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Bob Welch may be most famous for his epic strikeout of Reggie Jackson to end Game Two of the 1978 World Series. He did that as a 21-year-old rookie for the Los Angeles Dodgers. But the tall, lean right-hander enjoyed many other highlights over a 17-year career. He won 211 games, including 27 in 1990, when he […]

After a highly successful playing career as both a slick-fielding infielder and a slugger, Davey Johnson went on to an even more decorated career as a manager. His winning percentage of .562 is 10th all-time among managers with 1,000 victories, and is surpassed by only Earl Weaver among pilots who began their career after 1960. […]

“Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.” This remark has been credited (dubiously) to the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, a contemporary of Boston pitcher Jim Sullivan. This saying could apply to Sullivan starting in the mid-1890s, when he experienced deep sorrow repeatedly. At least […]

In 1955 the Kansas City Athletics coaching staff “observed [rookie right-hander Art] Ditmar during spring training and prophesied that he was destined for distinction on the mound.”1 This bright assessment was echoed three years later by New York Yankees manager Casey Stengel, who said, “I believe … Ditmar could grow into one of the big […]

Fleet-footed Dode Paskert was one of the finest defensive center fielders of the Deadball Era. “It is no exaggeration to say that Paskert is one of the greatest judges of a fly ball in the game today,” wrote Baseball Magazine‘s J. C. Kofoed in 1915. “Those who have seem him circle, hawk-like, turn his back […]

Though a renowned power hitter in 12 seasons in the Pacific Coast League and a bit player in a handful of films at midcentury, Frankie Kelleher’s top billing as a slugger and a star is perhaps dubiously enshrined in a one-night performance he sparked on a hot Los Angeles Sunday afternoon in 1953, a scene […]

A tall, rangy, 6-feet-4 Don Demeter played major-league baseball for 11 seasons, mostly patrolling the outfield grass, while also spending time at the infield corners. A man of deep abiding faith, he was a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and a pastor in his hometown, Oklahoma City.1 A very highly regarded player during […]

As a rookie with the 1947 Chicago American Giants, Johnny Ritchey won the Negro American League batting title. The following year he broke the Pacific Coast League color barrier playing for his hometown San Diego Padres. In 1951, he became the first Black professional baseball player in Vancouver, British Columbia, and won the Western International […]

As confetti filled the sky within Raymond James Stadium on January 9, 2017, Clemson assistant football coach Bill Spiers soaked it all in. The Tigers — representing his alma mater, and the team of which his son Will was a member — had just beaten the Alabama Crimson Tide 35-31 in a dramatic national championship […]

Ruth Kramer Hartman played for the Fort Wayne Daisies of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during the 1946 and 1947 regular seasons, then with the Grand Rapids Chicks in the 1947 league playoffs. Before playing in the AAGPBL, Ruth was one of the top softball pitchers in her hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania. After baseball […]

On April 29, 1995, rookie right fielder Jon Nunnally became the first Kansas City Royals player to hit a home run in his first big-league at-bat. Five years later, on June 28, 2000, Nunnally did it again, when he homered on his first plate appearance as a player for the Orix BlueWave in Osaka, Japan. […]

The Pawtucket Red Sox were supposed to have one final season in 2020 – one last go-round to honor the deep-rooted connection between the Boston Red Sox and the city in northern Rhode Island before their half-century of affiliation ended. Pawtucket had hosted Boston’s Triple-A affiliate since 1973 and was home to its Double-A team […]

From 1980 to 1982, Greg Minton of the San Francisco Giants reigned as one of the premier relief pitchers in baseball. His 70 saves over that span ranked fifth behind Bruce Sutter (89), Dan Quisenberry (86), Rich “Goose” Gossage (83), and Rollie Fingers (80).1 Minton was at his best in 1982, going 10-4 with a […]

“A colleague and I were discussing whether there has been a modern-era athlete who meant more to his city than Gwynn. Some might say John Elway in Denver, or Cal Ripken in Baltimore, or Michael Jordan in Chicago. But were any of those legends their city’s sole source of greatness? No. … Were any of […]

On August 9, 2009, Felix Pie became just the second Baltimore Orioles player to hit for the cycle in a Baltimore ballpark. In the game, Baltimore batters smashed a record nine doubles as part of a 19-hit attack and defeated the Anaheim Angels, 16-6. Orioles rookie Chris Tillman picked up his first career win before […]

Cubs announcer Harry Caray began his WGN-TV broadcast on May 27, 1984, by proclaiming it to be “a beautiful day for baseball at Wrigley Field in Chicago as the Chicago Cubs take on the troublesome Cincinnati Reds.”1 Troublesome, indeed. The Reds won the first two games of the three-game weekend series. The losses put a […]

Futility is defined as a “lack of effectiveness or success.” Baseball has had many examples in its history. For one, the Chicago Cubs, who went over 100 years without winning a World Series. The Boston Red Sox endured 86 years without a title. It can also be evidenced in individual performance. A prime example occurred […]

As the month of August 1983 came to a close, the battle for first place in the National League East division heated up. Pittsburgh (68-63) led second-place Philadelphia (67-64) by one game. Montreal (66-64) and St. Louis (65-65) were 1½ and 2½ games back, respectively. The final month of the season promised some exciting baseball […]

Olive Little wasn’t particularly interested in joining the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) for its inaugural 1943 season – at least initially.1 She had a good teaching job in Poplar Point, Manitoba, and had been recently married. “Then they offered me twice as much in a week as I had been making in a […]

There was bad blood between the second-place Atlanta Braves (51-39) and fourth-place Cincinnati Reds (45-39) as they prepared to open a four-game, three-day series with a doubleheader on Tuesday, July 15, 1969, at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field. The teams were fighting it out in a four-team Western Division scramble and beginning their final week of action […]

Opening Day is often celebrated with significant pageantry and optimism for new beginnings. The first day of a new baseball season carries even more meaning for those overcoming substantial hurdles during the journey back to the diamond. When Herb Score walked to Cleveland Stadium’s mound on Opening Day in 1958, he returned to the same […]

The 1985 All-Star Game – a 6-1 National League win at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis – lacked drama. For the crowd of 54,960, that may have been disappointing. But for members of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, which operated the stadium, it was a relief. In its fourth season as home of […]

Using the minimum four at-bats needed, Aubrey Huff hit for the cycle on June 29, 2007, becoming the first Baltimore Orioles player to do so in a Baltimore ballpark. Along the way, he collected his 1,000th career hit. Despite Huff’s personal milestone performance, his club squandered a lead late in the game and the Orioles […]

It was a story that could only happen in baseball. On the morning of October 1, 1982, the Baltimore Orioles arrived home from Detroit trailing the Milwaukee Brewers by three games. For Baltimore’s beloved manager Earl Weaver, who had announced in March that he would retire after the season, his final mission at the helm […]