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The buzz from the wildly successful start to their inaugural season had worn off.1 The fledgling Expos had just lost their 18th consecutive game, and they were about to head out on a grueling 18-game road trip. Instead of going directly to Los Angeles to prepare to face the Dodgers, they made a side trip […]

An ordinary doubleheader on a lazy Tuesday afternoon turned extraordinary on one swing of the bat by Braves center fielder Bernie Neis. In his second at-bat of the first game, the 29-year-old Neis became only the second major-league player – and the first member of the Braves – to hit a home run over the […]

As the 1986 season dawned, the New York Mets occupied the doorstep of greatness. A potent collective of young talent and established stars, the 1984-85 Mets equaled the Tigers and Blue Jays for the major leagues’ most regular-season wins over those two seasons, but experienced the postseason as spectators in both years. The 1984 Mets […]

When there is a discussion regarding who is the best major-league baseball team in history, the conversation usually begins and ends with the 1927 New York Yankees. They ravaged the rest of the American League, posting a 110-44 record. At the time, it was the top mark in the AL and tied the 1909 Pittsburgh […]

A late summer baseball game can build confidence during a pennant race and boost momentum. Unfortunately for the crowd of 26,087 at the August 26, 2016, game between the Cincinnati Reds and Arizona Diamondbacks, neither team was in contention. The Diamondbacks, the National League’s youngest franchise, entered the game with 53 wins and 75 defeats. […]

Ecstatic and anxious Red Sox fans participated in round-the-clock vigils hoping to get World Series tickets while fans lacking tickets developed different strategies to follow the afternoon weekday games. Mill workers, cab drivers, and business people called in sick to work. And kids schemed to listen to pocket transistors at school. Fenway Park appeared ready […]

As the 49-year-old midtown Cincinnati ballpark hosted Game Five of what proved to be its final postseason, it sported a new paint job, applied after the end of the 1961 regular season. Crosley Field was all dressed up in its gaudiest colors in years. The outside of the ballpark had a gleaming coat of white […]

No team has ever begun its home opener with more authority than the San Diego Padres did in 1987. Their first three batters of the game all hit home runs, establishing a new major-league record for homers to open a game. But the visiting San Francisco Giants returned fire by battering five San Diego pitchers […]

“Everywhere I go, Greek baseball fans call me up, and I have to tell them that I am a Lithuanian instead of a Greek. But I do eat at Greek restaurants. Maybe I’ll have to change my name to something simple like Martin.” That’s what Alexander Mustaikis told sports columnist Bob Ray of the Los […]

Just before Christmas 1971, Don Rose was included in what many baseball experts consider one of the worst or best trades of all time. Rose went on to play in only 19 big-league games over the next three years for three different teams. But in one of those games, he did something that very few […]

Pitcher Charlie Bell was a lifelong Cincinnatian, but his tenure in hometown baseball livery was confined to a single game — his final major-league appearance in July 1891. But that game was hardly Bell’s last appearance in a Cincinnati uniform. Beginning around 1898 and for close to 30 years thereafter, Bell proudly wore the blue […]

Born on Washington’s Birthday in 1874 in Rochester, New York, William Joseph “Bill” Klem became one of the greatest umpires to ever take the field. “I was born of German parents in the Irish section near ‘Dutchtown’ in Rochester, New York,” Klem later said.1 Both father Michael Klimm and mother Elizabeth were from Bavaria. Bill was […]

“Pinkey Whitney is the greatest third baseman in baseball,” said Grover Cleveland Alexander in 1930. During a 12-year career, Whitney played for two National League doormats, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Boston Braves. “It’s a shame he couldn’t have gotten with a winning club,” Alexander said. “That boy is a wonderful fielder and one of […]

Oscar Jones was a man of many talents. In 1903, the Brooklyn Eagle listed them: “all around ball player, champion bicycle rider, sprinter, boxer, tumbler, gymnast, wrestler, cartoonist and cigarmaker.”1 To this list can be added showman, draftsman, farmer, and tire repairman. As a pitcher, Jones won close to 300 games in a 15-year professional […]

The Red Sox party boarded the train in Boston on February 28, 1927, bound for spring training in New Orleans. During a four-hour layover in Cincinnati, eight more players got on. Among them was a prospect, F. A. Bennett. He didn’t make the team, but was “loaned” to Portland, Maine.1 About 3,000 people turned out […]

This infielder was the original “Sugar Bear” — several years ahead of Floyd Rayford, who bore the same nickname in the 1980s. With their pleasant, sleepy-eyed expressions, both men resembled the easygoing cartoon character in the ads for Post Super Sugar Crisp cereal. Yet contrary to popular belief, that is not how Blanks got his […]

Johnny Ryan was a light-hitting outfielder who wore the uniform of some of 19th-century baseball’s worst major league clubs. Particularly pitiful were the 1874 Baltimore Canaries (9-38, .170) and 1875 New Haven Elm Citys (7-40, .149) of the National Association. Ryan fit right in, batting well below .200 and posting statistically mediocre fielding percentages – […]

In November 1990, Texas Rangers general manager Tom Grieve released pitcher Jamie Moyer six days prior to his 28th birthday, telling him, “We don’t see you helping us.”1 St. Louis Cardinals manager Joe Torre echoed those words in 1991 when he informed Moyer, whose record was 0-5 at the time, that he was being sent to the minors and told […]

Harry O’Hagan owns two distinctions that will never be equaled. The lesser of the two is that he had the longest stretch between his first and second major-league appearances of any position player who debuted in the nineteenth century. Born in Washington, D.C., on September 30, 1869, O’Hagan was catching for a Washington YMCA team […]

Mike Paul, a veteran of a half-century in professional baseball, was born on April 18, 1945, in Detroit. Michael George Paul was the oldest of seven children born to George and Theresa Paul. George Paul was a police officer in Detroit, but thought it was becoming too dangerous there and moved the family to Compton, […]

When the New York Mets obtained minor leaguer Don Bosch in a trade with Pittsburgh, on December 6, 1966, anticipation ran high. Bosch was touted to be as good defensively as Willie Mays, and for the Mets and their fans, it seemed that their search for a reliable center fielder was finally over. To acquire […]

The Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter gathered at The Original Crusoe’s Restaurant in South St. Louis on Tuesday, August 26, 2014 with twenty-two members and guests in attendance. Chapter president Brian Flaspohler called the meeting to order. Items noted in “Today in Baseball History” were the first telecast of a Major League Baseball game from Ebbets Field […]

Thirteen members and guests of the Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter gathered at the Sports Cafe, located at 3579 Pennridge Drive in Bridgeton, Missouri, on Tuesday, November 14, 2017. Chapter president Brian Flaspohler called the meeting to order. Items noted in “Today in Baseball History”: 1957 – Hank Aaron receives 239 points from the baseball writers to […]