season, he batted .307 but slugged only .405. That equates to an average […]

In 1995 the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies were both in their third season, albeit a strike-shortened one. But for newly minted expansion teams, the clubs were pretty solid. That season, the Rockies, managed by Don Baylor, spent 117 days in first place, finished second in the National League West Division with a 77-67 record, […]

Baseball history was made when 27-year-old Ichiro Suzuki signed with the Seattle Mariners in November 2000 as the first position player from Japan in the major leagues.1 The Mariners had pursued Suzuki—a career .353 hitter in nine seasons with Nippon Professional Baseball’s Orix Blue Wave—because Seattle’s principal owner, Nintendo President Hiroshi Yamauchi, loved watching Suzuki […]

“I’m going to give it (the All-Star MVP trophy) to my mom. I think she’s the one who deserves it. When we (he and his brother Sandy Alomar Jr., the 1997 MVP) were young, she used to take us to the ballpark. Without her, we wouldn’t be here.” — Roberto Alomar, who earned MVP honors at the 69th All-Star Game.1 […]

Tim Raines had put away his razor. He was riding an 11-game hit streak heading into the May 7 matchup with the Phillies, and he vowed to let the whiskers grow for as long as the streak continued.1 The 26-year-old Raines, already considered one of the best leadoff hitters of all time, was focused on […]

Fans tend to expect expansion baseball teams to endure several years of subpar ball, but meanwhile enjoy a brand-new ballpark. Rockies fans had to wait two years while a new ballpark was being built. Finally, on April 26, 1995, public-address announcer Alan Roach said, “Welcome to Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies,” and 47,228 […]

The Florida Marlins were in their fourth season in 1996. Their record had improved each year since they joined the National League as an expansion franchise in 1993, and they hoped a series of free-agent signings in the 1995-96 offseason would make them, according to general manager Dave Dombrowski, a playoff contender.1 Veteran starters Kevin […]

Montreal Expos manager Tom Runnells raised more than a few eyebrows during spring training in 1992 when he proclaimed his squad was “the team to beat” in the National League East.1 Although they had a promising group of young ballplayers, Montreal had finished dead last in the division in 1991 and a worst-to-first turnaround defied […]

They called James Edward Dwyer “Pig Pen,”1 but the well-traveled outfielder also could have gone by “Dwyer for Hire.” With hustle, pinch-hitting talent, and a willingness to role-play as his calling cards, Dwyer divided his 18-year major-league career between seven teams. Three of them – St. Louis, Montreal and Minnesota – employed him twice. Dwyer’s […]

“The [Chicago] Cubs, who haven’t won a world championship since 1908, have had only one winning season since 1972,” wrote Sports Illustrated’s Steve Wulf in his assessment of the National League East prior to the start of the 1989 season. “You can be certain this will not be their second.”1 Wulf was not alone. Several […]

Gonzalo Márquez, one of the earlier Venezuelans in the majors, never played a full year in “The Show.” From 1972 through 1974, he got into just 76 regular-season games with Oakland and the Chicago Cubs. Márquez’s primary position was first base, and he was a good fielder — but he lacked power. Across his entire […]

During an interview with Ted Barrett and his crew during their July 2015 visit to officiate a series between the Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox, it came out that Barrett was one of a select number of umpires who have earned advanced degrees. Dan Bellino is another; he is a Doctor of Jurisprudence, a […]

Third baseman Charlie Hayes was a solid journeyman. He played for seven teams over 14 years in the majors from 1988 through 2001. He had a good glove, a strong arm, and some pop in his bat. His best offensive numbers came in 1993 with an expansion club, the Colorado Rockies. Yet the moment for […]

Imagine two strangers stranded on a South Sea island from Taos, New Mexico, and Butte, Montana. They differ in age, race, income, and religion. Their common denominator is the Colorado Rockies major-league baseball club that did not exist until a quarter-century ago. For a long time, however, the prospect of such a team in the […]