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Among MLB’s storied rivalries, none has been more heated than that of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. The stakes do not have to be high – though they often have been – for bad blood to boil over between the two teams. One of the most vicious brawls between the two franchises […]

The September 7, 1889, game between the St. Louis Browns and the Brooklyn Bridegrooms is now remembered for the humorous episode when the Browns had lighted candles put up in front of their bench to emphasize to the umpire that it was too dark to play. But the game’s riotous ending and rancorous denouement fractured […]

By August 1869 the Cincinnati Red Stockings had become the top baseball club in the country. Not only were they undefeated, but the novelty of their all-salaried status, their distinctive uniform style with the long red socks, and the triumphs over all the top Eastern clubs had made them the center of attention in the […]

After the famous tour of the Brooklyn Excelsiors in 1860, which took them as far north as Canada and as far south as Baltimore, the outbreak of the Civil War quashed any thought of new junkets. Then, in baseball’s boom year of 1867, the Washington Nationals, a club that had formed prior to the war, […]

HURRAH FOR THE EXCELSIORS!Come my lads and listenTo what I now relate,How Upton was defeatedBy the Champions of the State.Give ear unto my ditty,It will contain no lie,How Medway boys got leaveTo sing, Root, Hog, or Die. The base ball game played at Worcester on October 11 and 12, 1859 was a rematch, but it […]

The New York Yankees could be excused for their anemic batting performances in the first two games of the 2001 World Series – both Arizona wins – as they faced the Diamondbacks’ dominating duo of Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson. With the Series shifting to New York for the next three games, the Yankees also […]

Ticketholders to the Washington Nationals-Los Angeles Dodgers game on September 9, 2023, could be forgiven for not sticking around for the first pitch. A significant storm1 blew through Washington, DC, that afternoon, and the Saturday game, scheduled for 4:05 P.M., finally started at 8:15 P.M.2 The grounds crew’s efforts to ready the field were acknowledged […]

On July 3, 1911, the Philadelphia Athletics swept a pair of games from the New York Highlanders. A crowd of about 14,000 filled the stands at New York’s Hilltop Park, and “the assemblage was coatless to a man,”1 reported the New York Sun, as the players battled in the hot, glaring sun for more than […]

Even by the Chicago Cubs’ deep-rooted standards of frustration, the second inning of the Cubs-Brooklyn Robins game of May 12, 1915, was one to forget. The Cubs committed four errors and a passed ball in the inning, helping the Robins to five runs and an early 7-1 lead at Ebbets Field. The home team cruised […]

It was the “best pitching in my career,” exclaimed an elated Johnny Kucks after the struggling pitcher’s improbable three-hit shutout in Game Seven of the 1956 World Series.1 After losing the first two games of the Series, the New York Yankees’ 9-0 thrashing of the reigning title-holding Dodgers in Brooklyn was a “loud and emphatic […]

Baseball fans love to say when they go to the ballpark that there is always a chance that something may happen that they have never seen before. Those among the announced crowd of 9,614 who stayed to the end of the matchup between the University of Arkansas and the University of Central Arkansas on April […]

The New York Yankees on November 4, 2001, were one game from winning their fourth consecutive World Series and their fifth in six years.1 With New York City still shaken by the events of September 11, the Yankees had fought their way through the postseason, providing their city and fans some relief from the devastation. […]

Part of the 1903 schedule had the Boston Americans and Cleveland Naps playing seven consecutive games against each other in June. The first three were played in Boston (the Naps won twice), and then a four-game series was scheduled to take place in Ohio. The first three of these were played at Cleveland’s League Park. […]

In 1966 the New York Mets lost fewer than 100 games and finished out of the National League basement for the first time in franchise history. But the Mets still needed to strengthen their starting rotation if they wanted further improvement on their 66-95 record and ninth-place finish. No major-league team in 1966 had used […]

When the regular season ends on a Sunday afternoon in late September or early October, baseball fans are of two minds. Some try to relax their nerves readying for the postseason baseball of their favorite team. Others just go home, anticipating the “hot stove league”1 that helps alleviate the anxiety or boredom of the long […]

On the back cover of his album The Nylon Curtain, released in September 1982, singer-songwriter Billy Joel is pictured enjoying a cup of coffee and a cigarette while reading the newspaper. The paper in front of him is easily identifiable as the New York Times, and a baseball-related headline is visible: “Expos Top Punchless Mets.”1 […]

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 […]

Jim Bouton led the nomadic life of a baseball maverick, with stops including New York City; Seattle; Houston; Portland, Oregon; Durango, Mexico; Atlanta; and Pittsfield, Massachusetts, to name a few. Along the way, he pitched in major, minor, independent, Mexican, and amateur leagues, wrote the groundbreaking best-seller Ball Four, starred in a short-lived TV adaptation […]

There was actually method to the madness behind Charlie Finley’s idea that people would want to see his ass. Finley had some bizarre ideas when he owned the Kansas City-Oakland A’s, such as orange baseballs and designated runners, but even he didn’t go so far as to moon the fans. In 1965, however, he bought […]

George Henry Magoon had two nicknames – Maggie having obvious origins, and Topsy, presumably so-called because of his spinning top-like movements around the infield. He was born in St. Alban’s, Maine, on March 27, 1875. His father James was a boot and shoemaker. He and his wife Mary moved their three daughters and young son […]

Red Sox right-hander Gordie Mueller was in the big leagues for a little more than three months in 1950. He worked a total of seven innings, over eight games, without a decision, facing 45 batters. He walked 13 of them and struck out only one. Eleven of the batters secured base hits off him, one […]

Chet Emerson had made it to the big leagues. It was September 1911 and the Philadelphia Athletics had seen enough promise in the 21-year-old Dartmouth graduate to sign him to play for legendary Connie Mack and his first-place A’s. It’s safe to say that Emerson wasn’t particularly worried about where in the powerful Philadelphia lineup […]

He played first base, second base, third base, catcher, and the outfield in the major leagues, but 558 of his 568 games in the field were behind the plate. Red Kleinow hit for a .213 average, playing at a time that any contribution at all from a catcher was considered a bonus. He was born […]

A standout in three sports, he was considered one of the greatest athletes in the history of his college. Yet in his career as a professional baseball player, he failed to achieve stardom. Jimmy Stewart was seemingly a substitute with no position to call his own, but he carved out a 10-year career in the […]