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The “first-place Washington Senators” may seem like an oxymoron, but that was exactly the scenario when the undefeated Senators visited Yankee Stadium for a two-game series in April 1955. In Washington’s Griffith Stadium the day before, the Senators had defeated the Baltimore Orioles 12-5. The New York weather hovered around the 80-degree mark in mid-April, […]

For most of its 51-year history (1911-1961), Washington’s Griffith Stadium was considered one of the toughest parks in the major leagues to hit a home run in – if not the toughest. To cite one example: In 1924, the year the hometown Senators won their only World Series championship during the club’s 60 years in […]

In 1956 the Dodgers won their fourth pennant in five seasons and faced yet again their archenemies, the New York Yankees. In nine World Series at Ebbets Field, the Dodgers went 14-14. (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)   For the sixth time in 10 years, October baseball was the exclusive preserve of the same two boroughs of […]

When Boston and New York met at Fenway Park on August 14, 1957, the reigning World Series champion Yankees were in first place with a 73-38 record. The Red Sox were in third, 13 games behind at 60-51. In terms of competition, the rivalry was no longer what it had been in the years immediately […]

The 1961 World Series between the Cincinnati Reds and the New York Yankees moved to Cincinnati’s Crosley Field for a pivotal third game with the Series tied at a game apiece. The Reds, under temperamental manager Fred Hutchinson, had won the National League pennant by four games over the Los Angeles Dodgers.1 They were in […]

Early in the 1952 season, the Philadelphia Athletics were struggling against the three-time defending World Series champion New York Yankees. The Yankees’ 3-2 win over the Athletics on May 29, in the opener of a two-day, three-game series at Yankee Stadium, was their fifth over Philadelphia in six games. Yogi Berra scored the winning run […]

I guess it was the best game I ever pitched — Whitey Ford1   During a 16-year career, Whitey Ford pitched a total of 3,170⅓ innings. On eight occasions, he pitched more than nine innings. His longest outing, a 14-inning shutout in 42-degree weather, occurred in Griffith Stadium on April 22, 1959.2 The Yankees defeated […]

In Game Two of the 1951 World Series, Eddie Lopat of the New York Yankees bested Larry Jansen of the New York Giants in a 3-1 complete-game triumph at Yankee Stadium, knotting the series after the Giants’ Game One win. But Mickey Mantle’s knee injury, which sidelined the talented rookie for the rest of the […]

As the New York Yankees arrived at Dodger Stadium for the fourth game of the 1963 World Series, they knew no team had ever come back from a three-game deficit to win. “The knowledge of defeat could not be disguised in the quiet but calm Yankee clubhouse,” wrote the New York Times’s Leonard Koppett after […]

The Braves had last hosted a World Series game in 1948, and that game was played in Boston. In 1957 the Braves, in their fifth season in Milwaukee, won the National League pennant. The first two games of the World Series were played in New York. The Yankees, behind Whitey Ford, had won the opener, […]

When Warren Spahn took the hill for Game Four of the 1957 World Series, he had started two previous Series games, losing to Bob Lemon of Cleveland in 1948 and to Whitey Ford of the New York Yankees in 1957’s Game One. Would today be his day? He was up against Tom Sturdivant of the […]

On October 1, 1961, ending a quest that had enthralled both the baseball world and the American public, New York Yankees outfielder Roger Maris capped one of the most spectacular seasons in baseball history when, with one swing of the bat, he became the major-league single-season home-run leader. The New York Yankees had begun the […]

Griffith Stadium played host to the 23rd All-Star Game on July 10, 1956. A sellout crowd of 28,843 saw the National League win its sixth decision in the past seven encounters, 7-3. The overflow crowd filled the seats behind the center-field wall, creating a bad background for the batters, and there were 17 strikeouts in […]

Between its opening in April 1923 and its final game in September 2008, Yankee Stadium hosted 161 postseason games.  That stadium’s legacy is larger, perhaps, than even our collective memory of it, a true baseball cathedral that hosted so many of the sport’s immortal players and moments that it is inextricably meshed with the lore […]

Only 825 spectators, the smallest crowd of the season at Comiskey Park, had turned out the night before to see the White Sox score two runs in the eighth and beat Boston, 6-4, but tonight would be different. Tonight the New York Yankees were in town. The Yankees of 1962 were not the fence-busting juggernaut […]

Jim Busby was a speed merchant when teams were buying power. In the station-to-station baseball of the 1950s, sluggers drove Cadillacs and base stealers hitched rides. Busby never stole more than 26 bases, but he was in the American League’s top 5 in steals four times. He used his sprinter’s speed in center field, covering […]

Many images come to mind when one hears the name Yogi Berra. One of the more obvious is that of a winner. Berra won three American League Most Valuable Player awards and appeared in 14 World Series as a player and another five as a manager or a coach. He won 13 championship rings and […]

One of the most important games hurled by Clement Walter Labine took place at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn on October 9, 1956. The day before, Don Larsen had pitched a perfect game for the New York Yankees to beat the Brooklyn Dodgers, 2-0, in the fifth game of the World Series. Dodgers manager Walter Alston […]

New York Yankee rookie Tom Tresh was living a dream. He stepped into the lineup of the defending World Champions in 1962, became a key contributor, faced some adversity, and here he was starting in the World Series. Not only was he contributing, he was the favorite to be named the American League Rookie of […]

By the time he retired from the National League’s New York Mets after the 1962 season, Eugene Richard “Gene” Woodling had accumulated a number of honors, including batting over .300 five times in his seventeen seasons. Although averaging .284 lifetime, he was best known as a dangerous hitter with runners in scoring position during the […]

Elston Howard was born February 23, 1929, in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Emmaline Webb and Travis Howard. A schoolteacher in Sikeston, Missouri, Emmaline fled to St. Louis when Howard, her principal, refused to marry her. She worked to become a dietician, and when Elston was 5 years old, she married Wayman “Big Poppy” […]

As a boy, he rooted for the New York Yankees. Before he became an adult, he was playing for them. Although he left the club for a time, it never left him, and when he got the chance he did not hesitate to return. For the past twenty-five years, in one way or another, he […]

To the casual observer, George Frazier is no more than a heartbreaking footnote to baseball history: the only pitcher to lose three games in a best-of-seven World Series. After all, as a relief pitcher who never started a game in the major leagues, pitched to a career record below .500 and earned only 29 career […]

After his retirement, Fritz Peterson recalled, “When I signed with the Yankees, the scout told me, ‘Heck, you’re a lefthander working in Yankee Stadium, you can count on a World Series check at least every other year.’”1 The Yankees hadn’t finished in last place since 1912, when they were still the New York Highlanders. However, […]