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The New York Yankees were hurting. The 1961 AL Fireman of the Year, Luis Arroyo, had not pitched since the end of April and was on the disabled list with a sore elbow.1 Mickey Mantle had torn a muscle in his right thigh on May 18 while running out a grounder for the final out […]

On April 10, 1963, the US nuclear submarine USS Thresher sank in the Atlantic Ocean during a test dive about 220 miles east of Boston, with a loss of 112 sailors and 17 civilian technicians, scientists, and observers. Eighty-six of those lost were reportedly New England residents.1 The men aboard the Thresher left behind 187 […]

Only 17 men born in North Dakota have appeared in a major-league baseball game.1 The first to do so was Truck Hannah, starting catcher for the New York Yankees on Opening Day, April 15, 1918. James Harrison Hannah was born near Larimore, Dakota Territory, on June 5, 1889, less than five months before President Grover […]

The 1986 Mets led the NL in scoring, but pitching was the club’s backbone. The staff was anchored by four legitimate All-Stars, right-handers Dwight Gooden and Ron Darling, and southpaws Sid Fernandez and Bob Ojeda, each of whom won at least 15 games, logged in excess of 200 innings pitched, and had a winning percentage […]

This game featured five future Hall of Famers, yet Montreal Expos manager Dick Williams likened it to one of his son’s Little League games.1 “(The) last time I was at a Little League game (to watch one of his sons) the Commissioner threw me out for going on the field,” said Williams. “I haven’t been […]

As Pete Rose stood on second base, basking in the cheers of the Expos faithful on hand for the 1984 home opener, it’s reasonable to think that he was feeling pretty good. He had made it through the most difficult offseason of his major-league career to that point, with the Expos the only team to […]

Montreal’s 24-year-old right-hander Charlie Lea was an unlikely candidate to toss the first no-hitter in the history of Olympic Stadium. Pounded in his first two starts in 1981 (nine runs in 6⅔ innings), Lea held the San Francisco Giants hitless on Mother’s Day. “I’m not the type of person who jumps up and down,” he […]

Richard Alan Trlicek’s professional baseball career began with the 1987 amateur draft when the Philadelphia Phillies, having spotted him at La Grange (Texas) High School. selected him in fourth round of the draft. The 6-foot-3, 18-year-old right-handed pitcher signed his first contract days later and started the climb from low-A ball to the major leagues […]

An accepted piece of conventional wisdom in baseball says that if you can pitch a baseball with your left hand you can pitch for a long time regardless of how well you do so. The rarity of left-handers in general and pitchers in particular make the combination one of the sport’s most coveted assets. One […]

At 3:36 P.M. on October 13, 1960, Fred Green watched a ball hit by Bill Mazeroski sail over the left-field wall as Forbes Field erupted into bedlam. The improbable Pirates pulled off their stunning upset over the highly favored New York Yankees! Years later, Fred’s widow, Mona, shared her husband’s feeling on the experience: “Fred’s […]

Ron Hassey is the only catcher to have been behind the plate for two perfect games in the major leagues. Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Mike Piazza, Mickey Cochrane, Carlton Fisk, Gary Carter, and Roy Campanella did not catch any. Buster Posey, Yogi Berra, and Iván Rodríguez have “only” one to their name. In fact, […]

Who’d have thought that almost a decade after Pete Henning’s final major-league game he could run afoul of none other than Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis? What’s more, he was connected to an obscure aftereffect of the momentous 1919 Black Sox Scandal. Yet Henning didn’t even have American or National League experience; he peaked as […]

John Buzhardt pitched in both major leagues from 1958 through 1968, primarily as a starter for the Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago White Sox. He compiled a 71-96 won-lost record, and dominated the New York Yankees while with the White Sox, where he was in a rotation that ranked with the best in the American League. […]

Entering the last day of the 1939 season New York Yankees’ righty Steve Sundra owned an unblemished 11-0 record, but a September 30 home run from Boston Red Sox rookie Ted Williams spoiled that. From 1900-60 Sundra’s .917 winning percentage ranked fifth among pitchers with 10 or more decisions in a single season. Combined with […]

David Alexander Liddell is the only New York Mets position player to bat a perfect 1.000 for his career.1 Born on June 15, 1966, in Los Angeles,2 Liddell had the proverbial “cup of coffee” in the major leagues, getting a pinch-hit single in what turned out to be his only at-bat in the major leagues. […]

In 1935, The Sporting News captured in a few sentences the early (possibly entire) playing career of Joe Bowman: “[He] was something of a humpty-dumpty, with more ups and downs than [heavyweight boxer] Max Baer, when he started out to follow baseball as a profession. Indeed, at one time, the right-hander didn’t know from one […]

This article appears in SABR’s “Baseball’s Biggest Blowout Games” (2020), edited by Bill Nowlin.   There are a number of blowout games in the Negro Leagues. Alan Cohen drew my attention to one such blowout. He wrote: “On May 31, 1943, the Homestead Grays defeated the Baltimore Elite Giants 17-0 at Griffith Stadium in Washington, […]