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Revenge may be a dish best served cold, but when Don Wilson avenged the no-hitter pitched against his Houston Astro mates the night before, he was hot. Damn hot. On April 30, 1969, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Jim Maloney threw his second career no-hitter as the Reds blasted the Houston Astros, 10-0. (His first came on […]
Two days and 3,000 miles away from its improbable 11th-inning victory in Game Five of the American League Championship Series, the Boston Red Sox continued their march toward the AL pennant with another elimination-game victory. Back home in Fenway Park, the Red Sox batted around in the third inning, scoring five times off Angels starter […]
“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” So said the reporter at the end of the 1962 movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.1 Upon hearing a popular politician confess that he was not the real shooter, the journalist ignored the fact to preserve the lawmaker’s legend. Thirty years earlier, baseball writers at the […]
When Willie Randolph hoisted back-to-back World Series trophies with the 1977 and ’78 New York Yankees, or Omar Moreno toasted the World Series title won by his Pittsburgh Pirates in 1979, one wonders if they took a moment to think how far they had come since the day they played for a crowd of 69 […]
By 1907, Opening Day was one of the grand sporting and social events of the year in Cincinnati. It was a festival of music and parades, a day of noisy fun and high fashion, an occasion to skip school or knock off business and go to the ballpark, where the cream of Cincinnati society and […]
The darkness descending on Cincinnati’s Palace of the Fans made it clear that the Cincinnati Reds would have to score in the bottom of the 14th to avoid a 3-3 tie with the Brooklyn Superbas on July 9, 1910.1 Catcher John “Larry” McLean, who had sparked the Reds’ two-run second inning and completely shut down […]
Before the 2020 baseball season got underway, the national pastime was rocked by scandal. An investigation by Major League Baseball revealed that both the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox, World Series winners in 2017 and 2018, respectively, were involved in using technology to steal opponents’ signs and gain an illegal advantage. As a result, […]
Before the May 6, 1947, game at Sportsman’s Park began, St. Louis Browns starting pitcher Jack Kramer talked about Red Sox left fielder (and reigning American League MVP) Ted Williams. He “casually remarked that the only way to pitch to Ted if a run meant the ball game is to walk him.”1 He might have […]
On May 4, 1871, the Fort Wayne Kekiongas1 opened the inaugural season of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players with a 2-0 victory over the Cleveland Forest Citys. By the end of June the Kekiongas had compiled a 5-4 record, with two of the losses being shutouts. One of the shutouts came at […]
In the final week of the initial Federal League campaign, the Pittsburgh Rebels met the Baltimore Terrapins on the latter’s home field for a six-game series squeezed into three consecutive doubleheaders. The Rebels had won six of their last eight games, including three out of four against the Indianapolis Hoosiers, who were neck-and-neck with Chicago […]
It was a beautiful day for baseball, with the temperature in the mid-60s. Sunshine would have made it perfect, but despite the clouds and overcast, a great crowd of 52,168 showed up at Tiger Stadium on the afternoon of Friday, October 5, 1984, for Game Three of the American League Championship Series. Fans in Detroit […]
In the long, often inglorious history of the Chicago Cubs, they have frustrated their fans by not only going 108 years between World Series championships, but by participating in bizarre, high-scoring games that often ended with the North Siders on the losing end. Take Game Four of the 1929 World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics […]
As the tying run was about to cross the plate on New York Giants veteran Bill Dahlen’s ninth-inning single on July 27, 1907, Dahlen tried to take an extra base on the throw home from the Cincinnati Reds left fielder. Reds catcher John “Larry” McLean,1 who had earlier tossed out three Giants attempting to steal, […]
When the 1969 baseball season got underway, the Cincinnati Reds’ fiery right-hander Jim Maloney felt that he had something to prove. For two seasons he had battled chronic shoulder pain that had taken a few notches off his heater. He was no longer the consistently overpowering hurler who had posted a 74-34 record over a […]
Brooklyn Dodgers skipper Walter “Smoky” Alston was on edge. Though his club (80-45) was in first place, leading the Milwaukee Braves by 10 games, they had been playing terribly and had lost 12 of their last 18 contests. To shake up his team, he tabbed 19-year-old Sandy Koufax to start the final contest of a […]
Through the first three games of the 1918 World Series, the Boston Red Sox had scored a total of just four runs – but won two of the three. After those games in Chicago, the Cubs and Red Sox took the same Sunday train back to Boston to resume play.1 Game One winner Babe Ruth, […]
The Boston Red Stockings won the 1872 National Association championship with a record of 39-8 and finished 7½ games ahead of the second-place Baltimore Canaries and Philadelphia Athletics. Boston fans had reason to believe that Harry Wright would lead the Red Stockings to yet another title in 1873 as the addition of Deacon White bolstered […]
In the early going of the 1873 season, the White Stockings of Philadelphia enjoyed the kind of success the Boston Red Stockings had enjoyed the previous year. The Quaker City’s “second” team lost but three of its first 30 games, putting together two separate streaks of 10 consecutive victories, and spent much the better part […]
Just before the start of the 1969 World Series, Baltimore Orioles third baseman Brooks Robinson was said to have uttered the rather Grinch-like statement, “We are here to prove there is no Santa Claus.”1 Such unabashed, un-American hubris could only naturally result in a rude October awakening for Baltimore. No presents under the Orange Birds’ […]
As of September 13, 1907, a total of 2,965 men had played major-league baseball.1 The 2,965th player was Harry “Swats” Swacina. Aside from four seasons in the major leagues, including two in the Federal League, Swacina played in the minor leagues for 21 years. Harry Joseph Swacina was born on August 22, 1881 in St. […]
Waving goodbye, the impeccably dressed young man with fiery red hair and ruddy complexion hurriedly boarded the Cleveland-bound train. In the span of nine short days, The Pride of Penacook had graduated from Dartmouth, signed a contract to play for the New York Yankees, and now was en route to join his new team. Place […]
The brief major-league career of Reading, Pennsylvania, native Franklin “Heck” Heifer consisted of 17 appearances (15 as a position player and 2 as a pitcher) with the 1875 Boston Red Stockings of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players. After his time with Boston, Heifer’s professional career consisted of playing for a number of […]
Bob Quinn was a baseball man for more than 60 years. He started as a player in the 1880s, although he never made the majors, and then became a business manager/general manager. At various points from 1917 through 1945, he held this role at the big-league level with the St. Louis Browns, the Brooklyn Dodgers […]
Standing just 5’5″ and a stocky 169 pounds, Topsy Hartsel used his small size to become the most effective leadoff batter of the Deadball Era. During his 10 seasons with the Athletics, Hartsel led the American League in walks five times, on base percentage twice, and runs scored once. His 121 free passes in 1905 […]