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A sellout crowd of 30,111 watched their hometown Cincinnati Reds fall to the Los Angeles Dodgers by a score of 3–2 in the 1969 National League opener. This game “launched the second century of professional baseball in the city where the Cincinnati Red Stockings were organized in 1869.”1 Don Drysdale and Bill Singer of the […]

The Milwaukee Brewers were 44-39 midway through July 1983, not matching their pace of the previous year when they won the American League pennant. Not only that, in in a loaded American League East Division in 1983, they were buried in fifth place. Their opponents for a Saturday night game at County Stadium on July […]

As much as the All-Star Game is a celebration of baseball’s history and a recognition of its current and future stars, it is also a celebration of place, and Oriole Park at Camden Yards played its role perfectly in 1993. The ballpark opened in 1992 as a reminder of classic ballparks of an earlier era, […]

Game Three brought a change of scenery to the World Series as play shifted to Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium, but the cold, rainy weather of Baltimore had followed along and would again affect the outcome of events. In spite of the conditions, 50,848 fans packed the nine-year-old ballpark for the Pirates’ homecoming in the hopes […]

Conspiracy theorists love coincidences. They point out that John F. Kennedy’s secretary’s name was Lincoln and Lincoln’s secretary’s name was Kennedy and somehow see that as connecting two presidential assassinations that occurred almost 100 years apart. What, then, to make of the fact that Tim Foli, the first Expo to hit for the cycle, was […]

For teams already eliminated from a pennant race, the last game of a season typically means very little. In many of these instances, managers, players, and umpires might be more concerned about bringing the final game to a swift end to facilitate an expedited trip back to their offseason homes. For bench players and untested […]

In 1987, Ken “The Kid” Griffey Jr. truly was a kid: Just 17 years old, he was beginning his pro baseball career with the Bellingham (Washington) Mariners of the Northwest League. The first half of June 1987 was undoubtedly a whirlwind for the teenager, who had recently graduated from Archbishop Moeller High School in Cincinnati. […]

The story of the Philadelphia Athletics’ 24-2 shellacking of the Detroit Tigers on May 18, 1912, actually started three days earlier with an incident involving Ty Cobb and a spectator during the Detroit Tigers’ 8-4 victory over the New York Highlanders at Hilltop Park in New York. The succession of events that followed produced an […]

It all came down to this one game. The Dodgers and the Mets had battled through the first six games of the 1988 National League Championship Series. A crowd of 55,693 packed Dodger Stadium to see who would go to the World Series and face the Oakland A’s, who had swept the Boston Red Sox […]

“Hands off the umpire” is one of the bedrock rules of baseball, equally applicable from Little League to the big leagues. Professional players, managers, and coaches who break the rule generally find themselves fined and suspended – especially if the contact is prolonged, intentional, and clearly hostile. Still, in a tight game or a close […]

It seems that the Expos wanted to give their fans a lifetime of memories as quickly as possible. As if the inaugural game at Shea Stadium or the first home win at Jarry Park weren’t memorable enough, the Expos quickly adopted a flair for the dramatic in just the franchise’s ninth game, on April 17, […]

After a rough rookie season with the lowly St. Louis Browns in 1933, Jack Knott emerged as a rubber-armed swingman-reliever. He appeared in more games over a four-year stretch (1934-1937) than any other AL hurler, and later transitioned into a once-a-week-type starter for the Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Athletics. Like those of many players […]

Homer Simpson may live forever in baseball history as the man who pinch hit for Darryl Strawberry—who had already hit nine home runs (four-base hits often dubbed “homers”)—in the 1992 City Championship game between Springfield and Shelbyville. It was Simpson who knocked in the winning run, being knocked out in the process, and gave victory […]

The names of baseball’s most famous lineups are familiar: Murderers’ Row, the Big Red Machine, the Black Sox. The people who make up those lineups are familiar, too: Ruth, Rose, Shoeless Joe. However, even baseball’s most prominent teams include men more or less forgotten to history. Of the nine men in the starting lineup for […]

“That long, long list of pitchers…like a lost platoon.”[1] So the Chicago Tribune described the many young hurlers who came through the Cubs system in the late 1960s. Some of those prospects went on to better things after trades, but others got only a cup of coffee – if that. Pat Jacquez – the elder […]

Just five lefty pitchers born and raised in Hawaii have made it to the majors.1 Carlos Diaz was the third. In December 1983, coming off his best season, the wiry reliever was part of a unique trade involving Hawaiian lefty #4, Sid Fernandez. That deal paid off for the New York Mets. Fernandez was a […]

Jess Pike’s story isn’t one of glory, fame, or the ascent to the top of the baseball world. Pike’s story is, instead, about a persistent commitment to the game that paid off in small victories and one short stint in the spotlight. Born in a tiny Great Plains town to a large family of Native […]

If you had to guess, you would say that Warren Cromartie’s lucky number was 3. After all, he played baseball, a game that has three strikes, three outs, and three bases. And he played in three countries (the United States, Canada, and Japan) where the people speak three languages (English, French, and Japanese). Warren Livingston […]

If the Detroit Tigers had only won their final game of the 1967 season, Lee Stange would have started the most important game in nearly 20 years for the Boston Red Sox. After the Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins on the last day of the magical season, manager Dick Williams told Stange to take […]

“The Washington public went enthusiastically, almost insanely, baseball mad” on the day of Hack Eibel’s debut. So wrote the Washington Post.  This happened when “Clark Griffith’s ambitious climbers batted the ‘13’ hoodoo all to pieces.”[1]  It was the 13th of the month of June and the Nationals had 13 hits, adding another win to a 13-game winning […]

The Joe Vosmik story is the classic American tale in which the scion of an immigrant family falls in love with the national game of the family’s adopted country. Vosmik’s tale has all the required elements: precocious skills, early passion, an indulgent father, a disapproving mother who later relents and shares her son’s ardor, obsession, […]

Pitcher Chet Kehn (pronounced keen) appeared in just three games for the Brooklyn Dodgers in April and May 1942. He got no decisions and posted a 7.04 ERA. Yet he holds a distinctive position in baseball annals, being one of just 10 big leaguers to hit 1.000 in a career of more than one at-bat.1 […]

In one sense he did it all, playing for four big league teams and in a World Series. But it was the summer after he spiraled all the way from the majors to a middling minor league that gave Joe Wilhoit an enduring place in baseball. There he set a record threatened seriously only by […]

“Just take the ball and throw it where you want to. Throw strikes. Home plate don’t move.” — Satchel Paige   Three decades before Don Larsen threw his perfect game in the ’56 World Series, a 22-year-old Negro League pitcher “down the Shore” beat his big-city counterpart to the postseason punch. Claude “Red” Grier joined […]