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After going 28 consecutive innings without scoring a run, the anemic Rangers offense gave starter Pete Broberg a two-run lead in the first inning of their July 16 game against the Cleveland Indians at Arlington Stadium. Broberg eventually allowed Cleveland to tie the score and did not receive a decision for his 8⅓ innings of work. Instead, […]
He wasn’t kin to former Dodger mound greats Dazzy Vance or Sandy Koufax, but Gene “Sandy” Vance1 was a vital component in manager Walter Alston’s Los Angeles rotation when Bill Singer was lost to unusual circumstances early in the 1970 season. Singer, a 20-game winner for the Dodgers in 1969, was sidelined by infectious […]
In 1910 attendance at the South End Grounds, home of the Boston Doves, was the lowest in the National League. By all accounts, only 985 fans showed up to see “the first game of the last series of 1910 on the local grounds,”1 a contest between Boston and the Philadelphia Phillies. The spectators witnessed the […]
Greater Boston native son Tony Conigliaro was a star for the Boston Red Sox. He hit a home run over Fenway Park’s left-field wall on the first pitch he saw as a member of the Red Sox.1 He hit 24 homers in his 1964 rookie year, setting a major-league rookie record for the most home […]
Dave Morehead was sometimes stingy with hits. A graduate of San Diego’s Hoover High School—the same school that Ted Williams had attended—he broke into the majors with the Boston Red Sox at the age of 19 in 1963. His first game was a five-hit shutout of the Washington Senators on April 13. He threw a […]
Even the most “ageless” ballplayers, the ones who hold their places in the game the longest, eventually fade away. Pitcher Luis Tiant’s time came in the late summer of 1982, when he made six final appearances and earned two last wins with the California Angels to wrap up a 19-season big-league career. The Cuban-born fan […]
Shown sobbing just days earlier after receiving word of a trade from his beloved Mets, Wilmer Flores, who remained in Queens after the transaction fell through, stroked an even more dramatic than usual walk-off homer to power New York over Washington by a 2-1 score in 12 innings. Of the storybook tale, columnist Phil Mushnick […]
More than one football coach has used the adage “A tie is just like kissing your sister.”1 On May 28, 1964, the Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers must’ve felt the same, after their 17-inning, 4-hour and 58-minute marathon at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field ended in a 2-2 tie. This was the longest game of the […]
The 1886 Chicago White Stockings successfully defended their National League crown on the broad shoulders of captain Adrian “Cap” Anson, batting champ Mike “King” Kelly, and a dominant trio of pitchers. Between them, John Clarkson, Jim McCormick, and one-year wonder Jocko Flynn started and racked up a decision in every one of the team’s 124 […]
“It’s true, ladies, all true. THE game did last almost until dawn’s early light and your old man was not out on the town, even if he may have looked it.”—Morris Siegel1 Open any book about baseball or any page on the SABR website to reveal myriad ways to contemplate the game. Consider that baseball […]
The 1931 Cincinnati Reds started the season with a dismal 2-17 record and after only 10 games found themselves in last place in the National League, a position they would hold for the rest of the season. On May 18 the Reds (6-18) played the final game of a three-game series against the seventh-place Brooklyn […]
Son of a great baseball man, scout and executive Mel Didier, Bob Didier has been in the game for more than five decades, almost as long as his father. He was a professional catcher from 1967 through 1976, including one full season and parts of five others in the majors. He has since served as […]
A journeyman who spent parts of seven seasons in the American League, Wally Mayer joined the Red Sox in 1917 and spent two campaigns as a reserve catcher. Although he did not appear in the 1918 World Series, “Kid” Mayer did help Boston get there by smacking a pair of 12th-inning game-winning hits against AL […]
May 11, 1964, was a good day for pitchers to be born to the majors. On that day, Red Sox hurler Jeff Sellers, 16-year veteran Bobby Witt and Expos staffer Floyd Youmans were all delivered into the world. It was the world at the height of the Cold War. Nuclear tests being performed in Nevada […]
“Great catches are a lot like pretty girls. The last one you see is always the best one.” — Bob Sudyk of the Cleveland Press, after seeing a spectacular catch by Sandy Valdespino on June 18, 1967 In 1967 Sandy Valdespino was a bench player for the Minnesota Twins. On June 18 the Twins […]
Milwaukee Brewers scout Felix Delgado “found [Ed Romero playing in the mountains of Puerto Rico two years ago.” Romero was 17 at the time. “After one workout, the Brewers signed … Romero, along with four others.”1 Edgardo Ralph (Rivera) Romero, born on December 9, 1957, in Santurce, Puerto Rico, was indeed signed at 17, in […]
One of the more obscure players in Red Sox history, Eusebio Gonzalez was the first foreign-born Latino to play for the Bosox. Eusebio Miguel Gonzalez Lopez was born in Havana, Cuba on July 13, 1892. Batting right and throwing right, he was an infielder listed as 5’10” with a playing weight of 165 pounds. Gonzalez […]
Over his 16 major league seasons, Stan Bahnsen was a regular rotation starter, a workhorse in a three-man rotation, a closer for a while, and finally an all-purpose reliever and spot starter. Fans at the University of Nebraska named him “The Bahnsen Burner” for his blazing fastball; later in his career he would be “Stanley […]
There exists a long list of forgotten nineteenth-century baseball stars who played during the game’s formative stages and under relative anonymity besides being a name in a newspaper. While the game was fundamentally the same, it was evolving in an era that saw many rule changes and ballparks with vastly varying dimensions. There were no […]
When the first big-leaguers from the Dominican Republic became All-Stars and competed in the World Series in 1962, Mariano Duncan was in his mother’s womb. He grew up to start one All-Star Game and play for two World Series champions – the 1990 Cincinnati Reds and 1996 New York Yankees. Primarily a middle infielder, Duncan […]
As the 1929 season began, the Chicago Cubs were in trouble. They were without the services of their starting catcher, 28-year-old Gabby Hartnett, whose arm had gone dead. While Hartnett would eventually regain his throwing abilities, he played in only 25 games that year, just one as a catcher.1 Initially, 38-year-old Mike Gonzalez and Earl […]
By some standards, Ed Swartwood toiled in relative obscurity, playing nearly his entire career in the American Association, an under-appreciated major league in the 19th century. Even the teams he played on weren’t impressive. During the league’s inaugural season, 1882, he came up with the Pittsburg Alleghenys, a poor club during his three summers there. […]
Marc Sullivan started 35 games in 1986 as backup to All-Star catcher Rich Gedman. He made the squad in spring training because of his defensive skills, but many critical Red Sox fans and beat writers would not overlook his offensive shortcomings. He hit only .193, with 23 hits in 119 at-bats, and seemed to be […]
When George Brett incurred some nuisance back problems in the late stages of his career with the [Kansas City] Royals, he sought relief from a chiropractor in Overland Park[, Kansas]. On one of his first visits, perhaps the first, Brett lay face down on the table — vulnerable, as he recalls — waiting for treatment, […]