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Bottom of the ninth. Game tied. Series tied. Only one team can win. On the mound for the New York Yankees was 24-year-old Ralph Terry. Leading off the inning for the Pittsburgh Pirates was 24-year-old second baseman Bill Mazeroski. The crowd “sucked in their collective breaths”1 as Terry delivered a shoulder-high fastball. Home-plate umpire Bill […]

Runs had historically been hard to come by in the Astrodome, but on May 11, 1999 — in the building’s last season — the Astros proved an exception to the rule, blasting the Pirates 19-8 in front of 18,450. The Dome had opened as the modernistic “eighth wonder of the world,”1 but its design made […]

Roy Smalley was off to a solid start to the 1981 season for the struggling Minnesota Twins. John Bierig of the Minneapolis Star wrote that he’d been “the only bright spot in a dismal season” for the ballclub.1 Smalley, fresh off signing a four-year contract extension in the offseason, was hitting .294 with 6 home […]

“You know what they say about Chicago. If you don’t like the weather, wait fifteen minutes.”1 As Warren Corbett noted in his SABR biography of Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner, the longtime New York Mets broadcaster became famous for his “verbal strikeouts.”2 Although this one of the many Ralph Kiner quotes3 was uttered after the […]

Like most forces of nature, Paul Lo Duca’s twin eruptions in June 2007 were remarkable for both their spontaneity and the havoc they left behind. Frustrated with his team’s recent struggles and what he considered undue expectations from the press, on June 23 the New York Mets catcher littered the diamond with his equipment after […]

Any thought of the inevitability of the Boston Red Sox winning the 2007 American League pennant and World Series was likely dispelled by the way Game Two of the AL Championship Series turned out. Yes, the Cleveland Indians had been thrashed in Game One, a 10-3 defeat, but they turned the tables in Game Two. […]

Manny Mota is frequently considered to be the Montreal Expos’ first player.1 Although Mota was the initial player chosen by the Expos in the National League expansion draft in October 1968, he wasn’t the first player under contract with the fledgling organization. That honor went to pitcher Dave Hartman, who was drafted by Montreal in […]

In their one-season history (1969) as an American League expansion franchise, the Seattle Pilots played 14 extra-inning games. On July 19 they hosted an 18-inning night game at Sicks’ Stadium. That game was suspended after 17 innings and completed the following day, with the Minnesota Twins winning, 11-7.1 After the Twins left town and the […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ bid for a fourth straight National League East Division title in 1973 remained alive, even though the Pirates trailed the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals when the schedule’s final day had concluded. With rainouts rescheduled for Monday, October 1 – a Mets-Chicago Cubs doubleheader and a single game between Pittsburgh […]

The Cleveland Indians were on a hot streak. The Tribe had won seven in a row, and 10 of their last 11, when the last-place Washington Senators came a-calling for a six-game set beginning June 14 at Cleveland Stadium. The Indians had swept the Senators in a three-game series at D.C. Park one week earlier […]

The surprising Senators, riding a three-game losing streak, entered the May 12 game tied for fourth place in the American League with a 14-14 record, four games behind the front-running Cleveland Indians. The Tigers, winners of four straight and seven of their last eight under new manager Jimmy Dykes, were 9-16, 6½ games off the […]

“Connie Mack Stadium is an old woman dancing nude at the Medicare Senior Prom. You know what she might once have been, but tonight she is an obscene accordion of yellowed flesh. … Connie Mack Stadium is the lengthened shadow of a man, sliding finally to rest. A small step for any other city, a […]

Many decades later, it’s still a well-known piece of Eastern Pennsylvania sports lore. In June 1947 the Philadelphia Phillies played an off-day exhibition in the small Lehigh Valley village of Egypt, about 65 miles north of Philadelphia. The Phils agreed to play the game to court 18-year-old prospect Curt Simmons, who pitched a local team […]

Joe Gibbon fulfilled his dream when he made the Opening Day roster of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates, the World Series champion that season. Joe pitched 12 full big-league seasons plus part of a 13th before retiring in 1972. He was talented enough in basketball to be drafted by the NBA champion Boston Celtics in 1957, […]

Baseball fame can be very fleeting. A perfect example is the career of William H. “Josh” Reilly. A San Francisco native, Reilly had a nearly twenty-year minor league career and made one of the most dramatic major league debuts ever. Before his career ended, he accepted a prominent position at San Francisco City Hall and […]

Bill Grevell was a semipro pitcher from Philadelphia whose scatter-armed stint with the talent-parched 1919 Athletics indicated that he was not ready for the majors. After parts of two seasons in the minor leagues, he returned to the sandlots until illness ended his life at age 25. William Joseph Grevell Jr. was born on March […]

Bob Friend was one of baseball’s more consistent starting pitchers during his era and a workhorse for the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates. That year the right-hander led the team in games started and innings pitched while posting an 18-12 record and 3.00 earned-run average in a major comeback from a disappointing 1959 campaign. Durable at 6-feet […]

Pat “Paddy” Duff, one of four native Rhode Islanders to play only one game in the major leagues, spent the majority of his years in Organized Baseball at the B and C levels of minor-league ball, rising to Class A in the 1905 season before his brief appearance in the majors on April 16, 1906, […]

Versatile Tom Underwood enjoyed an 11-year major-league career (1974-84) pitching for six teams. He was a quick worker with a smooth delivery, underrated fastball — Pete Rose called it “sneaky” — and “one of the best curves of any lefthander.”1 Officially listed at 5-feet-11 and 170 pounds, in his prospect years he was also identified as 5’9” […]

Sammy Hughes’ name will almost certainly appear on any list of the top players of the Negro Leagues in the 1930s and 1940s. Hughes didn’t draw the attention of some of the bigger personalities of the day like Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson, but it is generally agreed that he was one of the most […]

Even though her nickname was “Peanuts” in view of her small physical stature, there are two words that would better define Toni Ann Palermo throughout her life – fearless and accomplished. Born in Forest Park, Illinois, on February 15, 1933, she was named Antoinette Palermo when she was adopted along with her sister Mary Ann. […]

One of the early relief specialists in the majors, George “Sarge” Connally started just 67 times in 304 games across a 12-year big-league career (1921; 1923-29; 1933-34). Connally never shied away from hard work. In 1933, at the age of 34, he exemplified his other nickname—“Rubber Arm”—by making eight relief appearances for Cleveland from June […]

“What if?” It is a perennial question and in baseball, the “what if?” usually pertains to injury. What would have a team accomplished had not half of its players been on the DL at one point or another during a season? What if a pitcher’s promising career had not been torpedoed by a line drive […]

If you were lucky enough to bring Ron Darling to a party, how would you introduce him? Especially if the party was outside the New York City area, it’s possible you would have to do just that. While he has numerous accomplishments on and off the baseball field, he hasn’t grabbed the headlines (for all […]