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John Candelaria, pitching in his second major-league season in 1976, recorded the Pirates’ first no-hitter in Pittsburgh in nearly seven decades, frustrating the Los Angeles Dodgers with fastballs and curves and retiring the final 19 batters he faced in a 2-0 victory on “Candy Night” at Three Rivers Stadium on August 9. In September 1907, […]

The Boston Red Sox certainly had momentum on their side as they headed into the 2004 World Series. They also had an unfortunate history of failing to close the deal when it came to winning world championships; it had been 86 years since the team had last won it all and they had lost in […]

His team losers of seven straight between June 17 and June 24, New York Mets manager Terry Collins had a problem. With the Mets scoring only nine runs in those losses, it was obvious what that problem was: “We are not hitting, end of story that’s pretty much it. We’ve got to start hitting.”1 Missing […]

When Matt den Dekker replaced Bryce Harper in the Washington Nationals lineup in the sixth inning, Harper had walked four times, scored four times, and collected an RBI; all without swinging the bat at any of the 20 pitches he was offered. Only three other players since 1914 had scored four runs without registering an […]

When the Houston Astros hosted the Los Angeles Dodgers for a midseason series in July 1967, struggle and disappointment were themes applicable to both clubs. For the 28-47 Astros, their 10th-place standing represented an all-too-familiar spot. The Sporting News cited relief pitching that failed to materialize, bad infield defense, and overall poor team play as […]

After the 2002 All-Star Snafu in Milwaukee — which ended in a tie when the National League ran out of pitchers — Major League Baseball took steps to prevent a recurrence. One was telling managers to hold back some pitchers in the case of extra innings. The other was to let the outcome of the […]

In early May of 1980, Boston’s Fred Lynn was playing like there was no tomorrow. In fact, many in baseball felt that a strike was imminent, and that the national pastime might cease to be played. Players had gone on strike late in spring training, forcing the final eight days’ worth of games to be […]

With the best pitching in the National League taking on the league’s best offense on July 11, 2003, at Coors Field, the outcome of the game rested on a confrontation between a backup third baseman and a well-traveled set-up reliever. The 2003 season had been very good to the Dodgers pitching staff, which had given […]

When Tampa Bay takes on Toronto, it’s the Rays against the Jays.1 When Baltimore travels to Houston, or vice versa, it’s O’s vs. ’Stros. You have to be a pretty serious baseball fan, though, to remember a third rhyming matchup: Mets vs. Cadets. The US Military Academy in West Point, New York, is roughly 60 […]

It’s not so much what Ernie Banks did on Thursday, September 17, 1953. Rather, it’s what the game meant to the Chicago Cubs’ franchise and major league baseball in general. The 22-year-old Dallas, Texas, native went hitless in three at-bats, scored one run, and made an error at shortstop in his major league debut. The […]

In October 1919 Joe Jenkins found himself embroiled in the Black Sox Scandal, the fixing of that year’s World Series by eight of his Chicago White Sox teammates. It was the biggest black eye in baseball’s history. Yet Jenkins, who didn’t make an appearance in the World Series, couldn’t even claim bragging rights within his […]

“I’m a damn good catcher, if I do have to say so myself,” Ed Bailey said.1 He wasn’t lying. Like other 1950s catchers, he was overshadowed by Yogi Berra and Roy Campanella, but Bailey was a five-time All-Star, a left-handed power hitter who threw out nearly half of would-be base stealers Besides his bat and […]

In 1896, the Des Moines Prohibitionists were dismantled in the middle of a season while cruising to the Western Association pennant after having won 25 straight games.1 Their utter domination had drained fan support in competing cities, prompting league officials to slash salaries in a failed attempt to keep the league afloat. The ace of […]

In August 1953, as St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Ray Jablonski was putting the final touches on a brilliant rookie campaign, Gus Mancuso, the club’s broadcaster and a former longtime National League catcher, said, “The thing about Jabbo is that he’s got terrific potential as a hitter. Give him a year or so and he […]

For a pitcher who appeared in exactly one major-league game, at the tail end of the sixth-place New York Yankees 1917 season, pitcher Jack Enright certainly crossed paths with some of the game’s elite. He played in a local Fort Worth, Texas, city league with Rogers Hornsby; followed Tris Speaker on the baseball team at […]

On June 24, 1970, the Cleveland Indians were visiting New York to play a doubleheader against the Yankees. Tribe catcher Ray Fosse went 2-for-4 with one RBI, one run scored and one walk as Cleveland won the first game 7-2 behind Sam McDowell’s tenth win. Fosse was scheduled to sit out game two, but he […]

The apex of Billy Meyer’s major league career came in 1948, when The Sporting News named the rookie pilot as Manager of the Year. He kept an undermanned Pittsburgh Pirate team in the middle of the pennant race until late September. That accomplishment sealed his reputation as a quintessential “baseball man.” William Adam (“Billy” or […]

From Babe Ruth in 1920, through Reggie Jackson in 1977, and down to Alex Rodriguez in 2004, when the New York Yankees announce a player transaction it usually involves a big-name player coming to New York, with large amounts of money going elsewhere. But it was quite the reverse on July 27, 1945, when the […]

Rookie Granville Lyons received his first shot in the Negro Leagues in 1931 after Willie Bobo, the starting first baseman for the Nashville Elite Giants, died during winter ball on the West Coast following a night out in Tijuana, Mexico. Three years later, in July 1934, Lyons experienced quite the 11-day stretch in the Negro […]

Ox Eckhardt has the highest lifetime average in the minor leagues of batters with over 1,000 games played. Some sources even suggest that his career batting average was the best of all time.1 A left-handed hitter with an extremely open stance, he was “almost in motion toward first when he hit the ball. Result, a […]

Ted Ford decided on his career path when he was 8 years old; he told his father he was going to be a baseball player. “Of course my dad didn’t believe me,” said Ford in 2015. “I thought it would be easy but he knew how hard it would be to make that happen.” Born […]

In St. Louis, where baseball is in the blood, many a boy fantasizes about growing up to play for their hometown team. Only a select number really pursue the ambition and even fewer achieve it. Lonnie Lee Maclin III fulfilled this aspiration. Born to Lonnie Maclin Jr. and June (Garner) Maclin on February 17, 1967, […]

Cleveland manager Kerby Farrell rushed to the mound after pitcher Herb Score was struck in the face by a line drive off the bat of the Yankees’ Gil McDougald on May 7, 1957. “He was bleeding from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears. All we could think of doing was trying to save his life,” […]

Signed to a Triple-A contract at the age of 19, Illinois-born Glen Hobbie quickly discovered that he was overmatched at that level. He fared little better in Class C, then was sidelined by a muscle spasm in his back, which he cured by swimming in the Mississippi River. Two seasons later, he was in the […]