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“In other years, the cynics expected the Red Sox to go nowhere. This year the experts say they’ll go halfway to somewhere.” — Editorial, Boston Globe, April 11, 1967   “I don’t care where people say we’re going to finish,” grunted new Red Sox manager Dick Williams. “Let them pick us for 10th. But I […]

On a clear and cool day, the Cincinnati Redlegs and Chicago Cubs prepared for an early May finale of a five-game series at Wrigley Field. A Cubs vice president estimated that the team lost at least 100,000 fans to unstable Chicagoland weather during this 10-game homestand.1 Another small crowd (5,936) entered the turnstiles at Clark […]

The Detroit Tigers were baseball’s biggest surprise of 2006. On a streak of 12 consecutive losing seasons, and three years removed from the most losses in American League history, Detroit surged to the head of the AL Central behind a new manager and an emerging rookie ace. Jim Leyland, in a major-league dugout for the […]

At close of play on September 20, 1886, the St. Louis Browns (82-41) had a 12-game lead over the second-place Pittsburgh Alleghenys in the American Association, with the Philadelphia Athletics (54-63-3) in sixth place, 25 games off the pace. The next day, the Browns came to Philadelphia for a three-game series. St. Louis, as expected, […]

“If a showman had arranged it,” opined the AP’s Paul Mickelson, “he couldn’t have staged a more dramatic finish than that of today.”1 The pennant hopes of the St. Louis Cardinals hinged on the last day of the season. A victory over the lowly Cincinnati Reds guaranteed the Redbirds the pennant; their loss and a […]

Smoky Joe Wood had quite a season in 1912, his fourth full year with the Boston Red Sox. Coming off a strong 23-17 campaign in 1911 with a 2.02 earned-run average, the 22-year-old right-hander did even better by going 34-5 with a 1.91 ERA in 1912. He pitched 35 complete games, 10 of them shutouts. […]

For the Washington Nationals and their fans, the opening of the 2008 season at brand-new Nationals Park on a Sunday night with a national television audience was an exhilarating experience. Baseball at RFK Stadium seemed like a distant memory.1 RFK, home of the Nationals since 2005, was best described as “leaky and creaky with plenty of […]

The romantic affection which Boston always has for the players who have made big league history throbbed into thunderous beat.” – Burt Whitman, Boston Herald.1   The band began to play some old familiar favorites, including “Silver Threads Among the Gold” and “Love’s Old Sweet Song,” a grand beginning on that picturesque Boston day. Then, […]

“One of the toughest losses I’ve had to deal with in a while.” – Joe Torre, August 18, 20001 “I haven’t been around that long, but to me, that was the biggest comeback we’ve ever had.” – Darin Erstad, August 18, 20002   Not too many fans in the announced crowd of 37,053 were still […]

Few prospects have fallen to earth quite as dramatically as pitcher Brien Taylor, the number-one pick by the New York Yankees in the June 1991 amateur draft. Signing a record $1.55 million contract negotiated by agent Scott Boras and Taylor’s mother, Bettie,1 the hard-throwing North Carolina high schooler became one of baseball’s top-rated, most-anticipated prospects.2 […]

Urban “Red” Faber’s Hall of Fame pitching career took off in 1915. After posting a 10-9 record as a rookie the previous season, the Chicago White Sox spitballer went 24-14 with a 2.55 ERA in 1915, tying for second place in the American League in wins and ranking first in games pitched with 50.1 He […]

The 1890 Louisville Colonels – dubbed the “Cyclones” in newspapers in Louisville and other American Association cities1 – had already doubled their 1889 win total when the Syracuse Stars came to town for a three-game series on August 9. Baseball’s first-ever 100-game losers at 27-111-2 in 1889, a season that included the majors’ first players […]

Daniel Nava celebrates with teammates after hitting a grand slam in his first major-league at-bat on June 12, 2010. (Courtesy of the Boston Red Sox)   In 2008 Daniel Nava signed with the Boston Red Sox for $1. He worked his way up in the system and got his call to the big-league club on […]

The first five Boston batters in the game all got hits and all scored, giving the Red Sox a 5-0 lead before the team made its first out. Red Sox starter Jon Lester already had all the run support he needed, and third baseman Will Middlebrooks was on his way to a career highlight day. […]

Matt “The Scat” Alexander holds an odd distinction: He is the foremost pinch-running specialist in major-league history. Over parts of nine seasons (1973-81), he played in 374 games — yet amassed only 195 plate appearances. A favorite of manager Chuck Tanner, Alexander won a World Series ring with the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates. Along with his […]

Alice Hoover played one season in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League with the 1948 Fort Wayne Daisies. The 4’11”, 105 pound infielder from Reading, Pennsylvania was, not surprisingly, nicknamed “Pee Wee” by her Fort Wayne teammates. Born in Reading on October 27, 1928, to Ethel (Shurman) Hoover and Charles Hoover, Alice was the oldest of four […]

In his first three professional seasons, James “Wickey” McAvoy played for a World Series champion, an American League champion, and a team that lost 109 games. This dramatic shift of fortune required no action on McAvoy’s part: The catcher joined Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics in 1913 and lingered there as Mack traded some of his […]

Though he was an outstanding catcher for the Baltimore Orioles during the 1890s, Wilbert Robinson is remembered today primarily as the jovial, rotund “Uncle Robbie” who managed the Brooklyn Robins to two National League pennants and a 1,399-1,398 record from 1914 to 1931. His congenial nature and happy-go-lucky attitude made him one of the most […]

In 37 seasons as an infielder and third-base coach for the Yankees, Frank Crosetti was on the field for 23 fall classics, of which New York won 17. After a while “The Crow” had collected so many rings that the Yankees started giving him engraved shotguns instead. Sandwiched between Tony Lazzeri and Joe DiMaggio as […]

Jocko Conlan always wanted to be a ballplayer. He never dreamed about becoming an umpire until the opportunity presented itself by accident. He parlayed that chance into a Hall of Fame career that spanned 25 big-league seasons. A Sporting News book once wrote of Conlan, “He was a master psychologist in the charged-up world of […]

He terrorized teammates with snakes. He tossed firecrackers under benches and into bullpens. He was a master of the fine art of the hotfoot. Often forgotten is that Moe Drabowsky could pitch a little, too. In a 17-year major-league career with eight teams, it was his two stints with the Orioles that brought him lasting […]

Charlie Hautz was a man of modest baseball talent but much baseball enthusiasm. He parlayed his limited abilities into a long career as a first baseman and outfielder during the pioneering years of nineteenth-century baseball in St. Louis and other Western locales. While he spent only parts of two seasons with major-league clubs, he always […]

Pitcher Jack Sutthoff, whose 90-game career in the major leagues spanned the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, recorded his best big-league season in 1903, when he went 16-9 for his hometown Cincinnati Reds. His status as a former Red, the pitcher who in 1904 broke the Reds’ losing streak on Opening Day, and his pleasant personality […]

One could make a strong case for Joe McGinnity being the most durable pitcher in baseball history. In just 10 seasons in the major leagues, “Iron Man” McGinnity worked 3,441 innings and won 246 games. During the month of August in 1903, he pitched and won both ends of a doubleheader three times; he accomplished […]