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A mood of nervous, anxious excitement permeated Shea Stadium on an abnormally cool 60-degree Saturday afternoon, September 20, 1969, as the New York Mets took on the Pittsburgh Pirates in the third tilt of a five-game series. The Mets were on the verge of a miracle, but a celebration in the Big Apple was far […]

“If a tie is like kissing your sister, losing is like kissing your grandmother with her teeth out.” — George Brett   It was quite the major-league debut for 27-year-old Roberto Peña. He ended the day with three errors and a .571 fielding average. At the plate, he banged out three hits, including a home […]

After the 1965 season Bill Virdon retired from the Pirates. Virdon was a solid contributor with a career batting average of .267 and nearly 1,600 safeties, as well as an excellent center fielder. In order to plug this chasm, manager Harry “The Hat” Walker and general manager Joe L. Brown traded pitcher Ozzie Virgil to […]

CC Sabathia strode to the mound at Jacobs Field on a bright and breezy Sunday afternoon, debuting as a 20-year-old from Vallejo, California, only three years removed from high school. The heralded youngster made the Indians out of spring training as Cleveland’s No. 4 starting pitcher.1 Cleveland’s first-round pick from the June 1998 Amateur Draft […]

“I guess it shows they play ball in that other league too.” — National league manager Fred Hutchinson 1   Chicago’s Wrigley Field hosted the best of baseball on July 30, 1962, in front of a crowd of 38,359. The All-Star Games had started back in 1933 when the players congregated on Chicago’s South Side […]

The longest homerless stretch of Joe Mauer’s Hall of Fame career began in August 2014 and carried into 2015, spanning 324 plate appearances and lasting until Mauer’s Minnesota Twins visited the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 20. With the score tied in the top of the 13th inning, Mauer hit Antonio Bastardo’s pitch over PNC Park’s […]

“He’s been hotter than the weather, and in the Midwest, that’s torrid.” Les Biederman of the Pittsburgh Press, discussing Ernie Banks who during the final four games of a five-game series between the Cubs and Pirates went 11-for-19 with five home runs and 13 RBIs.1 Ernie Banks, in his second full season with the Chicago […]

Tommy Davis. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   In late September 1963, the pennant races were winding down and it seemed likely that the Los Angeles Dodgers would meet the New York Yankees in the World Series. Only some individual honors were yet to be determined on the final day of the season – including whether Tommy Davis […]

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a conclave of civil rights advocates arrived at Memphis Municipal Airport on the morning of April 3, 1968. Dr. King’s group made the trip to show solidarity with the city’s 1,300 striking Black sanitation workers.1 Later that day Dr. King gave his iconic “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” speech […]

Steve Blass was arguably the best pitcher on the Pittsburgh Pirates during the 1970, 1971, and 1972 seasons, when the Pirates won the National League East each year. In 1971, Blass helped the Pirates to their World Series victory over the Baltimore Orioles by pitching complete-game victories in Games Three and Seven, allowing only 11 […]

After a nine-year career in Japan, where he won an unprecedented seven consecutive batting titles, seven consecutive Gold Glove awards, and three consecutive MVP awards, Ichiro Suzuki became the first position player from Nippon Professional Baseball in the major leagues in 2001. Over the next 12 seasons with the Seattle Mariners, he amassed 2,533 hits, […]

Part of the beauty of baseball is just how unpredictable the national pastime really is. No matter what the standings show, or what the prospects for a particular team are, on any given day at the ballpark, there is a chance that you might see something you’ve never seen before. That was certainly the case […]

“We just got slaughtered,” muttered St. Louis Cardinals skipper Johnny Keane following his team’s 19-0 drubbing by the Pittsburgh Pirates.1 Not only did the Bucs hand the Redbirds their worst whitewashing in franchise history, they tied a 55-year-old NL record (since broken) for the most lopsided shutout in league history. The Pirates and Cardinals were […]

On a cold September 7, 1911, a gathering of 5,523 Boston National League fans witnessed a pitching duel between two future Hall of Famers.1 Phillies rookie Grover Cleveland (“Pete”) Alexander allowed just one hit and beat 44-year old Cy Young, 1-0. A Boston Post headline caught the moment perfectly: “Old Cy Twirls Great Game, but […]

It took 72 years for the first Black man to play for the Cincinnati Reds. The second one arrived merely minutes after the first. The franchise, one of the National League’s founding clubs, has a complicated record on racial matters. Despite being very early to appreciate the quality of white Cuban players — Armando Marsans, […]

From 1955 to 1965 Bill Virdon established his reputation as one of the finest and fastest center fielders of his generation, and was known for his accurate throws from the deep center-field power alleys in spacious Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Ironically, one of his throws that inadvertently hit his manager may have led to his […]

On a team composed of several leading men and future Hall of Famers, Ángel Mangual was, at most, a minor actor in a supporting role on the great Oakland A’s teams of the early 1970s, good for an occasional walk-on or cameo appearance. He was dubbed the “Little Clemente,” but it was a billing he […]

Eight words: “They may not have some of the necessities.” Those words made Dodgers general manager Al Campanis a pariah. He tried to explain that he had not said what he meant or meant what he said, but his reputation was wrecked. His self-destruction focused a spotlight on Major League Baseball’s shameful record in hiring […]

A league pennant was squarely on the line under the brutal Mexican sun on September 5, 1938. A team known as Agrario, led by the legendary Satchel Paige, battled Aguila for the championship of the summertime Mexican circuit, a league recently strengthened by the importation of such frontline Negro League stars as Josh Gibson, Ray […]

Jack Ryan was actually born as Jack Ryan; his first name was not a nickname. He did acquire some colorful nicknames in baseball, however: “Gulfport” was one, but he was also known as “Coffee Grounds” and “Mud Artist.”1 And the Red Sox once traded Cy Young to get him. Later in his career, he was […]

“WHO’S Jerry Morales?”    This question began an article in the Chicago Tribune on November 13, 1973, about the previous day’s trade by the Cubs of four-time All-Star Glenn Beckert to the San Diego Padres for Morales. That simple inquiry “was the prevalent reaction” as word of the trade spread, according to influential Trib sportswriter Richard […]

Although there are many hard-luck cases in the annals of baseball history, Fred Cambria’s story is one of the most memorable. A highly touted college and minor-league pitcher, Cambria made his major-league debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates late in the 1970 season. Only 22 years old, he pitched effectively, going 1-2 with a 3.51 ERA. […]

Besides being a superb fielding but often light hitting second baseman with the St. Louis Cardinals for more than a decade, Julian Javier was a central figure in the history and development of baseball in the Dominican Republic. Javier completed his playing days with a career .257 batting average. But in 19 World Series games, […]

The second Puerto Rican to play in the major leagues was outfielder Luis Olmo, who joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1943, a year after Hiram Bithorn made his debut with the Chicago Cubs. These men led the way for more than 200 boricuas who have since followed. Bithorn’s life ended suddenly at the age of […]