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When Matt den Dekker replaced Bryce Harper in the Washington Nationals lineup in the sixth inning, Harper had walked four times, scored four times, and collected an RBI; all without swinging the bat at any of the 20 pitches he was offered. Only three other players since 1914 had scored four runs without registering an […]

In the mid-1960s, noted artist Norman Rockwell lived and painted in the Berkshires region of Western Massachusetts.1 The baseball-related events that took place there on Thursday, May 13, 1965, seem perfectly suited to his brush—wholesome, all-American, small-townish, and, to a twenty-first-century eye, vanishingly obsolete. Schools in the small city of North Adams let out at […]

Oh, those New York Mets! In the first three seasons since the National League returned to New York in 1962, the Mets finished in last place. Would the 1965 season be their time to abandon last place for higher ground? To answer the question, manager Casey Stengel could be direct without resorting to some form […]

San Francisco Giants first baseman Will Clark was having a career year in 1989 as he helped lead the team to a division championship. He had been a model of hitting consistency throughout the season and heading into the final series of the year, against the San Diego Padres, he had a good shot at […]

The 1891 Cincinnati Reds looked to improve on their 77-55 record and fourth-place National League finish of 1890, but an early-season slump seemed to sap the life out of the team. By June 27 the Reds were last in the eight-team NL, 12 games behind the front-running New York Giants and Chicago Colts. It was […]

Mike Schmidt began 1987 needing five home runs for admission to baseball’s 500-home-run club. On a sunny April afternoon in Pittsburgh, he punched his ticket with a ninth-inning game-winner, rescuing the Phillies from collapse and sinking a Pirates’ comeback. Already entrenched among the game’s all-time greats,1 Schmidt bolstered his legend in 1986 by posting a […]

Longtime Chicago Tribune writer Irving Vaughan left no doubt in his readers’ minds as to who won the May 5, 1938, rubber-match contest between the Cubs and Phillies: “Albert Paul Epperly, the Iowa farm boy, was introduced yesterday in his maiden start as a big leaguer and his Cub mates turned the event into a […]

When Boston Red Sox first baseman Norm Zauchin enjoyed a 4-for-5 night with 10 RBIs at Fenway Park in late May 1955, it was hardly a surprise that his team won the game. Right-hander Tom Brewer did his part as well, throwing a six-hit shutout. The final score was 16-0, Boston beating the visiting Washington […]

A “sticky wicket” of summer heat1 shrouded Crosley Field as the third-place Cincinnati Reds and the league-leading Philadelphia Phillies met on Saturday, July 18, 1964. The squads were pairing up for the 10th time this season in the second game of a five-game series. So far, the Phillies were up on the Reds six games […]

“The Brooklyn Dodgers today purchased the contract of Jackie Roosevelt Robinson from the Montréal Royals.”1 Arthur Mann, an assistant to Dodgers president and general manager Branch Rickey, handed out the announcement in the press box at Ebbets Field during the fifth inning of the Royals’ 4-3 exhibition game victory against the Dodgers.2 Coincidentally, Jackie Robinson, […]

On Memorial Day 1960, the Pittsburgh Pirates had squeezed past the San Francisco Giants by a half-game to take over first place in the National League. And by mid-July the Giants had faded; the Pirates, forging on and 18 games over .500, held a three-game lead over the Milwaukee Braves. Pirate fans were ecstatic. Their […]

After enduring an 86-year drought (1919-2003), the Boston Red Sox were going for their fourth world championship in 15 years, while the Los Angeles Dodgers were suffering a 30-year drought of their own, since they’d beat Oakland in 1988. They’d made it to the postseason 11 times in those 30 years but come up short […]

Tom Baird was present at the beginning of the Negro National League in 1920 and stayed nearly to the conclusion of the Negro Leagues themselves in 1956. His long tenure was spent solely with the Kansas City Monarchs, the dominant and longest-running franchise in the history of the Negro Leagues. He was the longest-serving club […]

Dave Schmidt was a catcher with the Boston Red Sox in 1981. He played for them in 15 games at the start of the season and acquitted himself well. But the Sox had two other solid catchers — Rich Gedman and Gary Allenson, who filled most of the team’s needs for the next several years. […]

Pearce Nuget Chiles was a ne’er-do-well, a scoundrel. A decent enough ballplayer, but a scoundrel. In two partial seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies (1899-1900), he was a late-inning pinch hitter whose lifetime at-bats to runs-batted-in ratio rivals that of Joe DiMaggio (22.04 to Joe’s 22.53) and a thoroughly disruptive baserunning coach, known for his devilishly […]

David Green was one of baseball’s big “what if” stories. The imposing Nicaraguan was often called “the next Roberto Clemente.” His talent has also been compared to that of Vladimir Guerrero, André Dawson, and Darryl Strawberry — even Willie Mays. Alas, personal troubles and nagging injuries stopped him from realizing this vast potential. Looking back […]

Ray Hayworth intended to go into the upholstery trade, but was talked out of it by a friend, and the result was an 18-season career as a catcher, 15 of them in the major leagues. Hayworth was prized for his defensive ability, but swung an effective bat for a catcher, with a .265 career batting […]

Nick Young’s baseball career illustrated important aspects of the game’s early development. He was a cricketer who took up baseball during Civil War service; afterward he joined a club of amateurs that grew increasingly competitive and came to include paid players. This evolved into helping organize the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, which […]

There have been two big leaguers named Joe Morgan — and it’s not hard to tell them apart. Joseph Michael Morgan played fractions of four seasons in “The Show,” finishing with three games for the 1964 Cardinals. He is white. Joe Leonard Morgan’s Hall of Fame career ran from 1963 to 1984. He is black. […]

Arthur Daley of the New York Times once wrote that Mike Ryba had been “too good for his own good.”1 One way or another, Mike Ryba seemed to be associated with saints for a great part of his life. He went to St. Adrian’s in DeLancey, Pennsylvania, a coal-mining town of about 2,000 people, for […]

Allan Ramirez was an unsung hero for the 1983 World Series champion Baltimore Orioles. Over a span of more than three months that summer, injuries limited a pair of Baltimore pitchers with a total of four career Cy Young Awards (Jim Palmer and Mike Flanagan) to a single victory between them. Ramirez, a 26-year-old rookie […]

When Baltimore Orioles shortstop Bobby Floyd fielded the final out to preserve Jim Palmer’s no-hitter on August 13, 1969, it was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the little-used Floyd’s career. His was not a household name. The quintessential good-field, no-hit utility infielder who usually played only when a starter was hurt or needed a […]

Don Bryant’s love of baseball was evident at an early age. After seeing a high-school game as a first-grader, he was hooked and he set to work constructing a baseball from tobacco twine and a bat from an old axe handle. Don, the oldest of James and Retha Bryant’s four children, was born in rural […]

Here are the final SABR Defensive Index™ rankings for the 2023 season among positional qualifiers for the Rawlings Gold Glove Award. For the 11th consecutive season, the SDI will be used to help select the winners of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award and Rawlings Platinum Glove Award™, presented by SABR. The SABR Defensive Index accounts […]