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Few teams in baseball history have had the luxury of all but clinching their division as early as April. The 1986 New York Mets knew this better than most, having fought to 98 wins in 1985 only to miss the playoffs at the hands of their bitter National League East rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, […]

On Sunday evening, April 4, the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles opened their 2004 seasons at Baltimore’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards. The game-time temperature was 43 degrees.1 The two teams had had very different seasons in 2003. The Orioles had finished in fourth place in the American League East, 30 games behind the […]

A modest crowd of 9,018 fans gathered at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field on Saturday, April 18, 1970, as much of the nation was riveted on activities that took place earlier in the week many thousands of miles above the Earth. Millions of TV sets across the land were focused on the return to Earth and dramatic […]

At the close of the 1939 baseball season, Tex Carleton prepared to retire to his hometown of Fort Worth convinced that his big-league days were behind him. The 33-year-old right-hander had struggled in his first campaign with the Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association, posting an 11-9 record with a dismal 4.23 ERA. A sore […]

Shooting for .400, Ted Williams didn’t manage a single in the Boston Red Sox’ September 1 doubleheader with the Washington Senators, nor a two-base hit. He didn’t hit a triple, either, but he improved his batting average by three points, from .407 to .410. He did hit three home runs — two in the first […]

On July 9, the San Francisco Chronicle’s Mark Camps wrote: “If you plan to come to Candlestick and are looking for wild scoring games, save your eight bucks and rent an NBA All-Star game video.”1 By the end of the day, he could have printed a retraction. In 1987 the St Louis Cardinals and the […]

It was a “perfect” Saturday night for baseball: 19 degrees and sleeting, winds at 30 miles per hour, gusting to 45. On the eve of the 1982 season, the Minnesota Twins and Philadelphia Phillies were set for an exhibition game to open the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome on the edge of downtown Minneapolis. “Dome” was […]

Jesse Tannehill led the National League in ERA in 1901 with the Pittsburgh Pirates and was a four-time 20-game winner in Pittsburgh. He jumped to the American League’s New York Highlanders in 1903 but had an off-year, 15-15 with an ERA that had climbed from 1.95 to 3.27. Fresh off winning the first World Series […]

The champagne was ready in the Astrodome. With a two-games-to-one lead in the best-of-five National League Championship Series, the Astros were one win away from their first trip to the World Series. Considering the obstacles that both they and their opponents, the Phillies, had overcome, no one was apt to be counting on an easy […]

As the Boston Red Sox pounded the Cleveland Indians in front of 11,410 fans at Cleveland Stadium on July 3, 1943, Boston rookie Leon Culberson became the first player of the season to hit for the cycle. The New York Times reported that “Culberson’s contributions formed the major share of a 12-hit barrage laid down […]

In early September 1960, the Green Bay Packers football dynasty under Vince Lombardi was gathering steam. First-year coach Lombardi steered the 1959 team to Green Bay’s first winning season in a dozen years, and excitement was building for still greater success in 1960 as the season’s first game approached.1 The Green Bay Press-Gazette reported on […]

It wasn’t your typical August day in San Diego. With temperatures in the 70s and a lot of clouds, it wasn’t the picture-perfect setting for baseball. For the Padres, it was their first year under the ownership of Ray Kroc, and the team was struggling. The Padres were 44-65 and in the midst of a […]

Baseball history buffs would love to hop on a time machine and head to Cincinnati’s Crosley Field for the Redlegs’ July 31, 1958, incredible comeback against the San Francisco Giants.1 If H.G. Wells’s imaginary invention were a reality, the lucky time travelers would have seen an exciting game that included several famous footnote players who […]

With a six-hitter in which he walked just one, Roger Moret pitched his only shutout of the 1975 season as the Red Sox “added insult to injury with a 6-0 success in the nightcap”1 to complete a double-shutout sweep of a doubleheader, the first one suffered by New York since June 15, 1958, against Detroit.2 […]

The future looked bright for California Angels infielder Dave Machemer on June 21, 1978, as he rounded the bases after hitting a home run in his first major-league plate appearance. Machemer lined a full-count pitch off Minnesota Twins southpaw pitcher Geoff Zahn that just cleared the fence inside the left-field foul pole at Metropolitan Stadium […]

A major-league pitcher for 18 years, Clarence Mitchell is best remembered not for a pitch he threw from the mound, but for one he hit while standing in the batter’s box. It was Sunday, October 10, 1920, the fifth game of the World Series between Cleveland and Brooklyn. The series was tied at two games […]

Cincinnati Reds pitcher Johnny Vander Meer was close to achieving baseball immortality, but he didn’t know it. It was June 15, 1938, and he was on the mound in Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field with the bases loaded, two outs, and a 1-and-1 count on the irrepressible Dodgers shortstop Leo Durocher. One more out and his name […]

After a difficult childhood, a traumatic year in Vietnam, and replacing a legend in San Francisco, Garry Maddox came to Philadelphia in 1975. The “Secretary of Defense” proceeded to win eight consecutive Gold Gloves in center field. As a Phillie, he experienced great depths (an inexplicable error that ended Philadelphia’s 1978 pennant aspirations) and scaled […]

It may have been happenstance that made Ron Blomberg own a piece of history as baseball’s first designated hitter. After he overcame anti-Semitism in his hometown of Atlanta to become the number one overall pick by the New York Yankees in the free agent draft in 1967, his dream of playing in New York City, […]

Bill Wilkinson’s arm talent was easy to spot, even when he was throwing snowballs. “In the winter time, before the spring (season) started, this kid came into the gym and said, ‘Coach J, you’ve got to get outside,” said legendary Cherry Creek High School baseball coach Marc Johnson. “They’ve got a snowball fight going and […]

Eldon John “Rip” Repulski was a major-league ballplayer from Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, who enjoyed storytelling. This was especially true after his career with the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Boston Red Sox came to a close in 1961, and Rip eventually opened a cocktail lounge on St. Germain Street in St. Cloud, […]

The fifth-winningest pitcher of all time, Warren Spahn went 363-245 over parts of 21 years from 1942 to 1965. Only by remaining in the game two seasons too long did he fail to finish with an ERA under 3.00 (3.09) and a winning percentage over .600 (.597), and his totals are all the more impressive […]

A rich lineage lies behind Adair Bushyhead Mayes’ memorable baseball name. His grandfather, Samuel Mayes (of Scots-Irish descent), married Nancy Adair (granddaughter of a full-blooded Cherokee woman) and was recognized as a Cherokee. In early 1838, the young couple joined a group of Treaty Party Cherokees (tribal members aligned with leaders who had signed the […]

“Beware of robbing a wretch or attacking a cripple. Do not laugh at a blind man, nor tease a dwarf, nor cause hardship for the lame. Don’t tease a man who is in the hand of the god (i.e. ill or insane)…” [Instruction of Amenemope, Ancient Egypt]1 Frank James Burke was born on March 19, […]