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As a visitor, Willie Stargell made power-hitting memories in many National League ballparks: upper-deck shots at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium and Montreal’s Olympic Stadium,1 a swimming pool splashdown at Montreal’s Jarry Park,2 the first two home runs to completely clear Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium,3 and a potential four-homer day at Chicago’s Wrigley Field denied by a […]

Wrigley Field has seen its share of wild games over the past 100-plus years, and the September 24, 1985, contest between the Montreal Expos and the hometown Chicago Cubs ranks right up there. Andre Dawson belted three home runs – two in one inning – to help the Expos build a 13-run lead, only to […]

One of the California Angels’ shortcomings in 1992 was a lack of production from their cleanup hitters. As the season trudged into August and the Angels sat 12 games below .500, interim manager John Wathan thought of a new way to try to get some production from the fourth slot in the lineup—bring up the […]

“Unloved and unappreciated, it will be un-missed.”1   That’s how the Detroit Free Press described Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium on the cusp of the Blue Jays’ final game there. Yet for many on hand to say goodbye to the facility that had been home to the expansion Blue Jays since their 1977 debut, the May 28, […]

As future Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson approached Ty Cobb’s career runs-scored record of 2,244,1 he said that when the moment arrived, he “promised he would slide into home plate to officially mark his reign as baseball’s career runs leader.”2 In the 159th game of the 2001 season, before a home crowd of 21,606, Henderson, […]

With an eye toward returning to the top of the baseball world, the 1983 Philadelphia Phillies united three key players from the 1976 World Series champion Cincinnati Reds to boost their roster. Joe Morgan, 39 years old, was acquired from the San Francisco Giants to play second base and 40-year-old Tony Pérez, who had spent […]

The August 28-30 four-game showdown between the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians had been much anticipated for weeks. The peculiarities of the scheduling had kept the two American League contenders apart since July 10.1 On that date, the Indians finished play with a two-game lead over the second-place Go-Go Sox. The White Sox arrived […]

The 1959 New York Yankees (79-75) posted the franchise’s lowest win total since 1925, finishing a distant third behind the first-place Chicago White Sox (94-60) and the second-place Cleveland Indians (89-65). It was a significant dip in the Yankees’ fortunes after 10 American League pennants and 8 World Series titles in the previous 12 seasons. […]

As a homegrown All-Star with the Houston Astros, the beloved Le Grand Orange in the earliest days of the Montreal Expos,1 and a 100-RBI man with the New York Mets and Detroit Tigers, Rusty Staub became a fan favorite in multiple cities across an accomplished 23-season major-league career.2 Staub’s big-league journey – which began as […]

After a regular season in which the Negro American League’s Cleveland Buckeyes and Negro National League’s New York Cubans dominated their respective competition, they met in a Negro League World Series that proved to be the next to last postseason series in league history. When former Negro League star Jackie Robinson made his groundbreaking major-league […]

From Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale to Sam McDowell, Bob Veale, and Jim Bunning, baseball in the 1960s witnessed some of the hardest-throwing and most intimidating pitchers in the sport’s history. Included in that fraternity of strikeout artists was Jim Maloney, who broke in with the Cincinnati Reds as a 20-year-old rookie in 1960. Four […]

The 39,170 spectators who packed Wrigley Field on September 12, 1998, weren’t so much interested in the visiting Milwaukee Brewers (70-78 and 25 games behind the Central Division-leading Houston Astros. Their focus was on the Cubs, who with an 82-66 record were tied with the New York Mets in the National League wild-card race and […]

Bob Osborn was a right-handed pitcher for the Chicago Cubs and the Pittsburgh Pirates in parts of six seasons from 1925 until 1931.  A spot starter and reliever in 1926 and 1927 for the Cubs, Osborn spent all of 1928 and most of 1929 in the minor leagues before Chicago made him a late-season call-up […]

The name John Lickert flickered momentarily at baseball’s top level. On September 19, 1981, the catcher appeared in half an inning for the Boston Red Sox. The game ended before he stepped into the batter’s box, and though he played on in the minors through 1985, he was never seen again in a big-league box […]

Norm Cash would have loved it. The story drew upon metaphors including baseball, the Old West, and the camaraderie of friends. Its title, City Slickers, was evocative of the relationship between the burly cowboy and the legions of brewers, auto manufacturers, and teamsters who became his fans. The director, Billy Crystal, who also played the […]

No pitcher born and raised in Hawaii has had more wins in the majors than Sid Fernandez, who notched 114 (against 96 losses) from 1983 through 1997. Charlie Hough (216) grew up in Hialeah, Florida. Ron Darling (136) looked the part of a Hawaiian, thanks to his Chinese-Hawaiian mother, but he called Massachusetts home from […]

He was perhaps named after one of the German emperors named Friedrich Wilhelm, or after German philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche. Frederick William Muller was born on December 21, 1907, a son of German immigrants George and Mary Muller. George Muller worked as a laborer in a varnish factory at the time of the 1920 US […]

Arvell “Bill” Riggins, a shortstop-third baseman who played from 1920 to 1935, was an under-appreciated player whose professional career began at the same time as the first Negro National League.1 Riggins hit for a solid .292 average over the course of his career in Black baseball’s major leagues but has remained less well known than […]

Son of a great baseball man, scout and executive Mel Didier, Bob Didier has been in the game for more than five decades, almost as long as his father. He was a professional catcher from 1967 through 1976, including one full season and parts of five others in the majors. He has since served as […]

Hershell Freeman was a right-handed pitcher who started his career with the Boston Red Sox in 1952, but had his best years with the Cincinnati Reds, in particular 1956, when he led the majors in closing games and posted a record remarkable for a relief pitcher: 14-5. He was later named a member of the […]

Jacobs Field in Cleveland was the site for Major League Baseball’s 68th All-Star Game on July 8, 1997. A sold-out crowd of 44,916 turned out for the midsummer classic as it returned to the shores of Lake Erie for the first time since 1981. The host Indians ended the first half of the season on […]

What does Phil Garner have in common with Sir Edmund Hillary and Neil Armstrong? The answer is that all three performed feats never before achieved by humankind. Sir Edmund was the first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon. And Phil Garner […]

Louis Frank Klein, Jr. was an international baseball lifer who had a travelogue of experiences. Perhaps best known as one of 22 major league players who jumped to the outlaw Mexican League and for his tenure as a rotating manager in the Chicago Cubs’ College of Coaches, Klein had a varied and colorful career. The […]

“Terrapin Park, Federal League, Baltimore Md,” postcard published by The Chessler Company. (Courtesy of David B. Stinson.)   Terrapin Park, also known as Oriole Park (V), was the home of the Federal League Baltimore Terrapins in 1914 and 1915, the International League Orioles from 1916 to 1944, and parttime home field to the Negro National […]