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Dazzling Debuts: First At-Bat Home Runs Edited by Giselle Stancic, Bill Nowlin, and Jacob Pomrenke Associate editors: Len Levin and Carl Riechers Publication Date: October 31, 2024 ISBN (ebook): 978-1-960819-30-7, $9.99 ISBN (paperback): 978-1-960819-31-4, $24.95 8.5″ x 11″, 167 pages Every baseball player experiences a series of firsts when they step onto the field: the […]

As tensions between owners, general managers, and players mounted, the winter meetings of 1993 featured battles over the commissioner’s chair, the free-agent process, revenue sharing, and the salary cap. These points of contention collided over four months of meetings that began in early November, when the general managers met in Naples, Florida. The National Association […]

One of baseball’s highest-regarded feats is the cycle: “A single, double, triple, and home run (not necessarily in that order) hit by a player in the same game.”1 In the history of major league baseball (1876–2023) there have been 351 documented regular-season cycles, including seven in the Negro Leagues.2 The distribution of the starting defensive […]

Mike Piazza’s first look at Shea Stadium as a New York Met may have come from a thousand feet up as his flight from Florida made its approach to LaGuardia Airport. Ever since the ballpark’s opening in 1964, pilots had used it as a landmark when visibility was clear enough,1 and if Piazza had a […]

On Tuesday, July 1, 1997, Canada celebrated its 130th birthday and the major leagues’ only two Canadian franchises met in the second game of the first regular-season series between the clubs. It was the inaugural season of interleague baseball, which meant this was baseball’s first All-Canadian series. Unsurprisingly, the game drew a sellout crowd of […]

“If the wheels come off, it’s better they come off all at once” — Giants manager Dusty Baker.1 “A lot of balls were not hit very well, just grounders and balls in the gap. The balls managed to get through.” — Expos manager Felipe Alou.2   Scoring was the name of this game, as about […]

The San Diego Padres (7-18) and the defending National League champion Philadelphia Phillies (10-14) were both in last place in their divisions less than a month into the 1994 season when San Diego arrived in Philadelphia to open a three-game series on the first Monday in May. There may have been some lingering bad blood […]

The Cleveland Indians carried a 2-1 series advantage heading into the 1997 American League Championship Series Game Four against the Baltimore Orioles on a warm breezy Sunday night in downtown Cleveland. The Indians were flying high after the previous night’s contest when a missed suicide-squeeze attempt and passed ball led to Marquis Grissom scoring the […]

Brad Woodall was a left-handed pitcher who pitched in five major-league seasons. He played for the Atlanta Braves (1994-1996), the Milwaukee Brewers (1998), and the Chicago Cubs (1999). Woodall made 55 career appearances, 27 as a starter and 28 as a reliever. For his career, Woodall posted a 10-14 record with a 5.31 ERA. He […]

Doug Jones grew up listening to the roar of the 650-horsepower engines and watching as the drivers raced their cars around the dusty dirt tracks of the Indiana sprint-car circuit. Jones’s father was a part-time racer, and young Doug hoped to follow in his father’s tire tracks some day. When the elder Jones thought his […]

After an early professional career filled with numerous false starts, position changes, injuries, and demotions, Jeff Blauser carved out 13 seasons in the major leagues, primarily as an offense-first shortstop. In 11 years with the Atlanta Braves (1987-97) and two with the Chicago Cubs (1998-99), he was a two-time All-Star and played on four World […]

When Brook Fordyce was an eighth grader at East Lyme (Connecticut) Junior High School, he was a star basketball player as well as a good baseball player. Fordyce led his hoops team to a 15-1 record and averaged 23 points per game in the New London Recreation Department’s Junior High tournament in 1985.1 That was […]

On September 21, 2001, amid heavy security, 41,235 fans1 filed into Shea Stadium for the first baseball game to be played in New York City after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Only a week before, the ballpark had served as a staging and relief area for rescue workers, and at the time there was debate […]

When Louisiana State University junior Ben McDonald surrendered a home run versus Mississippi State University in 1989, the hitter raved, “It’s an honor to hit a homer off him. … It’s something to tell the grandkids.”1 An Alabama player retrieved the ball he’d knocked out of the park off McDonald so he could get the […]

Kurt Bevacqua played in 15 major league seasons with the Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Milwaukee Brewers, Texas Rangers, and San Diego Padres from 1971 to 1985. Bevacqua crafted a career as a pinch hitter and utility player at a time when that role was needed on a major league roster and for […]