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On the morning of August 11, 1921, the New York Giants were in second place, 2½ games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates. If the National League pennant race remained close, any one of a number of factors could be the difference between success and failure. Doubtless with some satisfaction, the Standard Union (Brooklyn) claimed, “[s]hould the […]

With his pitchers falling by the wayside on a seemingly daily basis, Cleveland Blues manager Jimmy McAleer figured there couldn’t be any harm in asking. After injuries to his other pitchers forced McAleer to put Bill Hart on the pitching slab for the third time in five days on May 14, 1901, less than three […]

Plummeting through a disastrous homestand in 1950, the onset of an eight-season purgatory in the lowest rungs of the National League standings, the Pittsburgh Pirates called up Vern Law from their Double-A affiliate in New Orleans. In Law’s first big-league start, on June 11 at Forbes Field, the 20-year-old right-hander outlasted Philadelphia Phillies ace Robin […]

In 1940 baseball was truly America’s national game. But it was played at the major-league level by 16 teams in only 11 cities, none west of St. Louis or south of Cincinnati.1 Minor-league baseball proliferated over the rest of the country, with 39 leagues in six classifications, designated Class AA through Class D. For a […]

On Friday, October 8, on a beautiful afternoon in front of a Milwaukee County Stadium crowd of 50,135, for the second time in six days, Don Sutton took the mound for the Brewers in Game Three of the American League Championship Series. With the Brewers down two games to none to the California Angels and […]

The dreary weather for the San Francisco Giants’ 1985 finale matched the gloom that engulfed the downtrodden franchise. Some 14,537 fans showed up on a Sunday afternoon – a large crowd by Giants’ standards of the day1 – potentially to witness unwanted history and possibly to see their team play in San Francisco for the […]

Runs had historically been hard to come by in the Astrodome, but on May 11, 1999 — in the building’s last season — the Astros proved an exception to the rule, blasting the Pirates 19-8 in front of 18,450. The Dome had opened as the modernistic “eighth wonder of the world,”1 but its design made […]

On April 25, 1868, the New York Clipper, self-proclaimed “leading organ of all legitimate sports,” announced that it would award a Gold Ball to the team that successfully captured the championship of “the National Game of America.”1 Seven years earlier, that same tabloid had awarded a Silver Ball to the club whose members scored the […]

The Dodgers were in a hole after losing the first two games of the World Series to their crosstown rivals the Yankees. But now the Series was headed to Ebbets Field and the Dodger faithful were confident that their team could bounce back. “Now that we’ve got the Yanks in our own backyard, they can’t […]

He “pitches with such intensity that he ought to be declared a fire hazard,” gushed sportswriter Mark Littwin after Bruce Kison’s dominant five-hit complete-game victory, while California Angels teammate Reggie Jackson described him “as so mentally tough, he’s a ball of fire.”1 Kison touted his coolness under pressure as a product of his postseason “experience” […]

The exterior of the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, is pictured in 2021. (Photo: Infrogmation of New Orleans, licensed under Creative Commons 4.0)   When most people think of the Louisiana Superdome,[1] they don’t associate it with baseball. More likely, they relate the domed stadium in downtown New Orleans with football: the New Orleans Saints […]

The Ballpark at Old Orchard Beach, as pictured in 2023. (Courtesy of Kurt Blumenau)   Before there was The Ballpark at Arlington, The Ballpark at Jackson, The Ballpark at Harbor Yard or The Ballpark at Disney’s Wide World of Sports, there was simply The Ballpark, in Old Orchard Beach, Maine.1 The pine-bordered park with the […]

Richard John McAuliffe was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on November 29, 1939. He grew up in the tiny town of Unionville, a burg “not exactly a breeding spot for major league athletes,” according to Los Angeles Times columnist Jim Murray, another Connecticut native. “Chickens are more along its line. … Unionville has about nine months […]

Earl Robinson was a two-sport star at the University of California, Berkeley in the 1950s, leading the Golden Bears to the College World Series and finishing his basketball career among the school’s all-time leading scorers. After becoming the first African American to receive a bonus contract, he spent parts of four seasons between 1958 and […]

From the hot corner, Milt Stock made vital contributions towards the Philadelphia Phillies’ first two pennants. As a second-year player in 1915, he took over third base responsibilities when Bobby Byrne suffered a serious injury during the home stretch, and helped the Phillies capture their first NL flag. For another decade, with several teams, he […]

Montana’s Moonlight Graham, Wyman Andrus appeared in a single game at third base for the 1885 Providence Grays. His post-playing days, however, were spent as a distinguished leader of medicine and politics in an old west cattle town. William Wyman Andrus was born October 14, 1858, in the village of Orono, Ontario, Canada. He was […]

It was the spring of 1975, and Pete Rose was befuddled as he stood in the batting cage. A young, bespectacled right-hander named Tommy Hume, the Cincinnati Reds’ first-round choice in the January 1972 secondary phase of the amateur draft, was buzzing fastballs by the World Series MVP-to-be in batting practice. “The kid had Rose […]

“He was a missionary extraordinary for the game itself. … Wherever he went … Barrett talked and preached baseball.” i He was referred to as the King of Weeds, a play on words about scouts who “beat the bushes” for prospects. He signed the second most major-league players in baseball history, second only to his […]

Samuel B. Sager may just be the most tantalizing man to have played in the first major-league season of 1871. He left a vivid enough impression to be pegged with two nicknames and to figure prominently in Cap Anson’s memoirs. Yet even the most basic biographical information has eluded generations of researchers, until a group […]

One of the most remarkable characteristics of Goodwin “Goody” Rosen is that the diminutive former National League All-Star spent the entirety of his career drawing strength from his identity as “the other” in baseball. On the one hand, Rosen was a Jew, one of only 25 Jews to play in the major leagues during the […]

He delivered big hits on occasion but is still asked most often about a thrown ball that struck him in the wrist while he was running to first base in the 1969 World Series. “I kid around with the fans and show them how I swelled up. I just stick my arms out. I don’t […]

Disco music peaked in the United States with the top six songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the week ending July 21, 1979. At the time, “Disco Dan” Ford was starring for the California Angels club that was headed for that franchise’s first postseason appearance.1 Although the musical genre quickly fell out of […]

Given the offensive firepower of the Big Red Machine, it is quite easy to overlook the contributions of the pitching staff to the franchise’s success and its two World Series banners. Clearly, a run-scoring powerhouse that featured talents like Johnny Bench, Pete Rose, Joe Morgan, and Tony Perez often simply pummeled divisional, National League, and […]

When he was in college, a reporter once dubbed him, “Hard-throwing Steve Comer.” But the right-hander’s upper 80-mile-per-hour fastball, which is notable for a college pitcher, never got much faster. This fact became a source of humor for some when Steve Comer reached the major leagues. Baseball columnist Peter Gammons once wrote of Comer, “A film crew […]