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The Boston Red Sox had won three games in a row by spectacular scores — beating Cleveland 12-2 and 11-2 in Games Six and Seven of the American League Championship Series and opening the World Series with a 13-1 triumph over Colorado. After allowing 17 hits and 13 runs in Game One, the Rockies pitching […]

“I guess maybe I was a little hasty, but I had complete confidence in Sherry.” —Walter Alston, October 8, 1959.1 “I told Joe Becker, our pitching coach, that I felt real good, ready to pitch four or five innings. I never dreamed, actually, that I’d have to go that long.” —Larry Sherry, October 8, 1959.2 […]

After a 40-year drought, the Chicago White Sox clinched the American League pennant on September 22, 1959, with a 4-2 victory in Cleveland. Sirens were activated in Chicago to announce the significant baseball happening. The long-wailing scream pierced the night and frightened many sleepy residents who thought the city was under nuclear attack. Mayor Richard […]

A season of great promise suddenly looked impossible. The Red Sox fans who stayed to the end of this evening’s game at Fenway Park could hardly have been more despondent. Boston fans had been waiting 86 years for a world championship and 18 years since their team’s spirit-crushing defeat at the hands of the New […]

Baseball card collectors were treated to a unique surprise in 1985, as Topps’ flagship card set included a special subset devoted to the members of the 1984 US Olympic baseball team. This subset gave card buyers their first look at some names that would become familiar in years to come, like Mark McGwire, Bill Swift, […]

The first World Series ever played was a best-of-nine competition, and after seven games, it was Boston with four wins and Pittsburgh with three. All three of the Pirates’ victories went to Deacon Phillippe — Game One, Game Three, and Game Four. He had pitched Game Seven, too, but lost. With limited options available to […]

There died a myriad of them, And of the best, among them, For an old bitch gone in the teeth, For a botched civilization, … — Ezra Pound, Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920)   Friday, May 9, 1919. The Armistice ending the Great War was nearing its six-month anniversary. The Spanish influenza pandemic hadn’t loosened its […]

Heading into the game that came to define his career, 21-year-old rookie left-hander Rick Ankiel wasn’t nervous. “I was not hurt. I was not afraid. I was not sick or distracted or particularly anxious,” he wrote 17 years later. “In game one of the National League Division Series, on a warm and sunny afternoon with […]

At the end of the 1876 National League season the Philadelphia and New York teams failed to travel west for scheduled road trips. Both teams were expelled from the league and those cities would be without National League base ball for the next six seasons. On May 1, 1883, under hazy skies with a temperature […]

After the San Francisco Giants lost the first two games of the 1989 World Series to their Bay Area rivals Oakland Athletics, baseball fans tuned in to see if they could turn things around in front of their home crowd starting with Game Three on October 17. As television viewers watched, the broadcast unexpectedly faded […]

A year after rallying to beat Cleveland for their first World Series title since 1908, the 2017 Chicago Cubs used a second-half push to win their second straight National League Central title. They advanced to the National League Championship Series for the third consecutive season and second straight time against the West Division champion Los […]

It was widely believed that Cole Hamels’ start on Saturday, July 25, 2015, against the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field could be his last in a Philadelphia Phillies uniform. If so, it would end his memorable 9½-year run with the team, capped by his 2008 World Series MVP Award. The Phillies were limping along sporting […]

When the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers met on June 9, 1963, at Wrigley Field, the game provided a matchup of early-season league leaders. After winning the first two games of a three-game series, Los Angeles occupied the top spot in the NL standings, mere percentage points ahead of the Cardinals. Despite the first-place […]

With one day left in the American League schedule, Detroit’s Heinie Manush was battling New York’s Babe Ruth for the league batting crown. Both batters were hitting .372; Manush was 182-for-489 (.37219), while Ruth was 184-for-494 (.37247). The outcome would be decided on this Sunday afternoon. Just below them was Detroit’s Bob Fothergill, at .360. […]

On June 6, 1962, the Mets’ woes continued when they were swept by the Phillies in a doubleheader. The loss in the first game was painful; it was the first time they been shut out in 1962, their debut season. In the second game, Al Jackson pitched seven shutout innings before Tony Taylor homered to […]

The author of the UPI wire story on the Montreal-Houston doubleheader dismissed him as “an unknown catcher of modest talents,” although John Boccabella was certainly well-known to Expos fans, especially those who attended games at Jarry Park.1 Public address announcer Claude Mouton, emphasizing the musicality of his Italian surname, enthusiastically introduced him as “Johhnnnn Bock-a-belllllla!” […]

The required result was simple: Win and they’re in. In their third season as a major-league franchise, the Colorado Rockies stood on the brink of qualifying for the baseball postseason faster than any previous expansion team. To be sure, the Rockies’ postseason quest was aided by the introduction of the wild card, an innovation that […]

“I’m going to give it (the All-Star MVP trophy) to my mom. I think she’s the one who deserves it. When we (he and his brother Sandy Alomar Jr., the 1997 MVP) were young, she used to take us to the ballpark. Without her, we wouldn’t be here.” — Roberto Alomar, who earned MVP honors at the 69th All-Star Game.1 […]

Promoted as a Father’s Day game because Sunday ball still ran afoul of Pittsburgh’s blue laws, the Saturday Robins-Pirates matinee drew an impressive crowd of 18,000 (about 8,000 more than the Forbes Field average in 1925).1 The holiday throng would be treated to an orgy of offense that commenced shortly after the conclusion of a […]

More than 40,000 fans filled Forbes Field on a cloudy, wet Wednesday afternoon for Game Seven of the 1925 World Series, the Pirates faithful hoping the home team would complete an unlikely comeback against the Senators. Walter Johnson stood in the way. The Washington fireballer had already won Games One and Four, allowing just one run on […]

Perhaps no baseball season has ever begun with more uncertainty than the 1918 pennant chase. As the season began, the United States had been at war for a year, during which time major-league players had been largely unaffected by the world’s events. On July 1, 1918, however, the sport’s privileged existence was shattered when Secretary […]

A catcher’s close proximity to the home plate umpire doesn’t bode well for a receiver with a propensity for umpire baiting and “rowdy tactics.” This was the case for Harry “Spike” LaRoss, whose many fines and suspensions, along with many injuries, necessitated a move to the outfield early in his career. The 5’11”, 170 pound […]

Dick Midkiff had the uncommon experience of pitching for the Boston Red Sox two years before he made the major leagues. His Red Sox “debut” took place on June 1, 1936, in an exhibition game in Providence, Rhode Island, and he earned a prominent headline in a Boston newspaper: “University of Texas Pitcher Effective in […]

During a professional baseball career of 20 years the much-traveled Harry Bright played in nearly 2,000 games. None of his exploits on the playing field, not even all of his 1,966 major and minor league hits, earned Harry Bright as much notoriety as one time at bat in the 1963 World Series. It was the […]