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Months after Michael Jordan shocked the sports world by announcing his retirement from the NBA on October 6, 1993, speculation began that he was going to pursue a second career in baseball. Jordan was spotted taking batting practice at Comiskey Park shortly after the calendar flipped to 1994, and on January 12 he announced his […]

On Saturday, August 2, 1975, in the midst of a ferocious regional heat wave, the western Massachusetts town of Chester reported a temperature of 107 degrees. So did the city of New Bedford, on the state’s southern coast.1 As of January 2021, these readings remained the hottest officially recorded temperatures in the history of Massachusetts.2 […]

Some players are fortunate enough to play major-league baseball for several years. Others, like Moonlight Graham, play only one game, often for only an inning or two during a late-season lopsided matchup. Harvey Freeman was closer to the latter category. He was one of 330 pitchers between the start of the twentieth century (1901) and […]

“Mighty Baker Pulls Another Home Run Hit,” squawked the headline on the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer on October 18, 1911, after Game Three of the World Series.1 The story behind the headline comes from one of baseball’s all-time great World Series matchups. Baseball’s first two dynasties, the New York Giants and the Philadelphia […]

The Cubs called up Puerto Rico native Hector Villanueva on June 1, 1990, midway through his sixth minor-league season. The heavyset 25-year-old catcher burst onto the big-league scene with a homer in his first game and three in his first six. He quickly became a Wrigley Field fan favorite, batting .272 in 114 at-bats with […]

Washington’s Max Scherzer (13-5, 2.19 ERA) was hoping not only to bring his team closer to winning their division, but also to burnish his credentials for a third Cy Young Award.2 The first inning was not a promising start. César Hernández popped out, but Max walked Odúbel Herrera and Rhys Hoskins. Rookie Nick Williams, celebrating […]

Astronaut Neil Armstrong sets foot on the surface of the moon on July 20, 1969. (NASA)   Jack Aker zipped a sidearm1 strike over the plate to run the count to a ball and two strikes on Washington third baseman Ken McMullen. Catcher Jake Gibbs casually stood and tossed the ball back to the mound. […]

Few major-league ballparks of the modern era seem less celebrated than Houston’s Colt Stadium, a single-decked, roofless park that saw use for only three seasons.1 Colt Stadium was always meant to be temporary,2 just a stopgap to last until the completion of the Astrodome – the “Eighth Wonder of the World” – a ballpark whose […]

Mention the name of Billy Pierce and smiles cross the faces of older Chicago White Sox fans. The affable southpaw, whose No. 19 is retired and whose statue resides in the left-field bleachers at Guaranteed Rate Field, was the darling of the Sox starting corps in the 1950s. Whenever Billy took the mound, White Sox […]

Over three days, June 19-21, the Republican Party held its 1900 National Convention in Philadelphia. It was a confident and celebratory affair. Under President William McKinley the nation had successfully conducted a “splendid little war”1 against Spain while the economy was roaring again. New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt, whose war heroics remained fresh in the […]

The 1945 St. Louis Cardinals, winners of three consecutive wartime National League pennants and World Series champions in 1942 and 1944, were counting on strong pitching to overcome the loss of key members of their offense to the military draft. Twenty-three-year-old All-Star outfielder Stan Musial, who had led the NL in hits in 1944, spent […]

After Dave Stewart’s masterful mound performance, leading the A’s to a dominant 5-0 win while limiting the Giants to just five hits, Oakland was clearly focused on winning the 1989 World Series. Manager Tony La Russa was pleased with his team, saying, “They’re going about it professionally. But it’s not time to back off.”1 La […]

The Montreal Expos hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates for a two-game midweek series that completed Montreal’s next to last homestand of the season. The 73-71 Expos were third in the National League East Division, 13½ games behind the division-leading New York Mets. Montreal had clobbered the St. Louis Cardinals in their preceding two games, 14-2 and […]

The Chicago Cubs and their fans were flying high on the first Wednesday in October 1984 as “Work came to a standstill, crime came to a halt and joy was the most abundant emotion in town.”1 The Cubs crushed the San Diego Padres 13-0 in the opening game of the National League Championship Series. The […]

The Arkansas Hummingbird, Lon Warneke, had come oh-so-close before. Four times in his 12-year career he had tossed one-hitters, some of which were suspenseful, others not so. In the midst of winning at least 20 games three times in a four-year stretch (1932-35) as a member of the Chicago Cubs, Warneke held the Cincinnati Reds […]

Jim Bouton’s Ball Four is full of cutting personal commentary on players, coaches, managers and front-office staff. One of the most memorable and damning criticisms is credited to Bouton’s roommate, pitcher Gary Bell: “Carl Yastrzemski is for himself first and second and the hell with everybody else.”1 While Bouton depicted the longtime Red Sox star […]

The Cleveland Indians carried a 2-1 series advantage heading into the 1997 American League Championship Series Game Four against the Baltimore Orioles on a warm breezy Sunday night in downtown Cleveland. The Indians were flying high after the previous night’s contest when a missed suicide-squeeze attempt and passed ball led to Marquis Grissom scoring the […]

During the 1942 baseball season, many of the articles about the Kansas City Monarchs were written by Sam McKibben, the Kansas City Call’s sports editor. McKibben not only covered sports but was sometimes also asked to cover a breaking news story. And for the Black press, one of the biggest stories in early 1942 was […]

Even before he turned 18, Bill Lamar’s name was mentioned in discussions of major-league baseball in the Washington Post. He was local to the area, born and raised in Rockville, Maryland, on March 21, 1897, and he was an accomplished high school athlete. He was under agreement to the Nationals’ Clark Griffith, who took him […]

In his interview with Lawrence Ritter for Ritter’s classic book The Glory of Their Times, Davy Jones described the kaleidoscope of players who enlivened the Deadball Era. “Baseball attracted all sorts of people in those days,” he explained. “We had stupid guys, smart guys, tough guys, mild guys, crazy guys, college men, slickers from the […]

Without his unforgettable name, Eppa Rixey might be one of the more forgotten members of the Hall of Fame. His 266-251 won-lost record doesn’t stand out, yet his win total stood as the National League record for left-handers until Warren Spahn surpassed it in 1959. Rixey greeted the moment with characteristic humor, saying he was […]

Euthumn Napier remembered a bus ride north on April 15, 1947, on which he joined his Homestead Grays teammates in whiling away the hours by talking about the biggest baseball news of the day. Jackie Robinson had started at first base that day for the Brooklyn Dodgers, breaking the modern color barrier. “We were all […]

Ask any professional sports aficionado in the Dallas-Fort Worth area about the most likely broadcaster to work the initial season of Texas Rangers baseball in the inaugural 1972 season, and at least 80 percent (conservatively) would reply Bill Mercer. William A. “Bill” Mercer was born in February 1926 in Muskogee, Oklahoma, on February 13, 1926, […]

Aerial photo of Maryland Park taken by the Maryland Port Administration, circa 1927. Photo discovered by Professor Bernard McKenna, courtesy of Johns Hopkins University.   Prior to 1921 the Baltimore Black Sox were an independent team playing most of their home games at such places as Oriole Park (also known as Terrapin Park) and Westport […]