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At 59 years old (or thereabouts), Satchel Paige pitched three shutout innings for the Kansas City Athletics on September 25, 1965. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   Fans were treated to a piece of history when Satchel Paige “flaunted Father Time”1 and took the mound for the Kansas City Athletics in a game against the visiting Boston Red […]

The New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals were ready to square off in Game One of the 2015 World Series. A crowd of 40,320 packed Kansas City’s Kauffman Stadium on October 27. This was a special date for both clubs. The Royals’ last Series championship came on October 27, 1985, and the Mets […]

During the hot afternoon of August 13, 1972, a nervous crowd of 30,207 at Philadelphia’s Veterans Stadium sat quietly and open-mouthed while looking skyward at a spectacle that had never been witnessed at a baseball game. “I was really scared,” admitted Philadelphia Phillies promotions director Bill Giles, who had come up with the idea of […]

The late summer weather on Thursday evening, September 7, 1972, was ideal for baseball, with clear skies and the temperature in the mid-70s, as the Milwaukee Brewers and Cleveland Indians prepared to square off. However, other circumstances overshadowing the game offered little incentive for fans to attend, for this was a contest between the two […]

St. Louis Cardinals great Bob Gibson hurled a high fastball from the Busch Stadium mound at 8 P.M. on July 17, 1974. César Geronimo, the Cincinnati Reds’ lithe centerfielder, swung and missed, making him the 3,000th strikeout victim in Gibson’s Hall of Fame career. Only the Washington Senators’ Walter Johnson had ever fanned that many […]

Four months into another season of mashing American League pitching, Jimmie Foxx led the Philadelphia Athletics against the Cleveland Indians at Cleveland Stadium. The two clubs were close together in the league standings, with Philadelphia (53-53) 16 games behind the league-leading Washington Senators, one game ahead of Cleveland (55-57). In this Monday afternoon contest on […]

It is known in Expos history as “The Tim Raines Game” and if ever there was a game meant to be named after a player, it was this one. The 1986-87 offseason was an odd one in Major League Baseball as it lacked business and busy-ness. Prominent free agents like Raines, Ron Guidry, and Jack […]

On August 9, 2009, Felix Pie became just the second Baltimore Orioles player to hit for the cycle in a Baltimore ballpark. In the game, Baltimore batters smashed a record nine doubles as part of a 19-hit attack and defeated the Anaheim Angels, 16-6. Orioles rookie Chris Tillman picked up his first career win before […]

Using the minimum four at-bats needed, Aubrey Huff hit for the cycle on June 29, 2007, becoming the first Baltimore Orioles player to do so in a Baltimore ballpark. Along the way, he collected his 1,000th career hit. Despite Huff’s personal milestone performance, his club squandered a lead late in the game and the Orioles […]

In the annals of baseball history, there have been several late-season collapses that have become legendary. Among them are the 1951 Dodgers, 1964 Phillies, 1969 Cubs, 1995 Angels, and 2007 Mets.1 However, this list would not be complete without the inclusion of the 1978 Boston Red Sox, who led the American League East by as […]

On Sunday, October 4, 1942, a crowd of 69,902 filled Yankee Stadium for Game Four of the World Series, breaking the Series attendance record set only the day before. Having lost two games in a row, the Yankees and their fans were stunned. Their 2-0 loss in Game Three was the first time they had […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers, who had won 11 in a row between May 5 and May 16, 1945, had fallen on hard times. They went on a six-game losing streak, the last three of which were the first three games of the four-game set in St. Louis. The Dodgers’ futility at the Cardinals’ home field had […]

The Blue Jays finished the 1991 season by losing in the American League Championship Series to the Minnesota Twins four games to one. Falling just shy of the World Series was becoming an all-too-familiar feeling for the team and its fans. The Blue Jays had winning records in nine consecutive seasons, but it was the […]

On Opening Day in 1981, the Los Angeles Dodgers found themselves in the peculiar position of needing a starting pitcher. Normally, they would have gone with a veteran who would – they hoped – mow down opposing batters while Dodgers fans looked on in awe, cheering their team to victory. This day was different. Jerry […]

The Boston Red Sox had won eight of their last nine games heading into the twin bill in St. Louis on June 12, 1941, but they hadn’t played for three days in a row, thanks to a scheduled offday and rainouts of their first two dates against the Browns.1 They got off to a solid […]

Who is the most valuable to a ball club – a star pitcher of the Walter Johnson type, a great infielder of the Napoleon Lajoie brand or a sensational outfielder of the Ty Cobb variety?1   At the outset of the 1911 season, Ty Cobb was considered one of the top players in baseball, coming […]

The Philadelphia Phillies opened a two-game weekend series at Wrigley Field on Saturday, April 17, 1976, in a bit of a slump. Their record four games into the new season was an uninspiring 1-3, putting a damper on the enthusiasm surrounding a team that had been picked by many to win the National League East. […]

The Montreal Expos were finishing up a road trip in Atlanta going 7-5 entering the game of July 6. They had lost the first game of their series with the Braves on Thursday, scoring just one run. But they exploded in the next two games. As they amassed 29 hits, the Expos overpowered the Braves […]

The Philadelphia Phillies arrived in Pittsburgh after the 1936 All-Star Game on a five-game winning streak, their longest of the season to date. The streak ended when they lost the first game of their two-game series, 16-5. When the two teams took the field under cloudy skies the next afternoon, right-hander Jim Weaver started for […]

Mike Cameron and the Seattle Mariners hoped to salvage a win in the final game of their series with the Chicago White Sox. The Mariners still had an American League-leading 18-9 record and remained two games in front of the Oakland A’s in the AL West Division. The White Sox had grabbed the Central Division […]

The Cincinnati Reds signed Ryan Joseph “Scooter” Gennett late in 2017 spring training after the Milwaukee Brewers released him on March 28, five days before Opening Day. Gennett was Milwaukee’s regular second baseman for three years, but the team felt that he didn’t fit into their future any longer. After joining the Reds, the 27-year-old […]

With the 2003 regular season just days away from being over, Tampa Bay was trying to reach 63 wins. For the Devil Rays, attaining that mild milestone would prevent their third consecutive 100-loss season. They took a positive step in that direction by beating Roy Halladay (who was headed for the American League Cy Young […]

On a Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park, Boston Red Sox right-hander Pedro Martínez shut out the visiting Chicago White Sox, 1-0, his third shutout of the 2000 season. The White Sox (61-36) were leading the American League Central Division by 11½ games over the second-place Cleveland Indians. They had the best record in baseball and […]

As the Houston Astros opened the 1980 season, the franchise had high hopes that it would win its first division title and more. After finishing second in the NL West to the Cincinnati Reds the previous year, the team had signed free agent Nolan Ryan, the seven-time AL strikeout king, who also held the modern […]