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Putting on his Chicago Cubs uniform for the first time, recently acquired pitcher Don Cardwell just wanted to secure his spot in the rotation. He did more than that — he pitched the game of his life. The Cubs were already in disarray a month into the 1960 season. Skipper Charlie Grimm, who had guided […]

His parents named him Floyd and his fans knew him as Babe. In certain baseball writing circles, he was the “other Babe.” Born in Buffalo, New York, and raised in Los Angeles, this Babe — Babe Herman — was a conundrum to those who followed his career. He suffered from mental lapses on the field, […]

“It was almost like Roberto Clemente playing the Reds all by himself,” gushed sportswriter Les Biederman in the Pittsburgh Press, “and coming so close to wrecking them singlehandedly.”1 Affectionately nicknamed “Arriba” by Pirates radio broadcaster Bob Prince, Clemente belted three home runs and knocked in all seven Pirates runs, but his offensive heroics were not […]

The visiting Los Angeles Dodgers (13-9) and the host Philadelphia Phillies (9-9) were in second and third place respectively in their divisions, less than a month into the 1980 season. The Sunday crowd of 34,027 was ready to cheer the Phillies to a sweep. Their odds were good—the Dodgers had lost eight regular-season games in […]

On April 30, 1887, their Opening Day and National League debut game, the Pittsburgh Alleghenys hosted and defeated the defending league champion Chicago White Sox, 6-2. Pittsburgh’s offense was led by Alex McKinnon’s four hits (two singles, a double, and a triple) and two runs scored. Teammate Fred Carroll, whose defensive versatility enabled him to […]

The Cleveland Indians were still reeling from a wretched nine-game losing streak from August 15 to 24 when they traveled to New York City for a three-game series with the Yankees starting on August 31, 2004. On August 14 Cleveland defeated the Minnesota Twins 7-1 for their sixth consecutive victory, and pulled within a single […]

In this game, 37-year-old Diego Seguí broke the Boston Red Sox franchise record for the most strikeouts in a game by a reliever, setting a mark that lasted nearly a half-century. After 10-plus years in the big leagues, spent mostly as a swingman for the Kansas City and Oakland Athletics, Washington Senators, and Seattle Pilots, […]

When the New York Yankees arrived in Boston in April 2007, the Boston Red Sox had not swept a series from the Yankees at Fenway Park for 17 years. The last time had been August 31-September 2, 1990, part of Boston’s only season home sweep of the Yankees in franchise history. The last time the […]

It was home run number 99 in Ted Williams’s Boston Red Sox career, and the third he had mashed off Bob Muncrief of the St. Louis Browns.1 It was his 19th game-winning homer,2 this one hit in the ninth inning of the Saturday afternoon game at St. Louis’s Sportsman’s Park. The win ended a five-game […]

It was “perhaps the most remarkable pitching performance in the nine-year history of the Amazin’ Mets,” gushed Gotham City sportswriter Dana Mozley after 23-year-old flamethrower Nolan Ryan surrendered a single to the first batter he faced, then finished with a sparkling one-hitter and a team-record 15 strikeouts in his 1970 debut.1 “Nobody throws the ball […]

Talk about a spree, in which one player had a huge impact in three consecutive games. The second of the three games was the greatest comeback in Red Sox history. The Boston Red Sox entered the first game of the June 18, 1961, doubleheader with a dead-even record of 30-30. The sixth-place Washington Senators were […]

The pitching matchup for the third game of the four-game series between the Cincinnati Reds and the Philadelphia Phillies appeared to be a mismatch. It featured a 33-year-old, 6-foot-6 Cy Young Award winner with 158 wins in 13 years – including a perfect game earlier in this season – against a 23-year-old, 5-foot-11 left-hander making […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ bid for a fourth straight National League East Division title in 1973 remained alive, even though the Pirates trailed the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals when the schedule’s final day had concluded. With rainouts rescheduled for Monday, October 1 – a Mets-Chicago Cubs doubleheader and a single game between Pittsburgh […]

Bobblehead giveaways are exceedingly popular fan attractions. Let’s face it, who doesn’t love a collectible of a player from their hometown team? Drawing 32,014 fans to a summer Wednesday night game in Cincinnati, the Reds hosted their second giveaway of the season, a Wily Mo Peña bobblehead. It was the youngster’s first-ever bobblehead night, adding […]

For 20-year-old Ted Williams, this was the third visit to Cleveland. The rookie right fielder had already accumulated a dozen home runs by the mid-July visit. The Red Sox were riding an eight-game winning streak when they arrived. They took the July 13 game, winning in 10 innings. A win in this game would make […]

Not often does a solo home run in the first inning turn out to the game-winning hit in a ballgame,1 but those were the circumstances of Ted Williams’s 383rd career homer, which won this game between the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers. Over the course of his career, Williams hit 16 first-inning home runs […]

Among potentially awkward encounters between semipro baseball teammates off the field, one player having to arrest another must rank very high. Carl “Sailor” Howard, who participated in spring training with the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1935 and pitched in a couple of midseason exhibition games for the team, was on the receiving end of such an […]

Over his career, Jim Fuller hit just 11 homers in the major leagues but amassed 170 in the minors, including many tape-measure blasts. The righty slugger stood 6 feet 3½ inches tall and weighed 215 pounds. As a rookie with the Baltimore Orioles in 1974, he drew this observation from team groundskeeper Pat Santarone: “Anybody […]

A small memorial park is all that remains of Lane Field, home of the Pacific Coast League’s San Diego Padres from 1936 until 1957.1 Wind glyphs fly from three poles in the small park, each depicting a player from Padres history, a fielder, a batter and a pitcher. Ted Williams is both the batter and […]

Nineteen forty-five was the happiest year in American history. The end of World War II brought millions of Johnnies and Joans marching home. Families were reunited. The high barely lasted past Christmas. Nineteen forty-six brought inflation, store shelves bare of many basic consumer goods, and a severe housing shortage. The result was an unprecedented epidemic […]

Ulysses “Tony” Lupien played just four full major league seasons, but he made a lasting impact on baseball through his pioneering player-rights efforts after World War II and his development of college players as baseball coach at Dartmouth College for more than twenty years. As a lefthanded-hitting first baseman in the 1940s, Lupien displayed remarkable […]

If not for two years of military service and four years at the University of Texas, baseball lifer Grady Hatton’s career as player, manager, scout, and front office executive would have surpassed a half century. Mainly a third baseman, he played in 12 big-league seasons (1946-56; 1960). Reflecting on his playing career in 1966, Hatton […]

Andy Coakley is remembered most as “Lou Gehrig’s coach” in his 37 years as head of Columbia University’s baseball program. But this overlooks his extensive influence on the game. Once a promising right-hander with Connie Mack’s Athletics in the early 20th century, Coakley was also a labor pioneer, a forward-thinking league organizer, a team owner, […]

Left-hander Ted Bowsfield spent seven seasons in the big leagues, initially signing with the Red Sox but later becoming arguably the best pitcher in the first year of Los Angeles Angels baseball. He later became director of stadium operations and team travel for the Angels, then head of the Kingdome in Seattle. Bowsfield was born […]