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The 31,389 fans attending this Wednesday midday game could expect a pitcher’s duel: Two first-time All-Stars were taking the mound, both with solid 2019 performances. The White Sox and Twins had split the first two games of the series: The Twins put up seven runs in the eighth inning the night before to win 14-4. […]

The New York Giants and Chicago Cubs were “red-hot rivals for National League supremacy.”1 The Giants won the NL pennant in 1904 and 1905, but in 1906 they finished in second place behind the pennant-winning Cubs. Now, through games of June 4, 1907, the teams were neck-and-neck in the standings, the Cubs in first place […]

For a certain type of twenty-first-century baseball fan – one numbed by too many pitching changes, mascot races, launch angle analyses, and Internet hot takes – a kind of mental balm can be achieved by contemplating an afternoon pitchers’ duel on a cold, windy, overcast day in South Dakota a century of Septembers ago. The […]

The San Francisco Giants journeyed to Los Angeles for a late-season three-game series with the Dodgers beginning on September 21, 1970. As the series began, the Dodgers, were in second place in the National League West but 12 games behind the Cincinnati Reds. The Giants, in third place, were just one game behind Los Angeles. […]

Going into the August 7, 2010, game between the Greenville Drive and the Rome Braves, six teams were locked in a battle to claim the second-half crown in the Southern Division of the South Atlantic League and earn the rights to a postseason playoff spot. Greenville (an affiliate of the Boston Red Sox) was tied […]

The game appeared to be merely the first in a meaningless, end-of-the-season doubleheader between two teams that many weeks earlier had been eliminated from the 1954 pennant race. The sixth-place Washington Senators trailed the league-leading Cleveland Indians by 39 games and the Philadelphia Athletics were even further out of contention: 51½ games back. However, as […]

A crowd of 35,093 showed up at Citi Field on September 25, 2016, for the Mets’ final regular-season home game, against the Philadelphia Phillies. The crowd brought the Mets’ home attendance to 2,789,602, their second highest since their inaugural season at Citi Field in 2009.1 The Mets and the Phillies had scored 50 runs between […]

The 1920 best-of-nine World Series opened on October 5 at Ebbets Field, where temporary bleachers were erected on the outfield. In a tight pitching duel featuring just five hits by both teams, Cleveland’s Stan Coveleski emerged victorious, 3-1, over the Brooklyn Dodgers. (Photo: Library of Congress)   The Cleveland Indians were making their initial appearance […]

To say neither the Dodgers nor the Phillies had much success in the years leading up to 1939 is to say the least. The Dodgers hadn’t won a pennant since 1920 and had finished sixth or worse 12 times in the 18 years since. They had become so comically inept that they were being called […]

Throughout human history, many cultures and religions have worshipped sun deities. The ancient Greeks had Apollo and Helios; the Aztecs had Tonatiuh. In Japan, Amaterasu is the Shintō sun goddess.1 Although it’s unlikely that Art Nehf did anything to anger any of these deities, the late-afternoon sun in Boston on September 4, 1915, still cost […]

In spite of the previous night’s 5-3 loss in 10 innings, the Houston Astros were confident of victory as they prepared to face the Philadelphia Phillies on October 12 in the “winner-take-all” Game Five of the 1980 NLCS. In addition to being a battle-tested team that had already survived a one-game playoff with the Los […]

Born as the Seattle Pilots in 1969, they moved to Milwaukee the following season and became the Brewers. In the first 12 years of their existence, the team never reached the postseason. That was about to change. The 1981 Brewers were a team that had been on the rise for the three prior seasons, but […]

In what turned out to be the final win of manager Jim Leyland’s 22-season Hall of Fame career, the Detroit Tigers put this game away early and evened up the 2013 American League Championship Series at two games apiece with the Boston Red Sox. Leyland’s Tigers had won their third consecutive AL Central Division title […]

William Edward White’s 1879 appearance for Providence made him the first Black player to play in a major league game. He played on Brown University’s 1879 championship baseball team. White is sitting directly behind the man in the suit holding the bat.   An answer commonly given to the question of who was the first […]

Between April 21 and June 19, 1951, the city of Detroit was mired in a transit strike. Downtown businesses suffered. The work stoppage may have been part of the reason only 2,723 fans showed up at Briggs Stadium for the Tigers’ game against the visiting Philadelphia Athletics.1 The A’s came into Detroit to begin a […]

By the numbers, Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield’s start against the White Sox on June 10, 1996, looks like one of the worst games of his 19-season career. On a foggy night, Wakefield yielded a career-high 16 hits, along with eight runs, as Chicago steamrolled the struggling Red Sox 8-2 before a crowd of […]

“He did his job. He got 27 outs. … Not to put Joe Cowley down, but it wasn’t impressive.” – Wally Joyner, 0-for-2, 2 BB1   It had been nearly two years since the major leagues had seen a no-hitter.2 Just 11 days shy of the anniversary of Mike Witt tossing the 11th perfect game […]

By the time he was 21 years old, George Rettger had established himself as a skilled pitcher at the semipro level in his native Cleveland, Ohio. He yearned for a professional career and earned his first pro experience with Akron in the Ohio State League in 1889. The league was formed in August and featured […]

Albert Spalding’s life story could have been written by Horatio Alger. He had three careers – as a baseball pitcher, a club owner, and a sporting-goods tycoon – and was very successful at all of them. A fourth career, in politics, was just getting under way when he died. And despite an initial setback, ultimately […]

The 1901 Cleveland Blues were mired in seventh place as July came to a close. Dissatisfied with their pitching staff, club management replaced the older arms – Bill Hart (35), Bill Hoffer (30), and Ed Scott (30) – with Harley McNeal (23), Jack Bracken (20), and Bill Cristall (25). McNeal debuted on August 5 with […]

When young Jim Owens first came up with the Philadelphia Phillies in the mid-1950s, the predictions were that he would be Philadelphia’s “next Robin Roberts.”1 He had dominated hitters in the minor leagues, was voted the best pitcher in the International League for 1954, and possessed what Phillies general manager Roy Hamey called, “the best […]

In 1897 Mark Twain wrote a quick note to say, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.” Twenty years later pitcher Louis Schettler found out exactly how Twain felt. The August 24, 1917, Dayton Daily News declared that “Outfielder Spencer and Pitcher Schettler were fatally injured” in a train wreck.1The article went on to […]

Right-hander Joel Finch had an excellent minor-league career, building toward a major-league debut the year after the Red Sox were eliminated by the New York Yankees in the 1978 single-game playoff that closed Boston’s season that year. During the 15 games in which he worked in the majors — all for the Red Sox and […]

Except for a brief September call-up in 1953, Eddie Phillips spent his entire 11-year pro baseball career in the minor leagues. Yet, during those 2½ weeks with the St. Louis Cardinals, he established a record for most runs scored in the major leagues (four) without a plate appearance or taking a defensive position. His pinch-running […]