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The Boston Red Sox began their 1990 campaign by winning three out of four games at Fenway Park against the Detroit Tigers. The Milwaukee Brewers then came to town, winning 9-5 on Friday, April 13, and losing a squeaker, 4-3, on Saturday. Sunday was an offday in advance of the traditional morning start on Patriots […]

To some observers, the 1990 major-league baseball season seemed at times like a 162-game formality, a steady march toward the Oakland A’s winning their third straight American League pennant and repeating as World Series champions. Sports Illustrated, Athlon’s Baseball, The Sporting News Baseball Yearbook, Inside Sports Baseball Preview, and Baseball Digest all agreed that everyone […]

Through September 22, the Boston Red Sox had narrowed the New York Yankees’ lead in the 2004 American League East race from 10½ games on August 15 to 3½ games. Two days later, however, the Red Sox were 5½ games out with nine to play, after losses to the Baltimore Orioles and Yankees.1 The Red […]

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 […]

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 […]

Golf fans might remember June 17, 1962, as the day Jack Nicklaus won his first major title, besting Arnold Palmer in a playoff to win the US Open at Oakmont Golf Club near Pittsburgh.1 Soccer fans might recall that the final match of the World Cup championship was held in Santiago, Chile, in which Brazil […]

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 […]

For Keith Hernandez, some reassuring words from his manager, Ken Boyer, at 30,000 feet proved significant to his career course. The St. Louis Cardinals were flying to Houston to open a three-game series against the Astros on May 8, 1979. Hernandez, their first baseman and number-three hitter, was batting a gloomy .236. And that figure […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

It takes a special kind of talent for a pitcher to lose 20 games in a season. The pitcher has to pitch both poorly enough to lose, but well enough that he keeps getting chances to pitch. If losing 20 games takes talent, how much more talent does it take to lose 48 games in […]

If you were going to make a movie of the life of Claude Alfred Thomas, you’d ask Gary Cooper to play the lead. The lanky cowboy actor and the 6’1″ left-handed pitcher bear a striking resemblance in their photographs. Lefty was a professional pitcher for most of 16 seasons, appearing in 644 games, a remarkable […]

A tall, slender 6″2″, 175 pounds, Bob Groom possessed an athleticism, cunning, and tenacity that bespoke his roots in the southern Illinois coal fields, where his grandfather and father had found success as mine owner-operators. Born on September 12, 1884 in Belleville, Illinois, to John and Mary Catherine Dickinson Groom, he was named Robert for […]

“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 […]

As Allie Moulton stepped onto the field for his major league baseball debut, he was no doubt already sweating. September 25, 1911, was unseasonably hot and humid—reaching temperatures not seen in Boston for decades. Then again, Allie had endured far worse early in his career playing in Mississippi and Arkansas. He had more reasons to […]

“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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]