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Throughout his career, Curt Schilling was known as a big-game starting pitcher who performed well in high-pressure situations. Appearing in four World Series with three teams—winning three titles—he compiled a postseason record of 11-21 with a 2.23 ERA, including a mark of 4-0 with a 1.37 ERA in five games when his team faced elimination. […]

Suspended baseball games, especially if completed months after they began, can lead to box scores full of substitutions, often resulting from trades and other transactions. Sometimes, they create anomalies in the record books,1 such as players being credited with feats backdated to occur before their debut games. This Washington Nationals-Houston Astros game, begun on May […]

At a press conference on Monday, July 8 — the day before the 2002 All-Star Game in Milwaukee — National League manager Bob Brenly was asked about his decision to replace the injured Tom Glavine with another starting pitcher, Vicente Padilla. “This is my first go-round with these All-Star Games,” Brenly said, “but I have […]

The 1998 season was baseball’s first with a full slate of regular-season games played in March.1 The New York Mets opened against their National League East Division rival Philadelphia Phillies on March 31. New York had improved in 1997, manager Bobby Valentine’s first full season at the helm, finishing above .500 for the first time […]

A Mother’s Day crowd of 24,243 at Denver’s Coors Field saw San Francisco Giants rookie center fielder Fred Lewis become just the seventh major-league player to hit his first career home run as part of a cycle.1 The 26-year-old Lewis also cracked his first career triple and second career double. He had been with the […]

Carlos Bernier’s game-changing speed fueled the native Puerto Rican’s rise through the minor leagues after Jackie Robinson integrated major-league baseball in 1947. Reaching the majors in 1953 with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Bernier’s debut as a pinch-hitter in a 4-2 loss to the New York Giants at Forbes Field on April 22 made him – in […]

As of the end of the 2014 season, 18,400 players are recognized by Baseball-Reference as having played in the major leagues. Of this group 595, or a little over 3 percent, share an interesting distinction: They played their first major-league game for a team that won the World Series that year. Eleven of this group […]

A rookie at the age of 34, he beat the Chicago White Stockings 10 consecutive times in the heart of their dynasty, struck out 483 batters in a single-season, and earned the reputation as one of the first power pitchers in the history of baseball. Hugh Ignatius “One-Arm” Daily did all that with the greatest […]

More than once, Aaron Rowand’s style of play has been described as hard-nosed. The world saw why on May 11, 2006. Rowand was in his first season with the Philadelphia Phillies after five years with the Chicago White Sox, and his team was hosting the New York Mets, who had loaded the bases with two […]

Win Noyes was one of several ballplayers for whom service in World War I interrupted a promising big-league career. His brief stint with the 1919 White Sox was merely a footnote in a long, if not especially distinguished, baseball career. Various baseball references say Winfield Charles Noyes was born on June 16, 1889, in Pleasanton, […]

Though contemporary newspaper reports typically referred to Hall of Fame outfielder Hazen Cuyler by his given name, the right-hander is more easily recognized by one of the most unique, yet most often mispronounced nicknames in baseball history: Kiki.  “It came from shortening my name,” Cuyler explained about acquiring the moniker (which rhymes with “eye-eye”) as […]

Jeff Kunkel appeared in 357 games over eight major-league seasons, persevering through the weight of lofty expectations, a plethora of injuries, and personal loss. He holds or held a number of interesting baseball distinctions: No resident of New Jersey has ever been selected higher in the amateur draft; no other person is known to have […]

Beginning in 1888 and for the next five summers, right-hander Huyler Westervelt was a pitching standout on various amateur baseball teams in the greater New York City area. As a result, he attracted a number of offers from major league clubs but did not accept one until he signed with the New York Giants in […]

John Farrell began his professional baseball career as a right-handed pitcher with an 0-5 record for the 1984 Class-A Waterloo Indians in the Midwest League. He’d been drafted three times by that point, but it was certainly an inauspicious start to a career that saw him manage the 2013 Boston Red Sox to a world […]

Willie Larry Randolph, the son of South Carolina sharecroppers and the great-grandson of slaves, parlayed his nimble hands, patience at the plate, and excellent hitting into an 18-year career as a second baseman in the major leagues. In Baseball-Reference.com’s EloRater, an ongoing project to quantify the statistics of batters and pitchers, Randolph ranked 158th of […]

With his short arms and legs, long torso, and ample midsection, right-hander Fat Freddie Fitzsimmons may not have looked like a major-league pitcher during his 19-year career with the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers from 1925 to1943. But with one of baseball’s most effective knuckleballs and a deceptive, whirling delivery, he won 217 games. […]

Left-hander Ted Bowsfield spent seven seasons in the big leagues, initially signing with the Red Sox but later becoming arguably the best pitcher in the first year of Los Angeles Angels baseball. He later became director of stadium operations and team travel for the Angels, then head of the Kingdome in Seattle. Bowsfield was born […]

If not for a spectacular catch by Hank Bauer in the ninth inning of the sixth and final game of the 1951 World Series, Sal Yvars might be remembered quite differently today. Yvars’ only appearance in a Series at first looked like the stuff of legend. He struck a ball deep into the outfield of […]

Willie Mays ripped Dick Egan’s “best spitter”1 out of blustery Candlestick Park on August 29, 1967. That solo home run in the seventh inning gave the San Francisco Giants a 7-1 advantage over the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers. (The Giants went on to win 11-1.) Baseball’s legendary “Say Hey Kid” knew all about Egan’s habit […]

When the Detroit Tigers took the field at Yankee Stadium on October 3, 1990, for the final game of the regular season, it didn’t feel like a momentous event. Only 13,380 fans were present on a Wednesday night to watch the home team finish the season in last place. The Tigers, who also had a […]

“His reputation is that of a driving, spirited leader who at all times has evidenced an interest in the boy’s future, rather than furthering any ambitions he might have had for himself.” With those words in The Sporting News, columnist John Steadman introduced George Staller as the latter joined the Baltimore Orioles’ coaching staff in […]

Baseball and baseball players need people like Grover Resinger — those who dedicate their lives to the sport so that others may achieve the success they never had. “People say I do nothing but talk baseball,” said baseball lifer Resinger. “Is there anything else?”[fn]Tom Loomis, “Grover Resinger – Another Bit of Tigers Class,” Toledo (Ohio) […]

Edited by Bill Staples Jr. and Eric Robinson, Committee Co-Chairs  IN THIS ISSUE Asian Baseball during the COVID-19 Pandemic Baseball in Japan during the 1918 Influenza Pandemic Tribute: Katsuya Nomura (1935-2020) Sports Illustrated Features Issei Baseball Celebrating the Legacy of Negro Leaguers in Japan Talking Ichiro with Tim Kurkjian On the horizon (future activities) Related […]