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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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

As winter turned to spring in 1941, war was spreading across the globe, a wildfire uncontained. Nazi Germany had subjugated much of Europe, with invasion of the Soviet Union next. Britain had endured The Blitz for months, Luftwaffe terror raining from above. Hitler’s racist regime brutally persecuted Jews, evolving by 1942 into the genocide we […]

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. […]

The Chicago White Sox are “the luckiest bunch of ballplayers I have ever run across in baseball,” said St. Louis Browns manager Jimmy McAleer in July 1906. “If the team wants a base on balls to win, it gets it; if an error is needed, someone is sure to boot the ball. I never saw […]

In 1886 the pitcher’s box was made a foot deeper and the rule requiring the pitcher to keep both feet on the ground when delivering a pitch was lifted, prompting an increase in strikeouts in both the American Association and the National League. Nowhere did this change have more impact than in Baltimore, where Matt […]

On April 27, 2000, the Baltimore Orioles and Chicago White Sox were completing a four-game series in front of “a sun-splashed crowd of 13,225”1 at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. Both teams had experienced success in the early part of the season. Baltimore (12-8) had already put together winning streaks of five and six games, while Chicago […]

As baseball has shifted to the “three true outcomes” in the twenty-first century,1 triples have become an endangered species.2 A game with five triples3 stood out as an exception in 2019. Yes, the game was at Coors Field, and yes, the score shows that the game was a slugfest, but the Reds hadn’t hit five […]

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 […]

Fidel Castro records the ceremonial first hit of Cuba’s baseball season on January 14, 1962 against Azucareros starter Jorge Santín at Gran Stadium in Havana. (Courtesy of Peter C. Bjarkman)   As the International League’s Rochester Red Wings prepared to play a doubleheader with the Montreal Royals on July 4, 1959, some of them might […]

Brian Giles emerged as one of the National League’s top hitters after a 1998 trade to the Pittsburgh Pirates freed him from the Cleveland Indians’ talent-heavy roster. An early-season game in 1999 demonstrated his immediate impact. Upstaging San Francisco Giants slugger Jeff Kent’s five-hit cycle and teammate Jason Kendall’s five hits and two runners caught […]

Three teams had been battling all year for the 1977 American League East crown and as of Sunday afternoon, September 18, the Yankees held a 2½ game lead over the Orioles, who themselves were two games ahead of the third-place Red Sox with only 13 games remaining. While the Yankees were playing the Tigers in […]

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 […]

“Some people say he was the greatest African American player ever. That may be so — I don’t know — but what seems clear is that he was the best black player of his time.” — Monte Irvin   The story of John Henry “Pop” Lloyd has many facets. It is a story of communities […]

A Tennessee native who played baseball and basketball at Georgia Tech,1 Bob Tillman caught the eye of Red Sox scout George Digby, who signed him out of Middle Tennessee State on January 18, 1958. Tillman, a 6-foot-4 right-hander, earned a place in baseball history with his first official major-league at-bat, which left the yard in […]

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 […]

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 […]

Illinois native Del Howard wasn’t as well-known as Hall of Famers Joe Tinker, Johnny Evers, and Frank Chance, but he was a valuable backup first baseman, outfielder, and pinch-hitter on the Chicago Cubs’ world championship teams of 1907 and 1908. “Del [Howard] has been carried two years with the Cubs and is as full of […]

Pitcher Tom Metcalf came from a small town in central Wisconsin but got to fulfill the dreams of his childhood when he spent two months in America’s largest city as a member of the New York Yankees in 1963. The righty’s major-league career was limited to eight appearances on the mound that season, in which […]

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 […]

Reginald Martinez Jackson was born on May 18, 1946, in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, a largely white suburb north of Philadelphia’s central city. His father, Martinez Jackson, ran a dry-cleaning and tailoring business. As a grown man, Reggie claimed he still knew how to cuff a pair of slacks.1 His father was a veteran of World War […]

The San Diego Padres celebrated their 50th season in Major League Baseball in 2019. (SAN DIEGO PADRES)   San Diego’s quest for major-league baseball began earnestly in the mid- to late 1950s, around the time California’s largest cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco, ascended to “the bigs.” Home of the Pacific Coast League Padres since […]