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When wild-eyed rookie right-handed pitcher Bruce Kison was thrust into relief with two outs in the first inning of Game Four of the 1971 World Series against the overwhelmingly favored Baltimore Orioles, the Pirates were in a three-run hole and in danger of losing their third game of the Series with just one victory. But […]

In major-league baseball when a team dominates its opponents for several years, it’s usually because it has a solid nucleus of players. For instance, in the early 1970s in the American League the Oakland Athletics captured three successive World Series. In the National League the Cincinnati Reds were a powerhouse. Both clubs had a strong […]

Even the most casual of baseball fans are aware of Christy Mathewson’s on-field accomplishments, but the baseball career of his younger brother Henry Mathewson is less than common knowledge. And while the events leading to the death of the famous “Matty” have been told several times, few know of the tragic life of Henry or […]

Former Red Sox pitcher Frank Sullivan wore uniform number 18 with distinction before later Sox pitchers Jason Johnson, Tomo Ohka, and Daisuke Matsuzaka were born. During his eight seasons with the team, Sullivan won 90 games and was named to two American League All-Star teams. As of the end of the 2009 season, his career […]

Mel Parnell devoted a full decade to the Boston Red Sox, from 1947 through 1956, winning 123 games while losing just 75. He ranks first among left-handed Red Sox pitchers in wins, number of games started (232), and number of innings pitched (1,752⅔). The New Orleans native performed exceptionally well in Fenway Park, a ballpark […]

The elder statesman of the Baby Birds staff that vaulted the Baltimore Orioles into pennant contention in the early 1960s was a mere 22-year-old. He is the only AL pitcher to lead the circuit in wins during a rookie campaign and the only one in either league to do so since Chicago Cubs righty Larry […]

The Red Sox faithful’s devotion to Nomar Garciaparra, cultivated through multiple All-Star seasons and batting titles, had seemingly reached its breaking point after a July 1, 2004, loss to the Yankees. While Garciaparra sat out the game due to his Achilles tendon injuries, his perennial rival Derek Jeter reached base twice and dove headfirst into […]

Cliff Floyd spent 17 years (1993-2009) in the major leagues and played for seven different teams, including the 1997 World Series champion Florida Marlins. Primarily a left fielder after breaking in as a first baseman, he regularly showed tremendous power and speed, placing himself amongst the best players of his time. But injuries regularly interrupted […]

The appellation applied by baseball to turn-of-the-century right-hander George Lewis Cross was largely a matter of time and place. When he entered professional ranks in 1891 with a team from his hometown of Manchester, New Hampshire, he was called Lew Cross, the name that he had grown up with. During mid-1890s tours of duty with […]

After college Bill Essick had to choose between life as a musician and one in baseball.  He chose baseball and left his native Illinois to begin his minor-league pitching career in Salt Lake City.  After a brief promotion to the major leagues and roughly a dozen years as a successful minor-league manager, Essick joined the […]

When it came to baseball, left-handed outfielder Charlie Eden was born a century too soon. An able batsman but atrocious in the field, Eden might well have had an extended major league career as a designated hitter if his playing days had begun in the 1970s. As it was, his offensive prowess—plus some pitching—ability afforded […]

On Monday, April 2, 2007, an emotionally charged Opening Day unfolded at Yankee Stadium, where the New York Yankees hosted the Tampa Bay Devil Rays before a crowd of 55,035.1 While most of the attention was focused on the Yankees, Tampa Bay rookie Elijah Dukes temporarily stole the spotlight by hitting a home run in […]

The Boston Post summarized the game succinctly: “The base ball match here to-day between the Boston and Athletic clubs resulted in a drawn game of 10 to 10. A tenth inning was commenced, the Bostons having made two runs, and the Athletics having two men out and two on bases, when the game was suspended […]

After the Chicago White Sox lost the first two games of the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds in Cincinnati, the Series shifted to Chicago’s Comiskey Park for the next three tilts. Though Reds manager Pat Moran admitted his team was lucky to have beaten Lefty Williams in Game Two, he also insisted the […]

During the hot afternoon of August 13, 1972, a nervous crowd of 30,207 at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium sat quietly and open-mouthed while looking skyward at a spectacle that had never been witnessed at a baseball game. “I was really scared,” admitted Philadelphia Phillies promotions director Bill Giles, who had come up with the idea of […]

Does the higher altitude at Denver’s Coors Field translate to more home runs? In the 2018 regular season, the Colorado Rockies played 81 games there, and fans saw a total of 212 balls go over the walls (from both the visiting and home teams), second only to Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park (218).1 On September […]

With two months left in the 1920 season, the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox were both in the thick of the American League pennant race. The Yankees began the day in second place, 1½ games behind the front-running Cleveland Indians. The defending AL champion White Sox lurked in third place, 5½ games […]

The Kansas City Royals entered Game Three of the 1985 American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays in a postseason slump. The Royals had lost 10 consecutive playoff games, including the first two games of the ALCS. The Royals lost Game One of the ALCS, 6-1. They then lost a sloppily played Game […]

Neither team had much of a problem getting runners on base during this Wednesday Ladies Night game between the Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Browns at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis in August 1951. It was scoring that presented the problem. Manager Zack Taylor’s eighth-place Browns were already well out of the pennant race […]

The College World Series is the desired destination for every Division I collegiate baseball player. Eight teams and thousands of fans from around the country descend on Omaha, Nebraska, each June, giving the CWS an atmosphere unlike any other baseball event in America. Founded in 1947, the CWS was played in Kalamazoo, Michigan, for two […]

Most fans dream of seeing a no-hitter in person, but decades can pass without an opportunity close to home. For instance, Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field hosted National League baseball from 1909 to 1970 – more than 4,700 games – without a no-no.1 Fans at Boston’s hitter-friendly Fenway Park could have attended Red Sox games from September […]

“He is one batter who always knows what he is doing up at the plate and why.”1 — Tommy Henrich   Johnny Mize, Hall of Fame first baseman, could hit a baseball and he wrote about it in How to Hit.2 The 1953 book, co-authored with Murray Kaufman, is an easy read for those of […]

The Sporting News cover for March 5, 1977, featured a picture that was worth a thousand words: Joe Rudi, Don Baylor, and Bobby Grich, all clad in their new California Angels uniforms, were posed reaching into a pair of leather saddlebags, a metaphor for team owner Gene Autry’s wallet. With the 1975 Messersmith decision having […]

Editor’s note: Click here to read the updated version of this article, “Baseball Demographics, 1947-2016”. Several years ago, I (Mark) performed a research project to numerically define the spread of integration in major league baseball in the years following Jackie Robinson’s 1947 debut. This research was presented at the 2007 SABR convention in St. Louis, […]