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It was an explosive night in Pittsburgh: St. Louis Cardinals hitters finally broke out of a grueling slump and Bob Gibson avenged a loss in one of his most commanding performances in a dominant season. Pirates rookie Freddie Patek called Gibson “the hardest throwing pitcher I’ve seen,” while All-Star Gene Alley could only shake his […]

It was the 1999 American League Division Series, pitting the 94-68 Boston Red Sox, who had finished behind the Yankees in the East, against the AL Central-winning Cleveland Indians (97-65). The Indians had won the first two games in the best-of-five series. They won the first game 3-2 with a tie-breaking run in the bottom […]

When St. Louis Browns coach Charley O’Leary pinch-hit in the final game of the 1934 season, the fans at Navin Field in Detroit thought they were witnessing nothing more than a bit of harmless fun to liven up a relatively meaningless contest. At the time, O’Leary, a veteran of 833 games with the hometown Tigers […]

The phrase “first-place Montreal Expos” still had a novel ring when the Expos met the Philadelphia Phillies on the night of May 15, 1974. That season was Montreal’s sixth in the National League, and the first in which the Expos held first place at any point after the end of April. Gene Mauch’s Expos entered […]

With one day left in the American League schedule, Detroit’s Heinie Manush was battling New York’s Babe Ruth for the league batting crown. Both batters were hitting .372; Manush was 182-for-489 (.37219), while Ruth was 184-for-494 (.37247). The outcome would be decided on this Sunday afternoon. Just below them was Detroit’s Bob Fothergill, at .360. […]

The New York Mets and Kansas City Royals squared off for the fourth game of the 2015 World Series on October 31. Noah Syndergaard had fired up the Mets with his solid performance in Game Three. It was now Steve Matz’s turn to take the mound. This was a dream come true for the left-hander. […]

Lyall Smith, sports editor of the Detroit Free Press, made a surprisingly detailed prediction early in 1954 spring training. In one of his columns, Smith “guessed” that 36-year-old outfielder Pat Mullin, the senior member of the Detroit Tigers in both age and service time, would be cut from the team and become a player-coach with […]

Four days after the Cleveland Indians’ disappointing 1961 season ended, general manager Gabe Paul obtained right-handed pitcher Dick Donovan from the Washington Senators, trading starting center fielder Jimmy Piersall for Donovan, catcher-outfielder Gene Green, and infielder Jim Mahoney. Donovan was expected to give the Indians’ young pitching staff some veteran leadership.1 Piersall, who turned 32 […]

Frank Robinson’s solo home run in the first inning was all the offense Baltimore needed, but the Orioles scored a total of 17 runs on as many hits in the first five frames to secure a blowout victory over the Chicago White Sox on July 27, 1969. According to the Baltimore Sun, “The merry-go-round was […]

A modest crowd of 9,018 fans gathered at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field on Saturday, April 18, 1970, as much of the nation was riveted on activities that took place earlier in the week many thousands of miles above the Earth. Millions of TV sets across the land were focused on the return to Earth and dramatic […]

Manny Mota never seemed to age. “He’s scary,” said Steve Garvey, his teammate with the Los Angeles Dodgers. “I wish just one spring he would show up with one gray hair.”1 That was in June 1979, a couple of months before the Dominican set the career record for pinch hits. Mota wound up with 150 […]

Many baseball players from the New Orleans area signed professional contracts in the 1930s and 1940s. Ray Yochim rode the wave, along with other signees from his high school that included future major-leaguers Lou Klein, Mel Parnell, George Strickland, and Jack Kramer. Yochim missed three formative years of his professional development as a pitcher owing […]

In sports, college or professional, individual or team, nothing captures a fan’s interest quite like a streak. This is especially true with baseball. Whether it is a team’s winning or losing streak or a player’s performance within the chalked lines, the fanfare and pressure may build each day. The fervent fan or even the uninformed […]

Chuck LaMar once commented, “I’m a baseball guy and my heart lies with the people out in the field. … I was one of those and I started out in professional baseball as an area scout and I drove 50,000 miles a year away from the wife and those kiddos as much as anybody so […]

Catcher Matt Sinatro was one of the more highly touted players ever to come out of the state of Connecticut. The Atlanta Braves selected him with the first pick of the second round of the 1978 June Amateur Draft. During a 15-year professional career, Sinatro played in parts of 10 major-league seasons with four different […]

“Versatility will keep me in the game a long time,” said Eddie Jurak in 1983.1 Indeed, Jurak was a true utility player. Primarily a shortstop, he appeared at every position as a professional save pitcher and catcher. Spring training 1984 summed up his job approach. He carried four different gloves with him, one suited for […]

He won 31 games as a 20-year-old minor-leaguer and became one of the top young pitching prospects in the country. One publication described Kid Camp as follows: “He is a wonder. Quick and agile as a cat with muscles of iron, he is a representative of the highest type of ball players.”1 Another predicted that […]

Should the National League permanently adopt the designated hitter, Puerto Rican infielder Mario Ramirez’s big league career from 1980 through 1985 will serve as a time capsule of forgotten strategy. A lifetime .192 hitter in just 184 games, known primarily for his glove, he was nevertheless used as a pinch hitter on 39 occasions and […]

A towering Southern farm boy with the mind of an engineer, pitcher Ernie Shore is forever linked with Babe Ruth. Teammates on three clubs and in two World Series, they together tossed what many fans and some historians long considered a perfect game—albeit an odd one in which the Babe faced the first batter and […]

Glenn Beckert had a good-but-not-great career for the good-but-not-great Chicago Cubs teams of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Those teams starred a quartet of baseball immortals in Ernie Banks, Ferguson Jenkins, Ron Santo, and Billy Williams. Steadily and sometimes spectacularly manning the keystone sack and batting second, Beckert made four All-Star teams, received MVP […]

In four seasons, right-hander Al Schroll pitched for four major-league ball clubs – the Red Sox and Twins in the American League and the Phillies and Cubs in the National League. He won a total of six games and lost nine. Schroll was lucky to be alive, not to mention making the major leagues; a […]

A goal of every major leaguer is to play on a team destined for the World Series.  While individuals are in the game for money and personal achievement, being part of a team going to the fall classic is a treasured experience. Nearly 50 years after Minnesota took the 1965 championship, Jerry Fosnow – who […]

By the time Mike Schmidt retired early in the 1989 season, he was regarded as perhaps the greatest all-around third baseman in baseball history. No major-leaguer hit more homers during the 1980s, but he was not a one-dimensional threat: he curbed his tendency to strike out and stole bases when needed. In the field, he […]

“You Called That A What …?”The Newsletter of the Official Scoring Committee Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Spring 2016, Volume 1, Number 1 Past newsletters   Editor: Stew Thornley Howdy Conundrum of the Month (or Quarter or Whatever) Committee Meeting at SABR Convention (a Scene You Should Make) What’s Shakin’? Conundrum Answer Everyone’s an […]