Search Results

Cleveland Indians manager Pat Corrales had drawn up his team’s starting lineup long before the 2 P.M. Saturday game against the New York Yankees on April 20, 1985. The Indians were off to a sluggish 3-6 start, but Cleveland had hope in the form of 26-year-old shortstop Julio Franco, a top-of-the-order hitter off to one […]

The nation’s eyes were turned westward on a June Friday morning, toward a small island 1,300 miles northwest of Honolulu, as the Battle of Midway was underway. After attacking Pearl Harbor six months earlier, the Japanese Imperial Fleet dominated the Pacific Ocean with intentions of now destroying the remaining US Pacific Fleet near Midway Island.1 […]

Three games into the 1931 World Series, the Philadelphia Athletics’ championship run was in jeopardy. Winners of three consecutive American League pennants from 1929 to 1931, the A’s had defeated the Chicago Cubs, four games to one, in the 1929 World Series, and then topped the St. Louis Cardinals in six games in 1930. Facing […]

It was another dramatic victory or staggering collapse, depending on perspective. After exploding for a World Series-record 10 runs in the seventh inning to win Game Four, the Philadelphia Athletics scored all of their runs in the ninth inning in Game Five to defeat the Chicago Cubs, 3-2, and capture their first championship since 1913 […]

Guy Bush “pitched one of his finest games,” gushed sportswriter Irving Vaughn, following the hurler’s resounding 3-1 victory over the seemingly invincible Philadelphia Athletics. “[He] curved them into complete silence.”1 “The Cubs’ victory started and ended with Guy Bush,” emphatically stated A’s beat writer Stan Baumgartner, as Bush recorded the NL’s first win in the […]

Connie Mack’s Philadelphia A’s hadn’t won an American League pennant since 1914. But the team was beginning to contend again after finishing in eighth place for seven straight seasons from 1915 through 1921. Beginning with the 1922 season, the 66-year-old Mack, the only manager the A’s had ever had since the franchise debuted as an […]

The National League’s St. Louis Browns and Louisville Colonels faced each other on August 16, 1895, in what one newspaper described as “a somnolent game.”1 Even though the home team won and there were 13 total runs scored, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch told its readers that the two teams “put up a sleepy game,”2 while […]

The New York Mets returned from a six-game road trip to open a three-game weekend series with the Philadelphia Phillies on April 29, 2022. The Mets, who had upgraded their roster over the offseason by adding starting pitchers Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt, reliever Adam Ottavino, and outfielders Starling Marte and Mark Canha, were 14-6 […]

After a standout career at Sharyland High School in Mission, Texas, Jaime García – born in Reynosa, Mexico, on July 8, 1986 – was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the 30th round of the 2004 June Amateur Draft. As was their policy at the time, the Orioles required each of their draftees to pass a […]

Less than three weeks earlier, on June 17 at Denver’s Coors Field, the Boston Red Sox had shut out the Colorado Rockies 11-0.1 On July 6, they again posted an 11-0 win, this time at Fenway Park against the Oakland A’s. Both starting pitchers for this Tuesday evening game entered with identical records of 4-5. […]

Wes Ferrell is perhaps the best-hitting pitcher in baseball history. Over his 15-season major-league career, Ferrell hit .280 with 38 home runs, 57 doubles, and 12 triples.1 Ferrell put together his best season in 1935, with the Boston Red Sox. Based on the combined strength of his pitching and hitting, his 10.6 Wins Above Replacement, […]

Two weeks before the 1976 All-Star Game, the New York Mets were in a slump. They had opened the season with 18 wins in their first 27 games, occupying first place briefly in late April and early May. A 15-28 slide from May 9 through June 22, however, had dropped them to a distant third […]

The 1965 baseball season was one of great excitement for fans in Houston. Their National League team had moved into the newly built Astrodome and renamed itself the Houston Astros. The novelty of indoor baseball brought fans from all over the area to see major-league play in the modern air-conditioned comfort of the “Eighth Wonder […]

“Play out the string: For a team to continue to play although it is not in contention.”—The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, Third Edition1   It happens every season when the calendar turns to September. The chase for a postseason berth reaches the homestretch. A month earlier, some teams are buyers at the trading deadline in hopes […]

The crowd in Anaheim for the Los Angeles Angels’ sixth home game of the 2018 season was bigger than that for Opening Day.1 The 44,742 fans filling The Big A on a Sunday afternoon were there to see Shohei Ohtani’s home pitching debut. The 23-year-old Ohtani, a celebrated offseason signing from Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball, […]

A weighmaster at the tobacco market in the offseasons, a veteran of the Army Reserve, a farmer, and honored by being named a Kentucky Colonel. And a right-handed pitcher who was a veteran of 17 seasons in minor-league baseball, with a 147-131 record and a 3.87 earned-run average. Eleven of Herb Moford’s seasons were spent […]

Some pitchers are more intense than others. Randy Johnson hit 190 batters in an era when brushbacks were frowned upon. Lefty Grove threw furniture in the clubhouse after tough losses. Among the fiercest competitors in history, Johnny Allen took his frustrations out on anyone who barred his path to victory. Allen’s temper was so notorious […]

Catcher Jack Zalusky’s major-league career was brief; seven games for the New York Highlanders during a September trial in 1903. His defensive skills were in demand for more than a decade, but constant squabbles with team management over his salary eventually soured each team he played for. If nothing else, he played on teams with […]

Rodney Lea Nichols was born on December 29, 1964, in Burlington, Iowa. His family relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico when Rod was about three years old, but he has always remained an Iowan at heart. Nichols early on adopted Iowa as one of his favorite college teams. “Back in the day, if you got the […]

June 19, 1911, was Trace Baker’s debut in professional baseball, and the last day of his playing career. So it would appear. And he didn’t really do anything wrong, but he wasn’t invited back to play again. Baker played for the Boston Red Sox that day, for manager Patsy Donovan. The Red Sox were in […]

Chicago White Stockings manager Clark Griffith was desperate for pitching help in September 1902. Griffith was sick, Nixey Callahan was in a slump and nursing his arm, and Wiley Piatt was ineffective. Only Roy Patterson was dependable.1 Griffith reached into the minors and bought Sam McMackin from Milwaukee. “He had been a fine pitcher in […]

The very best parts of a game always were at the end for Eric Plunk. He was a starting pitcher early in his career, but like many hard throwers, he had problems with his command, especially with his secondary offerings, and he found his highest and best use in major-league bullpens for 14 seasons. Plunk’s […]

Few players have had to overcome more adversity during their major league careers than Lee “Jeep’’ Handley. The 5-foot-7, 160-pound infielder played in 968 games in a 10-year career punctuated by several major injuries, a couple of which nearly cost him his life. Best known for his hustle and defensive acumen, Handley hit only 15 […]

Dwain Anderson was a utility infielder who played in 149 major-league games over the course of four seasons between 1971 and 1974.  He threw and batted right-handed and was a versatile infielder, playing second base, third base, and shortstop over a ten-year career in professional baseball.  Frequently included in early 1970s trades, Anderson played for […]