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Imagine the right guard from your favorite NFL team pitching for your favorite MLB squad. Nearly a century ago that scenario was played out by Garland “Gob” Buckeye, who opened holes for the Chicago Cardinals and threw fastballs for the Cleveland Indians. Garland’s size was often mentioned in the press. Over the years he was […]

An every-other-year major leaguer, Gary Fortune was a switch-hitting pitcher – a right-hander on the mound – who wound up 0-5 in his big-league career. He pitched for the Phillies in 1916 and 1918, and for the Red Sox in 1920. His 0-5 record reflected a 6.61 career earned run average. He wasn’t any better […]

Frank Strong Lary, a talented, hard-throwing right hander for the Detroit Tigers, proved to be one of the American League’s best pitchers from 1955 through 1961. An All-Star hurler in 1960 and 1961, he was best known as the “Yankee Killer.” While fashioning a major league lifetime record of 128-116 with an ERA of 3.49, […]

It simply should not have taken six years for Gary Carter to get into the Hall of Fame. He was one of the best catchers of his era, and many observers put him in the top ten in major-league history. He was an outstanding defender with a strong arm who did all the other things […]

One must wonder just how good Gary Geiger would have been if he hadn’t had so many physical ailments and mishaps. Frank Lane, who was Geiger’s first major-league general manager and knew his abilities as well as anyone, summarized it best: “If God had given Gary a sound body, he might have been one of the […]

In 1886 the 19-year-old rookie set a major-league record with 513 strikeouts, a record that has stood for a century and a quarter and will probably never be equaled. His next season was one of the most dominant ever pitched in the history of baseball. As an amateur he was known as the Boy Wonder; […]

Among the last generation of legendary ivory hunters who covered Southern California in the 1960s to 1980s, no name inspired more fear, trepidation, intimidation, antagonism, and grudging respect than that of Bob Zuk. The cigar-chomping son of Russian immigrants who fashioned a 46-year professional scouting career out of little more than energy, intellect, hustle, and […]

“Pete Hill was the first great outfielder in black baseball history,” suggests baseball historian Lawrence Hogan.1 The left-handed Hill was a five-tool star with several famed independent African-American teams: the Philadelphia Giants (1904 to 1907), Leland Giants (1908 to 1910), and Chicago American Giants (1911 to 1918). He then slugged his way to Ruthian heights […]

In 1976, Larry Parrish had batted only .232 in 154 games, and his prospects in 1977 appeared cloudy. However, he had a torrid spring and was named the starting third baseman by Expos manager Dick Williams. Unfortunately the hopes of spring soon faded as Parrish slumped both at the plate and in the field, and […]

Gary Carter earned the nickname “Kid” when he first came to spring training with the Montreal Expos at age 19 in 1973.1 He, along with Larry Parrish, Ellis Valentine, André Dawson, and pitcher Steve Rogers, would turn out to be the core players of this franchise in the late 1970s and early 1980s. But Carter, […]

Already the author of both a pair of one-hitters and two-hitters in his fledgling career, Silvio Martinez of the St. Louis Cardinals came within four outs of a no-hitter against the high-flying Montreal Expos on June 27, 1979, at Busch Stadium. Backup catcher Duffy Dyer, with a lifetime .232 batting average entering the 1979 season, […]

History was on the verge of being made when Dwight Gooden took the mound on August 25, 1985. After a stellar rookie season in 1984, Gooden’s sophomore season had been just as spectacular. If he won this afternoon, Gooden, at 20 years, 9 months, and 9 days old, would become the youngest 20-game winner in […]

It didn’t take long for St. Louis Cardinals fans to appreciate Bruce Sutter. In the Cardinals’ second game of the 1981 season, the right-handed relief ace pitched three nearly flawless innings to earn the save in a 7-3 victory over the defending World Series champion Philadelphia Phillies on April 12 at Busch Stadium. Sutter, the […]

Sunday, July 2, 1961, was a muggy day at Yankee Stadium, with game-time temperatures in the low 90s. The expansion Washington Senators were finishing a three-game set against the New York Yankees, who were going for a series sweep and seeking to move closer to the first-place Detroit Tigers. This game illustrated the challenges any […]

There was no shortage of outstanding performances in Gary Carter’s Hall of Fame career. Twice he blasted three home runs in a game, and he drove in seven runs in another regular-season matchup.1 In the 1981 All-Star Game, Carter hit two round-trippers to lead the National League to a 5-4 win. Some of his greatest […]

In football they talk about “statement” games, when Team A thrashes Team B, thus sending a message to the opponent and the world that Team A is damn good and don’t you forget it. There are too many games in a baseball season to pinpoint one match as a “statement” game. But the Montreal Expos […]

The 1979 All-Star Game was the first held in Seattle, the largest city in the Pacific Northwest. Played before a sellout crowd of 58,905 in the Astroturf-carpeted Kingdome,1 it was the 50th midsummer classic and the second ever in a domed stadium.2 Home to the American League Mariners – in their third season as an […]

With due respect to Ted Williams, for Montreal fans there was only one Kid. And if any player ever bled the colors of a franchise, it was The Kid, Gary Carter, who became the face of the Expos and led it through sometimes faltering steps from being an expansion novelty to a contender in the […]

The lineups remained unchanged for Game Three of the 1967 World Series. Two right-handers were assigned mound duties. Boston’s hard-throwing Gary Bell (12-8, 3.16) faced curveballer Nelson Briles, who sparked the St. Louis staff after Gibson’s broken leg. Briles (14-5, 2.43 ERA) finished the year winning nine straight decisions after August 1. Though he’d had […]

A season after dropping its first All-Star Game since 1971, the National League returned to its winning ways by beating the American League, 3-1, in the 1984 midsummer classic at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, in a game featuring record-breaking strikeout pitching. Eighty-one-year-old Carl Hubbell, ace of the Giants in their New York incarnation who fanned […]

On the night of August 25, 1980, an armed man described as “screaming” and “ranting and raving” entered Miami Stadium in Miami, Florida, between games of a Class A minor-league doubleheader. He shot one fan in the neck, causing a minor wound, then turned to leave. When two other fans chased him, he shot them […]

Gary Carter had been The Sporting News’ National League Rookie Player of the Year in 1975.1 He was the Montreal Expos’ sole representative at the 1975 All-Star Game and the recipient of the team’s Player-of-the-Year Award.2 But despite all of the accolades, Carter went into spring training in 1976 battling for playing time at catcher […]

The Baltimore Orioles entered the 1983 World Series on an absolute roll. They took the AL East by six games and dispatched the Chicago White Sox four games to one in the ALCS. The White Sox were a very good team — they had won the AL West by a margin of 20 games — […]