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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 […]

Had Fred Haney not cared about maintaining his job as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the story of one of the more improbable starts in major-league history might have turned out differently. “[Haney] said, ‘That’s it, no more – if you hurt your arm, they’ll run me out of town, so go take your shower,’” […]

Montreal mayor Jean Drepeau with (from left) John Bateman, Jim “Mudcat” Grant, and Maury Wills on Opening Day in New York, April 8, 1969 (COURTESY OF THE McCORD MUSEUM, MONTREAL)   When the International Olympic Committee chose Montreal as the host city for the 1976 Winter Olympics, Jean Drapeau, the mayor of Montreal, told the […]

The reigning World Series champion Brooklyn Dodgers finally made a push to the National League pennant late in the 1956 season. After being 1½ games out of first place following a doubleheader split September 7, the Dodgers charged forward and held a one-game lead on September 30. Brooklyn had swept the Pirates in a doubleheader […]

“There haven’t been many — if any — finer finishing touches put on a no-hit performance,” gushed sportswriter Jack Hernon after the Chicago Cubs’ Toothpick Sam Jones struck out the side with the bases loaded in the ninth inning to author a no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates.1 Jones “put a bizarre finish to the greatest […]

An ugly incident on July 3, 1965, between budding superstar Dick Allen and veteran bench player Frank Thomas threatened to tear the Philadelphia Phillies apart. It began with some verbal sparring during batting practice and quickly escalated. Allen punched Thomas, who responded by striking Allen on the shoulder with his bat.1 It took seven or […]

The anticipation might have been as great as any Mariners opener since baseball returned to Seattle 20 years previously. The 1995 team had staged a remarkable race to the AL West title and its first playoff appearance. The season was climaxed with a thrilling AL Division Series win against the Yankees, highlighted by a 12th-inning […]

Two years after Sports Illustrated published his spoof on the adventures of Hayden (Siddhartha, Sidd) Finch in the New York Mets’ 1985 spring-training camp, the ever-creative George Plimpton1 expanded the April 1, 1985, classic into a 275-page novel, also titled The Curious Case of Sidd Finch.2 SABR revisited the April foolery with a 30-year retrospective […]

Pittsburgh manager Danny Murtaugh raised a few eyebrows when he chose Eddie O’Brien to start the first game of a doubleheader in Chicago on September 14, 1957. The Pirates had signed Eddie and his identical twin brother, Johnny, to large bonus contracts as infielders in 1953. After four years, which included 18 months of military […]

In the first of a two-game series with the division rival St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Jim Rooker was given his first National League start by skipper Bill Virdon. The former Kansas City Royals hurler had made 23 appearances, all in relief, since joining the Pirates after an offseason trade for Gene Garber.1 The […]

The once-struggling Cincinnati Reds were rested and ready1 on Friday, August 12, 1966, when they hosted the first-place Pittsburgh Pirates for the start of a three-game series at Crosley Field. The Reds had won six of their last seven games against the Pirates, but trailed eight games to seven in the season’s rivalry. As Pittsburgh […]

This lanky pitcher was the first Mexican player to win a World Series ring. El Ejote – The Stringbean — was a member of the Oakland A’s bullpen in 1973. His motion was quirky and memorable: Whipping the ball from a low side-arm/submarine angle, Piña then swung wide and landed hard with his trailing right foot. NBC’s […]

Puerto Rico and baseball. From the legendary Roberto Clemente and Orlando Cepeda to Roberto Alomar, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, and Pudge Rodriguez, the small island with only 3.5 million inhabitants has left an indelible footprint on the major-league landscape. As of 2016, the Caribbean nation has produced no fewer than 250 big-league players, including at […]

Branch Rickey was “a man of strange complexities, not to mention downright contradictions,” wrote the New York Times’ John Drebinger. The great decision to break baseball’s policy of excluding blacks, for which he is justly praised, has, in recent decades, tended to overwhelm the highly negative image he had earned before that decision. He went […]

“One reporter said my expression was ‘dour.’ I had to look that one up,” quipped B.J. Surhoff.1 Over 19 major-league seasons (1987-2005), the lefty swinger with a game face as grim as a beleaguered soldier appeared in more than 1,000 games for both the Milwaukee Brewers and Baltimore Orioles. Surhoff saw regular duty as a […]

When many reflect on the 1990s Mariners, often the flashier stars jump to mind: Ken Griffey, Jr., Randy Johnson, Álex Rodríguez. However, few on those teams would disagree that the stalwart of the Mariners was a player who toiled just outside of the spotlight. Known as Gar, El Papa, or Papi, Edgar Martinez was the […]

Buddy Gilbert is rarely, if ever, mentioned among baseball’s greatest hitters. Yet he holds a claim to baseball fame: His 10 percent ratio of home runs to at-bats is technically the highest in major league history (given a cutoff of 20 at-bats). The outfielder played in just seven big league games with the Cincinnati Reds […]

Somewhere, back in the swirling mists of time, there existed a magical and wondrous age when aspiring athletes did not commit their lives to the fanatical and single-minded pursuit of one sport by the time they were five years old. Take, for instance, the 1968 Detroit Tigers, who were notable for having a number of […]

Today we would call Sherry Magee a five-tool player: he could hit, run, field, throw, and hit with power. For more than a decade he was the Philadelphia Phillies’ clean-up hitter and greatest offensive star, setting the all-time team record in stolen bases (387) and ranking among the top ten in almost every other category. […]

Smoke. That’s what they called him. He was respected and admired, but first he was humiliated and discarded. Down to his last chance, Dave Stewart had a stunning rebirth in his hometown and became a four-time 20-game winner, a two-time ALCS MVP, a World Series MVP, and a three-time World Series champion. But before all […]

From 1960 to 1971, outfielder Tony González enjoyed a fine major-league career, He was never an All-Star – no insult, considering that Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, and Roberto Clemente were his peers – but he might have accomplished even more had he not suffered from back and eye problems. (The latter could have stemmed from […]

Ramón Avilés was frequently written off as a good-field, no-hit infielder with little chance of making it in the major leagues. Not only did he reach the majors with the Boston Red Sox (1977) and Philadelphia Phillies (1979-81), he became a valuable backup for the Phillies as they won the 1980 World Series. He contributed […]

In Homer’s Iliad, Diomedes was one of the strongest Greek warriors. He was also the youngest — unlike his namesake, Dominican pitcher Diómedes Olivo. Olivo made his big-league debut with the 1960 Pirates at the age of 41. As of 2018, he was still the second-oldest “rookie” in major-league history, behind only Satchel Paige. Like […]

Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd starts his autobiography recalling back in 1964 when he was 5 years old, and his uncle Frank Boyd brought three civil-rights workers by the family home. Later that same year, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were discovered murdered. Dennis believes they were killed just after they left the Boyd […]