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On the eve of the 1926 season, the venerated New York Giants were the consensus pick to win the National League pennant, while the Cincinnati Reds were expected to finish in fourth place.1 But when the two teams met on September 17, the underachieving Giants were mired in fifth place − 15½ games out − […]

It was a bad day. The weather was drab, home plate was missing, and the Minnesota Twins lost their last game ever at Metropolitan Stadium. When the grounds crew reported for work they discovered that vandals had gotten into the ballpark and had sliced through the rubber tarpaulin that covered the home-plate area and removed […]

The Indians and Tigers opened their 1960 campaigns on Tuesday, April 19, in Cleveland. The Indians had finished 1959 in second place, five games behind the AL pennant-winning Chicago White Sox. Detroit had ended the year in fourth place, 18 games out of first place. Two days before the season opener, the teams made headlines […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers’ relocation to Los Angeles was not yet official on September 22, 1957, but the writing was on the wall. A week earlier, the Los Angeles City Council had voted to make 300 acres in Chavez Ravine available to Dodgers President Walter O’Malley for construction of a privately funded ballpark. The Los Angeles […]

With multiple hits in four of his past five games, Philadelphia Phillies center fielder Dode Paskert probably felt frustrated after popping up on the infield against New York Giants rookie Jeff Tesreau to lead off the bottom of the first inning on September 6, 1912. But what should have been an easy out for the […]

Opening Day is for all intents and purposes a national holiday in America. Leaving behind a long, cold winter, thousands of Americans may today take the day off from school or work to witness the start of a new baseball season. On Opening Day, hope always springs eternal and, just maybe, this could be our […]

The pitching matchup for Game Five of the 2013 American League Championship Series was the same as in Game One, Aníbal Sánchez of the Detroit Tigers versus Jon Lester of the Boston Red Sox. Both pitchers had been exceptional, with Sánchez throwing a no-hitter through six innings and Lester giving up only one run, in […]

When the 1892 season ended, the Boston Beaneaters had prevailed again and taken the pennant. The Brooklyn Bridegrooms – sixth-place finishers in 1891 – gave them a battle for the flag in 1892, finishing just 2½ games behind Boston for the first half of the season. At the close of play on August 4, however, […]

 Joe Oeschger, the ace of the Boston Braves pitching staff, cruised through the first eight innings of the opening game of a Thursday afternoon doubleheader at Braves Field. He gave up just three hits to the last-place Philadelphia Phillies, as he propelled the fourth-place Braves to a comfortable 6-0 lead going into the top of […]

Jason Jennings had what might be the greatest debut in baseball history. His first game at the major-league level was so impressive that no less an authority on greatness than the National Baseball Hall of Fame contacted the Colorado Rockies to inquire about displaying memorabilia from the game. The Rockies promoted pitcher Jennings from Triple-A […]

Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis called the 1935 World Series “the greatest ever.”1 Goose Goslin was the man of the hour after smacking a clutch ninth-inning single to cap the victory. Teammates mobbed the Goose; the incessant backslapping accompanied a bloody nose, mussed hair, and a torn uniform. The mood in the Chicago Cubs’ clubhouse […]

William Edward Voss had an eight-year major-league career playing outfield for the Chicago White Sox, California Angels, Milwaukee Brewers, Oakland A’s, and the St. Louis Cardinals. Voss was born in Glendale, California, on October 31, 1943. When he was a youngster, his baseball idol was Mickey Mantle. In 1968 he commented, “I think he’s a […]

Bill Shettsline was the most identifiable face of the Philadelphia Phillies during their first half-century. After joining the team in 1884 as a ticket salesman, he soon became team secretary, before being suddenly thrust into a managerial role in 1898. Reckoning with cheap ownership, unruly players, and a baseball war, Shettsline nonetheless achieved a .548 […]

The score stood at 11-1 when Tim Lollar left the mound and Wes Gardner took over in the seventh inning in the sixth game of the season at Chicago. With Boston’s comfortable lead, Gardner could relax a little for this, his first game in a Red Sox uniform and his debut in the American League.  […]

At the close of the 1890 season, the Cincinnati Reds had high hopes for rookie backstop Jerry Harrington. The 21-year-old had proved a major asset for the fourth-place (77-55-2, .583) ball club – an able handler of pitchers; a sure-handed receiver with a powerful and accurate throwing arm, and a decent enough batter for any […]

Four swings made Dusty Rhodes famous. The pinch-hitting hero of the 1954 World Series, when the underdog New York Giants swept the Cleveland Indians, Rhodes delivered key hits in three of the four victories. And he never had to pay for another drink in New York. “You know what Rhodes was?” his manager, Leo Durocher, […]

Over his career, Jim Fuller hit just 11 homers in the major leagues but amassed 170 in the minors, including many tape-measure blasts. The righty slugger stood 6 feet 3½ inches tall and weighed 215 pounds. As a rookie with the Baltimore Orioles in 1974, he drew this observation from team groundskeeper Pat Santarone: “Anybody […]

Starting in 1970, John Curtis played in the major leagues for 15 years. He was a respectable left-handed pitcher — 89 wins and 97 losses, with a lifetime ERA of 3.96 — praised as much for his eloquence as his fastball. John Duffield Curtis II was born March 9, 1948 in Newton, Massachusetts, the second […]

Simon Rosenthal was one of only 16 Red Sox players who was actually born in the city of Boston and — joining Jack Slattery — one of only two to both live and die in Boston. He garnered more at-bats for the Red Sox than any other Boston native, 357 of them during the years […]

Long-limbed southpaw Graeme Lloyd became the first Australian to win a World Series ring. The 6’8”1 reliever joined the New York Yankees bullpen late in the 1996 season and remained with the club for the 1998 championship too. Through the 2011 season, this distinction remained unique among Aussies. Just one other of Lloyd’s countrymen, Grant […]

“Eleven saves in two months. That’s more than Schultz had in his whole big-league career,” fumed Gene Mauch in September 1964. “He never saw the day he could get us out before,” continued the frustrated Philadelphia manager.1 In the last 60 games of the Cardinals’ 1964 season, Barney appeared 30 times, all in relief, winning […]

Lenny Levy’s career defies conventional logic. A washout in one year of minor-league D-level baseball (years later, Baseball Digest called him “hardly more than a semipro player”), he fashioned a professional career with the Pittsburgh Pirates that began in 1934 and ended in 1964 with only a break for World War II. He was a […]

From its beginning, as a plank in Ivan Allen’s campaign platform for mayor, to its end, hosting the Olympic baseball competition and a World Series in its final year of existence, Atlanta Stadium was a major part of the push to make Atlanta a world-class city.1 The stadium succeeded in attracting teams from major-league baseball, […]

This article appears in SABR’s “Wrigley Field: The Friendly Confines at Clark and Addison” (2019), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. “[T]oo many parks aren’t situated where they should be – and that is, preferably, not just in a city but in a neighborhood.” — Travis Sawchik1 Sawchik is not alone in praising Wrigleyville. Kevin Kaduk […]