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Perhaps distracted by a heavy swarm of moths, a perennial Gold Glove winner committed a fielding blooper that gave Shawon Dunston an unlikely three-run home run against the San Francisco Giants in June 2000. The bizarre play – which gave Dunston a two-homer, six-RBI night – helped the St. Louis Cardinals rally from seven runs […]

The first game of a Saturday afternoon doubleheader between the New York Mets and Houston Astros at Shea Stadium on the last weekend of July 1985 was one of those wonderfully quirky games beloved by those who like unusual statistics. A cavalcade of errors by the Astros led to 16 unearned runs for the Mets […]

The White Sox needed a win badly. After splitting the first two games of the World Series against the Dodgers in Chicago, they lost the next two games in Los Angeles. Their backs were at the wall and they needed a win to keep their championship hopes alive. Chicago Tribune writer David Condon wrote that […]

New York Yankees infielder Billy Martin celebrated his 29th birthday on May 15, 1957,1 at Manhattan’s Copacabana club. Celebrating with him were teammates Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, Hank Bauer, and Johnny Kucks. What happened that night has become a part of baseball lore. Exact details of the alcohol-fueled fight involving the Yankees players […]

In the throes of a nine-game losing streak, the Chicago Cubs were in last place in the National League with a 23-37 record when they visited the league-leading Pittsburgh Pirates, who were up 16½ games on Sunday, June 26, 1960. Manager Lou Boudreau’s team faced a daunting task in the first game of a doubleheader […]

Two days before Thanksgiving 1946, Babe Ruth went to New York’s French Hospital, complaining of headaches.1 Initially, doctors diagnosed a sinus condition but in January determined that he needed surgery and he underwent a “serious” procedure.2 News stories at the time were vague about the pain’s cause; the hospital said only, “One of the main […]

Babe Ruth got a huge cheer when he stepped onto the field at Yankee Stadium on June 1, 1925 — a well-deserved ovation considering that just a few months ago he was dead. The announcement of his demise was wildly inaccurate, of course, but it was right there in black and white in newspapers around […]

When an active player or manager dies during the regular season, surviving teammates face a difficult choice: Play the next scheduled game in their honor, or postpone it in their memory? In the twenty-first century the trend has been to stay off the field. Teams – or front offices – that have chosen to postpone […]

When Babe Ruth was traded to the New York Yankees by Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee in January 1920, he was already the most feared slugger in the game. He led the American League in home runs for the first time in 1918 with 11 and in 1919 he established a new single-season record […]

On a sweltering summer afternoon on July 1, 1910, the ballpark that would one day be known as Comiskey Park hosted its first official game. At the time, the ballpark was known as White Sox Park. The Chicago White Sox would play 6,247 major-league games there before it closed on September 30, 1990. Charles Comiskey, […]

A swarm of excited White Sox fans converged on the South Side ballpark’s neighborhood to wait overnight for the bleacher gate to open at 8 A.M. on Friday, October 2, 1959. Through an intermittent drizzle, they passed the time by watching television, ringing cowbells, and playing bridge.1 A male foursome from Pearl City, Illinois, even […]

The 1964 Aberdeen (South Dakota) Pheasants dominated the Class A Northern League, compiling an 80-37 record and finishing the year 12 games ahead of their closest competition. For all that success, though, the most memorable game of the 1964 campaign for the Pheasants and their fans was probably a game the team lost. On June […]

On June 2, 1964, the St. Louis Cardinals began a 16-game road trip. After the first 12 games of the trip, the Redbirds were 3-9, losing series to the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, and Los Angeles Dodgers. (St. Louis did win two out of three in San Francisco.) The Cardinals ended the away stretch in […]

For the first time in seven years, the Yankees and the Dodgers resumed their World Series rivalry in 1963. In the decade from 1947 through 1956, they had met six times. Since the Dodgers had moved to Los Angeles in 1958, they had missed postseason competition with each other. The New York Yankees entered their […]

Unless they announce their retirement in advance, very few players know how and when their career will end. After more than a quarter-century in their organization, Phil Niekro always assumed he would play out his career with the Braves, the only team he had ever known. But things didn’t exactly work out the way he […]

“You’ve been an inspiration to me, brother; an inspiration to these coaches and these players. And it’s an honor I got to manage you. But it’s more of an honor to tell you you’re going back to the big leagues.”– Matt LeCroy, manager, Harrisburg Senators, speaking to Aaron Barrett surrounded by his teammates on September […]

Their 6-5 loss in Game One was disappointing for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Once again they let the Yankees grab the lead in a World Series, something that happened in all but one of the times the teams met in the fall classic. Now they would have to play catch-up in the second game against left-hander […]

Satchel Paige and Don Larsen earned baseball immortality in dramatically different ways. Paige became a legend for his longevity, retiring major-league hitters into middle age. Larsen, in contrast, earned eternal fame based on one shining afternoon of perfection in Game Five of the 1956 World Series. The two legends share one less-remembered claim to baseball […]

As June 1925 began, the race in the National League was close, but not that close. The four-time defending NL champion New York Giants held a 4½-game lead over the Brooklyn Robins. The Pittsburgh Pirates were in third place, and the Philadelphia Phillies were one spot back of the Pirates, tied with the Cincinnati Reds, […]

There was no shortage of outstanding performances in Gary Carter’s Hall of Fame career. Twice he blasted three home runs in a game, and he drove in seven runs in another regular-season matchup.1 In the 1981 All-Star Game, Carter hit two round-trippers to lead the National League to a 5-4 win. Some of his greatest […]

Many baseball fans know that Satchel Paige played on an integrated semipro team in Bismarck, North Dakota, that won the national championship in 1935. He often called that team the best he ever played on, and the story was told exceptionally well in Tom Dunkel’s 2013 book Color Blind: The Forgotten Team That Broke Baseball’s […]

Jack Killilay put in six seasons of minor-league ball before joining the 1911 Boston Red Sox and he put in five seasons after departing the Red Sox. His one year in the majors was a 4-2 season in 1911 (61 innings, with a 3.54 earned-run average) from his debut on May 13 to his last […]

Jimmy Stanley was your classic “good field, no hit” infielder who enjoyed a year in the Federal League, spot starting and backing up at second, short, third, and even the outfield. Born Stanislaus (Stanley) Francis Ciolek, December 1, 1887, in Plymouth, Pennsylvania, he was the son of Wojciech (Albert) and Mary (Walega) Ciolek.1 The father, […]

On July 27, 1917, Cliff Brady was involved in an automobile accident that could have ended his career. Two cars smashed into each other shortly after 11 PM at the intersection of Third and Cheyenne in Tulsa. Ticket seller Eddie Quigley’s leg was broken; Brady’s knee was hurt but not to the point he required […]