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With baseball nearing the end of its second season of play since the United States declared war on Germany and entered World War I, the game’s continued operation was being called into question by high-ranking military officials, particularly the provost marshal of the US Army, General Enoch Crowder, who was in charge of the military […]

1975 was a year of epic battles. Muhammad Ali won four heavyweight championship bouts including the “Thrilla in Manila” against Joe Frazier; Carlton Fisk jumped into sports history with his game-winning home run clearing Fenway Park’s left-field wall in the bottom of the 12th inning in Game Six of the 1975 World Series; and a […]

A photo in the August 12, 1979, edition of the Chicago Tribune summed up the previous day’s bizarre baseball action at Comiskey Park. White Sox right fielder Claudell Washington stood alone amid an apparent moonscape—on a field covered by a pocked layer of dust, rather than a carpet of grass.1 Faced with a soggy and […]

Some baseball fans of the 1970s and ’80s might say that pitcher Dan Boitano never unlocked his full potential. A three-time first-round draft pick,1 Boitano appeared in just 51 games over five big-league seasons, posting a 2-2 record and a 5.68 ERA. The members of the 1973 Elmira Pioneer-Red Sox2 would be unlikely to agree […]

As the 1978 Los Angeles Dodgers prepared to host the Atlanta Braves in the third game of a four-game series on July 5, the Dodgers were on their way to a third National League pennant in the decade while the Braves were struggling to avoid the fate of another 100-loss season as had befallen them […]

The Minnesota Twins’ defeat of the Baltimore Orioles on September 1, 1979, didn’t make much difference to either team in the long run. The Orioles, leading the American League East Division by eight games, ended the season with the same lead and went to the World Series. The Twins, two games out of first place […]

Fresh off a one-hit shutout of the Kansas City Monarchs, Chicago American Giants right-hander Tom Williams faced the St. Louis Giants, who rivaled Chicago among the hottest teams in the Negro National League in July 1921. Williams outdueled St. Louis’s Bill Drake, limiting the Giants’ powerful lineup to three hits and stranding the bases loaded […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers were on a mission in 1955. The Boys of Summer were planting springtime seeds of success and entered this mid-May game in Chicago with a record of 22-2, leading the National League by 9½ games and undefeated in their first 11 road games.1  With Russ Meyer on the hill, the Dodgers had […]

After administering the worst home-team defeat ever in a World Series opener,1 the Brewers began Game Two against the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium looking for a sweep and a commanding lead to take home to Milwaukee. The Cardinals, who had won the World Series five of the last six times they won Game […]

The New York Mets returned from a six-game road trip to open a three-game weekend series with the Philadelphia Phillies on April 29, 2022. The Mets, who had upgraded their roster over the offseason by adding starting pitchers Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt, reliever Adam Ottavino, and outfielders Starling Marte and Mark Canha, were 14-6 […]

As the 1992 National League Championship Series opened, the Pittsburgh Pirates found themselves facing a familiar foe. In 1991, the Bucs had taken the NL’s best record into its NLCS matchup with the upstart Atlanta Braves, but despite a 3-2 lead in games and home field in Games Six and Seven, they ultimately fell short […]

Remember that Yankee game in June When the Yanks were playing a merry tune And it looked as if the Birds would swoon? Oh, my, goodbye! – Robert Goodman, “That Yankee Game”1   When the New York Yankees came to Baltimore on June 23, 1964, to open a three-game series against the Orioles, the Yankees, […]

Doc Prothro never played professional baseball until he was 26 years old. He was a dentist with his own practice in Dyersburg, Tennessee pitching for a town team when he was spotted by a scout and signed, skipping the minor leagues and heading straight to a major-league debut in Washington DC. He spent over a […]

If the New York Mets only had confidence in Wayne Garrett as their starting third baseman, the franchise might have never traded Nolan Ryan and Amos Otis. Instead, New York’s National League team spent nearly every offseason during Garrett’s 7½-year Mets tenure searching for someone else to take over the third-base job. Considered a good […]

Bobby Maier would have been forgiven for harboring some bitterness toward manager Steve O’Neill and the Detroit Tigers. For most of 1945, the 29-year-old rookie had started at third base for the Tigers, doing a consistent if unspectacular job at the plate while proving perhaps less reliable with the glove. But as Detroit entered the […]

Outfielder Chaney White had a 17-year career in the Negro major leagues from 1920 through 1936. During that time, he was a member of numerous championship teams that included squads in various Negro Leagues, the Cuban Winter League, the Florida Hotel League, and the California Winter League. In 1934, at age 40, he was still […]

Romeo had Juliet, Anthony had Cleopatra, and the borough of Brooklyn had their Dodgers. Theirs was a love affair that included the likes of Duke, Campy, Pee Wee, Newk and Jackie. But the name of only one of the Boys of Summer was translated into Brooklynese. The 5-foot-10, 165-pound right-hander, with the large number 17 […]

A fiery, redheaded, energetic catcher, Ivey Wingo retired with the National League record for games caught in a career, 1,233. Wingo was a popular man with teammates and fans. His belief in civic duty was demonstrated in 1918 when it was noted in a Sporting News article that he had purchased $7,000 in Liberty Bonds […]

Chuck Dobson might be best remembered as one of the first white players to room with an African-American on road trips, and as the first active player to admit using “greenies” (amphetamines) while playing. But that would be a disservice to the hard-throwing right-hander who seemed destined for a long career in the big leagues […]

The Washington Senators played in Griffith Stadium for 50 years (1911-1960). But only once, on August 8, 1931, did a Senators pitcher toss a no-hitter in the nation’s capital. The author of that gem was southpaw Bobby Burke, who fashioned a 38-46 record in parts of 10 seasons as a spot starter and reliever (1927-1935, […]

In the time when Giants walked the earth and roamed the Polo Grounds, none was more honored than Christy Mathewson. Delivering all four of his pitches, including his famous “fadeaway” (now called a screwball), with impeccable control and an easy motion, the right-handed Mathewson was the greatest pitcher of the Deadball Era’s first decade, compiling […]

History has not been kind to Don McMahon. Now largely forgotten, McMahon had a very long –often excellent – career, pitched in the postseason four times, helped win two world championships, and was clearly one of baseball’s best relief pitchers in a number of seasons. Playing in the days before the closer became such a […]

Ese Hombre — That Man — was Willard Brown’s nickname in Puerto Rico. The outfielder was one of the most feared hitters in the Negro Leagues, but he was an absolute wrecking ball in the Puerto Rican Winter League. He won the Triple Crown twice there, in 1947-48 and 1949-50. Unfortunately, he played just 21 […]

Left-hander Dean Stone spent parts of eight seasons in the major leagues, pitching for six different teams and compiling a career record of 29-39 with a 4.47 earned run average in 686 innings. His most celebrated moment was almost certainly his being the winning pitcher of the 1954 All-Star Game without officially facing even one […]