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The 1933 Washington Senators won 99 games and captured the American League pennant. The 1934 season was a different story. Injuries up and down the roster contributed to the team’s decline. The list of maladies ranged from sore arms, pulled muscles, and beanballs to more unusual cases such as facial paralysis, pleurisy, and an injured […]

In 1943 Joe McCarthy had kept all his Yankees players on the bench. But for this game, McCarthy, managing the American League for the seventh time, started two of the three Yanks on the team, including the battery of right-hander Hank Borowy and veteran catcher Rollie Hemsley. Borowy, the ninth Yankee pitcher to start in […]

Jackie Robinson‘s major-league debut was more than just the first step in righting an historical wrong. It was a crucial event in the history of the American civil rights movement, the importance of which went far beyond the insular world of baseball. The Dodgers signed Robinson to a major-league contract just five days before the […]

During the 2017 baseball season, the Chicago Cubs surpassed 8,000 regular-season games played at Wrigley Field. The season included the raising of the team’s first World Series championship gained while calling Wrigley Field home. A century earlier, the Cubs played their first game at Wrigley (then called Weeghman Park), to a packed Chicago crowd that […]

All through the winter of 1913-1914, the passionate baseball “cranks” of Binghamton and Utica, New York, longed for their favorite sport to return. When it finally did, they got a game for the ages. On Opening Day of the 1914 New York State League season, Binghamton’s Festus Higgins and Utica’s Frank Oberlin staged an epic […]

Both the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Giants had disappointing 1948 seasons. The Phillies won 66 games and lost 88 while finishing sixth in the National League. This was the 16th consecutive losing season for the Phillies, a streak that began in 1933. The Giants did better, finishing fifth with a 78-76 record. Still, both […]

“You know what they say about Chicago. If you don’t like the weather, wait fifteen minutes.” — Ralph Kiner1   Ralph Kiner was about to see more of Chicago than he bargained for. While taking batting practice, the Pirates slugger learned he was traded to the visiting Chicago Cubs. “What’s the number? Kiner asked. “22,” […]

With the Detroit Tigers seizing a two-games-to-one lead in the 1935 World Series on the Chicago Cubs after a wild extra-inning affair in Game Three, managers Charlie Grimm and Mickey Cochrane were compelled to shuffle their lineups. “The two managers, reckless in their manipulation of talent in the turbulent concluding innings, forced themselves into a […]

This game had everything that makes baseball great — nail-biting tension, great pitching, playoff implications, two rival teams, 17 innings, you name it. Throw a record-setting achievement and a walk-off hit to send the home team off happy, and you’ll get an idea of the marvelous, maddening 1-0 affair between the Expos and the Phillies […]

The New York Mets and Cincinnati Reds faced off in Game Two of the best-of-five National League Championship Series on October 7, 1973, at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium. The first game had been a heartbreaker for the Mets. Tom Seaver went the distance but lost when Johnny Bench hit a game-winning home run in the bottom […]

On the afternoon of April 20, 1886, some 3,500 fans gathered in Eclipse Park to see if the homestanding Louisville Colonels could capture a third straight victory in the season-opening series against the visiting Cincinnati Reds. Hometown hopes were pinned on promising youngster Tom “Toad” Ramsey, a left-handed fireballer with a “puzzling drop curve.”1 But […]

The Atlanta Braves were grinding down the upstart Washington Nationals’ NL East lead 84 games into the 2005 season, eager to regain their accustomed first-place perch. Atlanta had won the division every year a pennant had been awarded since their stunning “worst to first” 1991 season.1 They had just ridden Horacio Ramirez’s complete-game three-hitter and […]

Jacob DeGrom was on his way to becoming the ace of the New York Mets pitching staff in 2015, just his second year in the majors. His 2.54 ERA and 205 strikeouts were the best on the team. DeGrom also played a key role in the postseason as he went 3-1 during the Mets’ march […]

The city of St. Louis was ecstatic that it would get to host at least two games of the 61st World Series during its bicentennial year. In addition to thrusting the Midwestern metropolis itself into the spotlight, “two sons of St. Louis,” Johnny Keane and Yogi Berra, were managing the Cardinals and New York Yankees […]

The 1973 season was not going as envisioned by Cincinnati Reds players and fans. Not only was the team in danger of not successfully keeping the National League pennant or even the NL West Division title in the Queen City,1 but on July 1 the Reds stood just two games over .500. Cincinnati had finished […]

It took a lot to pry the attention of the baseball world away from New York teams on September 30, 1973. The Yankees played their final game at the original Yankee Stadium, losing to Detroit. And the Mets split a doubleheader with the Cubs to cling to a one-game lead in the National League East. […]

There aren’t many in baseball who have had the thrill of catching the ball, thus making the final play that seals their team winning a world championship. In the bottom of the ninth inning of Game Four of the 1990 World Series, Cincinnati Reds first baseman Todd Benzinger took his position and hoped the Reds […]

“Missed train by a hare!” – Familiar refrain in Rabbitt’s wires to Beaumont Exporters manager Al Bernsen during the 1924 Texas League season, explaining why he didn’t accompany the team1   Well, of course Joe Rabbitt led various minor leagues in stolen bases – six times altogether. It’s also not every day that a player […]

Steve Macko died from cancer ten weeks after his 27th birthday, leaving behind a sparse record of 25 games over two seasons with the Chicago Cubs. But the cold cadences of baseball’s official ledger misrepresent his life’s true measure. Macko continued a distinguished family lineage in the game, spearheaded an improbable College World Series bid, […]

A speedy line-drive-lashing lefty with a strong arm, veteran Wally Moses joined the Red Sox midway through the 1946 season, shored up right field during Boston’s run to the American League pennant, and batted .417 in four World Series games. A well-liked and respected Georgian who spent 41 seasons in the majors, 17 as a […]

A fill-in catcher in a rookie-loaded lineup for Connie Mack and the World Series-bound Philadelphia Athletics on September 30, 1913, Navy man and “one-hit wonder” Joe Giebel’s only major league appearance would fortuitously occur right in his hometown of Washington, DC. Joseph Henry Giebel was born in Washington, District of Columbia, on November 30, 1891, […]

A tremendous all-around athlete who was one of the Deadball Era’s best at fielding his position, Claude Hendrix was a spitball pitcher who posted three 20-win seasons, each with a different team, en route to a lifetime 144-116 record and 2.65 ERA. With a batting average of .241, 13 home runs, and 97 RBIs over […]

Catcher Rick Cerone had an 18-year career in the major leagues (1975-92), but he used his athletic talent and fame well beyond the baseball field. An excellent multiple-sport athlete in his youth, his real love was baseball. Prior to his major-league career, he was a college baseball star, and after his time in the majors, […]

SABR Bibliography Committee Research Guide No. 10: Baseball in History Journals (1980-88) Editor’s note: This guide was first published by the SABR Bibliography Committee in 1989. To download the original in PDF form, click here. By Jim SumnerApril 1989 This guide consists of all the articles I could find on baseball history published in history […]