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The Southern Tier Expressway does not lend itself to reflection or nostalgia. The six-lane divided highway breaks off from Interstate 81 in Binghamton, New York, and heads west, offering drivers — when construction allows — the fastest possible route to Elmira, Corning, the Finger Lakes, and other destinations in the Empire State’s southern and western […]

Hailed as the next Robin Yount, Julio Franco debuted with the Cleveland Indians in 1983. Franco came to the Indians from the Philadelphia Phillies as part of a five-player deal for Von Hayes. Expected to be the Phillies’ shortstop of the future, Franco had found himself without a regular chance to play when the Phillies […]

Cy Block was never shy about speaking up for himself. When he thought he had been wronged, which was often, he went straight to the top. At different times he confronted Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, National League President Ford Frick, and Dodgers President Larry MacPhail over his disputes with baseball management. His voice carried as […]

Deron Roger Johnson, labeled the “next Mickey Mantle,” spent 16 seasons as a major-league slugger. His finest year was not as a Bronx Bomber but as a Cincinnati Red. A dual football and baseball interscholastic sports star, the San Diego native excelled on the gridiron. Johnson played end, linebacker, kicker, and punter for San Diego […]

In 1957, Valmy Thomas became the first man from the U.S. Virgin Islands to play in what were then classified as the major leagues. Since Thomas was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, some gave Joe Christopher this honor, but it really belonged to Thomas — until December 2020, when the Negro Leagues were recognized as […]

When baseball fans reflect on the great Oakland Athletics teams from the late 1980s to the early 1990s, there is a lot to recall. Three straight pennants (1988-1990) and one world championship (1989) is a good start. Teams do not put together those types of seasons without a solid core of players. A starting rotation […]

Unlike Leo Durocher, the man he replaced as Brooklyn Dodgers manager for the 1947 season, Burt Shotton was no gruff, umpire-baiting field general. He was instead a calm, serious baseball lifer who, like the more illustrious Connie Mack, wore his street clothes in the dugout during his tenure in Brooklyn. His quiet demeanor did not […]

Rare is the professional athlete who is privileged to play his entire career in his hometown. Barry Larkin is one of those rare athletes. Born on April 28, 1964 in Cincinnati, Ohio, Barry Louis Larkin played his entire 19-year major league baseball career with his hometown Reds. Robert and Shirley Larkin raised their daughter Robin […]

The 1930s Chicago Cubs often fielded outstanding teams. They won pennants in 1932, 1935 and 1938. They won with solid hitting, fielding – and pitching. Anchoring the staff was a right-handed pitcher from Arkansas named Lon Warneke. Years later, teammate Phil Cavarretta had this to say of him, “To me, during the years I saw […]

Bill McGilvray’s major-league career lasted two months and 11 days, but for seven years he was at the top of his game in the minors (1906-12) spanning Denver to Birmingham. He crossed paths with some of the game’s greats – finishing second to Shoeless Joe Jackson in batting in 1910, but leading the league in […]

Ulysses “Tony” Lupien played just four full major league seasons, but he made a lasting impact on baseball through his pioneering player-rights efforts after World War II and his development of college players as baseball coach at Dartmouth College for more than twenty years. As a lefthanded-hitting first baseman in the 1940s, Lupien displayed remarkable […]

It certainly felt like mid-summer to the 39,578 fans attending this 4:10 Saturday-afternoon game as it was 87 degrees and humid. This was the third game of a four-game series with Atlanta taking the first two. Coming into Atlanta, Washington (33-24) had led the NL East by one game, but after the two losses, Atlanta […]

The record books will tell you that Thurman Munson played his first game at Yankee Stadium—and his first in the major leagues—on August 8, 1969, in the second game of a doubleheader between the New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics. But that wasn’t the sparkplug catcher’s first appearance at the “House that Ruth Built.” On […]

Perhaps no player in the annals of baseball has had his reputation sullied more than Ty Cobb, thanks primarily to Al Stump, who served as the ghostwriter for Cobb’s autobiography and whose later magazine article and biography created a sensationalized portrait of Cobb as an outright fiend. Charles Leerhsen rehabilitated Cobb’s name to a great […]

David Ortiz was gunning for home run number 500 as the 2015 season wound down. The 500 Club wasn’t as exclusive as it had been when Ortiz reached the majors with the Minnesota Twins in September 1997, a season after Eddie Murray became its 15th member. Since then, 12 more sluggers had reached the milestone, […]

The Detroit Tigers hosted the visiting Red Sox at Briggs Stadium for a Friday afternoon game. The Red Sox had split a doubleheader in Cleveland the day before and were 6½ games out of first place. The Tigers had lost at home to the first-place Yankees, whom they trailed by 15 games. Boston was in […]

Budding media mogul Ted Turner, who had obtained the rights to broadcast Atlanta Braves games on his television station, WTCG, in 1973, purchased the franchise in 1976 and attempted to engineer an immediate reversal of its faltering fortunes. Turner dipped into the brand-new free-agent market and signed one of its trailblazers, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher […]

On August 5, 1977, the Kansas City Royals gave the Chicago White Sox a taste of their own medicine. The host Royals smacked four home runs en route to a 12-2 victory in the Friday night opener of a three-game weekend series. Making the defeat worse for the visiting White Sox was watching the Royals […]

Chris Hartje got his first taste of the major leagues as the Brooklyn Dodgers’ backup catcher during the final weeks of the 1939 campaign. In his major-league debut, he delivered as a pinch-hitter in what would prove to be the high point of his brief big-league tenure. Seven years later, Hartje was attempting to reignite […]

Tom Metcalf had been called up by the New York Yankees in early August of 1963 and had appeared in only four games for the league-leading Yankees during the month. Relief appearances were few and far between; the New York staff led the American League in complete games with 59. In fact, the Yankees used […]

In 1915, a baseball team with female players was a novelty that could attract a paying audience. One such team calling itself the All-American Girls toured western Canada that year. In Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, on Saturday, July 3, 1915, this team of six women and three men were defeated by an all-male team of local semipros. […]

Nolan Ryan debuted in the major leagues with the New York Mets as a teenager in September 1966, joining the team full-time in 1968. It was the start of a 27-year Hall of Fame career in which he set numerous records for pitching excellence. In 1990 Ryan was the ace of the Texas Rangers pitching […]

April 9 was Opening Day in 1982 … at least, that’s what it turned out to be for numerous teams in the Northern cities of the major leagues. Teams like the Milwaukee Brewers and the Toronto Blue Jays were unable to play their scheduled Opening Day contests on April 5 after waves of snow rushed […]

When Mike Schmidt retired on May 29, 1989, during his 18th season with the Philadelphia Phillies, he was widely regarded as the greatest third baseman of all time. Selected in the second round of the June 1971 amateur draft, Schmidt, an Ohio University product, reached the majors in 1972. A breakthrough season followed in 1974, […]