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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 […]

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 […]

In mid-July 2004, more than 600 members of SABR descended upon Cincinnati for their 34th annual convention. One of the highlights of the weekend was a Friday-night ballgame between the Cincinnati Reds (47-42) and their NL Central Division rival St. Louis Cardinals (55-33). The Cardinals had captured the division lead in mid-June and never relinquished […]

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 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 […]

The 1984 Cubs drove to National League East glory after years of mediocrity and nearly four decades without a postseason appearance. Three Cubs integral to the upswing – second baseman Ryne Sandberg, left fielder Gary Matthews, and pitcher Rick Sutcliffe – placed capstones on their respective outstanding seasons in Chicago’s 4-1 division-clinching win in Pittsburgh […]

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 […]

The 1974 Oakland Athletics pitching staff was a dominant bunch. Led by the trio of starters Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue, and Ken Holtzman, and the brilliant relief work of Rollie Fingers, the A’s led the majors in six pitching categories, won 90 games, and claimed their third consecutive world championship. They were not without good […]

Eighteen-year-old Cincinnati Reds pitcher Gary Nolan, in his first major-league start, defeated the Houston Astros 7-3 at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field on April 15, 1967. In the first inning he faced four batters, and struck out Sonny Jackson, Jim Landis, and Jimmy Wynn en route to a 7-3 victory. Later in the season, on June 7, […]

When Orioles’ first baseman Eddie Murray went on the disabled list for the first time in his Hall of Fame career in July 1986, Baltimore turned to a player who had grown up just a 30-minute drive from Memorial Stadium. In Jim Traber’s first 17 games, the brash, left-handed-swinging rookie whacked eight homers, drove in […]

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,” […]

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 […]

In September 1976 Hall of Fame inductees Yogi Berra and Warren Spahn were only the two most prominent names among a large field of managerial candidates available to the expansion Toronto Blue Jays. But the Jays startled the baseball world by selecting the hardly-household-name Roy Hartsfield as the franchise’s first skipper. But the surprise may […]

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, […]

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 […]

Sam Rice broke into the major leagues in August of 1915 as a 25-year-old pitcher with the Washington Nationals. After moving to the outfield midway through the following season, he became one of the leading hitters in the American League. Over the course of a 20-year career, most of which he spent in Washington, Rice […]

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 […]

After a standout season in Class B ball, outfielder Jules Kustus got the attention of various major league clubs and landed an extended tryout with the 1909 Brooklyn Superbas. Regrettably, he flunked the audition, batting an anemic .145 in 53 games. Remanded to the minors, Kustus played well in spots but found efforts to secure […]

California native Red Worthington was a hard-hitting outfielder with a powerful throwing arm. A top prospect in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, Red, who threw and batted right-handed, appeared to be on the fast track to major-league stardom. Before his ascent to the major leagues, a sportswriter wrote of Worthington, “This young man from the […]

This article was published in the 1996 Baseball Research Journal (Volume 25).   While there have been 565 1-0 major league games won by a home run since 1876 (Ted Williams did the honors five times), diligent research into the last 100 years has uncovered only sixteen 1-0 games won by a steal of home. […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2022 as part of SABR’s Baseball and the Supreme Court Project. Trading cards have been produced depicting nearly every conceivable subject and judges are no exception. In 1888 W. Duke, Sons & Co. (at one time the largest manufacturer of cigarettes in the United States) issued a […]

In 1939, Yankee Stadium hosted the seventh All-Star Game between the American and National Leagues. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   The New York Yankees did not have an auspicious beginning as a franchise. Starting as the New York Highlanders, they played their home games at Hilltop Park in upper Manhattan from 1903 to 1912. In 1913 the […]