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On October 16, 1975, in the eighth inning of Game Five of the World Series, the Red Sox trailed the Reds 5-1. In the bottom of the eighth, Dick Pole walked Johnny Bench and Tony Perez. Diego Segui, one of Boston’s two Cuban pitchers, replaced Pole and inherited a tough situation: two men on, no […]
As they battled for a fourth straight AL West title in 1979, the Kansas City Royals promoted a 22-year-old, first-year pro from Double-A to join their starting rotation in August. Craig Chamberlain won his first three starts and dueled future Hall of Famers in three of his first five. But he won only one more […]
Lou Berberet was a very solid defensive catcher. With a fielding percentage of 1.000 as a catcher in 1957, he joined an elite group as only the third catcher in major-league history with zero errors in more than 350 chances. Since that time, eight other catchers have had error-free seasons with that number of chances.1 […]
Salty Saltwell was a baseball lifer — not between the lines on a baseball field but in the front office of the Chicago Cubs and four minor-league teams from 1950 to 2005. Along the way, he served as assistant general manager of the Sioux City (Iowa) Soos, executive secretary of the Western League, president and […]
Like his Hall of Fame teammate, Ernie Banks, right-handed pitcher Bob Rush was just happy to be in the big leagues. “I never really regretted signing with the Cubs,” Rush said. In his 10 campaigns with the North Siders (1948-1957), the “Lovable Losers” finished in the second division every season and never had a winning […]
Stefan Wever’s “ticket to ride” was a fastball clocked at 95 miles per hour. The 6-foot-8, 245-pound right-hander dominated the minor leagues and became the tallest player in New York Yankees history1 when he took the mound against the eventual American League champions, the Milwaukee Brewers, on September 17, 1982. His dream-come-true quickly turned into […]
Right-handed pitcher Chuck Hartenstein was a good, solid minor-league pitcher who enjoyed significant success in the National League, but struggled in the American League. He later moved on to work as Toronto’s minor-league pitching instructor and the major-league pitching coach for the Cleveland Indians and Milwaukee Brewers. Basically, Hartenstein reached the major-league level in three […]
Greg Terlecky was a starting pitcher for most of his decade-long professional baseball career, though all 20 of his major-league outings came in relief for the 1975 St. Louis Cardinals. He registered a loss in his only decision and carried a 4.45 ERA over 30⅓ innings. He began his brief tenure in the majors by […]
Right-handed pitcher Ed Phillips appeared only briefly in the big leagues, working in 18 games for the 1970 Boston Red Sox. His record was 0-2, a win proving elusive. Phillips was both born and died on September 20. He was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma, on September 20, 1944, as Norman Edwin Phillips Jr., the son […]
Terry Hughes was a ballyhooed prospect. “I wanted to sign Hughes more than any boy I’ve ever seen,” said Boston Red Sox scout Mace Brown. “He’s got all the equipment.”1 After the Chicago Cubs made Hughes the second overall pick in the June 1967 draft, their manager, Leo Durocher, said, “All I know is that […]
Steve Garvey was the epitome of the Southern California cultural icon in baseball spikes. Photogenic, fan-friendly, and media accessible, he projected the image of an All-American success story and devoted family man. As a Los Angeles Dodger in 1974, he won the National League Most Valuable Player Award after starting the All-Star Game at first […]
Well, what difference does it make what name you play under so long as you get your money? “Bell” is a good baseball name and an easy one for the sporting writers to remember. 1 — New York Highlanders manager Clark Griffith (1907) Contract jumper, manager, umpire, scoreboard operator, and weekly fungo wielder baseball […]
“When Mr. Reardon speaks you are under the impression that he has just spit out a hand grenade.” — Harry A. Williams, Los Angeles Times1 Beans Reardon learned a lot about umpiring at the age of 16 when he worked as a riveter’s assistant. “Riveting was good education for umpiring,” he recalled. “If I […]
Few if any baseball men have worked harder for longer than Mel Didier. He pitched just two years in Class D, but he spent more than 60 years in professional baseball as a scout and executive. As former Los Angeles Dodgers GM Fred Claire said, “I don’t know of anyone who has been in more […]
Sandy Koufax won eight games for the Dodgers in September-October of 1965. (SABR-Rucker Archive. By October, exhaustion was a standard part of every game for Sandy Koufax. But one out from clinching a World Series berth, the Los Angeles Dodgers ace reached new depths of fatigue. “I don’t remember ever being so tired in […]
The rumors were swirling in July 1988. The Boston Red Sox were 43-42 and nine games behind the first-place Detroit Tigers in the American League East. Would Boston make a change at the top? “It would come as a surprise to me,” said manager John McNamara, when he was told about speculation that he would […]
The Ottawa Nationals were the most successful team in the Border League during their brief four-year existence.1 After running away with the pennant in 1947 and 1948, Ottawa took a small step backward the next season and finished second to the Geneva Robins, a Brooklyn Dodgers affiliate. In 1950 the Nationals were determined to reclaim […]
Days after celebrating his 36th birthday on August 18, 1970 – and hours after his five hits and go-ahead run helped the Pittsburgh Pirates maintain their National League East lead with a Saturday-night extra-inning win over the Los Angeles Dodgers – Roberto Clemente seized a spot in baseball’s record books on August 23 at Dodger […]
“This could be Art’s best year. I expect it to be. He does too.” — Minneapolis Millers’ manager Gene Mauch1 The Houston Buffs were visiting the Minneapolis Millers on April 29, 1959, and a slugfest materialized with Minneapolis prevailing, 9-5, behind the hitting of Art Schult and Lou Clinton and the pitching of Nels […]
Glancing at the front page of Milwaukee’s major morning newspaper, the Milwaukee Sentinel, readers could learn the result of the team’s game the day before from the mood depicted by the cartooned image of a Beer Barrel man. If they won, he was shown jumping in glee. If they lost, his head was slumped over, […]
The New York Mets were 4-4 nine days into the 1977 season. All of those wins had come from two of their starters, Tom Seaver and Nino Espinosa. The Chicago Cubs had arrived in town two days earlier, beating the Mets in the first game of their three-game series at Shea Stadium on April 15. […]
It was quite a 10-month stretch for left-hander Jon Lester in 2007 and 2008. He had been diagnosed with anaplastic large cell lymphoma in 2006, during his first major-league season with the Boston Red Sox. Near the end of July 2007, he returned to baseball after an absence of 11 months for cancer treatment. He […]
Gorman Thomas was a slugging star for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1982. He led the Brewers with 39 homers and drove in 112 runs. However, in the postseason, Gorman was no longer Stormin’. He had only two hits in 11 at-bats (along with two walks) in the first three games of the World Series. In […]
It began with a clap of thunder and a sudden deluge of rain, and ended with Babe Ruth cradling a dying teenager in his arms. In between were 4⅔ innings of baseball rendered meaningless by what is still the worst tragedy in the history of Yankee Stadium. It was May 19, 1929. The Yankees, after […]