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If one were to rate the excitement of various baseball plays, inside-the-park home runs (IPHR) would most likely rank very near the top. One of the game’s longest-fused events, thanks to the batter’s 360-foot trip around the diamond, IPHRs have an evergreen presence in highlight and blooper reels alike with dramatic elements like misplays or […]

Before Game Four of the 1984 National League Championship Series, Chicago Cubs manager Jim Frey and San Diego Padres manager Dick Williams were scrutinized for their starting-pitcher choices. A headline in one newspaper said, “Padres Go With Lollar, a Questionable Starter.”1 The writer said, “An entire San Diego Padre season rests this evening on the […]

Zack Wheat, more than four decades after playing his last major-league game, experienced a revival of fame in 1969 thanks to another Dodgers slugger who put on a hitting clinic against National League hurlers. Willie Davis tied Wheat’s 29-game streak on September 1, 1969, in a game against the Mets; it ended two games later […]

It wasn’t surprising that only 9,117 fans chose to attend this Tuesday late afternoon game. The Atlanta Braves were sitting at 50-74, sixth and last in the NL West Division. The visiting St. Louis Cardinals were 66-57, only good enough for fourth in the NL East but just four games back of the division-leading Cubs. […]

It was a great pitching match-up as the fifth-place Los Angeles Dodgers (15-15) hosted the National League-leading San Francisco Giants (19-11) on May 11. It was a great pitching match-up: Juan Marichal (4-2) and Sandy Koufax (3-1). Koufax had missed two weeks at the end of April into May with stiffness in his shoulder. A […]

From 1910 through 1914, Philadelphia won four of five pennants in the American League. Included in this stretch were three World Series championships (1910, 1911, and 1913). But after losing to the Boston Braves in the 1914 fall classic, the Athletics fortunes’ plummeted as they occupied the cellar of the junior circuit from 1915 to […]

In a game characterized by lots of hits (27) and lots of errors (7), an unknown St. Louis rookie made history. The Washington Senators hosted the St. Louis Browns in the second game of a four-game series at Griffith Stadium. The attendance was reported to be a mere 2,500 fans.1 Veteran Walter Johnson took to […]

The Detroit Tigers had been to the World Series four times in their 34-year history. Four times, they had suffered defeat. On October 7, 1935, the Tigers, along with the entire city of Detroit, were thirsty for victory, hoping that the fifth time would be a charm. As that Monday morning dawned, the team found […]

At Comiskey Park in mid-May 1984, there was a chance for “a miraculous happening,”1 an opportunity for something that had not happened since between July 1 and August 6 of 1977, when both Chicago teams were in first place for more than a month. Six weeks into the season, as May 16 arrived, the Cubs […]

On April 2, 2017, the Giants and the Diamondbacks met on Opening Day at Chase Field in Phoenix. The 49,016 in attendance saw a glamorous pitching matchup of postseason stalwart Madison Bumgarner for the visitors and 2009 Cy Young Award winner Zack Greinke for the home team. The game delivered more than the Mad Bum-Greinke matchup. There […]

On June 11, 1985, at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium, the Phillies pounded the visiting New York Mets, 26-7, before 22,591 fans in a game lasting 3 hours and 21 minutes. The final result was two runs short of the National League record for the most runs scored by a team in a game. The 43 runs […]

In late April of 1967, the Detroit Tigers traveled to Baltimore to play four games against the defending world champion Orioles at Memorial Stadium. The Orioles’ Dave McNally bested the Tigers’ Denny McLain in the first contest, 5-3. Detroit’s Mickey Lolich evened the score the following day by defeating Wally Bunker, 4-2. On April 30, […]

Outfielder Jason Lane had debuted with the Houston Astros in 2002. By 2005 he was the starting right fielder for that year’s pennant-winning squad; his personal highlights that season included belting 26 home runs and driving in 78 runs, hitting a home run and catching the final out of the pennant-clinching NLCS Game Six against […]

Three teams had been battling all year for the 1977 American League East crown and as of Sunday afternoon, September 18, the Yankees held a 2½ game lead over the Orioles, who themselves were two games ahead of the third-place Red Sox with only 13 games remaining. While the Yankees were playing the Tigers in […]

In 1956 the Dodgers won their fourth pennant in five seasons and faced yet again their archenemies, the New York Yankees. In nine World Series at Ebbets Field, the Dodgers went 14-14. (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)   For the sixth time in 10 years, October baseball was the exclusive preserve of the same two boroughs of […]

Alyssa Nakken was prepared for the possibility that she would appear in a coaches’ box during a major-league game.1 She had trained alongside San Francisco Giants first-base coach Antoan Richardson since she was hired as an assistant coach in 2020, and had served as their first-base coach in an exhibition game and a spring-training game.2 […]

Flamboyance, like flakiness, is in short supply in 21st-century major league baseball. José Lima, the Dominican who pitched for five teams in the majors from 1994 to 2006, was one of the last distinct “characters.” Zany and irrepressible, extreme and exasperating, Lima was a born showman who loved being the center of attention. He was […]

From 1942 to 1944, when World War II deprived major-league baseball of many of its top players, Al Javery was considered by some to be among the better pitchers left playing in the United States. At the very least he was one of the better players on the mediocre Boston Braves of the time. But […]

Louisianan Paul Sentell finished second to Ty Cobb in the 1905 South Atlantic League batting race. As a major-league rookie infielder, Sentell broke his hand in a fistfight with John McGraw. As a minor-league manager, he became a renowned umpire-baiter. Finally, Sentell became a skilled arbiter himself, ascending back to the major leagues in three […]

The assertive teenager’s pro baseball career began with a simple letter, jointly submitted with a friend and mailed from his hometown of Kinston, North Carolina. “We would like to seek a job or a tryout with your ballclub. We are now at the age of nineteen years old, we have had two years of experience […]

Jake Dunn was a versatile middle infielder and outfielder who played in the Negro leagues for parts of 11 seasons, from 1930 to 1943. He was a right-handed-hitting contact hitter who stood 5-feet-11 and weighed a solid 190 pounds.1 He also served as a player-manager late in his career. Joseph Phillip Dunn Jr. was born […]

Harry O’Neill played in just one major-league baseball game, had no times at bat, and no putouts or assists. Still, he won a measure of immortality as one of only two major leaguers who lost their lives during World War II. He was killed in action on March 6, 1945, during the battle for the […]

Joe DiMaggio put his name on a book titled Lucky to Be a Yankee. His teammate Arndt Jorgens seconded the emotion. In 10 years as a backup catcher behind Hall of Famer Bill Dickey, Jorgens cashed five World Series checks totaling around $30,000 without appearing in a single Series game. As the Yankees’ second- or […]

People of a certain age know where they were when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt died, and Bobby Thomson swung. “The most famous sports moment of all time,” Jon Miller termed Thomson’s October 3, 1951, pennant-winning blast. We still recall The Shot Heard ‘Round the World. One reason is announcer Russ Hodges’s legendary […]