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In the first month of the 2005 season, the St. Louis Cardinals had again established themselves as the force of the National League. The Cincinnati Reds, meanwhile, faced a nine-year playoff drought and had returned to near the cellar of the Central Division. On a 49-degree night in early May, the Reds and an official […]
When the California Angels captured the American League West championship in 1982 and bolted out to a commanding two-game lead in the best-of-five American League Championship Series against the Milwaukee Brewers, Angels manager Gene Mauch could have been excused for feeling more than a twinge of satisfaction with his team on the brink of appearing […]
The 1927 New York Yankees were a legendary team. The “Murderers’ Row” Yankees won 110 games, in what was then a 154-game season, finishing a full 19 games ahead of the second-place Philadelphia Athletics and then sweeping the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series. Lou Gehrig drove in 173 runs. Babe Ruth drove in 165, […]
The Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians experienced completely different kickoffs to their 1921 campaigns. The 1920 season ended with Cleveland capturing their first World Series, over the Brooklyn Robins, after a season-long battle with the White Sox and the New York Yankees for the American League pennant. The White Sox were constantly battered by […]
Paul Derringer had struggled before. Two years after a brilliant rookie campaign in 1931, in which Derringer went 18-8 for St. Louis, he was traded to the Reds and promptly finished the season with 27 losses. One year later, at the age of 27, Derringer lost 21 games for a 1934 Reds club that lost 99 […]
On a late-April Sunday afternoon at Crosley Field, the Cincinnati Redlegs hosted the Milwaukee Braves in a slugfest. Cincinnati battled from behind three times to defeat the defending National League pennant winners. A wild and loud crowd of 14,925 braved a chance of rain to cheer the Redlegs to victory. The seesaw game ended on […]
In his first start with the Boston Red Sox, Hideo Nomo pitched a no-hitter, defeating the Baltimore Orioles, 3-0, at Camden Yards. In doing so, he joined Cy Young, Jim Bunning, and Nolan Ryan as the only pitchers in major-league history to throw no-hitters in both the American and National Leagues.1 (Randy Johnson joined the […]
With a six-hitter in which he walked just one, Roger Moret pitched his only shutout of the 1975 season as the Red Sox “added insult to injury with a 6-0 success in the nightcap”1 to complete a double-shutout sweep of a doubleheader, the first one suffered by New York since June 15, 1958, against Detroit.2 […]
On the day that Chicagoans were celebrating their country’s independence in 1929, Chicago Cubs slugger Hack Wilson provided fireworks of his own by punching Cincinnati Reds pitcher Ray Kolp in the visitors dugout in the second game of a doubleheader at Wrigley Field. But the July 4 fisticuffs didn’t stop when the Cubs and Reds […]
“When Red Sox slugger Jim Rice gets impatient, look out.” So began Bill Liston’s game story in the next day’s Boston Herald.1 The Boston Red Sox started the 1978 season on the road, losing their first two games to the Chicago White Sox, both 6-5, picking up a win, then splitting a pair in Cleveland. […]
On the morning of September 8, 1972, Red Sox fans woke up to a reality unthinkable just a month and a half before – the Old Towne Team was in first place in the American League East. On that auspicious Friday morning, Boston Globe writer Ray Fitzgerald summed up the turn of events when he […]
“Batting and playing first base for the Boston Red Sox: Mary Elizabeth Murphy. First base: Murphy.” You can almost hear Sherm Feller, the longtime Red Sox public-address voice, announce her – the first female ballplayer for the Boston Red Sox. It never happened, though. It’s well-known that the Red Sox were the last big-league team […]
Hezekiah Allen, a catcher by trade, appeared in the one and only major league game of his life in 1884 for Harry Wright’s Philadelphia Quakers. In that game Ki performed well at bat, establishing a career .667 batting average, but did not field his position well. He was soon injured and returned to his hometown […]
The Joe Vosmik story is the classic American tale in which the scion of an immigrant family falls in love with the national game of the family’s adopted country. Vosmik’s tale has all the required elements: precocious skills, early passion, an indulgent father, a disapproving mother who later relents and shares her son’s ardor, obsession, […]
Rather little is known about the background of Fred Bratschi. He reported himself of Swiss nationality in the player questionnaire he mailed to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1961. He let the Hall know that he’d been born in Alliance, Ohio, on January 16, 1892, but he doesn’t turn up in any United […]
“Beware of robbing a wretch or attacking a cripple. Do not laugh at a blind man, nor tease a dwarf, nor cause hardship for the lame. Don’t tease a man who is in the hand of the god (i.e. ill or insane)…” [Instruction of Amenemope, Ancient Egypt]1 Frank James Burke was born on March 19, […]
Bud Beasley Elementary School in Sparks, Nevada, opened in the fall of 1995. It was named for Arvel Lewis “Bud” Beasley, who served northern Nevada for more than 60 years as a schoolteacher and athletic coach. From 1944-54 he was also a minor-league pitcher, a colorful left-hander who delighted fans with his antics. Southpaws have […]
When Sam Parrilla got the chance that every minor-leaguer hopes for, he thought of his father. But more than paternal pride ran through his mind; baseball’s indestructible link between fathers and sons sparked memories for the Puerto Rican native upon joining the Philadelphia Phillies at the beginning of the 1970 season. “My father, he’s a […]
George Henry Magoon had two nicknames – Maggie having obvious origins, and Topsy, presumably so-called because of his spinning top-like movements around the infield. He was born in St. Alban’s, Maine, on March 27, 1875. His father James was a boot and shoemaker. He and his wife Mary moved their three daughters and young son […]
Before he died, Fabian Gaffke frequently told his family, “I hope when I’m off this earth, they play ball in Heaven.” Gaffke was “a sturdy Pole” (in the words of Milwaukee Journal sportswriter Sam Levy), born in Milwaukee’s South Side to John and Agnes Gaffke on August 5, 1913. John worked in a coke plant near the Allen-Bradley works and Agnes was […]
Seventy percent of the world is covered by water, the rest is covered by Devon White. Considered one of the best defensive outfielders to play the game, White was a human highlight reel who worked tirelessly to hone his craft. He was a raw athlete when he was drafted as a third baseman in the […]
From 1955 through 2003, Clearwater’s Jack Russell Stadium served as the spring-training home of the Philadelphia Phillies. (After he died in 1990, it became Jack Russell Memorial Stadium.) One would surmise that Russell, a right-hander who pitched in 557 games over the course of 15 seasons in the major leagues, must have been quite a […]
With superb control and a rising fastball, left-hander Reb Russell rose to stardom with one of the best rookie pitching performances of the Deadball Era, notching 22 victories and tossing eight shutouts for the Chicago White Sox in 1913. A typical Russell start featured few walks, few strikeouts, few runs, and many balls hit in […]
More than a few contemporary baseball insiders viewed John Clarkson as the finest pitcher of the 19th century. He won 30 or more games in a season six times, including two of the top four all-time totals, 53 in 1885 and 49 in ’89. In the 10-year period between August 1884 and July 1894, he […]