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By 1917 the New York American League franchise, first called the Highlanders and then the Yankees, had been around for 15 years. In that time, despite featuring some of the great pitchers of the era like Jack Chesbro, Ray Caldwell, Hippo Vaughn, and Al Orth, no Yankee had twirled a no-hitter. The honor of throwing […]

In late August 1921, John McGraw’s New York Giants were 7½ games behind the first-place Pittsburgh Pirates. Pittsburgh owner Barney Dreyfuss was so confident of winning the pennant that he was adding bleacher and grandstand seats for anticipated World Series games at Forbes Field.1 But the Giants swept the Pirates in a doubleheader at the […]

The feeling one gets approaching a major-league ballpark on the second day of the baseball season is akin to staring at a Christmas tree in January – a little melancholy and a sense that time has passed you by. Sure, the Opening Day bunting still hangs from the second deck, but its corners seem a […]

The Red Sox and Athletics squared off for the second game of this Sunday’s doubleheader after the Red Sox won the first game, 10-7. This game was even more quickly played than the first game’s 2 hours and 1 minute – “so snappily played” was the second game that it took just an hour and […]

The end of World War I was less than three years in the past and still fresh in the minds of the patriotic Detroiters who came in force on this Memorial Day to honor and celebrate their fallen heroes. In spite of its being a hot day, a near-capacity crowd of 20,0001 Tigers faithful treated […]

Rain in the San Francisco Bay Area on the evening of April 9, 1971, limited the Oakland A’s and Kansas City Royals to only 5½ innings of baseball. But they packed plenty of action into that limited time, giving the sparse crowd at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum an eventful game. Some onlookers speculated that Oakland’s talented […]

The 1939 Boston Red Sox fell from first place to second on their May 10 offday, when the New York Yankees won in St. Louis and advanced from second place to first, overturning a half-game deficit in the American League standings. Four months later, on September 10, the Red Sox’ demotion in the standings had […]

Shooting for .400, Ted Williams didn’t manage a single in the Boston Red Sox’ September 1 doubleheader with the Washington Senators, nor a two-base hit. He didn’t hit a triple, either, but he improved his batting average by three points, from .407 to .410. He did hit three home runs — two in the first […]

“I haven’t been swinging the bat real good,” admitted former home-run champ Ben Oglivie after breaking out of a 1-for-17 slump and just one homer in his last 41 at-bats by whacking three round-trippers. “I’ve been getting a lot of changeups. I give a lot of credit to my teammates for helping me make some […]

The early-season Tuesday evening game was the first of a three-game series between the Atlanta Braves and the homestanding New York Mets.1 Tied for second with the Montreal Expos, the Braves were coming off a rare four-game sweep at the hands of the Philadelphia Phillies in Atlanta. They entered the Mets game with a record […]

The Boston Red Sox hadn’t won a pennant for 28 years, not since 1918. They’d suffered through the doldrums of the 1920s, when they hardly ever edged out of last place. They’d started to show some real promise just before World War II, finishing in second place in 1938, 1939, and 1941, and then again […]

After foundering with fastballs and curveballs for the Boston Red Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates in the first half of the 1960s, Wilbur Wood transformed himself into a quality knuckleballing reliever for the Chicago White Sox from 1967 to 1970. He then improbably metamorphosed into one of the top pitchers in baseball as an innings-eating workhorse […]

On September 1, 2019, the Houston Astros were on a roll, 9½ games ahead in the American League West Division, one game behind the New York Yankees for the best record in the major leagues and looking for their 89th win of the season. They turned to one of their aces, Justin Verlander, to get […]

On a warm August Monday night in Chicago, the sports news centered on baseball at Comiskey Park, where the White Sox would be playing their first night game at home. Afterward, the Chicago Tribune described the event: “In the inaugural of night major league baseball in Chicago more than 30,000 watched John D. Rigney of […]

The Chicago White Sox were in unusual territory. Not since the days of Hall of Fame player-manager Eddie Collins had the Pale Hose sported at least a .500 record on the last day of August; however, Jimmy Dykes, in his first full season as player-manager, had the fifth-place White Sox (61-60) in position for their […]

Opening Day is always a celebration, especially when it’s your first one. Day two is usually just another day. For fans of the new team in town, though, excitement levels were still high, especially after they won their first game. The dignitaries had moved on, but there were still 161 games to be played, and […]

Although Mets fans did not have much to celebrate in 1980, they sliced their prism of misery on June 22: Claudell Washington banged three home runs and notched five RBIs against the Los Angeles Dodgers in a 9-6 victory at Dodger Stadium.1 Washington had come to the Mets two weeks before in a trade with […]

For Atlanta Braves ace Greg Maddux, his long-awaited World Series debut was a chance to shake off a reputation of playoff futility for himself and his team. For the Cleveland Indians, it was a chance to shake off the rust from a 41-year postseason drought. For major-league baseball, it was a welcome respite from the […]

As the 1951 National League season entered its final weekend, the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers were tied for first place. That the Giants and Dodgers were tied was amazing, since the Giants trailed the Dodgers by 13½ games on August 11. The Dodgers had fallen into a tie by losing to the Philadelphia […]

Desperately needing a win, the Orioles entered Memorial Stadium in downtown Baltimore for Game Two of the 1983 World Series. They had lost Game One the previous day and were aware that no team had recovered to win the Series after losing the first two games at home. The Orioles’ Mike Boddicker had fashioned a […]

The Cleveland Indians hosted the Cincinnati Reds on the afternoon of July 10, 1999, before a packed house of 43,127 fans at Jacobs Field for the second of three mid-July games in the annual Battle of Ohio. The Indians were the best team in baseball at 55-30. Even though they had won only half of […]

The sort of biographical information which would help us better document the lives of former ballplayers is subject to the same vagaries that affect us at times in our lives. In 1974, two of SABR’s founding members were in contact with Bill Swanson’s daughter Doris Montalto of Jamaica, New York. Joe Simenic of the Cleveland […]

At the tender age of 20 he was playing in the major leagues. At 24 he helped the Cincinnati Red Stockings win their first pennant. Harry Wheeler appeared to be a happy-go-lucky, free-spirited young man. He was said to be one of the best harmonica players in the country and enjoyed joining his colleagues in […]

Pedro Cepeda, better known as Perucho, was the first player considered a superstar in Puerto Rican professional baseball. He began playing baseball when there was no formal professional baseball league on the island. About 5-feet-11-inches tall, he could play in various positions, both in the infield and the outfield, and was a consistent hitter who […]