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It was “perhaps the most remarkable pitching performance in the nine-year history of the Amazin’ Mets,” gushed Gotham City sportswriter Dana Mozley after 23-year-old flamethrower Nolan Ryan surrendered a single to the first batter he faced, then finished with a sparkling one-hitter and a team-record 15 strikeouts in his 1970 debut.1 “Nobody throws the ball […]

“He just pitched beautiful,” raved Chicago skipper Leo Durocher about Fergie Jenkins, whose complete-game victory captured the series finale against the Cincinnati Reds (43-35) and solidified an 11-1 homestand for the Cubs.1 Entering the game, the Cubs had won 16 of their previous 18 contests, including their last five. Cellar-dwellers in 1966, Durocher’s first season […]

Billy Williams was on fire, the 30-year-old hammering the ball out of the park and providing one of the few reasons to make time to see the Chicago Cubs as the 1968 season wound down. The Cubs entered the game on September 10 in fourth place, decidedly mediocre at 75-71, a half-game behind Cincinnati and […]

Dodgers center fielder Willie Davis won three Gold Gloves and hit in a franchise-record 31 straight games in 1969. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   Throughout the month of August 1969, the Los Angeles Dodgers were battling for the National League West Division crown. All season the NL West had been a close race between five teams, everybody […]

The first-place Reds looked to expand a small lead in the NL pennant race against the perennially downtrodden Astros in a doubleheader at Crosley Field. After jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning of the first game on a double by Vada Pinson and a sacrifice fly by Pete Rose, Cincinnati stopped […]

“Are you serious, the Mets? A team that wound up 16 games under 500 in 1968?” wrote Montreal Gazette sportswriter Ted Blackman after the New York Mets continued their improbable drive for the 1969 National League East Division title with a 4-0 blanking of the first-year expansion Montreal Expos on September 11 at Shea Stadium. […]

The New York Mets entered the 1970 season with an aura of adoration, thanks to an upset of the Baltimore Orioles in the previous World Series. Jerry Koosman came off a stellar year — 2.28 ERA; 17-9 record; 180 strikeouts; 16 complete games; six shutouts; and two World Series victories. His performance on April 24, […]

Tommie Agee had the prescience of a soothsayer. During 1970 spring training, he stated how he needed to contribute to the Mets: “I’ve got to hit for a better average, I think, and steal more bases — a lot more.”1 He succeeded on both counts, improving his batting average from .271 to .286 and his […]

When the San Francisco Giants took the field at Candlestick Park on Friday, October 1, 1965, their season was hanging in the balance, and precariously so. The Giants trailed the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers by two games with only three games left in the season. Just a week and a half before, on September 20, the Giants had enjoyed […]

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 […]

Sunday, August 30, 1970, dawned as a typical late-summer day in Houston, Texas: the temperature in the high 80s, humidity in the 70s, with a thunderstorm or two almost a certainty.1 Though the inside of the Astrodome was a cool, air-conditioned 72 degrees, the hometown Astros were hotter than the outside air. The Astros had […]

During their first decade, the Mets were known more for their losing than winning. When Gil Hodges was hired as their manager in 1968, things began to turn around. Hodges turned the perennial losers into a lovable bunch of underdogs who would eventually win the 1969 World Series. In the minds of many fans, the […]

In seven seasons of futility, the New York Mets had never won more than 73 games in a season or finished higher than ninth place in the National League. With the 1969 expansion, plus divisional play, the team was guaranteed to finish no lower than sixth place. Led by manager Gil Hodges, in his second […]

The Atlanta Braves had their back to the wall. After losing the first two games of the best-of-five National League Championship Series to the New York Mets at home, they had to win the final three games at Shea Stadium in order to advance to the World Series. The Mets started Gary Gentry, one of […]

“Gibson and Seaver are magnificent,” exclaimed New York sportswriter Dick Young about the future Hall of Fame hurlers’ grueling extra-inning pitching duel in their first head-to-head matchup of their illustrious careers.1 “My arm doesn’t hurt half as much as it will tomorrow,” said St. Louis Cardinals ace and winning pitcher Bob Gibson, whose 11 innings […]

Roberto Clemente made five hits and drove home four runs on the same day that he criticized “a few” Pittsburgh Pirates for not hustling on the field. “They know who they are,” Clemente said.1 The Pirates were muddling along with a 72-74 won-lost mark, stuck in seventh place. During an interview with a San Juan, […]

Bob Friend’s place in baseball history is firmly linked to his 15 seasons as a Pittsburgh Pirate. Pitching in the Smoky City from 1951 through 1965, the right-hander won 191 games, made four All-Star Game appearances, won the 1955 National League ERA title, and was a workhorse starter for the Pirates team that won the […]

The New York Mets came into existence in 1962 as the National League expanded for the first time.1 Casey Stengel’s ragtag “Can’t Anybody Here Play This Game” Mets stumbled to a 40-120 record in their first season, finishing dead last of the league’s 10 teams, 60 games out of first place.2 By 1966 the Mets […]

The day started well for Tom Seaver on April 22, 1970. He received his Cy Young Award in a pregame ceremony.1 It was a beautiful spring day in New York. A crowd of 14,197 showed up to see the Mets play the San Diego Padres. The many students who attended the afternoon game at    […]

Right-handed pitcher J.B. Young celebrated his 35th birthday in unique fashion — by appearing in his first, last, and only major league game.1 Unhappily for Young, his outing on behalf of the 1892 St. Louis Browns was a nightmare: two innings-plus, 13 runs surrendered. He never appeared in another Browns game and was back home […]

Baltimore left-hander Mike Cuellar pitched a shaky first inning in Game Five of the 1970 World Series. The Cincinnati Reds touched him for three runs on four hits — a single and three doubles. The Orioles bullpen was active as the inning ended. Cuellar came into the dugout, grabbed a towel, wiped his face. His […]

Stories about Art Quirk’s golden arm and Ivy League degree accompanied the left-handed pitcher on his rise to the major leagues. There were double-digit strikeout games and a no-hitter. Most newspaper profiles mentioned the rarified source of his college diploma. But the excitement of his 1962 debut was short-lived when he was bumped from the […]

It has become almost legend, though in reality there are a few different versions of the story: In March of 1966, three New York Mets farmhands, all going by the name of Jerry, set out from Atlanta on their way to minor league training camp in Homestead, Florida. Jerry Johnson sat between the driver, Jerry […]

Several years before his younger brother Stanley embarked on a Hall of Fame career, Harry Coveleski established the family name as the “Giant Killer” who, as an unheralded rookie with the Philadelphia Phillies, defeated the New York Giants three times in five days to deny John McGraw‘s squad the 1908 NL pennant. A few years […]