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David Ortiz built his Hall of Fame career and Boston Red Sox legend on clutch hits—like the back-to-back extra-inning game-winners he delivered in Games Four and Five of the 2004 American League Championship Series in a pair of win-or-go-home games on the Red Sox’ path to their first World Series championship in 86 years. Before […]

The losing team accuses the winning pitcher of doctoring the ball. The winning pitcher shakes his head and avows his innocence. It’s a tale as old as time – or, at least, it goes back to the earliest days when scuffing a pitched baseball became illegal. On May 12, 1915, Detroit Tigers manager Hughie Jennings […]

Roy Campanella with a mighty swing during spring training with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the early 1950s. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   Most of the time the number 13 is considered unlucky. For the Brooklyn Dodgers on this fateful day in August, the number 13 was very, very lucky. Dem Bums were able to get to three […]

The 1916 Philadelphia Athletics were the worst major-league team of the twentieth century. And the unfortunate man who bore the brunt of their badness was pitcher Herman John “Jack” Nabors. Just two years earlier, the A’s had won 99 games for the best record in baseball. But facing financial pressure from the Federal League, owner-manager […]

The average high temperature in Los Angeles on October 24 is 76 degrees Fahrenheit.1 The weather for Game One of the 2017 World Series at Dodger Stadium did not follow historical trends. Rather, the Los Angeles Dodgers hosted the Houston Astros with the thermometer reading 103 degrees at the 5:11 P.M. starting time, making for […]

On Thursday, May 9, 1963, the cellar-dwelling Houston Colt .45’s faced the sixth-place Reds at Crosley Field in Cincinnati before a sparse ladies night crowd of 7,008 (5,870 paid). Though the game had little meaning in the standings at this early stage of the season, it would be a career day for future Triple Crown […]

The rumors were swirling in July 1988. The Boston Red Sox were 43-42 and nine games behind the first-place Detroit Tigers in the American League East. Would Boston make a change at the top? “It would come as a surprise to me,” said manager John McNamara, when he was told about speculation that he would […]

On June 10, 1924, the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers stood only a game apart in the standings, the Yankees tied for first place with the surprising Boston Red Sox, the Tigers in third place only a game back. The Tigers were eight games into a 21-game homestand when they hosted the Yankees for […]

With baseball nearing the end of its second season of play since the United States declared war on Germany and entered World War I, the game’s continued operation was being called into question by high-ranking military officials, particularly the provost marshal of the US Army, General Enoch Crowder, who was in charge of the military […]

On July 14 the Cincinnati Reds hosted the Houston Astros for a Sunday doubleheader between two teams going nowhere fast. The day before, Cincinnati lost to the San Francisco Giants, 8-1, to fall to 42-42, good for fifth place and a 12½-game deficit behind the first-place St. Louis Cardinals. The Astros fell to the Cards […]

“He used a slow ball during the entire game and was a puzzle the Bostons were unable to solve,” noted the Cincinnati Enquirer about the Cincinnati Reds’ Ice Box Chamberlain’s darkness-shortened, seven-inning no-hitter to complete a doubleheader sweep against the Boston Beaneaters.1 It had been a lackluster season for both the Reds and Chamberlain. On […]

  May 16, 1902, is noted for an occasion that has never since been duplicated: a major league game in which two deaf players faced each other as opponents. Luther “Dummy” Taylor was a pitcher for the New York Giants. The team was visiting Cincinnati for a weekend series against the Reds. The hometown club’s […]

It was quite a game for a holiday – or any day. It was quite a game for the 16,571 mostly Boston Red Sox fans at Fenway Park. And it was quite a game for slugger Jim Rice, who hit the only walk-off grand slam of his 16-year career to make the Red Sox winners […]

With the war in Europe two months from the Allies’ victory, the 1918 World Series began. A meager yet patriotic crowd of 19,274 fans was on hand at Comiskey Park, “the smallest that has witnessed the diamond classic in many years.”1 The minds of the spectators were clearly on the overseas conflict, yet they came […]

It was Ted Williams who dubbed Bobby Doerr “the silent captain of the Red Sox” and a more down-to-earth Hall of Famer might be hard to find. A career Red Sox player, Doerr’s fame enjoyed a resurgence in 2004 with the publication of David Halberstam’s book about him and his famous teammates.1  Born in the city of […]

If a young, successful major league pitcher had decided to become an outfielder in 2001, it would have been news. And if he had hit above .300 for the next five straight years, culminating in 2005 by winning the league’s batting crown with a .377 average, he would have graced magazine covers. Finally, if upon […]

Noted for his versatility, John Melvin “Bubba” Phillips started games at third base and all three outfield positions for the 1959 American League champion White Sox. That year, he played 117 games and had 379 at-bats with five home runs, 40 RBIs, and a .264 average while batting anywhere from the second to the eighth […]

At spring training in 1921, Branch Rickey, vice president of the St. Louis Cardinals as well as the club’s field manager, was looking over the rookies in camp at Orange, Texas. Turning to veteran shortstop Doc Lavan, he said, “Tell that bat boy to get out of the infield.” Advised that the “bat boy” was […]

On May 1, 1920, Boston Braves rookie pinch-hitter Lloyd Christenbury, in his first official at-bat of the season, beat out a bunt single in the bottom of the ninth inning of a 1-1 tie against the Brooklyn Robins, sending teammate Rabbit Maranville into scoring position. Unfortunately, the Braves could not push across the winning run. […]

Hidden in obscurity after his death more than 130 years ago, A.J. “Jud” Birchall was the starting left fielder and leadoff hitter of the 1883 American Association champion Athletic Club of Philadelphia. A local schoolboy who grew up in Philadelphia’s Germantown neighborhood, Birchall had a three-year major-league career with the Athletics that culminated with one […]

Many baseball players from the New Orleans area signed professional contracts in the 1930s and 1940s. Ray Yochim rode the wave, along with other signees from his high school that included future major-leaguers Lou Klein, Mel Parnell, George Strickland, and Jack Kramer. Yochim missed three formative years of his professional development as a pitcher owing […]

A mediocre fielder at third base, Red Smith was a good enough hitter to hold down third base for the Brooklyn Dodgers, until he clashed with his new manager, Wilbert Robinson. Robbie regarded Smith as a troublemaker, and Smith was summarily shipped to the Boston Braves – in time to make an important contribution as […]

For a brief period in the early 1890s, Al Johnson was an influential, if not overly trustworthy, actor on the major league baseball scene. A wealthy young industrialist, he was the first and the most important of the money men attracted to the Players League cause. In the league’s formative days, Johnson recruited other capitalists […]

As the unofficial but recognized spiritual adviser to the ever-mercurial Manny Ramírez, Ino Guerrero had a distinctive role on the 2004 World Series champion Red Sox.1 Given the nature of the team’s offensive prowess, his official role as batting-practice pitcher would seem to be enough for most people, and yet his role as the attendant […]