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The Boston Red Sox battled throughout the 2000 season, seeking their third straight berth in the playoffs. They’d been first in the American League East Division for a few days in the latter half of June but had slipped to second place. They were four games behind the first-place New York Yankees when the Tampa […]

After winning the World Series in 1946, the St. Louis Cardinals had two straight second-place finishes and in 1949 were trying to capture the National League pennant once again.1 With five games to play in the season, the first-place Cardinals held a 1½-game lead over the second-place Brooklyn Dodgers. The Cardinals had just swept a […]

In spring training before the 1941 season, the St. Louis Cardinals listed Stan Musial on the roster as a pitcher.1 His numbers from the previous year would suggest this was sensible. Although he also played the outfield on days he was not on the mound and had finished among the top 10 hitters in the […]

The 1915 Detroit Tigers owed their long, quiet offseason in part to pitcher Carl Weilman of the St. Louis Browns. The Tigers finished in second place in the American League, 2½ games behind the Boston Red Sox, and the Browns’ left-hander beat Detroit eight times that season – including three times in the span of […]

Sandy Koufax’s devastating mix of fastballs and curveballs fooled San Francisco Giants batters at a furious pace on August 31, 1959. Koufax, a talented but erratic left-hander for the Los Angeles Dodgers, broke the National League single-game strikeout record by one and tied the major-league mark. Wally Moon hit a three-run home run in the […]

Ten weeks into his rookie season, Sandy Koufax finally made his long-awaited debut. Brooklyn’s $20,000 bonus baby1 had missed most of March with a sore back,2 and then the 19-year-old left-hander had a disastrous outing in an exhibition game against Brooklyn’s Double-A affiliate, the Fort Worth Cats, on April 3.3 Two weeks later, before Brooklyn’s […]

“Here they have the All-Star Game, and they are holding it for the first time in Dodger Stadium, where more people see baseball games than anywhere else in the country,” wrote the Chicago Tribune’s Richard Dozer.1 The Chicago sportswriter noted that being close to Hollywood fit this game perfectly, because Steve Stone, a mediocre pitcher […]

Daniel Nava celebrates with teammates after hitting a grand slam in his first major-league at-bat on June 12, 2010. (Courtesy of the Boston Red Sox)   In 2008 Daniel Nava signed with the Boston Red Sox for $1. He worked his way up in the system and got his call to the big-league club on […]

On a day “ball players dream about,” wrote Bill Gleason of the Chicago Sun Times, Billy Williams’s consistency was on full display as the Chicago Cubs outfielder tied, and then broke, the National League consecutive-game record.1 The Cubs were celebrating Billy Williams Day at Wrigley Field, and in the first game of the Sunday doubleheader […]

Frank Robinson wasn’t used to seeing Olympic Stadium so full. He looked up at the structure’s Teflon sky and told himself, “Hey, there’s fans in the upper deck!”1 Indeed, throughout Robinson’s three years as manager of the Montreal Expos, big crowds had been rare. Yet to many of the 31,395 spectators, some who recalled the […]

It had been something like feast or famine for the Boston Red Sox for the six years leading up to the 2018 season. From 1998 through 2011, the Red Sox were consistently competitive, never finishing below third in the American League East Division while making the postseason eight times. Having not won a World Series […]

“It was not a tidy game, but an exciting one,” declared New York Times sports editor Arthur Daley about the Brooklyn Dodgers’ 8-5 victory over the New York Yankees in Game Four to even the World Series at two games each.1 Described by Times sportswriter John Drebinger as a “bruising contest of power hitting,” the […]

Duke Snider, the Duke of Flatbush, had a phenomenal stretch, blasting at least 40 home runs in five straight seasons (1953-1957) while batting .311 with a .407 on-base percentage and a .618 slugging percentage, yet did not win an MVP award. (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)   Sportswriters expected another duel between the starting pitchers, but Duke […]

When second baseman Bill Ripken was named to the Double-A Southern League All-Star team in 1986, the stars seemed to be aligning for him to join his father, Cal Sr., and older brother, Cal Jr., in the big leagues with the Baltimore Orioles. The elder Ripkens had already spent several years together in the majors, […]

Sometimes the significance of a game is known at the time. But sometimes the significance of a game is only fully grasped with the benefit of hindsight. And sometimes the significance of a game changes over time based on subsequent events. The game played between the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers on September 29, 1946, […]

His manager did not initially approve of it. His catcher didn’t care for catching it. But the spitball transformed Jack Chesbro’s season in 1904, and New York Highlanders manager Clark Griffith eventually had to admit that Chesbro’s early-season embrace of the deceptive pitch made all the difference between his 4-3 won-lost record in the first […]

As a given season nears its end, baseball fans of any stripe hope to see their team make the playoffs and go all the way. There are, though, teams that clearly have no hope and are statistically eliminated from the postseason. What, then, do fans cheer for? Sometimes individual players, sometimes other milestones. In 2018 […]

The Florida Marlins were in their fourth season in 1996. Their record had improved each year since they joined the National League as an expansion franchise in 1993, and they hoped a series of free-agent signings in the 1995-96 offseason would make them, according to general manager Dave Dombrowski, a playoff contender.1 Veteran starters Kevin […]

“I guess if you can’t win ballgames, you gotta try to win fights,” Yankees owner George Steinbrenner jokingly taunted after witnessing one of the uglier brawls in baseball history. “If I hadn’t been upstairs, I would’ve tried to get [Armando Benitez], too.”1 Despite having baseball’s biggest payroll, the 20-23 Baltimore Orioles came into Yankee Stadium […]

It began with a clap of thunder and a sudden deluge of rain, and ended with Babe Ruth cradling a dying teenager in his arms. In between were 4⅔ innings of baseball rendered meaningless by what is still the worst tragedy in the history of Yankee Stadium. It was May 19, 1929. The Yankees, after […]

The first no-hitter at Boston’s Fenway Park was thrown by a hometown pitcher, but not a member of the Red Sox. It was by George Davis of the National League’s Boston Braves, during the Miracle Braves’ improbable push from last place to the World Series championship in 1914.1 Boston’s National League team was making a […]

On the path to the 2004 World Series championship, the rain-shortened June 25 Red Sox win over the Philadelphia Phillies was notable in many respects. The 11-run margin of victory was the largest of any Red Sox game in 2004, matched by three other such games.1 Manny Ramírez had five runs batted in, the first […]

JULY 1, 2022 — The history of the Hemond AZ SABR Chapter is a long and stellar one celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. Re-named in 2017 in honor of lifelong MLB executive Roland Hemond, SABR’s Hemond AZ Chapter was formerly known as Arizona’s Flame Delhi Chapter. Originally founded in 1992 as “The Arizona Society […]

In a 20-year major-league broadcasting career with the Chicago White Sox and Los Angeles/California Angels, plus four additional years of professional and college play-by-play, Don Wells worked alongside famed broadcasters Bob Elson, Dick Enberg, and Dave Niehaus, all of whom would later win the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Ford C. Frick Award. Although Wells […]