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It was the final All-Star Game of the twentieth century. On a mid-July night at Fenway Park, the greatest living players in baseball history were in the ballpark for the game between the best of the National League and the best of the American League. And, appropriately, two Red Sox legends stole the show. The […]

Roy Smalley was off to a solid start to the 1981 season for the struggling Minnesota Twins. John Bierig of the Minneapolis Star wrote that he’d been “the only bright spot in a dismal season” for the ballclub.1 Smalley, fresh off signing a four-year contract extension in the offseason, was hitting .294 with 6 home […]

The San Francisco Giants entered 1986 coming off three straight losing seasons, including back-to-back last-place finishes in the National League West Division. In 1985 they had lost 100 games for the first time in franchise history. But when the Giants began a six-game road trip with a weekend series against the Cincinnati Reds in late […]

On May 24, 1963, the Minnesota Twins used two dramatic home runs to extend their winning streak to five games. Harmon Killebrew’s grand slam put the Twins ahead in the fifth inning, and after the Chicago White Sox tied the score, Jimmie Hall ended the game with a two-run blast in the bottom of the […]

The Chicago White Stockings had won the 1885 National League pennant with a record of 87-25-1. They continued their winning ways in 1886, and as they visited the Detroit Wolverines for a three-game series that began on August 20, “the Champions,”1 as they were known in the press, had posted a 60-22 record with about […]

The headline on the front page of the September 7, 1973, edition of the Montreal Gazette announced that it was time to start tracking the Montreal Expos’ magic number (it was 27). A timely six-game winning streak had moved them to within three games of the first-place St. Louis Cardinals and ratcheted up the excitement […]

“Jackie has been accepted in baseball, and we of the Philadelphia organization have no objection to his playing and wish him all the luck we can. Baseball is an American game, and there are no nationalities, creeds, nor races involved. Jackie Robinson is an American.”1 This quote, attributed to Philadelphia manager Ben Chapman, was made […]

As White Sox pitcher Dave DeBusschere headed to the mound at Comiskey Park for his 10th start of the 1963 season, the 6-foot-6-inch right-hander was anxious to prove what he could do. Unlike his counterpart, Indians starter, Jim “Mudcat” Grant, who was taking his regular turn, DeBusschere’s appearances were irregular at best. Indeed, on a […]

In an episode of Cheers, former Red Sox relief pitcher Sam Malone, played by actor Ted Danson, appears in a beer commercial to save Luis Tiant after the hurler with a corkscrew windup flubs his lines. Tiant’s subpar performance is part of the script. Malone exclaims, “Another save!”1 Although Malone is a fictional character, the […]

Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds and Bud Harrelson of the New  York Mets fight with each other during the 1973 National League Championship Series as Mets teammate Wayne Garrett approaches. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   The Cincinnati Reds and the New York Mets arrived at Shea Stadium to play the third game of the 1973 National […]

When his barrier-breaking tour of the National League reached Pittsburgh a month into the 1947 season, Jackie Robinson extended his double-digit hitting streak with a burst of speed and surprise, but three Pittsburgh Pirates home runs, all benefiting from Forbes Field’s newly shortened outfield, yielded a 7-3 win over Robinson’s Brooklyn Dodgers on May 15. […]

As the sun rose over San Diego on July 19, 1982, San Diego Padres fans were excited that the Tony Gwynn era was about to begin. The sports stations were announcing all day that the Padres had brought up Gwynn, their third-round pick from 14 months earlier, from Triple-A Hawaii. The day before, Hawaii manager […]

Willie Tasby hit a grand slam. Vic Wertz hit a three-run homer. But it was the two-run homer in the bottom of the fifth inning that gave the Boston Red Sox their second and third runs – the third run being the one that won them the 13-2 game over the visiting Kansas City Athletics. […]

Cookie Rojas is one of a handful of major leaguers who played every position in his career including pitcher. Of that group, he is the only one to make both the American and National League All-Star teams. Rojas worked in the major leagues as a player, coach, manager, and broadcaster for more than five decades. […]

One night at Toots Shor’s restaurant, Edward Bennett Williams was asked what he wanted to do when he grew up — an odd question for a man in his mid-30s who’d already gained a reputation as a distinguished trial lawyer. “I want to own a ball club and be president,” said Williams,1 who as a […]

Tim Laudner followed up on a record-setting season in the minor leagues in 1981 with a home run in each of his first two games in the majors. After creating a tough act to follow, Laudner didn’t reach the heights some expected of him. However, he played nine seasons for the Minnesota Twins, was the team’s starting […]

Chick Morgan could have boasted of playing in the major leagues with the Detroit Tigers, or of a 17-year career spanning three decades as a professional player. Yet, somehow, it seems quite plausible that his greatest satisfaction could have been that 80 years after he began his first season in the minors, his great grandson […]

Perhaps Joe Simpson was destined to play and describe a game of pitch and catch and hit. For one thing, the holiday baby was born December 31, 1951, at a time when baseball was the only game in town. Imagining the pastime, hearing it on radio, or watching on television, no one needed slow motion, […]

James McCormick amassed 265 victories from 1878 to 1887 in the National League and the Union Association. He possessed an excellent fastball and was one of the earliest pitchers to master the curveball. His repertoire also included a “drop” ball. Many fans believe he is an overlooked candidate for the Hall of Fame. Baseball-Reference, for instance, has […]

People who saw Carl Furillo play most often talk about his throwing arm. He was given nicknames because of it, including “The Reading Rifle,” and “The Arm.” On August 27, 1951, Pirates pitcher Mel Queen learned about Furillo’s arm the hard way—thrown out at first base after hitting an apparent single to right. It was […]

Chester “Red” Torkelson, a chipper sorrel-topped spitballer, lived out all his boyhood daydreams in the American League shortly before reporting to the army during World War I. Never recalled to the big tent, he remade his career in several minor leagues as a player, manager, and popular baseball clown. Chet was the eldest of Knute […]

Two words: Señor Smoke. Hernandez/Lopez. Things Change. Take your pick of the trio of descriptions that defined Aurelio Lopez’s baseball career. Things change. That’s a truism that, in its pithy wisdom, fails to reveal that perceptions of the past — even the recent past — can vary so widely from those of contemporary observers. Ask […]

Editor’s note: This essay is from SABR’s “Pitching, Defense, and Three-Run Homers: The 1970 Baltimore Orioles” (University of Nebraska Press, 2012), edited by Mark Armour and Malcolm Allen. The seed that sprouted into the powerful Baltimore Orioles teams of the 1960s and ‘70s was planted by two baseball lifers who despised each other. Together they […]

This article appears in SABR’s “The Base Ball Palace of the World: Comiskey Park” (2019), edited by Gregory H. Wolf.   Comiskey Park opened during the summer of 1910,1 and the Chicago White Sox broke in their new home with a 2-0 loss to the St. Louis Browns. After hosting decades of American League baseball […]