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“Casey Stengel and the Yankees felt a new season was beginning as they met the raging Red Sox in the opener of a three-game series here this evening.”1 What made the 66th game of the 1949 season feel like Opening Day was the return of Joe DiMaggio, who had been sidelined since spring training by […]

With the 1983 World Series knotted after two games, Philadelphia played host for Game Three. Both teams were concerned about their offense as the key hitter in each lineup was in a slump. Eddie Murray of the Orioles had been hitless since his single in the first inning of Game One. More importantly, he failed […]

On the morning of Saturday, September 20, 1952, the St. Louis Cardinals had only the slimmest of mathematical chances to win the National League pennant. Since July 1, the closest the Cardinals had been to first place was on September 9, when they were within 6½ games of the league-leading Brooklyn Dodgers. When play closed […]

It was a “boiling” hot Saturday afternoon in Yankee Stadium, according to Yankees radio play-by-play announcer John Sterling,1 with a game-time temperature of 95 degrees. Little did the 41,682 fans know that two young prospects, Tyler Austin and Aaron Judge, would make their Yankees debut in spectacular fashion that day. New York entered the game at a disappointing 59-56 […]

Chicago’s Wrigley Field had already played host to a visiting team scoring at least one run in every inning of a nine-inning game against the Chicago Cubs. The date was September 13, 1964. The St. Louis Cardinals pounded out 18 hits in a lopsided 15-2 victory. The Cubs aided and abetted the Redbirds that afternoon; […]

In the crucial third contest of the 2003 National League Championship Series, the Chicago Cubs and the Florida Marlins staged an incredible seesaw battle that was a textbook example of the beauty that is postseason baseball. It was a scintillating display of grit by both clubs waiting for the other guy to give an inch. […]

“Opening Day at Fenway arrives like a secular rite of spring. Never mind that a February chill lingers in the air. When the players doff their caps for the national anthem a few minutes after 2 this afternoon, patient souls in Red Sox Nation will be thankful that a long penitential off-season is finally over, […]

It had been 10 seasons since a Baltimore player hit for the cycle. An announced crowd of 20,151 came to Camden Yards to watch the New York Yankees take on the Orioles in an August night game. Baltimore’s shortstop and leadoff batter, Jonathan Villar, collected the four hits (single, double, triple, and home run) needed […]

Who needs Casey? Cubs fans will forever more repeat the tale of “Lester at the Bat.” In its century of hosting Chicago Cubs games, Wrigley Field has seen some unorthodox tilts. In 1917, Cubs pitcher Hippo Vaughn no-hit the Cincinnati Reds for nine innings only to lose the game in the 10th. Sixty-two years later, […]

The Chicago Cubs’ 29-year-old right-handed ace Jake Arrieta was on a roll of historic proportions. “It’s just incredible what he’s done in the second half. He’s Bob Gibson-esque,” said skipper Joe Maddon, making a bold comparison to the former St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Famer.1 Madden was not entirely correct in his assessment – Arrieta […]

The baseball gods were smiling down on the Cubs (31-31) when the Cleveland Indians (29-39) came to town on June 19, 2009. For the second straight afternoon, the Cubs scored four runs in the eighth inning and one in the ninth. In the first comeback, the Cubs beat their crosstown rivals, the White Sox. Although […]

The 39,170 spectators who packed Wrigley Field on September 12, 1998, weren’t so much interested in the visiting Milwaukee Brewers (70-78 and 25 games behind the Central Division-leading Houston Astros. Their focus was on the Cubs, who with an 82-66 record were tied with the New York Mets in the National League wild-card race and […]

Only two months had passed since outfielder Lee Walls was traded from Pittsburgh to Chicago,1 and he had not yet become a household name in the Windy City as July 1957 began. On July 2 Walls moved up some in Cubs fans’ eyes as he tried to singlehandedly lead his Chicago teammates to a victory […]

Poor Charlie Root. Here’s a guy who had a very respectable 17-year career, almost all with the Chicago Cubs, in which he won 201 games, lost 160 and had a respectable 3.59 ERA. Yet for all that, he is best known for giving up Babe Ruth’s “Called Shot” in the 1932 World Series, when the […]

Every team has comebacks. Miraculous rallies from seemingly insurmountable deficits litter the historical landscape in every major sport. Whether a club ultimately needs that special comeback on their way to a championship, or merely uses it as a springboard for success later in the season, it’s often remembered in team lore as a landmark victory.  […]

After they swept the Cincinnati Reds in a two-game, mid-July series in Los Angeles, the first-place and eventual 1965 world champion Dodgers’ season turned to the Dog Days of August in hot and humid Cincinnati versus the third-place Reds. The Ohio Rhinelanders were reeling, having begun the month losing five of seven home games including […]

Tampa Bay Rays third baseman Evan Longoria became the first major-league ballplayer to hit for the cycle after an official review reversed a call, turning an inning-ending third out into a double. The 2017 season was the fourth since the beginning of the use of reviews. The Rays (third place in the American League East […]

The Cincinnati Reds and Los Angeles Dodgers concluded a critical August four-game series with a scorcher. Playing on a Monday night before a crowd of 26,852, the Reds and Dodgers endured “the 93-degree heat which had simmered down from an even 100 at 3 p.m.”1 Frank Robinson’s 10th-inning walk-off grand slam was the shattering and […]

On Saturday, August 18, 1956, the Cincinnati Redlegs and Milwaukee Braves combined to hit 10 home runs, tying a major-league record (at the time) as the Redlegs came away with a 13-4 victory at Crosley Field in front of a crowd of 30,244, fans, including 8,772 ladies night guests. It was an early-arriving crowd; the […]

“How many home runs did Babe Ruth make today?” This question was asked by a subscriber over the telephone last night. “One” was the reply. “Good” came back over the wire almost before the answer had been given. — John J. Hallahan, Boston Globe1   By the summer of 1919, at the precocious age of […]

Franchise moves were the talk of New York City in 1957 with both the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants being wooed by West Coast interests. On May 28 the National League owners voted unanimously to allow both the Giants and Dodgers to move to the West Coast but with the stipulation that both teams […]

The World Series headed into a seventh game for the third year in a row. Brooklyn’s come-from-behind victory in the sixth game gave Dodgers fans hope that this might be their year. The team had never won the championship in three previous appearances. The last time they appeared in the postseason classic, the Dodgers lost […]

Entering a summer when the boxing world famously crowned a new heavyweight champion,1 baseball’s powerhouse teams met on May 14, 1919, at Comiskey Park in Chicago for an early-season clash between the game’s two most recent champions. The Boston Red Sox, led by their young hitting and pitching star Babe Ruth, came to town with […]

Thomas Edward O’Meara was known throughout his short tumultuous life as “Eddie,” a diminutive of his middle name. The younger brother of an Illinois state senator, he was already catching at the age of 16 for the Rivals club in the 1889 Chicago City League, one of the strongest amateur circuits in the Midwest. Born […]