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“If the ball drops, I might have had an inside-the-park [grand-slam] home run. I was just a step away from second base when he [Tommie Agee] caught it.” — Paul Blair after the second of Tommie Agee’s iconic catches.1   On October 12, 1969, the Mets had returned from Baltimore with the World Series tied […]

When baseball returned to Washington in 2005 after an absence of 33 seasons, RFK Stadium became the home of the transplanted Montreal Expos, now the Washington Nationals. Its cookie-cutter design was of its era — round and multipurpose.1 As this baseball finale approached, the state of RFK Stadium could best be described as leaky and […]

Retired prematurely at age 25, Salomón Torres reemerged in his 30s as one of baseball’s most durable relief pitchers, including 84 appearances for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2004. On June 12 of that season at Network Associates Coliseum, the Pirates entrusted him with a four-run eighth-inning lead against the Oakland A’s. Torres, however, was ejected […]

The Houston Astros’ deadline deal for Seattle Mariners ace Randy Johnson stunned baseball in 1998. Johnson’s 12-strikeout debut on August 2, two days after the trade, gave the Astros an immediate return on their investment, but they also needed Carl Everett’s and Ricky Gutierrez’s eighth-inning clutch hits to secure a 6-2 win over the Pittsburgh […]

The New York Mets were in a middle of an eight-game homestand in May 2004. After being swept by the St. Louis Cardinals in a two-game series, they won the first two games of a weekend series against the Colorado Rockies, outslugging the Rockies with a 9-run, 14-hit attack in the opener and rallying behind […]

If you were listening carefully, you might have picked up on it — a subtle, perhaps unconscious acknowledgement that the curtain was falling. As Sportsman’s Park public-address announcer George Carson introduced the home team, he left something out. For the first time all season he didn’t refer to them as the “World Champion Cardinals.”1The New […]

The California Angels were in first place in the American League West Division, four games ahead of the Minnesota Twins, as play began on August 10, 1979. For the past four seasons, the Angels had been steadily climbing the division standings, finishing second in 1978, five games behind the Kansas City Royals’ third straight AL […]

Frank Cashen was one of the most successful front-office executives of his time, taking part in the winning of five pennants and three World Series, and one of the more educated and erudite.  “Frank is very bright man, a man for all seasons,” remembered a former New York Mets vice president. “You hear about people […]

Phil Morrison’s baseball career is indelibly connected to that of his older brother Johnny, known as Jughandle because of his quick-dropping curveball. Johnny’s glowing recommendation led directly to the professional baseball career of Phil, who was three years younger. Just as Johnny started out with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1920, Phil began pitching for his […]

In 1935, The Sporting News captured in a few sentences the early (possibly entire) playing career of Joe Bowman: “[He] was something of a humpty-dumpty, with more ups and downs than [heavyweight boxer] Max Baer, when he started out to follow baseball as a profession. Indeed, at one time, the right-hander didn’t know from one […]

Bob Peterson moved from one stage to another, with a life working in theatrical staging and one on the stage of baseball. His father likely led the way in the theater. In Philadelphia, George W. Peterson worked in theater in 1900 and was listed as a stage manager in 1910. By the time of the […]

Through the 2016 season, Chris Guccione has been a major-league umpire for eight full seasons. Before that, he was an “up and down” umpire, for the eight prior seasons (2000 through 2008), and he had worked five years in the minor leagues, from 1995 through 1999. Like most umpires, he had to work many years […]

No one chooses to become a professional widow, and Eleanor Gehrig derived little satisfaction in being called one. Yet few ballplayers’ wives maintained a level of such prominence so long after their husband’s death as they had when he was alive. Mrs. Lou Gehrig was married less than eight years; she was a widow for […]

Starting pitcher Mark Lemongello spent parts of four seasons (1976-1979) with the Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays. An intense right-hander, he had good command of his sinker-slider repertoire, but a lack of control over his infamous temper contributed to his demise in professional baseball. Mark Limongello was born on July 21, 1955, in Jersey […]

James Bradley “Brad” Mills was born on January 19, 1957, in Exeter, California, in the state’s Central Valley. As a young boy, he and his three brothers took frequent trips with their father, a cattle rancher and orange farmer, to San Francisco or Oakland to see the Giants or Athletics. The car rides were often filled […]

The baseball epitaph for Deadball Era right-hander Del Mason might well be the familiar: Minor League Star/Major League Bust. Twice the best pitcher of a minor-league circuit, Mason was a disappointment in ensuing trials with the Washington Senators (1904) and Cincinnati Reds (1906-1907). In retrospect, it appears that Mason lacked that extra level of pitching […]

He was a Furman University pitching ace who rocketed from college state championship to the majors in three months. He was a fellow 1907 Washington Senators rookie pitcher with, and first major league road roommate of, Walter Johnson. Sam Lanford was even spoken of in the same conversation as Shoeless Joe Jackson as among the […]

Roger McDowell kept his locker stocked with comedy props, costumes, and fireworks, blew bubbles while he pitched, played the notorious “Second Spitter” on Seinfeld and was known to set teammates’ shoes on fire. But he knew a little about pitching too. McDowell racked up 70 wins and 159 saves pitching almost exclusively in relief over […]

No less an authority than Ted Williams referred to him as “the greatest young hitter I’ve ever seen.”1 His immense power drew comparisons to Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew and Eddie Mathews, while his value was glimpsed in an unexecuted one-for-one swap with the California Angels’ future Cooperstown inductee Nolan Ryan. (The talks collapsed only […]

Charles Wayne Vaughan was born the third son of Gene and Judy Vaughan of Weslaco, Texas, on October 6, 1947 in the nearby hospital at Mercedes. Married in 1941, Judy gave birth to their first son, Richard, in 1944 and bore a second son, Eddie, in 1946. Gene was successful in sales for Burton Auto […]

“GAMER 1. A player who approaches the game with a tenacious, spirited attack and continues to play even when hurt; a competitor; a player who doesn’t make excuses. The term is a compliment, most especially when it comes from another player.”1 Bill Buckner was a gamer. He played the game of baseball as hard as […]