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Two months before the Pittsburgh Pirates made history by winning the 1960 World Series with Bill Mazeroski’s seventh-game, bottom-of-the-ninth, walk-off home run, they hosted the St. Louis Cardinals in a crucial five-game series. On August 11 the Pirates were first in the National League with a record of 65-40, while the second-place Cardinals were aiming […]

Elements and mosquitoes could not defeat the Houston Astrodome. If only the Astros might have been able to say the same of their experiences in playoffs. In 1999 Houston achieved its third straight division championship. The Astros were hoping to do better in the playoffs than in the previous two seasons when the Atlanta Braves […]

In the first chapter of Lawrence S. Ritter’s The Glory of Their Times, published in 1966, pitcher Rube Marquard recounts how a perfect game he authored in September 1908 precipitated a record-setting sale of his contract from the American Association’s Indianapolis Indians to the National League’s New York Giants.1 An impressive tale, but the Hall […]

“No pitcher shall be credited with pitching a shutout unless he pitches the complete game, or unless he enters the game with none out before the opposing team has scored in the first inning, puts out the side without a run scoring and pitches the rest of the game without allowing a run.” — Rule […]

One constant in the Boston Red Sox schedule each year is the Patriots Day home game. A Massachusetts state holiday since 1894, Patriots Day honors the first battles of the American Revolution in Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775. Since 1969 the holiday has been celebrated on the third Monday in April.1 The Boston […]

“Jim Rice. Remember the name.”1 The uncredited scribe who wrote that sentence in the September 22, 1973, edition of the Boston Globe proved to be very prescient indeed. Rice hit 382 home runs in a 16-season career spent entirely with the Boston Red Sox, helped Boston teams reach two World Series, and was inducted into […]

Except for a brief September call-up in 1953, Eddie Phillips spent his entire 11-year pro baseball career in the minor leagues. Yet, during those 2½ weeks with the St. Louis Cardinals, he established a record for most runs scored in the major leagues (four) without a plate appearance or taking a defensive position. His pinch-running […]

Kevin Gryboski pitched parts of five seasons (2002-2006) in the major leagues. The big right-handed reliever with an excellent sinker spent the bulk of his time with the Atlanta Braves. As of 2021, he owned the distinction of being the only player to twice pitch in all five games of a League Division Series, having […]

Depending on how you spell it, or sometimes how you pronounce it, Boston has enjoyed its share of “Miller Time” for many seasons. In recent years the Red Sox have employed pitchers Andrew and Wade Miller, third baseman Bill Mueller (pronounced Miller) and first baseman Kevin Millar (OK, close enough). In past history there were […]

Mike Mussina pitched consistently well over 18 big-league seasons for the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees, winning a total of 270 games and becoming the first American League pitcher to win 10 or more games in 17 consecutive seasons. With a varied arsenal of pitches including four-seam and two-seam fastballs, a slider, a changeup, […]

George Webb Yantz was a bricklayer, journeyman catcher, and tough negotiator who reached the major leagues for one game and retired with a 1.000 career batting average. Yantz was born on July 27, 1886, in Louisville, Kentucky, the second oldest of five children born to Josephine and Charles Yantz. Charles worked as a bricklayer and […]

On June 11, 1914, the Carbondale (Pennsylvania) Leader proudly informed readers that hometown minor leaguer Joe Kilhullen had been engaged by the National League’s Pittsburgh Pirates.1 Unhappily, by the time that the edition hit newsstands, the major league career of catcher Kilhullen was already over, confined to a two-inning stint the afternoon before. Undiscouraged by […]

Fred Toney was a big, strong, temperamental right-handed pitcher who authored two of the best performances in baseball history. Pitching for the Winchester Hustlers of the Class-D Blue Grass League, the 6-foot-2, 195-pounder tossed a 17-inning no-hitter in 1909. But it was his 10-inning no-hitter against the Chicago Cubs on May 2, 1917, that put […]

Roy Henshaw never let his height, or lack of it, derail his dream of becoming a big leaguer. Standing just 5-feet-8, the southpaw hurler jumped from the University of Chicago straight to the Chicago Cubs in 1933. Two years later he went 13-5 as a valuable swingman, helping the North Siders capture the pennant. That […]

Some said that baseball owners found Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis on the federal bench, but Leo Durocher got it right when he said, “They got him right out of Dickens.”1 Ruth put the fans back in the parks, but Landis made sure what they witnessed was honest. The Sultan and the Czar worked different sides […]

Nobody in Hollywood would have tried to produce a script that would end like this,” said New York Yankee manager Bob Lemon after his charges came back from a two-games to none deficit to defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1978 World Series. Having reached the Fall Classic on the broad shoulders of sluggers […]

The Chicago White Sox’ historic 2005 season can be told in many ways, but few shared it as personally as one of the teams radio voices, Ed Farmer. Born in Evergreen Park, Illinois, and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Farmer – affectionately known as “Farmio” – grew up watching and rooting for the […]

Catcher Pete Daley played in seven major-league seasons, including five with the Red Sox backing up Sammy White. In 233 games behind the bat for Boston, his defensive skills earned him a fielding percentage of .996; in 1,005 total chances, he was charged with only four errors. Despite irregular playing time with Boston the 6-foot, […]

Visalia, California, has long been a good baseball town. Located in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley, it has been a mainstay of the California League since 1946, except for a couple of intervals.1 As of 2015, 13 men born in Visalia had played in the major leagues, including Marty Perez, who got into 931 games […]

In Jeff Plympton’s major-league pitching career, he never gave up a run – earned or unearned. Reading a statement such as that, one might correctly guess that his time at the top level was brief. He pitched in 279 games as a professional, but only four in the majors, for the 1991 Boston Red Sox. […]

When Hub Hart, backup to regular catcher Billy Sullivan, sustained an ankle injury in mid-July 1906, the Chicago White Sox found themselves in need of another backstop. Team owner Charles Comiskey acquired an untested rookie named Babe Towne from Des Moines of the Western League to “hold the fort” until Hart recovered. Before Hart’s ankle […]

In over a century of existence, through 2016 the New York Yankees have been run by only five different ownership groups.1 To their great fortune and that of their fans, the three longest tenured were well-capitalized and committed to winning. They also had a terrific knack for finding great baseball men to work for them. […]

Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Tug McGraw celebrates after closing out Game Six of the 1980 World Series, clinching the first championship in franchise history. (Courtesy of the Philadelphia Phillies)   In the Beginning The first National League game in Philadelphia was played in 1876 with the Boston Red Stockings facing the Philadelphia Athletics, one of several […]

The Minneapolis Millers had a number of locales to hang their hats during their nearly 80 years of professional baseball, but the ballpark most closely associated with the team was the one described by former Minneapolis Tribune writer Dave Mona as “soggy, foul, rotten and thoroughly wonderful Nicollet Park.” In 1896, Nicollet Park replaced a […]