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“I’ve played in pain before, but this hurt me just to blink.”1 That was how Philadelphia Phillies backup catcher Mike Ryan characterized the experience of playing through 15 innings with a severe back spasm he sustained while pulling on his sanitary socks before the July 26, 1971, game against the Houston Astros. But as Philadelphia’s […]
After the Cubs had split the first two games of the 2016 World Series in Cleveland, they returned home to the friendly confines of Wrigley Field for what would be the first fall classic game at the venerable stadium since October 10, 1945. On that date, Chicago’s North Siders had lost the seventh game of […]
On September 9, 1921, the Chicago White Sox opened a three-game series with the Detroit Tigers at Comiskey Park. The White Sox were in seventh place with a 56-77 record, 27 games behind the New York Yankees, and the Tigers were in sixth place with a 64-72 record, 20½ games back. The only question in […]
Baseball fans in Houston had never had it so good in the short history of the Astros. After completing a sweep of the Dodgers on August 21, the Astros climbed into seventh place, one-thousandth of a percentage point ahead of Philadelphia. As John Wilson wrote in the Houston Chronicle, “When you’ve been where the Astros have […]
“Interleague competition would give the game a big lift and, what’s more important, it would give the fan, the average citizen, a lift, too.” – Walter O’Malley, president, Brooklyn Dodgers, in 1954.1 “Interleague play would be the fastest possible way to ruin baseball.” – George Selkirk, general manager, Washington Senators, in 1964.2 Regular-season play […]
More than a century ago, the Detroit Tigers staged the biggest ninth inning come-from-behind-victory engineered in baseball. It still stands.1 The inaugural 1901 American League season was scheduled to open in Detroit on Wednesday, April 24, but rain just before game time prevented play. The next day was sunny, warm for April, and “a day […]
John Candelaria, pitching in his second major-league season in 1976, recorded the Pirates’ first no-hitter in Pittsburgh in nearly seven decades, frustrating the Los Angeles Dodgers with fastballs and curves and retiring the final 19 batters he faced in a 2-0 victory on “Candy Night” at Three Rivers Stadium on August 9. In September 1907, […]
The St. Louis Cardinals’ dismal start to the 1921 season – one win in their first 10 games – seemed to augur yet another disappointing campaign for Branch Rickey’s team. The Cardinals’ losing record wasn’t that unusual, since they had been mostly a second-division club throughout their history. The franchise had never been in serious […]
On July 9, 1930, the New York Yankees defeated the Philadelphia Athletics by a 12-6 score at Yankee Stadium. The loss dropped the reigning World Series champions into second place in the American League. Connie Mack’s club trailed the Washington Senators by a scant half-game. The Mackmen won their next eight games, from July 10 […]
In their one-season history (1969) as an American League expansion franchise, the Seattle Pilots played 14 extra-inning games. On July 19 they hosted an 18-inning night game at Sicks’ Stadium. That game was suspended after 17 innings and completed the following day, with the Minnesota Twins winning, 11-7.1 After the Twins left town and the […]
The only pitching staff capable of beating the 1996 Seattle Mariners was the 1996 Seattle Mariners. “Too many games where you give up five, six runs early, this team battles back – and the pitching has given up two, three, four more runs,” Seattle manager Lou Piniella said. “I keep telling these kids, hold it […]
The New York Mets won the National League crown in 2000, the second consecutive year they had made the postseason under manager Bobby Valentine’s leadership. After losing to the New York Yankees in the first “Subway Series” since the 1950s, the 2001 Mets aimed to end the Atlanta Braves’ six-season hold on the NL East […]
The 1998 Houston Astros strode into the postseason with the confidence that came with being the franchise’s best team ever. They won 102 games in the regular season, the only time the Astros have produced more than 100 wins in a season. Most prognosticators and pundits favored them to make the World Series and play […]
In the 21st century, it’s become rare for whole teams to post 10 complete games in a single season – let alone a single pitcher. Only two men since the year 2000 have done so: C.C. Sabathia (2008) and James Shields (2011). Seasons with double-digit shutouts are an even more compelling feat. Over the half […]
Earl Snyder was a professional baseball player for 10 years, and he did it well by almost any definition. It’s unusual, then, that the highlight of his career came when he played one generally unmemorable game for the Boston Red Sox during the 2004 season. It earned him that most cherished of baseball possessions: a […]
A good-field, no-hit middle infielder as a player, Joe Cantillon never came close to reaching the major leagues. But as an umpire, manager, owner, scout, and executive, few men had a more profound impact on baseball during the Deadball Era. He had lifelong friendships with Charles Comiskey and Clark Griffith and feuded with Ban Johnson […]
Jim Gosger was a hustling, hard-working ballplayer for 13 professional seasons, years that took him all over the baseball map, and to the majors for parts of 10 seasons with five different teams. He played a good center field but never really established himself as a good enough hitter to stay in a lineup long. […]
A boxer turned ballplayer, Ira James “Pete” Flagstead became a 13-year major-league outfielder who hit .290 over the course of his career, mostly spent with the Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox from 1917 through 1930. He was raised a long way from the major leagues of the day, in Olympia, the capital of the […]
It would be easy to mock someone with a nickname like Fothergill’s, but Fatty Fothergill couldn’t have been too fat. Once after hitting a home run at Fenway Park for the Detroit Tigers, he rounded the bases and did a front flip landing on home plate. At 5-feet-10.5 inches he struggled with his weight and […]
He took a long time to find his place in the major leagues. After four brief callups, a successful emergency start in 1963 gave Gary Peters a job with the White Sox on his fifth and final trial. He still managed to put up a few big seasons and 124 wins, coming agonizingly close to […]
Stan Pawloski spent his entire career in the minor leagues save for two games with the Cleveland Indians in 1955. His journey to the majors wound through half-a-dozen minor-league towns. Along the way, he earned the distinction of being called a “can’t-miss” prospect and voted to three All-Star teams. That made him among the last […]
Any argument as to the greatest hitter of all time always involves Ted Williams. It’s an argument that can never be definitively answered, but that it always involves Williams says a lot. One could probably count the legitimate contenders on the fingers of one hand. Most would narrow the field to just two players, Babe […]
A quintessential sportsman and promoter, Michael J. Finn was a newspaper writer, trainer of champion foot racers, dog racing promoter, boxing manager, and circus man before he ever got into professional baseball in 1897. Then, over the next 25 years, he served as a minor league manager, owner and scout, sending dozens of players to […]
From its beginnings in the 1880s, the franchise now known as the Los Angeles Dodgers has provided a parade of well-known players and managers, 23 pennant winners, and six World Series victories. Off the field, it has been associated with some of the most recognized front-office talent in the game’s history. Names such as Charles […]