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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 […]
The New York Mets acquired Gary Sheffield after he was cut by the Detroit Tigers at the end of spring training in 2009. They hoped that his experience and hitting prowess would provide some help to the Mets bench. “He has been a great addition to the chemistry of the team,” said Mets manager Jerry […]
Will Clark acquired his nickname, “The Thrill,” shortly after he began his rookie season with the San Francisco Giants in 1986. It was given to him by Giants teammate Bob Brenly because of Clark’s early-season heroics. One of those thrills was a home run in his first major-league at-bat against Houston Astros fireballer Nolan Ryan […]
Harry “The Cat” Brecheen had previously entered major-league baseball’s record books in 1946 by becoming the first left-handed pitcher to win three games in a World Series. He figuratively came within a cat’s whisker of making history again on May 8, 1948, when he missed hurling a perfect game because of a close call on […]
Tim Wallach picked a pretty good day to have one of the best games of his big-league career. With his entire family in attendance at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego for a Mother’s Day matinée, Wallach went 4-for-6 with two home runs and a career-high eight runs batted in.1 It was a near-perfect homecoming […]
Monday, September 6, 1993, was Labor Day in Canada and the United States. The Expos were at home, and for the first time since Opening Day more than 40,000 patrons (40,066) had spun through Montreal’s Olympic Stadium turnstiles anxious to take in the game. It was the last month of the season and the red-hot […]
On ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball, a national cable audience watched the Baltimore Orioles set a few records as they pounded the Texas Rangers, 15-6. A crowd of 40,516 packed Oriole Park at Camden Yards to celebrate a promotion called Texas Barbecue Night, and they were treated to Baltimore batters “grilling a couple of Texas pitchers.”1 […]
A weak offense marked the Washington Nationals’ 2005 season, so an offseason trade for a bat seemed inevitable. On December 8, 2005, they obtained Alfonso Soriano from the Texas Rangers in exchange for outfielders Brad Wilkerson and Terrmel Sledge and minor-league pitcher Armando Galarraga. Soriano was a four-time All-Star and a Silver Slugger winner who […]
Charlie Blackmon hadn’t expected to be in Denver. After a difficult spring, the Rockies outfielder expected to open the season in Colorado Springs with the Triple-A SkySox.1 Instead, Blackmon stayed with the Rockies when they broke camp to form an outfield platoon with Drew Stubbs and Corey Dickerson.2 He started two games and pitch-hit in […]
No-hitters are often remembered for the dramatic defensive plays that preserved them. The later it comes in the game, the more dramatic the play is; sometimes it’s even the 27th out.1 Other times it’s the very first out, when no one could imagine what is at stake. Rudy Law of the Chicago White Sox led […]
After finishing July 1991 in second place in the National League East Division, the New York Mets went 8-21 in August and fell to fourth. Things didn’t improve in September, as they lost five in a row from September 4 to 9, including the opener of a two-game home series with the last-place Montreal Expos. […]
Larry Walker’s hold on a major-league job was slowly slipping away. His first full season in the big leagues had gone reasonably well; in only 419 at-bats he nearly posted a 20-20 season.1 Walker was even named to the 1990 Topps’ All-Star Rookie team. But a 1991 spring-training slump had carried over into the regular […]
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 […]
Between 1980 and 1990, Mike Schmidt of the Philadelphia Phillies won more Gold Gloves – six – than any other National League third basemen. But do you know who won the second-most? The answer may surprise you. If you had guessed Tim Wallach, you would have been correct. Wallach, who spent 17 years in the […]
Right-hander Kenny Hill flashed the kind of stuff that made batters think twice before they came to the plate. He had a wicked split-finger fastball which made his low-to-mid-90s heater look even faster, and his hard slider was generally regarded as one of the best in baseball. Three times he won a career-best 16 games, […]
“I’m Willie Mays,” one might imagine a kid in New York City in 1955 calling out as he came to the plate in a midsummer day’s game of stickball. For kids growing up in Kansas City in the late 1980s, maybe it was Bo Jackson. There are players who occupy a certain time and place […]
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 […]
A well-traveled catcher, Brent Mayne played with the Kansas City Royals, New York Mets, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, Colorado Rockies, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Los Angeles Dodgers. Used primarily in a platooning role against right-handed pitchers or as a late-inning defensive replacement, Mayne was remembered more for his defense than his offense. A strong-armed catcher […]
Dante Bichette is one of the most important figures in Rockies history. Though his major-league career began with the Angels, and included stints with the Brewers, Reds, and Red Sox, it was in Colorado that Bichette made a name for himself as one of the game’s great sluggers in the mid-1990s. Bichette holds a unique […]
Venezuelan catcher Bo Díaz played for all or part of 13 seasons in the majors, plus 14 more in his homeland’s winter league. He helped the Philadelphia Phillies win a National League pennant in 1983 and was part of six champion teams with the Leones del Caracas. Díaz made it to the majors on the […]
Canadian Rhéal Cormier had two distinct major-league careers. Through most of the 1990s he was a middle-of-the-rotation starter for the St. Louis Cardinals and Montreal Expos. After Tommy John surgery, however, he reinvented himself as a successful late-inning, short stint, relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, and Cincinnati Reds. Along the way […]
An underrated middle reliever for the mediocre Red Sox teams of the first half of the 1980s, Venezuelan righty Luis Aponte pitched for five years in the majors, the first four for Boston before a final campaign in Cleveland. He had a more storied career in winter ball in his native country. Luis Eduardo Aponte […]