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Any time a baseball team ends a game with more errors than hits, chances are that it had a tough day at the office. That sums up the Kansas City Royals’ performance against the Oakland Athletics on the night of May 13, 1974. The six-hit complete-game pitching of Oakland’s Vida Blue would have been tough […]

The champagne was on ice while 15,443 waited to erupt after their Minnesota Twins defeated a Seattle Pilots team they had already beaten 11 times in 14 games, including eight of eight at Metropolitan Stadium. At 91-60 with an 11-game lead over the second-place Oakland A’s, the Twins saw that the clinching of the first-ever […]

When Eddie Cicotte‘s first pitch crossed the middle of home plate for a strike, everything appeared normal to the 30,511 fans at Redland Field for Game One of the 1919 World Series. It was a festive day in Cincinnati, and one long overdue. The city was celebrating its first pennant winner since 1882 as well […]

On June 4, 1951, a meager crowd of 2,343 came to Shibe Park to witness the third and final game of a series between Pennsylvania’s cross-state rivals. A month and a half into the season, the Philadelphia Phillies and Pittsburgh Pirates were occupying the bottom two spots in the National League standings. The visiting Pirates […]

It rained in Houston on May 4, 1966,1 but as far as 39-year-old Robin Roberts was concerned, the skies were clear. Pitching for the Houston Astros, he tossed the 45th and final shutout of his Hall of Fame career, beating the Chicago Cubs 4-0 inside the Astrodome, then in its second season.   Roberts had […]

The walk-off home run is the most dramatic and exhilarating of all baseball plays. As in any written account of such a conclusion, the writer need not worry about spoiling the ending. On this day, the Mets beat the Montreal Expos in 11 innings on Bernard Gilkey’s pinch-hit two-out home run. The New York Times reporter, […]

He was a two-time All-Star, won 209 games, and tossed 43 shutouts in his 17-year career but is best remembered for a walk. Milt Pappas “came so dramatically close to perfection,” opined sportswriter George Langford of the Chicago Tribune, that “even the rare distinction of what he did achieve — pitching a no-hit game — […]

A weak offense marked the Washington Nationals’ 2005 season, so an offseason trade for a bat seemed inevitable. On December 8, 2005, they obtained Alfonso Soriano from the Texas Rangers in exchange for outfielders Brad Wilkerson and Terrmel Sledge and minor-league pitcher Armando Galarraga. Soriano was a four-time All-Star and a Silver Slugger winner who […]

Sudden Sam McDowell’s search for his 17th victory of the season appeared easier than it otherwise would have been on a mid-September afternoon in Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium. The Orioles had clinched the American League East Division crown the day before against McDowell’s Indians, and manager Earl Weaver was resting his entire starting infield of Brooks […]

Like his father before him, John Michaelson may have been destined for a life working in the copper mines had it not been for his ability to throw a baseball. After the right-handed pitcher was discovered by scouts, he had a spring training invitation from the Detroit Tigers and a two-game trial with the Chicago […]

Although sometimes overshadowed by Andrew “Rube” Foster, lefthander Dan McClellan starred as one of the finest African-American pitchers during the twentieth century’s first decade. With his peak coming with the Cuban X Giants from 1900 to 1904, then the Philadelphia Giants from 1905 to 1910, he may have won 300 games over his career. McClellan […]

When and where someone happened upon a young infielder named Jim West is imprecise. It may very well have been in 1929, when he played for the Birmingham Negro Industrial League.1 Although lacking details of West’s early life and baseball career, his fine play at first base – perhaps noted by Bill Gatewood – prompted […]

Bill Eagan was the type of player that today would be called a “red ass.” The November 14, 1900, issue of The Sporting News detailed the many ways in which he was also a great wag and crowd pleaser and a huge gate attraction in almost every one of his many minor and major league […]

There are fewer third basemen in the Hall of Fame than players from any other position. One who hasn’t made it is Stan Hack, who held down the post for 16 years with the Chicago Cubs, from 1932 through 1947. Yet Bill James ranks him the ninth best all time at the position, well ahead […]

In a career spanning more than 40 years, Curt Gowdy became recognized as one of the top sportscasters in broadcasting history. Broadcaster Red Barber wrote in 1970, “In my measured opinion, the greatest television sports announcer of today is Curt Gowdy. He is the best man on football, baseball, basketball, track, winter or summer Olympics, […]

In 1954 Gus Triandos, a powerfully built catcher who hit a lot of home runs, was languishing in the New York Yankees’ farm system. To the one-year-old Baltimore Orioles, a team that had a severe shortage of talent, Triandos seemed plenty good enough. And he was: After being sent to the Orioles in a blockbuster […]

In the eyes of Pittsburgh Pirates fans, Don Robinson showed up right on time for a city and a team looking for homegrown talent to fill out the Pirates pitching staff and add a piece to a team capable of winning a pennant in the late 1970s. Had the Philadelphia Phillies selected Robinson in the […]

Before Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson were hurling October masterpieces, Bill Dinneen set the standard for World Series excellence. In the 1903 World Series, the hard-throwing right-hander won three games for the Boston Americans against the Pittsburgh Pirates, including the first two shutouts in World Series history. For the Series, “Big Bill” struck out 28 […]

Bud Black spent 15 years as a major-league pitcher and followed that up with a long career as a manager. In 2018 he was in his 11th year as a big-league skipper. Harry “Bud” Ralston Black was born on June 30, 1957, in San Mateo, California. He graduated from Mark Morris High School in Longview, […]

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 […]

Here are the SABR Bookshelf listings for Spring 2017. To get your NEW book listed on The SABR Bookshelf, make sure a review copy is sent to: The SABR Bookshelf, Cronkite School at ASU, 555 N. Central Ave. #416, Phoenix, AZ 85004. An e-book file will also suffice; please send the e-book in PDF, EPUB […]

Few multi-purpose stadiums in North American history can rival Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium for the number, variety and stature of events held there. Set in a vast fairgrounds complex on the shore of Lake Ontario, the municipal facility originally known as Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) Stadium served as the largest sports and entertainment venue in Canada’s […]

Editor’s note: On July 25, 1987, SABR placed a grave marker at the previously unmarked grave of John W. Jackson. Known in the baseball world as Bud Fowler, the New York native was a Black baseball pioneer who played, managed, and promoted teams during the late 19th century. The dedication ceremony at Oak View Cemetery […]