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When longtime third baseman and fan favorite Howard Easterling left the Homestead (Washington) Grays after the 1947 season, the team signed a promising young player named Bob Boston to replace him. Boston had played in East Liverpool, Ohio, in 1947 and had a reputation as a slugger. The Grays went to spring training on March […]

Jerry Howarth is the longest-tenured Blue Jay broadcaster to date, having covered the team for more than 36 years. Following brief stints of three games in 1980 and 20 games in 1981, Howarth became a full-time radio voice with the Blue Jays from April 9, 1982, to October 1, 2017.1 Anyone who has heard Howarth […]

The 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords are often considered to be the Negro Leagues’ equivalent of the 1927 New York Yankees. That Yankees team had six future Hall of Fame players: Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Babe Ruth, Earle Combs, Waite Hoyt, and Herb Pennock, along with manager Miller Huggins, general manager Ed Barrow, and owner Jacob Ruppert. […]

After a difficult childhood, a traumatic year in Vietnam, and replacing a legend in San Francisco, Garry Maddox came to Philadelphia in 1975. The “Secretary of Defense” proceeded to win eight consecutive Gold Gloves in center field. As a Phillie, he experienced great depths (an inexplicable error that ended Philadelphia’s 1978 pennant aspirations) and scaled […]

Phil McCullough remembered sitting in sleet and freezing rain in the Washington Senators’ bullpen in Griffith Stadium on April 22, 1942. “It was just a terrible day. We tore up chairs and benches and furniture to make a fire in the bullpen to keep warm. It was so cold.”1 The sturdy (six-foot-four, 204 pounds), curly-haired […]

Joe Schultz, a catcher in his playing days, spent over 40 years in professional baseball. His career included five full seasons and parts of four others as a fringe reserve in the majors. That paved the way for 13 years as a minor-league manager and another 14 as a big-league coach. He was there for […]

Russ Kemmerer pitched a one-hit shutout in his first major-league start, on July 18, 1954, at Fenway Park, leading the Boston Red Sox to a 4-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles. Deprived of a no-hitter in the seventh inning when Sam Mele’s fly ball to left field eluded the outstretched glove of Ted Williams, the […]

Gordon Stanley “Mickey” Cochrane was one of baseball’s greatest catchers. He compiled a .320 lifetime batting average over 13 seasons from 1925 to 1937, handled outstanding pitchers Lefty Grove and Schoolboy Rowe during their record-tying 16-game winning streaks, and in 1947 was the first catcher elected by the Baseball Writers Association of America to the […]

Known as one of the feistiest players in baseball history, Edd Roush channeled that energy into a Hall of Fame career. An old-timer was quoted in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1919 saying that Roush was more like the fiery old Baltimore Orioles of the 1890’s than any other player in the National League. The […]

Herm Winningham’s professional career lasted 13 seasons. Yet only after the third time that he was a first-round draft pick did the speedy outfielder sign and turn pro. He played in the majors with four teams from 1984 through 1992. A skillful defender and bunter, Winningham got into 868 games at the top level, starting […]

This game had everything that makes baseball great — nail-biting tension, great pitching, playoff implications, two rival teams, 17 innings, you name it. Throw a record-setting achievement and a walk-off hit to send the home team off happy, and you’ll get an idea of the marvelous, maddening 1-0 affair between the Expos and the Phillies […]

It was Saturday evening in Boston. Game Six of the 2013 American League Championship Series. The Boston Red Sox had taken a three-games-to-two series lead over the Detroit Tigers with a one-run win in Game Five at Comerica Park. If the Red Sox won Game Six, they’d have gone from last place in the AL […]

It takes two to tango and two to mambo But you can do it all with just one Bombo Bombo Rivera will carry us to victory!— “The Ballad of Bombo Rivera”1   Expos outfielder Bombo Rivera sported a career batting average of .224 with no home runs and four RBIs when the game began. Yet […]

During their 1986 championship quest, the New York Mets minted unforgettable images of late-game magic. Scenes like Lenny Dykstra tracking the flight of a home run that transformed a ninth-inning deficit into National League Championship Series victory. Or Jesse Orosco flinging his glove in the air upon securing a berth in the World Series. Or […]

A confrontation for the ages: Bruce Sutter vs. Mike Schmidt. Two future Hall of Famers with first place on the line. Let’s set the stage: It’s September 14, 1982, and the Philadelphia Phillies, winners of the National League East Division four of the last six seasons, are in their familiar position atop the standings with […]

Even the most “ageless” ballplayers, the ones who hold their places in the game the longest, eventually fade away. Pitcher Luis Tiant’s time came in the late summer of 1982, when he made six final appearances and earned two last wins with the California Angels to wrap up a 19-season big-league career. The Cuban-born fan […]

The 53rd major-league All-Star Game was the first midsummer classic played outside of the United States, and this landmark game paid tribute to both the global nature of the sport and the proud history of professional baseball in Montreal.1 The two-day celebration had a distinctly international flair that went well beyond the public-address announcements in […]

Dwight Gooden called it his “worst game in a long time. ‘I embarrassed myself,’ said Doc. ‘I couldn’t pitch, I couldn’t hit, I couldn’t field.'”1 He also had trouble controlling his curve. But none of that mattered. When the New York Mets walked off the field at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium after their game on April […]

When Guy Hecker tossed a no-hitter against the Alleghenys of Pittsburgh on September 19, 1882, it was a first in several ways: It was the first time the losing team scored a run in a no-hitter. It was the first time a team recorded a second no-hitter for the franchise. It was the first time […]

Chicago’s Wrigley Field had already played host to a visiting team scoring at least one run in every inning of a nine-inning game against the Chicago Cubs. The date was September 13, 1964. The St. Louis Cardinals pounded out 18 hits in a lopsided 15-2 victory. The Cubs aided and abetted the Redbirds that afternoon; […]

The Chicago Cubs were struggling. For the first two months of the season, they were a cute story. Since mid-May, the lovable losers of recent years had spent much of their time in first place in the National League East. Starting on June 6, however, the team lost ten of 16 games. The lowlight was […]

On the Saturday before graduating from high school in June 1961, 18-year-old Lew Krausse Jr. watched from a box seat at Griffith Stadium in Washington, DC, as hurler Norm Bass tossed the Kansas City A’s first shutout of the season.1 Sitting with Krausse was his father, former major-league pitcher Lew Krausse Sr., and their host, […]

The Boston Red Sox celebrated the 100th birthday of Fenway Park on April 20, 2012. Fenway had already become the oldest park in major-league baseball, and coming off a decade of offseason renovations was envisioned to last for at least another 30 or 40 years past 2012. Fenway has hosted more than 8,000 big-league baseball […]