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It was expected to be a glittering night of firsts. The 1968 All-Star Game was to be the first played on artificial turf, the first played indoors, and, if not the first played at night (the wartime games of 1943 and 1944 had been played under the lights), it was to be the first played […]

There was no big champagne celebration in the locker room after the game in which Willie Mays blasted his 52nd home run of the 1965 season, the highest season total of his career. For that matter, there was no Mays in the locker room either. Any plans for celebration died the previous evening when the […]

Although he had an excellent 20-season major-league career, Rafael Palmeiro may be best remembered for something he did off the field. Called to a congressional hearing before the 2005 season to discuss the use of steroids in baseball, he wagged his finger while emphatically denying using banned substances. Just five months later, about two weeks […]

Baseball’s 40–40 Club is a noteworthy accomplishment, not simply because the record books show that hitting 40 or more home runs and stealing 40 or more bases in the same season is an elusive feat, but also because it demonstrates a player’s “completeness.” It is an illustration of Aristotle’s observation that “the whole is greater […]

Excitement filled the Baltimore air in early September as the Orioles fought for a playoff spot. They had last played postseason baseball in 1983, when they defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series. During the ensuing 12 seasons, the Orioles finished above .500 six times but consistently missed the playoffs. After an August in […]

Rich Hill had bounced around professional baseball for 10 years before he arrived in Los Angeles in 2016. He began his major-league career as a starter with the Chicago Cubs, debuting in 2005 and compiling an 18-17 record in four seasons there. Over the next six years, he struggled with several injuries, never pitching more […]

Derek Jeter entered the 2011 season 74 hits shy of becoming the first player to reach the 3,000-hit milestone while wearing a New York Yankees uniform. Based on his career tendencies,1 it looked as if Jeter would reach that mark during New York’s homestand between June 7 and 16, and sure enough, he entered the […]

In the summer of 1996, the Baltimore Orioles were looking to make the trade that could take them into the postseason. A long 13 seasons had elapsed since the Orioles had played past the last day of the regular season, when they won the 1983 World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies under manager Joe Altobelli. […]

The accomplishments of Lester B. Pearson should be familiar to any Canadian. As the nation’s 14th prime minister from 1963 to 1968, Pearson oversaw the introduction of a national pension plan and universal medicare, as well as the adoption of the country’s iconic maple-leaf flag.1 Pearson was also the first Canadian to win the Nobel […]

“It was about time we beat ’em here.”1 That’s what 48-year-old2 future Hall of Fame reliever Hoyt Wilhelm told reporters after the Atlanta Braves defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-3, on September 2, 1970. The Dodgers were in Atlanta for a four-game midweek series, their final visit of the season to Atlanta Stadium. The fourth-place […]

Pete Rose’s 24-season career, spent entirely in the National League, included 17 All-Star Game appearances and three batting titles. He won the NL Rookie of the Year Award in 1963 and the Most Valuable Player Award in 1973. Rose played on three World Series champions and was the World Series MVP in 1975, when his […]

In his second at-bat of the second All-Star Game in 1960, Willie Mays made history by completing the All-Star Game cycle. In the span of just two days, Mays had collected the four necessary hits to hit for the cycle: a single, double, triple, and home run. No major leaguer has ever hit for the cycle […]

Rafael Palmeiro and Rich Becker were Baltimore Orioles teammates in 1998, but the similarities ended there. Palmeiro had signed as a free agent after the 1993 season and was finishing a five-year span in Baltimore in which he hit 182 home runs with 553 RBIs. Becker had been designated for assignment by the New York […]

The Milwaukee Braves posted the best record in the National League during the four years from 1956 through 1959. They won two pennants, including a World Series championship in 1957, and had two near-miss second-place finishes.1 Although the Braves finished second again in 1960, they came in seven games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates, never really […]

The eyes of the baseball world were focused on the National League pennant race as the 1959 regular season ended on Sunday, September 27. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Braves, tied for first place, each won their final game, forcing a best-of-three tiebreaker series.1 But there was also a down-to-the-wire contest in the American […]

The National League’s ill-advised crackdown on balks had reached its zenith. On May 4, 1963, Milwaukee Braves starter Bob Shaw was charged with five balks in an abbreviated outing against the Chicago Cubs. The infractions were stunning considering Shaw had begun the season with just one balk in 970⅓ career innings in the big leagues. […]

When Orlando Cepeda stood on the podium in Cooperstown, New York, on July 25, 1999, it is likely that no man had followed a more difficult path to the Baseball Hall of Fame, or that any man was any happier to attain the honor. Cepeda had escaped the slums of Puerto Rico to attain stardom […]

Charley Pride, the son of a Mississippi sharecropper, dreamed of becoming a Hall of Famer. “Years from now,” he once said, “when they ask who hit the most home runs, I don’t want the answer to be Babe Ruth, I want it to be Charley Pride. When they ask who was the last player to […]

Red Thisted never saw a professional baseball game until he was 20 years old. He made up for lost time, though. Over the course of four decades, he attended every home game played my Milwaukee’s ballclub, plus all of the away games when not prevented by wartime travel restrictions. From the start of the 1926 […]

When walking through the exhibits at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, it is difficult not to absorb slices of the game’s history and lore, and to learn about the role the sport has played in both American and world history. It also quickly becomes clear that the stories of the […]

“He’s too young to throw a no-hitter!”1 With the words of Cincinnati Redlegs manager Birdie Tebbetts still ringing in his ears, 17-year-old southpaw Dave Skaugstad took the mound on September 29, 1957 at Milwaukee’s County Stadium. Appearing in his second major-league game, he relieved 20-year-old rookie Jay Hook, who’d held the National League pennant-winning Milwaukee […]

“It exceeded all proportion, It could not be contained, It bloomed round like a dark sunrise, It glistened in the rain. The little boys with crew cuts Or blond locks oh so fair Would look and cheer with wonder At Oscar Gamble’s hair.” —Roy Peter Clark1   Oscar Gamble made his big-league debut in 1969 […]

In 1971 The Sporting News contributor Wayne Minshew submitted a report on the Atlanta Braves’ “bona-fide future ace . . . the pitcher visiting scouts like most when they visit Atlanta Stadium.”1 Minshew was not referring to Phil Niekro, who at the time was just one-third of the way along his path to Hall of […]

Two months after Ulysses Brooks Lawrence’s major-league debut as a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1954, sportswriter Bob Broeg of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch described this newcomer to the team and his amazing accomplishments since arriving: “Ulysses Brooks Lawrence, an eager-beaver of the mound with the heart of a lion, the hide of […]