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Sean Doolittle, the Washington Nationals closer, was sitting in the bullpen when, by the top of the fourth inning, the Nationals were losing 9-0 to the Miami Marlins. Some thoughts that could have been going through his (and the other relievers) mind: “I feel sorry for Helly — he’s sick and he’s out there getting […]

Gabe Kapler understood that one of his first priorities in taking over as manager of the Phillies in 2018 was to improve the team’s offense. The 2016 Phillies finished last in the National League in runs scored, and progressed only to 12th-most in 2017. The Phillies started the 2018 season 1-4, but despite the team’s […]

The 2004 regular season ended with the St. Louis Cardinals winning 105 games, while the Houston Astros squeaked past the San Francisco Giants by one game and into the wild-card spot on the last day of the season. Though the Cardinals had won the National League Central Division by 13 games over Houston, many experts […]

Ted Williams ended his 1941 season, the one in which he was the last American or National League batter (as of 2020) ever to hit over .400, with a career total of 91 home runs. As May 1942 approached its end, he already had a dozen more. The Red Sox, though, were in fourth place […]

A season was drawing to a close. In Baltimore, an era was also drawing to a close as the Orioles prepared to play their final game at Memorial Stadium. It was the only home the Orioles had known since they moved to Baltimore in 1954. For many fans, it was bittersweet to see the ballpark, […]

In a 21-year career that was honored by his 2024 election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, Adrian Beltré spent one season – 2010 – with the Boston Red Sox. At age 31, it was one of Beltré’s best years, and it reignited the Dominican-born third baseman’s path […]

The bleachers at Ebbets Field were filled two hours before the first pitch. The game was a sellout by noon, and many of the estimated 10,000 fans who were turned away continued to line the streets around the park. Young boys tumbled over a gate near the corner of McKeever Place and Montgomery; most were […]

Dissatisfied with the return on his $2.4 billion investment after a year as owner of the New York Mets – a sub-.500 record and no playoffs – Steve Cohen doubled down after the 2021 season.1 He committed a chunk of his sizable fortune for a stable of accomplished free agents, pushing the club’s 2022 payroll […]

The 1986 Mets led the NL in scoring, but pitching was the club’s backbone. The staff was anchored by four legitimate All-Stars, right-handers Dwight Gooden and Ron Darling, and southpaws Sid Fernandez and Bob Ojeda, each of whom won at least 15 games, logged in excess of 200 innings pitched, and had a winning percentage […]

It was cold, windy, dreary, and damp in the nation’s capital when the cellar-dwelling Detroit Tigers (5-16) and fifth-place Washington Senators (10-11) arrived at Griffith Stadium to see if they could salvage the final contest of an originally-scheduled four-game series. Rain had canceled the previous two games and probably should have wiped out this game, […]

Denny McLain began the morning the same as he always did. His wife woke him up around 10:30. Breakfast was two eggs and sausage, and a Pepsi, his favorite drink. A half-hour later, a representative from the Hammond Organ Company showed up at Denny’s home, and they discussed business. Denny was a fine player, and […]

A Thursday afternoon Philadelphia crowd of 3,500 fans got their money’s worth by watching the longest game of the 1918 season, a 19-inning affair between the Phillies and the St. Louis Cardinals that ended in a tie. The 18-25 Phillies were in sixth place in the National League. The Cardinals were a half-game behind them […]

Of all the games played at Shibe Park, few were more unusual or less predictable than the meeting on August 15, 1946, between the Boston Red Sox and the Philadelphia Athletics. It was a game in which a woeful team beat the best in the league in an upset of mammoth proportions. The game pitted […]

Perennial contenders during the New York Giants’ four-year National League reign of the early 1920s, the Pittsburgh Pirates began 1925 by getting outclassed by the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds on the road. Championship qualities finally surfaced in the Pirates’ home opener on April 22, when a crowd of 31,000 saw Johnny Morrison limit the […]

As the first week of September drew to a close, neither the Red Sox nor the Phillies were doing much more than playing out the string.  The Red Sox had again failed to regain the magic that had fueled their surprising 2013 World Series championship, a victory followed by a return to the cellar in […]

Things weren’t looking that good for the Red Sox heading into the bottom of the ninth. It was the home opener of the 1952 season at Boston’s Fenway Park. Jimmy Dykes and his Philadelphia Athletics held a 4-1 lead. Right-hander Bob Hooper was dealing. He’d allowed seven scattered hits and walked three, but the Red […]

Through one lens, John Upham’s baseball career was brief and injury-riddled. Through another, he was a super athlete who excelled in three sports in school and was a rare talent who could hit, run, field, and pitch at the major-league level. He came to the plate 13 times over 21 games and batted .308 for […]

Down two games to none to the Minnesota Twins in the 1965 World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers found themselves in a precarious situation after Don Drysdale lost Game One, 8-2, and Sandy Koufax, who refused to pitch the opening game because it fell on Yom Kippur, lost Game Two, 5-1. Left-hander Claude Osteen, scheduled […]

Like many of us, Rich Nye followed a winding path before finding his true professional calling. What sets Nye apart from you and me, though, is that his journey included pitching duels with Tom Seaver and Bob Gibson; road trips with Hall-of-Fame teammates Ernie Banks and Ferguson Jenkins; and head-to-head showdowns with the likes of […]

College baseball coach Bobby Sprowl’s teams have won more than 1,000 games in the course of a career that’s run 30 years and counting. He’s also run a successful baseball camp for the past 25 years. The left-handed pitcher was a second-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox in 1977 and made it to […]

Babe Martin was born Boris Michael Martinovich, the son of a professional wrestler, Iron Mike Martin (a/k/a Bryan Martinovich). Both of Boris’ parents — Mitar and Vidosava Martinovich — were born in parts of the former Yugoslavia, his father in Montenegro and his mother in Serbia. They each emigrated to the United States and settled […]

“There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer,” said the greatest player of his time, or most any other time — Honus Wagner. He may be the greatest player in National League history. One of five sons and four daughters of the former Katrina Wolf and Peter Wagner, Honus (a diminutive of […]

Branch Rickey was “a man of strange complexities, not to mention downright contradictions,” wrote the New York Times’ John Drebinger. The great decision to break baseball’s policy of excluding blacks, for which he is justly praised, has, in recent decades, tended to overwhelm the highly negative image he had earned before that decision. He went […]

John I. Taylor is one of the most controversial figures in Boston Red Sox history. After Boston won the first 20th-century World Series in 1903, American League president Ban Johnson faced a dilemma. The Boston championship team was owned and operated by Midwestern interests. Johnson wisely decided that the team should be sold to a […]