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The Detroit Tigers, who didn’t arrive home from Texas until 4 AM., were off to a red-hot 16-1 start. The Bengals’ start had Detroiters wondering if the team was really that good or if its early-season opponents were that bad. The Cleveland Indians were off to a somewhat surprising start themselves. The second-place Tribe came […]

As the New York Giants made the trek across the Hudson River to play the Brooklyn Dodgers in Jersey City, there was considerable speculation as to the future of the two franchises. On May 28, 1957, the National League owners gave unanimous approval for both the Giants and Dodgers to move to the West Coast […]

San Francisco Giants first baseman Will Clark had compiled his best season to date when the Giants won the 1989 National League West Division. In only his fourth major-league season, Clark and teammate Kevin Mitchell formed a formidable offensive threat that was being compared to some of the best Giants slugging duos of all time.1 […]

The Washington Nationals (41-38) had been leading the NL East division at the end of May, but an 8-15 record in June so far had moved them back to the third position, four games behind Atlanta, two games behind the Philadelphia Phillies (43-36). Nick Pivetta (4-6, 4.06 ERA) took the mound for the Phillies. He […]

The 1991 Atlanta Braves (94-68) were the surprise of the National League, putting to rest a dreadful six-year stretch of losing at least 89 games each season. Fighting their way back from a 9½-game deficit to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the All-Star break, the Braves clinched the West Division crown on the next-to-last day of […]

A respectable crowd1 passed through the turnstiles at the Polo Grounds for a Monday afternoon matchup between the top two teams in the National League, the New York Giants and the Chicago Cubs. Included in the audience were sailors from the German Navy,2 whose ships were docked in the Hudson River. Chicago (24-18) came into […]

Yes, it was early in the season but the Washington Nationals were not in a good place coming into this Monday night game. At 4-5 with a five-game losing streak, they were third in the NL East, 3½ games behind the division-leading New York Mets. This was the first time in three years that they’d […]

Tim Raines had put away his razor. He was riding an 11-game hit streak heading into the May 7 matchup with the Phillies, and he vowed to let the whiskers grow for as long as the streak continued.1 The 26-year-old Raines, already considered one of the best leadoff hitters of all time, was focused on […]

Two months into the 1928 season, the National League had a tight race for the top spot. While the Cincinnati Reds held first place (28-16),1 four other teams were within striking distance. The third-place New York Giants (21-15) traveled to Brooklyn to take on the fourth-place Robins (22-17) at Ebbets Field. A week earlier, the […]

The play is known as “The Slide” and it served two functions. The first was immediate; it allowed the Atlanta Braves to beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 3-2 in Game Seven of the 1992 National League Championship Series and advance to the World Series. The second ushered in an era of futility for the Pirates that […]

There are many things that can be said about this game. “The fans didn’t get their money’s worth” is not one of them. Any stalwart fan among the 21,742 in attendance at Olympic Stadium who stayed for the entire game saw one for the record books. The Montreal Expos (69-57) were hoping to gain on […]

The longest game of the 2015 season for either the Colorado Rockies or the Los Angeles Dodgers started with consecutive bunt base hits and ended after an extra-inning home run. A crowd of 45,311 came out to Dodger Stadium to see their team creep closer to clinching the National League West Division for the third […]

The Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins celebrated the Fourth of July in 2008 “with plenty of fireworks, combining for 43 hits and 35 runs.”1 Colorado overcame a nine-run deficit and defeated the Marlins, “their expansion brethren,”2 with a bases-loaded, walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth inning. And then the commercial fireworks began.   […]

Fans tend to expect expansion baseball teams to endure several years of subpar ball, but meanwhile enjoy a brand-new ballpark. Rockies fans had to wait two years while a new ballpark was being built. Finally, on April 26, 1995, public-address announcer Alan Roach said, “Welcome to Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies,” and 47,228 […]

What do you give as a birthday present to a person who already has everything? Well, in Ken Griffey Jr.’s case on the occasion of his father’s 50th birthday on April 10, 2000, the 30-year-old Cincinnati Reds outfielder delivered his 400th career home run. Ken Griffey Sr. was a former major leaguer himself, a three-time All-Star who […]

In 1964 Connie Mack Stadium was described as a “sprawling network of steel and concrete, hemmed in by a drab, dreary, fraying residential district”1 Nevertheless, 26,381 spectators jammed into the stadium on a Saturday afternoon for Knothole Day, a promotion where free tickets were given to kids 14 and under (the paid attendance was only […]

It was only the third day of the 1924 season. A crowd of about 1,000 turned out to Comiskey Park on a Thursday afternoon to watch their White Sox host the St. Louis Browns. According to the Chicago Tribune, the weather forecast was predicted to be “rain and colder” with game time temperatures in the […]

A day after George Brett powered the Royals to a 6-1 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays, the Salina (Kansas) Journal labeled him as “a one-man gang for the Kansas City Royals.”1 Brett, the American League Player of the Week,2 accomplished the rare feat of hitting for the cycle on July 25, 1990, doing it for […]

After competing for the 1948 National League pennant before finishing in fourth place, the Pittsburgh Pirates, on January 29, 1949, purchased right-hander Murry Dickson from the St. Louis Cardinals for $125,000 in an effort to improve their pitching staff for the 1949 season.  Regarded as one of the craftiest pitchers in baseball, Dickson had made […]

While pulling on his gray Pittsburgh road uniform in the visitors’ locker room at Wrigley Field on the morning on September 16, 1975, Pirates second baseman Rennie Stennett grimaced in pain. Unsure if he would be able to play, Stennett gazed down at a heavily-taped sprained ankle “which he said has been hurting him for […]

When a franchise endures two consecutive decades of sub-.500 seasons there are bound to be some close calls to breaking the cycle over the ignominious years (1997 and 2012, when Pittsburgh finished 79-83), and then there are seasons that are outright catastrophes (like 2001 and 2009, when they finished 62-100 and 62-99). The Pirates’ 2009 […]

Despite the promise of the previous two seasons, by 2013 Pirates fans were more jaded than ever. There had always been the hope that the losing-season streak, now 20 years long, inevitably had to end at some point. Now, after back-to-back late-in-the-season collapses, there was a feeling that nothing would end the streak. But just […]

Fans poured through the gates at PNC Park in Pittsburgh hoping that the Pirates’ third consecutive attempt to advance in the postseason would be successful. The Pirates had finished second behind the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central division for the third year in a row. Now they would have to play the […]

A record 17 ballplayers were ejected during one game. The San Diego Padres were in first place in the National League West, and the Atlanta Braves were in second, but they weren’t exactly battling it out in this Sunday game — the Padres had a 10½-game edge over Atlanta, with 46 games left on their […]