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The 1871 Fourth of July festivities in Middletown, Connecticut, were modest and reserved, save for what the Hartford Evening Post labeled “the usual popping of fireworks and pistols.”1 The main social event was a base ball game at the new grounds built on the property of local businessman Dewitt Clinton Sage. He had gifted the […]

Two high-striving National League clubs – the NL East-runaway New York Mets and NL West-contender Houston Astros – clashed to open the league’s second half in 1986. A weekend of stellar starting pitching, dueling rallies, and even a headline-seizing barroom brawl culminated in a 15-inning struggle at the Astrodome on July 20. The Astros’ controversial […]

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 […]

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 […]

A season after losing the World Series by a single run in Game Seven, the New York Yankees opened their 1927 campaign against the Philadelphia Athletics, a team that had added punch to its roster—three future Hall of Famers—hoping to dethrone their Bronx nemesis as the American League pennant winner. But the newcomers—40-year-old Ty Cobb, […]

The Montreal Expos joined the major leagues in 1969, as an expansion team in the National League. They didn’t get their first winning season until 10 years later, and their first postseason appearance came in 1981. After the strike-shortened season of 1994, the Expos struggled with poor attendance, especially after several star players were traded […]

“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 […]

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 […]

“We were a rock star baseball team,” said right-hander Orel Hershiser about the 1995 Cleveland Indians. “You’d drive around and see Wahoo signs in almost every front yard. You’d walk into restaurants, and there were pictures of the players on the walls. I’d never quite seen anything like it. I get the chills just to […]

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 […]

Rookie knuckleballer Tim Wakefield boosted the Pittsburgh Pirates to their third consecutive National League East Division crown in 1992 after getting called up in July to fortify a shorthanded starting rotation. With the Pirates trailing the Atlanta Braves two games to none in the NL Championship Series, Wakefield continued his late-season infusion, tossing a five-hit […]

“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 […]

James Joseph Cooney from Cranston, Rhode Island, played in three seasons for two teams in the National League. He was with the Chicago Colts during 1890, 1891, and the first part of 1892; he then joined the Washington Senators for the remainder of 1892. Cooney played shortstop in the majors but was originally a catcher […]

After his retirement, Fritz Peterson recalled, “When I signed with the Yankees, the scout told me, ‘Heck, you’re a lefthander working in Yankee Stadium, you can count on a World Series check at least every other year.’”1 The Yankees hadn’t finished in last place since 1912, when they were still the New York Highlanders. However, […]

Among numerous icons from Cuba’s somewhat murky pre-revolution past, swarthy-skinned pitching ace José de la Caridad Méndez Báez stands at the very apex of the heap. Among the young nation’s first true national sporting heroes, the rawboned fastball hurler maintains an indelible image as one of the earliest icons of island baseball history. But it […]

“No manager really wants a knuckleball pitcher … until he wins 15 in a row.” – Charlie Hough1   Charlie Hough pitched at the major-league level for a quarter of a century on the strength of his knuckleball – a pitch, coincidentally, that he learned in the minor leagues as an attempt to reinvigorate his […]

Al Leiter spent 18 years in the majors and enjoyed pitching success in both leagues. During his career, he managed to earn two World Series rings and play on three different teams in the fall classic. Although Leiter never became one of the star pitchers of his day, he made important contributions to his teams’ […]

Though he didn’t invent the pitch, Eddie “Knuckles” Cicotte was perhaps the first major-league pitcher to master the knuckleball. According to one description, Cicotte gripped the knuckler by holding the ball “on the three fingers of a closed hand, with his thumb and forefinger to guide it, throwing it with an overhand motion, and sending […]

Joe Heving was born four years later than his brother Johnnie, but made his major league debut 10 years afterwards. John was a catcher who played professional ball from 1919 to 1946, including five years with the Red Sox from 1924-1930. Joe Heving heaved for a living – he was a right-handed pitcher, an early relief specialist […]

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” […]

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, […]

Wilbur Wehde was born on November 23, 1906, in the hamlet of Holstein, Iowa. The town, roughly 45 miles east of Sioux City, was at the time home to fewer than 1,000 residents, mostly first- or second-generation German immigrants. Wehde’s father, Gustave, managed a creamery and brokered other farmers’ produce, while his mother, Frieda, managed […]

“It’s going to be a tough act for the kid to follow,” said Cleveland pitcher Bob Feller.1 Indeed, it would be. Feller had just thrown the 12th one-hitter of his fabulous career, blanking Boston, 2-0, in the first game of a doubleheader at Cleveland on May 1, 1955. Boston catcher Sammy White singled to center field in the seventh inning for […]

Did outfielder Joe Riggert actually manage even before he began his 20 year career as a player? If nothing else, he seems to have managed in his first season. His career began started in 1909 with seven games for the Abilene Red Sox in the Central Kansas League; he hit .375 in the very small […]