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The revamped St. Louis Cardinals were off to a rousing start in 1981, winning six of their first eight games, when Lary Sorensen took the pitcher’s mound for the finale of a three-game series with the Chicago Cubs at Busch Stadium on Wednesday, April 22. Coming off a disappointing fourth-place finish in the National League […]

Pete Rose’s return to the Cincinnati Reds on August 17, 1984, marked a high point in a desperately low season for the team. At 51-70, the Reds had little left to play for and only the San Francisco Giants gave the Reds a cushion from the dampness of the NL West basement. Rose, Cincinnati-born and […]

Tampa Bay was struggling to stay in the playoff picture as the 2017 season wound down. After winning their final game in Boston, the Rays were supposed to head home for a crucial series against the Yankees. But Hurricane Irma altered those plans and the Rays were forced to play three “home games” against the […]

What makes a memorable night at the ballpark? How about a game featuring some of the major leagues’ biggest stars, an exciting come-from-behind win by the home team, five home runs, and a heartfelt tribute to a local baseball legend? Oh, yeah, and let’s not forget the announcement over the public-address system that the president […]

Edwin Jackson is unlikely to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. But if he were, it would be difficult to decide what cap he would wear. In his 17-year career he pitched for a major-league-record 14 different teams,1 one to three years with each team, including two separate stints with the Washington Nationals. […]

The National League pennant race had become a nailbiter. St. Louis was on an eight-game winning streak but clung to just a half-game lead over the Cincinnati Reds. The Reds had won nine games in a row to remain in contention. With just three games left, the Reds remained a half-game behind the Cardinals. St. […]

On May 21, 1990, the Cincinnati Reds visited Wrigley Field to start a two-game set against the Chicago Cubs. Jose Rijo outdueled Greg Maddux that night, the Reds winning 4-3. Andre Dawson laced a double in the home half of the second inning but was later thrown out at home to start a double play. […]

Pete Alonso did not have a guaranteed spot on the Mets roster in 2019 spring training. There were questions about his ability to play defense. At the time, he said, “The only thing I can control is with my own two hands: hit the ball, playing good defense. That’s all I can do. Whatever happens, […]

Atlanta arrived in New York on a five-game winning streak and ready to take on the Mets during the major leagues’ third annual Players Weekend, when every player was allowed to have some fun and choose a nickname to go on his uniform. After sweeping the Marlins at home, Atlanta led the National League East […]

When Cubs fans preview the day’s game, they look at the weather report for Wrigley Field, even before asking, “Who’s pitching?” This afternoon they could expect warm temperatures (upper 70s) with steady winds from the southwest (10 mph gusting over 30 mph, from home plate toward the batter’s eye in center field). If the light […]

During the peak years of his 14 major-league seasons, before two knee injuries slowed him, Randy Hundley was regarded as a super-durable defensive player whose glove and leadership made him nearly indispensible to the Chicago Cubs. In 1970, when he suffered his first knee injury, manager Leo Durocher lamented, “If there’s one player I hate […]

Wrigley Field at night, as pictured in 2014.   After rain washed out the Chicago Cubs’ initial attempt at an inaugural game under the lights on August 8, 1988, there was an anticlimactic sense to their first official night game at home the following day. True, the game itself was historic. When umpires halted the […]

By the time the Cubs scheduled their first home night game, they were, by four decades, the last holdout against baseball under the lights. The first major-league team to host a night game, the Cincinnati Reds, had done so in 1935, with the other teams following suit until 1948 when the Detroit Tigers played their […]

After splitting the first two contests of the 1935 World Series in Detroit, the Tigers and Cubs trekked westward to Wrigley Field for Game Three. With no travel day scheduled, the players struggled to catch up on their rest, with a few of them dozing off as their trains caromed around the southern shore of […]

Baseball history buffs would love to hop on a time machine and head to Cincinnati’s Crosley Field for the Redlegs’ July 31, 1958, incredible comeback against the San Francisco Giants.1 If H.G. Wells’s imaginary invention were a reality, the lucky time travelers would have seen an exciting game that included several famous footnote players who […]

The morning of Sunday, June 2, 1957, was a great day to be a Cincinnati Redlegs fan. This wasn’t something that could be said often since World War II. In fact, the Redlegs’ third-place finish in 1944 was not to be attained again for 12 years, when the inspired 1956 team won 91 games and […]

Cincinnati’s Crosley Field was crammed with 30,640 spectators for Game Two of the 1940 World Series to watch the Reds take on the Detroit Tigers, who were looking for their first championship since 1935. The Reds, meanwhile, hadn’t won a title since they defeated the Chicago White Sox in 1919 and were trying to break […]

Paul Derringer had struggled before. Two years after a brilliant rookie campaign in 1931, in which Derringer went 18-8 for St. Louis, he was traded to the Reds and promptly finished the season with 27 losses. One year later, at the age of 27, Derringer lost 21 games for a 1934 Reds club that lost 99 […]

Right-handed pitcher Happy Finneran played major-league baseball for five seasons. After playing two years for the Philadelphia Phillies, Finneran jumped to the Federal League in 1914 and played until the league folded in 1915. In 1918 he pitched for the Tigers and the Yankees. Joseph Ignatius Finneran was born on October 29, 1890, in East […]

In 1928, right-hander Ed Carroll’s six losses did more to win him a major-league berth than the six games he won that same year. He went on to an undefeated rookie year, pitching for a last-place team. Edgar Fleischer Carroll came from Baltimore, where he was born on July 27, 1907, the son of William […]

Outfielder George Stumpf was a .235 hitter in the major leagues, playing for both Sox teams, albeit in just 260 at-bats in 118 games. In a 19-year minor-league career, Stumpf hit .289 in 8,509 plate appearances. Of German ancestry, Stumpf was born 10 days before Christmas in 1910 – December 15 – in New Orleans. […]

Once clocked on a stopwatch from plate to first in 3.5 seconds, Harry Bay was considered by many contemporary baseball authorities to be the fastest man in the American League. A photographer experimenting with a motion picture camera filmed “Deerfoot” in full stride and newspaper reports commonly referred to the speedster as “a ten-second man […]

East Liverpool, Ohio, which bills itself as “The Pottery Capital of the World,” is situated about 40 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. It’s where Pretty Boy Floyd was embalmed and is the boyhood hometown of Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz – and the place of both birth and death of major-league baseball player John Henry […]

Last Saturday, November 8, was a great meeting for the East Tennessee Chapter of SABR. Lots of good baseball talk, a bit of business, two authors talking about their books (Gerald C. Wood on Smoky Joe Wood and Bryan Steverson on Baseball: A Special Gift from God). It was our highest attended chapter meeting, including […]