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Due to a Texas Rangers promotional giveaway, there were 20,000 souvenir wooden baseball bats in the stands at Arlington Stadium on May 18, 1991, but it was the lumber in the Rangers’ batter’s box that did the damage, as Texas pounded local hero Roger Clemens and the Boston Red Sox. In front of a Saturday-night […]

The Washington Senators are “nonentities,” said the Washington Times on June 27, 1899.1 The team had lost 14 of its last 15 games and sat in 11th place in the 12-team National League. On Wednesday, June 28, the Senators began a four-game series with the Cincinnati Reds at League Park in Cincinnati. Dick Padden, the […]

It was “my greatest thrill ever,” said carrot-topped Del Crandall after launching a walk-off home run in the 12th inning to give the Milwaukee Braves a dramatic 2-1 victory over their arch-rival Brooklyn Dodgers.1 The 25-year-old backstop had been mired in a terrible slump, hitless in his last 23 at-bats, before his extra-inning heroics made […]

Much as the 1989 season would prove to be a refreshing change from the dreariness of the 54-107 season that preceded it, the afternoon skies in Baltimore on April 3, 1989, surprised forecasters and fans with pleasant sunshine and warm temperatures. The 1989 Opening Day game between the Orioles and Red Sox at Memorial Stadium […]

It was still relatively early in the season and only 6½ games separated the American League-leading New York Yankees from the sixth-place Cleveland Indians. The 16-10 Tigers and 14-13 Red Sox were in third and fifth place. Managers Red Rolfe of the visitors and Steve O’Neill of the home team announced their starters for the […]

The Boston Red Sox had finished 14 games ahead of the Washington Senators in the American League standings. The New York Giants had finished 10 games ahead of second-place Pittsburgh. Though the 1912 Red Sox had won 105 games, the Giants weren’t going to be pushovers. They’d won 103 themselves. They had driven in more […]

The last time the White Sox won a playoff series was also the last year they won the World Series, 88 years earlier, in 1917. They would need to overcome Boston in the Red Sox’ home ballpark in an American League Division Series to do so in 2005. Boston had broken its 86-year World Series […]

“The baseball rule makers made sweeping changes in the playing code of the national game today, and heaped so much additional duty and authority on the shoulders of the umpires that next season the officials will all have to take a rest cure before the season is half over.” – New York Times, February 10, […]

A record-setting home-run barrage and a thrilling finish at Briggs Stadium left a big impression on even the most time-tested of baseball minds in June of 1950. Detroit Tigers manager Red Rolfe seemed amazed. “Did you ever see a game like last night’s? I never did,” he said.1 Will Harridge, president of the American League, […]

When Chicago Cubs hurler George “Lefty” Tyler arrived at Weeghman Park for the final game of a four-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies, the 28-year-old New Hampshirite probably expected a day off — and for good reason. Acquired in the offseason from the Boston Braves, where he had amassed a 92-92 record in parts of […]

The 1999 American League Division Series shifted back to a sold-out Jacobs Field1 for a Monday night winner-take-all Game Five between the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox had retreated to Fenway Park down two games to none after losing Game Two on October 7, unsure if their ace Pedro Martinez would […]

It was another long season for the St. Louis Browns. The club brought in a new skipper in 1938, Gabby Street, who had guided the Cardinals to two pennants and a World Series title earlier in the decade, but “Old Sarge” could do little to alter the fortunes of a cash-strapped ballclub. En route to […]

The 1986 Boston Red Sox went 95-66 during the regular season, their most wins in nearly a decade (99 in 1978), and won the American League East flag by 5½ games over the New York Yankees. It was their first postseason appearance in 11 years, since they lost the 1975 World Series to the Cincinnati […]

“I prided myself on being a good defensive catcher,” three-time All-Star and two-time Gold Glove winner Johnny Edwards told the author.1 Edwards debuted on the Cincinnati Reds’ pennant-winning squad in 1961, inaugurating a 14-year career, including a one-year stop on the 1968 NL champion St. Louis Cardinals before spending his final campaigns with the Houston […]

When Ned Garver won his 20th game on the last day of the 1951 season for the lowly St. Louis Browns in 1951, he became the first pitcher in major league history to win 20 games for a team which lost 100. One of the most durable pitchers of his era, the right-handed Garver led […]

Butcher, baker, candlestick maker best describes the baseball life of Grover Allen Hartley. He did it all. Baseball player, coach, manager, umpire, union organizer, business manager, owner, fireman – that was Grover Hartley. Loved, beloved, hated, and scorned – that was also Grover Hartley. Hartley was born July 2, 1888, on a farm near Splashville, Indiana, a […]

Arthur Daley of the New York Times once wrote that Mike Ryba had been “too good for his own good.”1 One way or another, Mike Ryba seemed to be associated with saints for a great part of his life. He went to St. Adrian’s in DeLancey, Pennsylvania, a coal-mining town of about 2,000 people, for […]

In 1941, the book on 23-year-old Eddie Pellagrini was as a “good field, no hit” shortstop. “[He] may not hit as well as [others] but he’s certainly a fine prospect … ‘Pellagrini is a faster fielder than [most],’” said San Diego Padres player-manager Cedric Durst. It thus came as a surprise five years later when […]

For most of his 16-season professional baseball career, George Maisel distinguished himself as a fleet center fielder who made many circus catches. He compiled a .282 major-league batting average with the St. Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers, and Chicago Cubs. But illness, injuries, and World War I combined to limit him to just 168 games over […]

Before committing suicide under mysterious circumstances in the spring of 1907, Chick Stahl forged a reputation as one of the best center fielders in the game over the course of a 10-year major-league career. A lifetime .305 batter, the left-handed Stahl could also hit with power, and often ranked among the league leaders in extra-base […]

Down two games to none to the Minnesota Twins in the 1965 World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers found themselves in a precarious situation after Don Drysdale lost Game One, 8-2, and Sandy Koufax, who refused to pitch the opening game because it fell on Yom Kippur, lost Game Two, 5-1. Left-hander Claude Osteen, scheduled […]

For Nick Polly, his big-league debut came early. He played in 10 games for the 1937 Brooklyn Dodgers at the age of 20. Then, seven years later, he appeared in four games for the 1945 Boston Red Sox. That was it. He was a right-handed third baseman of Polish descent, who stood 5-foot-11 and weighed […]

Outfielder Andy Gilbert’s time in the majors was very brief, bracketing the World War II years. He played in six games for the Boston Red Sox in September 1942 and two games in the first few weeks of the 1946 season. In between, he served in the Army Air Corps for three full years. During […]

The story of Tony Horton, the young and talented slugger for the Red Sox and the Indians, is ultimately a tragic one from a baseball perspective. Just entering his prime seasons at the age of 25, he was forced to leave the game because of an emotional disorder, and ultimately he never returned. Piecing together […]