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In 1915 veteran center fielder Tris Speaker and rookie pitcher Babe Ruth joined forces to help the Boston Red Sox win the World Series. After that season’s success, Red Sox President J.J. Lannin wanted to cut Speaker’s salary from $18,000 a year to $9,000 because Speaker’s batting average had declined for three seasons in a […]

The Boston Red Sox held a one-game lead over the New York Yankees for first place in the American League East Division, but it was only 28 games into the season. Both teams were getting over disappointments from the year before. The Yankees had denied the Red Sox the pennant in a seven-game AL Championship […]

Ferguson Jenkins was not intimidated by many major-league hitters. Jenkins, the reigning National League Cy Young Award winner, respected every man who came to bat, but as one of the best pitchers in baseball in the early 1970s, he was confident in his ability to get outs. Still, there were a couple of players the […]

It was another long season for the St. Louis Browns. The club brought in a new skipper in 1938, Gabby Street, who had guided the Cardinals to two pennants and a World Series title earlier in the decade, but “Old Sarge” could do little to alter the fortunes of a cash-strapped ballclub. En route to […]

Roberto Clemente made five hits and drove home four runs on the same day that he criticized “a few” Pittsburgh Pirates for not hustling on the field. “They know who they are,” Clemente said.1 The Pirates were muddling along with a 72-74 won-lost mark, stuck in seventh place. During an interview with a San Juan, […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates went 21-12 in August and upped their record to 70-61 as September arrived. They still trailed the first-place Milwaukee Braves by 7½ games. Their record for the first week of September was 5-3. Despite beating the Braves three times in their four-game series the previous weekend, the second-place Pirates closed the gap […]

The weather at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia was cold and miserable with 40-mph winds for the Pirates-Phillies game on April 24, 1955. Unfortunately for the Pirates, the 1955 season had so far matched the weather. It was marred by rainouts and eight consecutive losses to start the season and the 14th consecutive loss going […]

When one thinks of baseball’s hardest-throwing starting pitchers in the 1960s, several names immediately come to mind: Bob Gibson, Sam McDowell, Sandy Koufax, and Don Drysdale. Often overlooked is Bob Veale, the Pittsburgh Pirates southpaw who burst on the scene as a 28-year-old in 1964 to lead the National League with 250 strikeouts and then […]

Part of the beauty of baseball is just how unpredictable the national pastime really is. No matter what the standings show, or what the prospects for a particular team are, on any given day at the ballpark, there is a chance that you might see something you’ve never seen before. That was certainly the case […]

As their 1954 season staggered toward its conclusion, the Philadelphia Athletics would host the New York Yankees in the home finale at Connie Mack Stadium. The game, however, was bereft of suspense for either team. For the Yankees, winners of the previous five World Series, their dethroning by the Cleveland Indians was complete. The day […]

The 1950 season was Connie Mack’s 50th year as manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, and before the game against the Boston Red Sox at Shibe Park on Saturday April 22, Mack was honored during a ceremony at home plate. Much later – 3 hours and 44 minutes later, to be exact – pinch-hitter Paul Lehner […]

On a rainy Wednesday afternoon, the Minnesota Twins were at the Oakland Coliseum to play the second of a two-game series against the Oakland Athletics. Twins manager Tom Kelly had penciled in Kevin Tapani as his team’s starter, while A’s manager Tony La Russa picked Ron Darling. Darling was struggling, going winless in eight starts.1 […]

The summer of 1980 was undoubtedly the high-water mark in the brief history of the Double-A Eastern League’s Holyoke Millers franchise. Affiliated with the Milwaukee Brewers, the organization moved from Pittsfield’s Wahconah Park in 1977 because of drainage issues that temporarily condemned the historic ballpark.1 During the six years the team was based in Holyoke, […]

The 1949 Philadelphia Phillies were in the middle of a youth movement under manager Eddie Sawyer, with uncertain results. The even-keel Sawyer had taken over the reins the previous July from the volatile Ben Chapman and, playing youngsters like Richie Ashburn, Del Ennis, Granny Hamner, Putsy Caballero, Johnny Blatnik, Curt Simmons, and Robin Roberts, had […]

The Saturday matinee was a matchup between the first-place Detroit Tigers, who entered play with a three-game lead over the Washington Senators in a tightly contested American League pennant race, and the homestanding Philadelphia Athletics, who were mired in last place, 17½ games behind the Tigers.1 The 4,526 fans in attendance at Shibe Park that […]

Philadelphia’s Shibe Park, opened in 1909, ushered in the modern era of ballpark construction with the first steel-and-concrete stadium in major-league baseball. It was fitting that the elegant ballpark with a French Renaissance-style façade would host the first night game in the American League, on May 16, 1939. The first night game in the majors […]

“[I]t certainly was a fine day for the Dodgers’ No. 1 farmhand from the Texas League: Ralph Mauriello.” — Chicago Tribune1   It was one of those late-in-the-season games that meant little in the standings. The Dodgers, in their first year in Los Angeles, had had a disappointing season. They brought a 67-79 record into […]

Something had to give as the league-leading Philadelphia Athletics and their ace, Lefty Grove, took on undefeated hurler George Uhle and the Detroit Tigers. The streaking Athletics had won five games in a row and 16 of 17, to open up a 5½-game lead atop the American League standings, with a 30-9 record. Grove was […]

With an eye toward returning to the top of the baseball world, the 1983 Philadelphia Phillies united three key players from the 1976 World Series champion Cincinnati Reds to boost their roster. Joe Morgan, 39 years old, was acquired from the San Francisco Giants to play second base and 40-year-old Tony Pérez, who had spent […]

Starters for the next-to-last game of the 2004 season were Pedro Astacio for the Boston Red Sox and Sidney Ponson for the Baltimore Orioles. The outcome wasn’t going to affect either team’s place in the American League East standings. The Red Sox began the day 3½ games behind the first-place New York Yankees, with two […]

Heading into the 1911 season, the Philadelphia Athletics were a near unanimous choice to capture their second straight American League pennant and fourth in 11 years despite boasting one of the youngest lineups in the circuit. Their average age was a hair younger than 27 with a core that featured 20-year-old Stuffy McInnis at first […]

After Philadelphia defeated the Chicago Cubs 4-1 in Game One of the 1910 World Series behind the three-hit pitching of Chief Bender and bat of Frank “Home Run” Baker, Athletics founder and manager Connie Mack gave the ball to staff ace Jack Coombs. After four pedestrian years in which the Iowa-born right-hander went 35-35 with […]

Johnny Gray, a 6-foot-4, 220-pound right-hander, pitched without much success for four major-league teams between 1954 and 1958. His finest hour came July 30, 1957;1 in his first game with the Cleveland Indians and his first major-league appearance in nearly two years, Gray blanked the Baltimore Orioles on three hits, winning 6-0. Gray had joined […]

During a homestand in late April 2013, Boston Red Sox pitchers started striking out a lot of the opposition. It began when the Red Sox lost both games of a doubleheader to the Kansas City Royals at Fenway Park on April 21. Boston’s seven-game winning streak was snapped, but Red Sox pitchers had struck out […]