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St. Louis third baseman Tommy Glaviano was having a solid start to the 1950 baseball season. Slotted in as the Cardinals’ leadoff hitter, he was hitting .342 with an on-base percentage of .464. He’d made four errors in his 20 games at the hot corner, but no one could have foreseen the disastrous defensive inning […]

What follows is a narrative on the greatest comeback in baseball history.1  Since they began in the American League in 1901, the Washington Senators as of 1922 had finished fourth or better just six times. In 1915 and 1921 they were fourth, in 1914 and 1918 they were third, and in 1912 and 1913 they […]

The ability of the New York Yankees to come from behind has long been part of baseball lore. Starting with the great 1927 team, the Yankees were associated with the slogan “Five O’Clock Lightning,” for their many late rallies leading to comeback wins.1 Of the many such wins in their storied history, August 20, 1947, […]

Those fans among the 20,413 at the Angels-Blue Jays game on April 15, 1994, who left after the seventh inning must have been shocked when they eventually heard the final score. Through seven innings, California led Toronto, 6-3, in what could be describe as a typical major-league game, but over the next two innings the […]

The Tigers limped into Cleveland as a battered and bruised ballclub. They had recently learned that first baseman Lu Blue, who had a broken rib, and third baseman Bobby Jones, who had a broken finger, would join their long list of walking wounded. The Tigers’ injury list was growing so long that Harry Bullion wrote […]

After the New York Yankees swept the St. Louis Cardinals to win the 1928 World Series, their two biggest drawing cards – Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig – took a barnstorming tour throughout the East and Midwest over the last 20 days of October. As the schedule between the Bustin’ Babes and Larrupin’ Lous wound […]

The courses of the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Beaneaters had diverged by the time Boston arrived in Philadelphia for a three-game series on Monday, August 26, 1889. A week before, Boston had stretched its lead in the National League pennant chase with three victories over the second-place New York Giants, while the Phillies continued to […]

“It was not a contest to contribute to the peace of mind and self-approval of pitchers.”1 In a game featuring an absence of pitching talent by the home team in the ninth inning, the New York Giants came from behind, scoring nine runs on 11 hits, nine of them in a row, in their last […]

“Jays Turn Victory into Defeat” read the headline in the Ottawa Citizen the morning after the Baltimore Orioles beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 9-7, in a Sunday afternoon game at Toronto’s SkyDome.1 The home-team Blue Jays were three outs away from a 7-2 victory over the visiting Orioles when a terrible finish erased their terrific […]

Sometimes even a 10-run lead isn’t enough. This was especially true in May 2004 when the Detroit Tigers, whose pitchers had the second-worst team ERA (4.93), traveled to Texas to face the Rangers, fourth in the American League in runs scored (5.31 runs per game). The Rangers’ starting pitcher was future Cy Young Award winner […]

With Judd Boyce Doyle—known as Slow Joe Doyle—on the mound for the New York Highlanders, perhaps it’s no wonder that this game against the visiting Boston Americans dragged on and on for more than two full hours (!) before it was called due to rain at the end of 10 innings, with neither club victorious. […]

In front of the largest home crowd of the season so far at renovated Wrigley Field, the Chicago Cubs lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-0, on Thursday afternoon, June 25, 2015, before departing to St. Louis for a series against the Cardinals. In addition to the 41,498 fans seated in the friendly confines, additional […]

On the last day of July 2009, the Baltimore Orioles were at home hosting the Boston Red Sox. The Orioles no longer appeared to be a contender in the campaign for the American League East title; they were 17½ games behind the division-leading New York Yankees. The Red Sox, however, were in second place, just […]

The Houston Astros had had a rather tumultuous last few years as they prepared to play the Toronto Blue Jays on August 2, 2014. In 2011 Jim Crane attempted to become the owner of the club. The approval process was delayed after allegations of discriminatory hiring practices in his air freight business were raised. In […]

Just as the major leagues have big-market and small-market teams, so too do the minor leagues. In the Class-A Midwest League, it would be difficult to find two representatives more different than the Dayton Dragons and the Clinton LumberKings. Clinton, Iowa, joined the league in 1954 as an expansion team, when the circuit was still […]

The Seattle Mariners, with a record of 43-46, had lost three in a row, including two against Anaheim each of the preceding evenings in their series. But in a tight AL West Division, playoff hopes were not dead for the new Seattle skipper, Eric Wedge, and his team. The best embodiment of this was their […]

A sunny Friday afternoon in July is a perfect day for a baseball game. When the venue is Chicago’s Wrigley Field and the opposing teams are the crosstown rivals Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox, the setting is all the more idyllic. Throw in a pitching matchup of two young stars and it’s easy to […]

Sunday, June 22, 1997, saw the rubber match in the series between the Louisville Redbirds, the Triple-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Iowa Cubs, the top Chicago Cubs farm team. The home team had stopped a six-game skid with a 12-3 victory the previous day, after the visitors had won the opener […]

The San Diego Padres hosted the Cincinnati Reds in a National League West Division game two weeks before the 1993 All-Star break. Neither team was making a move in the standings. The sixth-place Padres (28-44) had returned to Jack Murphy Stadium for a four-game series against the Reds following a 3-6 road trip. They lost […]

The New York Mets arrived in St. Louis with a 35-37 record. They also brought their clubhouse turmoil with them. Bobby Bonilla had been accused of calling the press box to speak with the Mets public-relations director. He wanted to complain about the official scorer’s ruling of a Greg Maddux double. Bonilla misplayed the ball […]

What a difference a year makes. In 1979 the California Angels were flying high, winning the AL West Division with an 88-74 record. The Oakland A’s had finished last in the AL West at 54-108. Notwithstanding the records, in spring training Billy Martin declared that his A’s would beat the Angels and win the division. […]

The Sunday-afternoon game on July 14 was the final game of the unofficial first half the season. The homestanding A’s entered the game in second place with a 45-41 record, six games behind the AL West-leading California Angels. The visiting Milwaukee Brewers, losers of nine of their last 11, were 37-46 and trapped in sixth […]

The Milwaukee Brewers were 44-39 midway through July 1983, not matching their pace of the previous year when they won the American League pennant. Not only that, in in a loaded American League East Division in 1983, they were buried in fifth place. Their opponents for a Saturday night game at County Stadium on July […]

This game may be remembered most for the miserable weather in which it was played. In his report for the Boston Globe, Peter Gammons wrote that the setting resembled “a Cambodian rice paddy in rainy season.”1 It took 4 hours and 10 minutes of elapsed time due in large part to rain delays of 33 […]