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The Pittsburgh Rebels made it three in a row over the pennant-contending Indianapolis Hoosiers before a crowd of 1,700 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh on July 24, 1914. The Hoosiers were in the midst of a tight Federal League pennant race with Chicago, Baltimore, and Brooklyn. The win allowed the lowly Rebels to escape the […]

Midway through the 1927 baseball campaign, it appeared as if fans read only about the American League in the newspapers. Specifically, did the Yankees win yesterday? Did Ruth or Gehrig hit another home run? New York’s Murderers’ Row was a lock to grab the pennant. The Bronx Bombers had a winning percentage of .702 by […]

St. Louis Terriers manager Fielder Jones was known for his disagreements with umpires. “As the (player) manager of the (Chicago) White Sox, (Jones) had regularly battled umpires,” his SABR biographer wrote. “Writers commented about Jones racing in from center field so often that a path was worn in the grass. Few managers or umpires knew […]

On a mid-August Sunday afternoon, the Baltimore Terrapins arrived at Weeghman Park (the future Wrigley Field) to take on the Chicago Chi-Feds in the first of a four-game series. Ten days earlier, Baltimore had finished a 13-game homestand by beating the Chi-Feds two out of three to join Chicago atop the Federal League standings. However, […]

Ted Williams must have enjoyed his July and August 1939 visits to Cleveland. In a period of 45 days, he hit three game-winning home runs in Cleveland ballparks. On July 15, at Cleveland Stadium, he hit a solo home run off Johnny Broaca in the top of the eighth inning, breaking a 5-5 tie and […]

Largely overlooked today, George Van Haltren was a speedy center fielder who batted .316 on 2,544 hits during his 17-year big-league career. Described by historian Bill Lamb as “late 19th-century baseball’s premier leadoff man,” Van Haltren averaged almost a run scored per game during his prime as a five-tool player.1 But his reputation as a […]

Ted Williams was becoming known as someone it might be better to walk than to let hit. He was enjoying a spectacular 1941 season, one that most dedicated fans know resulted in the last time a major-league player hit over .400 in a full season. After a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Athletics on August 31, […]

The August 28-30 four-game showdown between the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians had been much anticipated for weeks. The peculiarities of the scheduling had kept the two American League contenders apart since July 10.1 On that date, the Indians finished play with a two-game lead over the second-place Go-Go Sox. The White Sox arrived […]

In 1959, it had been 40 years since the Chicago White Sox had won the American League pennant. However, the White Sox were steadily climbing in the final standings, from eighth place in 1948, to sixth in 1949 and 1950, to fourth in 1951, to third from 1952 to 1956, and finally to second in […]

No one in baseball had a better view of Don Baylor’s 1982 season than Reggie Jackson, who usually followed Baylor in the California Angels batting order. And what he saw were a couple of different Baylor. “He can get with it in the clutch,” Jackson said. “Like Paul Newman in Cool Hand Luke: ‘He gets […]

The first National League Division Series in major-league history got underway in Denver on October 3, 1995. Unlike the Conference Series and the World Series, the NLDS was a five-game series.1 The Rockies, in just their third year of existence, were hosting the Braves. Colorado had played hard to the end of the season, finishing […]

On a warm Sunday August evening,1 the hot first-place Atlanta Braves (66-39) were visiting the last-place St. Louis Cardinals (42-63)2 in the final game of a three-game series that pitted two close friends as mound opponents. The strike-delayed start to the 1995 season meant that each team had played only 105 games to this point […]

American Independence Day, July 4, roughly marking the middle of the baseball season, is also significant in the venerable history of the Boston-Milwaukee-Atlanta Braves franchise. On July 4, 1914, the Boston Braves lost both ends of a home doubleheader to the Brooklyn Robins to further embed themselves in the National League cellar with a 26-40 […]

This game’s win was secured by Ted Williams’s first game-winning home run off a future Hall of Famer. On May 30, the 20-year-old rookie right fielder had hit a first-inning homer off Red Ruffing — his first off a Yankees pitcher and first off a future Hall of Famer — but it had been Jimmie […]

It had already been an interesting weekend of baseball in Cleveland for the visiting Boston Red Sox. After opening the 1992 season with two weekday losses in Yankee Stadium, the Red Sox came to Cleveland to play the Indians’ home opener on Saturday afternoon, April 11, and a doubleheader on Sunday, before returning to Boston […]

Babe Ruth was released by the New York Yankees at the end of the 1934 season. He still wanted to get hired as a manager and so he signed with the Boston Braves. His job titles were vice-president, assistant manager, and left fielder. Ruth hoped that he would be named manager if the Braves skipper […]

With two months left in the 1920 season, the New York Yankees and the Chicago White Sox were both in the thick of the American League pennant race. The Yankees began the day in second place, 1½ games behind the front-running Cleveland Indians. The defending AL champion White Sox lurked in third place, 5½ games […]

In 1987 Candido “Candy” Maldonado was in his second season with the Giants. After five years with the Dodgers, Maldonado had been traded to rival San Francisco after the 1985 season (for catcher Alex Trevino). Maldonado quickly became the everyday right fielder for the Giants. In 1987 he had arguably his best year in the […]

It came on a full count. A fastball a little bit up in the zone, right in his wheelhouse. From the instant it left the bat there was no doubt that it was bound for the right-field stands. The only question was whether it would end up in the bleachers or in the upper deck. […]

When the 1922 season began on April 12, the New York Yankees were without the star and face of the franchise Babe Ruth and slugger Bob Meusel, both of whom were suspended for six weeks after brazenly defying Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis’s order not to barnstorm after the 1921 World Series.1 Landis had told Ruth […]

In mid-September of 1894, the New York Giants were 3½ games behind the Baltimore Orioles, leaders of the National League. Despite losing only two of its next 12 games (nine wins and a tie), New York did not gain any ground in the standings. So, with only three games left to play (starting on September […]

On July 17, 1989, the New York Yankees and Chicago White Sox opened a scheduled three-game series at Comiskey Park.1 The Yankees entered the game with a 46-45 record, six games behind the AL East-leading Baltimore Orioles. The White Sox had won four straight but were 36-56, buried deep in the AL West Division cellar, […]

Coming out of the 1951 All-Star break the White Sox were in first, percentage points ahead of the Boston Red Sox. This was heady stuff for a team that had not held the lead this late in the season since 1920 when the soon-to-be-labeled Black Sox were in a three-way race for the pennant. That […]

The baseball world changed in 1947. This statement cannot be disputed. But changes almost always allow the Law of Unintended Consequences to be activated as well. The addition of Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League, and later Larry Doby to the Cleveland Indians of the American League, would start the demise […]