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Johnny Lucas played for the McCook Generals of the Nebraska State League in 1929 and 1930. McCook was the county seat of Red Willow County, not far north of the border with Kansas. Lucas played center field and some right field. He appeared in 83 games in 1929 and hit .308 with five homers. He […]

The 1924 Red Sox were entering “doubleheader season” with seven of them scheduled in the couple of weeks following June 20 (because of postponements, they actually played 10 in 21 days). Manager Lee Fohl said his team was playing better ball but still not winning. He was pleased that George Murray was starting to pitch […]

Camilo Pascual had good reason to be anxious about his start for the Minnesota Twins against the Baltimore Orioles on the final day of the 1962 season. In his ninth major-league season, it was the closest he had come to winning 20 games in a season. With 19 wins under his belt for the first […]

In mid-July 2004, more than 600 members of SABR descended upon Cincinnati for their 34th annual convention. One of the highlights of the weekend was a Friday-night ballgame between the Cincinnati Reds (47-42) and their NL Central Division rival St. Louis Cardinals (55-33). The Cardinals had captured the division lead in mid-June and never relinquished […]

Jim Palmer was attempting to recover from an intestinal virus as he entered his start against the Texas Rangers. He reported that he’d slept 28 of the 50 hours leading up to the game. “I felt pretty good this morning when I got up,” Palmer said, “but then I felt a little dizzy about a […]

The crowd – estimated at 20,000 by the Kansas City Sun – packed the stands on August 1, 1920, and spilled onto the playing field of Kansas City’s Association Park. Fans had flocked to the ballpark to witness the hometown Kansas City Monarchs and their new pitching sensation, Bullet Rogan,1 challenge Rube Foster’s Chicago American […]

“To encounter Walter Johnson even one time during a series is considered misfortune for any ball club,” lamented the New York Times, “but to inflict him on an opposing ball club twice in the same afternoon verges on downright cruelty.”1 The Big Train, the Washington Senators’ hard-throwing right-hander, proved to be the hero of the […]

Greatness, thy name is Tommy Davis. On June 5, 1966, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ left fielder went 5-for-5 in a 16-3 thrashing of the New York Mets at Shea Stadium. But he wasn’t the only LA lad with a stellar performance. Sandy Koufax, in his last major-league season, struck out nine to earn the win […]

When the Boston Red Sox and Chicago White Sox faced off on this August Saturday afternoon, both teams could claim to be in divisional races. The Red Sox were just 56-55 and in fourth place in the AL East, but this was enough to leave them 3½ games behind the first-place Tigers in a tight, […]

August 18, 1995, was a warm day in Denver. Thunderstorms popped up before game time and a fine mist lingered until after the game started. It was very unusual during the early years of the Colorado Rockies for them to start a game when precipitation was falling. However, this time it was decided to start […]

Jack Kramer – who started 1947 with wins in his first three decisions, even though his St. Louis Browns were well under .500 already – was pounded for eight runs in four innings by the Indians on May 11, dealing him his first loss of the season. But the Browns followed that loss by splitting […]

Pitching a complete-game shutout in the major leagues is a difficult task, but it has been done thousands of times in baseball history. Pitching a complete-game shutout while allowing 10 or more hits is a daunting task, but it has been done at least 260 times.1 Pitching a complete-game shutout while giving up 10 or […]

The Atlanta Braves started July 1995 on a tear, winning eight games in eight days. They started the streak 2½ games behind the Phillies. After their eighth consecutive win, they had moved into first place, 3½ games ahead of Philadelphia. San Francisco arrived in Atlanta after splitting six games to start July. The Giants started […]

As the Boston Red Sox arrived in Baltimore for a three-game set starting on July 18, 2011, they were riding a hot streak, having won 12 of their last 14 games to reach the top of the AL East, a game and a half ahead of the New York Yankees. But as the Red Sox […]

“If you were anybody, you were at the East-West Game.” — Buck O’Neil “It was a great ball game,” wrote Wendell Smith of the Pittsburgh Courier. “One packed with thrills and surprises. One cast in a setting as colorful and picturesque as any movie saga. One that will go down in history in brilliant lettering […]

The Chicago White Sox had played well in the first half of the 1981 season. When a strike by the players brought a halt to the season on June 12, the White Sox had a 31-22 record. The strike ended on July 31. After games resumed on August 9, the White Sox struggled in the […]

The 1977 Chicago White Sox – known ever after as the “Southside Hitmen” – may have been the most celebrated third-place club in major-league history. From Opening Day until season’s end, the Hitmen were never dull, either in victory or defeat. But Bill Veeck’s players really outdid themselves on the morning (and early afternoon) of […]

On May 11, 1972, the San Francisco Giants traded Willie Mays. It was as unthinkable to denizens of the City by the Bay as losing the team was to New Yorkers in 1957. Mays began his major-league career with the New York Giants in 1951 and headed back to the Big Apple two decades later […]

“It was a freak contest.”1 That’s how the Buffalo Evening News summed up the action between the Buffalo and Kansas City teams at Buffalo’s International Fair Association Grounds on September 28, 1914. It seemed to be shaping into an utterly forgettable affair through seven innings. Loose fielding and poor pitching were the order of the […]

It was going to be a very hot day for the St. Louis Cardinals-New York Giants Sunday doubleheader at the Polo Grounds on June 15, 1952. The forecast was for temperatures in the 90s. The Giants had defeated the Cardinals 4-3 on Saturday behind Larry Jansen’s pitching and home runs by Bob Elliott and Wes […]

The Chicago Cubs “swished home run bats that belted big George Munger out of the box within three innings”1 and went on to crush the St. Louis Cardinals 15-3 at Wrigley Field, behind the hitting-for-the-cycle performance of Roy Smalley. The overcast skies “and a few drops of rain”2 before game time did not deter the […]

After the Cincinnati Reds stunned the “baseball dope” in Game One of the 1919 World Series by knocking out Chicago ace Eddie Cicotte, rumors were flying about the White Sox’ uncharacteristically poor performance. The whispers would only grow louder after Game Two. Because baseball’s powers-that-be had voted on using an experimental best-of-nine format instead of […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates traveled to Milwaukee in 1960 for their July 4 doubleheader with the Braves with both good and bad news on their minds. With 43 wins and 27 losses, they were in first place in the National League by 3½ games over the 39-30 Braves. It was the first time the Pirates had […]

A.J. Cole’s major-league debut on this Tuesday night in Atlanta did not go well. The Washington Nationals right-hander was pulled at the end of the second inning, having given up nine hits and nine runs to Atlanta on seven singles, two doubles, and a sacrifice fly, although he did record his first major-league strikeout. Five […]