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The Detroit Tigers “waited until late in the waning season to unlimber their greatest offensive show of the 1947 season,” as they swept a doubleheader from the Washington Senators at Griffith Stadium. A small crowd of 11,170 gathered to watch the double defeat. The Washington Post declared, “Defeat is hardly the word to use to […]

The 1981 season marked Eddie Miller’s first extended stay in the major leagues. The 24-year-old Atlanta Braves outfielder was finally getting an opportunity to secure a position on the team, after a brief trial with Texas and three seasons of shuffling between Atlanta and the minors. With Claudell Washington and Dale Murphy manning right field […]

The San Diego Padres hosted the Cincinnati Reds in a National League West Division game two weeks before the 1993 All-Star Break. Geoff Hobson of the Cincinnati Enquirer characterized the contest with, “Jose Rijo can’t catch a break, Barry Larkin can’t catch a ball out of his time zone, and the Reds still can’t catch […]

With 15 minutes until game time, the tarp was still on the field under dark skies at Griffith Stadium, and the first pitch of Game Three of the World Series was uncertain. Detaining the 25,727 eager fans braving the elements to witness the return of the World Series to the nation’s capital after nine years […]

Tippy Martinez hadn’t pitched in 13 days as the Orioles headed into the second game of a two-game series with Oakland. Before the game the lefty reliever went up to Memorial Stadium’s legendary public-address announcer Rex Barney and told him, “Next time I come in to pitch, you’d better explain to the fans who I […]

A good manager, like a good magician, always has a trick up his sleeve. But a true tactician has a trick up someone else’s sleeve. That’s how Cleveland skipper Birdie Tebbetts overcame the overpowering Jim Kaat and the first-place Twins on a night in June 1965 at Metropolitan Stadium, invoking an obscure rule about jersey […]

The starting pitcher for the Yankees was Aaron Small. In the late 1980s, he, Jason Giambi, and future Yankee Cory Lidle pitched together at South Hills High School in West Covina, California. When asked which one was the best, Giambi smiled and said, “I think if you were to ask scouts back then, I think […]

As White Sox pitcher Dave DeBusschere headed to the mound at Comiskey Park for his 10th start of the 1963 season, the 6-foot-6-inch right-hander was anxious to prove what he could do. Unlike his counterpart, Indians starter, Jim “Mudcat” Grant, who was taking his regular turn, DeBusschere’s appearances were irregular at best. Indeed, on a […]

The fans filing into Fenway Park for the April 24, 1992, night game between the Boston Red Sox and Texas Rangers must have been asking themselves: Would Frank “Sweet Music” Viola ever get in tune? The former American League Cy Young Award winner, 1987 World Series Most Valuable Player, and two-time 20-game winner had signed […]

Wednesday, September 20, 1961, offered the last chance for Roger Maris to pass Babe Ruth’s record of 60 home runs within Commissioner Ford Frick’s 154-game deadline for being credited with breaking The Babe’s sacrosanct mark.1 Maris came into the game with 58 home runs. To beat Ruth’s mark, he would have to do something he […]

The 25,882 fans who ventured to Memorial Stadium in Baltimore on the evening of August 24, 1983, saw an exciting, extra-inning win by the home team in the midst of a tight pennant race. As a bonus, they also witnessed baseball’s version of The Twilight Zone. The Orioles came into that Wednesday night game against […]

“Any time they cut into your arm, you’re going to worry, but I think I’ve proved I’m all right,” said Nolan Ryan, the California Angels’ flamethrower, after fanning 18 Chicago White Sox.1 The White Sox’ Ralph Garr, a former batting champ with the Atlanta Braves, agreed, gushing that Ryan “threw better than anyone I’ve seen […]

One can sensibly argue that Hugh Mulcahy was one of the hardest-luck pitchers in baseball history. At first glance a pitcher with a 45-89 career record and a lifetime earned-run average of 4.49, one who was twice the league leader in losses, is not exactly a player one thinks of as a victim of bad […]

In 1971 The Sporting News reported “Joe Moeller, the sometime starter, sometime relief pitcher of the [Los Angeles] Dodgers [was] a ‘situation’ pitcher.’ ‘The problem,’ Moeller [joked] ‘is that they haven’t found the right situation.’”1 Dubbed the hardest thrower in the Dodger stable of flamethrowers in 1962—a remarkable claim considering the presence of future Hall […]

The announcement came from the umpire’s megaphone – “McCarthy now replacing Rawlings at second base” – at the start of the bottom half of the eighth inning in the final game of the 1921 season at Ebbets Field. Manager John McGraw of the New York Giants was giving his starters a rest in this regular […]

Many recognize Pop Dillon as merely a cousin of Hall of Famer Clark Griffith who happened to have a brief major league career. If he’s written about today, it’s usually in that context or in relation to his passing on a young fastballer named Walter Johnson. Dillon was in fact among the top names in […]

When it comes to players who pitched for both the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, Vito Valentinetti’s name is seldom mentioned. Yet he took the mound for the Mets from 1962-1982 and for the Yankees from 1967-1986. He was paid $20 a day, working roughly 15 minutes. The retired major-leaguer – 108 […]

John Harley McNeal is listed in most current reference works as having played under the name Harry McNeal. But in game write-ups and items in sporting papers that mentioned him during his career, he was universally referred to as Harley McNeal. His surviving family members also remember that he was called Harley, Harlow or John […]

The case of 1920s Negro League pitcher Dave Brown provides a classic example of the oft-quoted line, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend,” a maxim that stems from a John Ford-directed film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. In that movie, reporter Maxwell Scott (Carleton Young) discovers that his subject, Senator Ransom Stoddard […]

“Dukes can be the proverbial five-tool player. His swing is … I daresay, kind of like Albert Pujols.” – Joe Maddon, who managed Dukes in 2007 with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays1 “He will snap in a minute.” – Richie Hebner, who coached Dukes in 2006 with the Durham Bulls2   Hillsborough County in Florida’s […]

Jack McKeon never made it to the major leagues as a player but he eventually made his mark in the majors as a manager and general manager during his long career in baseball. Along the way he earned numerous accolades and will be remembered as one of the more colorful managers and general managers in […]

Had Grover Cleveland Alexander been a writer, the French would have called him a poete maudit, a cursed poet. Alexander had within him the greatness and the frailty that make for tragedy. Except for Ty Cobb among his contemporaries, no other player had to cope with so many personal demons. With Cobb and Christy Mathewson, […]

By Andrew North Some 70 cranks from Canada and the United States gathered on November 3-4, 2018, in London, Ontario, for the third annual Canadian Baseball History Conference. The Conference featured 14 half-hour research presentations, in addition to these special events: A tour of Labatt Park, the world’s oldest continuous use baseball park. Named Tecumseh […]

Index for Bill James’s Baseball Analyst Nos. 1-40, 1982-1989 Read Rob Neyer’s introduction of the Baseball Analyst archives “Baseball Analyst,” a Bill James creation that he self-published from 1982 to 1989, was one of the first publications to feature articles devoted to sabermetrics — a phrase he coined in part to honor SABR. “Baseball Analyst” […]