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The uniform seemed strange. Gone were the Yankee pinstripes and the interlocking “NY” on the left breast. The jersey that Babe Ruth buttoned over his considerable paunch was that of the Boston Braves, his new team. “Trimmed with red piping, (it) looked comical and cheap after the sober Yankee garb he had worn for so […]

It was early in the 1961 season; the Red Sox were 9-12 and the Senators (having played five more games) were 10-16. There was no reason to think either team was going anywhere.1 It was a Friday night in Washington and the 1961 Senators were a brand-new team, the Angels and Senators having joined the […]

It’s hard to imagine big-league baseball without a series at the end of the season that decides which team claims the title of “World Champion.” But in the early years of major-league baseball there was only one league, and winning the pennant was the crowning achievement. From 1876 to 1881 the National League reigned as […]

The third-place New York Giants and the cellar-dwelling Boston Braves had little to play for on the final day of the 1929 season; neither team could finish any higher in the National League standings. The only significant unresolved item was the NL home-run race, where the Giants’ Mel Ott was just one homer behind league […]

The National League celebrated the Golden Jubilee of the league founding in 1925. The St. Louis Cardinals had a pregame ceremony at their home opener, led by St. Louis Mayor Victor Miller. A Golden Jubilee pennant was raised along with the American flag, while a brass band played “The Star Spangled Banner.” The band continued […]

The first official cycle in the major leagues was accomplished by Charles Joseph Foley (also known as Curry Foley) of the Buffalo Bisons in a May 25, 1882, National League game against the Cleveland Blues.1 The two teams met at Riverside Grounds, the home ballpark of the Bisons. Because of cold weather, this rare achievement […]

Johnny Mize, a country boy from Demorest, Georgia, had been given the nickname of Big Cat because of his defensive prowess, but it was Mize’s offense that made him a star early in his career. Mize had a fine pedigree, being a distant cousin of Ty Cobb and a relation to Babe Ruth through marriage. […]

By the dawn of the 1955 season, the New York Yankees were one of only four teams that had yet to integrate.1 Jackie Robinson had debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers eight years earlier, and several Black players had established themselves as stars with teams in the American and National Leagues – particularly Larry Doby in […]

In 1794, the legislature of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania codified a portion of English common law governing observance of the Christian Sabbath, or day of rest. The laws, known as “blue laws,”1 criminalized “any worldly employment or business whatsoever on Sunday (works of necessity, charity, or wholesome recreation excepted.)”2 Those laws were still very much […]

Greatness, thy name is Tommy Davis. On June 5, 1966, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ left fielder went 5-for-5 in a 16-3 thrashing of the New York Mets at Shea Stadium. But he wasn’t the only LA lad with a stellar performance. Sandy Koufax, in his last major-league season, struck out nine to earn the win […]

The Racine Belles kicked off their road trip in Grand Rapids with an early-summer heat wave lingering over Michigan in June 1949.1 In the series opener, the Belles and Chicks were locked in a 2-2 tie when the game was called after 15 innings because of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League’s (AAGPBL) 11:30 P.M. […]

“WE HOPE YOU’RE ENJOYING TONIGHT’S THIRD GAME AS MUCH AS YOU DID THE FIRST TWO.” — Message on the Astrodome scoreboard at the top of the 20th inning.   It was the game that would not end. It was a game of formidable pitching and feeble hitting. It was the Year of the Pitcher in […]

Bob Gibson thought he was running out of time. At 35 years of age, the hard-throwing right-hander from Omaha had accomplished almost everything a pitcher could as the 1971 season commenced. The five-time 20-game winner twice tossed complete games to win Game Seven of the World Series (1964 and 1967), won the Cy Young Award […]

Bringing Cliff Garrison on board was an experiment which didn’t work out all that well. The 1928 Red Sox weren’t in too much of a position to be highly selective, though. They’d finished in eighth place — last place — for five of the prior six years, and were seventh the one year they weren’t […]

Biff Maloy was a “new find from the wilds of Michigan” who joined the reigning world champion Boston Red Sox in mid-1913 and pitched the bottom of the eighth inning on July 11 in St. Louis with Boston down 5-1 to the Browns. The right-hander hit the first batter, but retired the next three, each […]

Brothers Roy and Cleo Carlyle grew up in Norcross and Fairburn, Georgia, where their father, Will, ran a grocery store that had the only icebox in the area. When they weren’t working in the family store, the Carlyle brothers were out playing ball. Will and Rhoda (Bennett) Carlyle had three sons who played professionally. Roy […]

Right-handed reliever Don Newhauser joined the Boston Red Sox during the pennant drive in 1972. He contributed a 4-2 half-season, with a very good ERA, but appeared only briefly in the two subsequent years. “Newy” was born in Miami on November 7, 1947, the only child of Donald Louis Newhauser Sr. and Ann Sesso. “My […]

Baseball fans generally remember players who are involved in some of game’s most famous events. The same can be assumed of players who are the first to accomplish a particular feat in the game. However, George Hall was both a central figure in one of major-league baseball’s earliest scandals and the first major-league player to […]

A superb college basketball player, Charles Nash became the University of Kentucky’s career scoring leader in the early ’60s. Yet baseball was his first love. “Cotton” — as he was known for his bright blond hair — was also a slugging first baseman/outfielder. He juggled the two sports as a pro, and though his time […]

What does Phil Garner have in common with Sir Edmund Hillary and Neil Armstrong? The answer is that all three performed feats never before achieved by humankind. Sir Edmund was the first person to reach the summit of Mount Everest. Neil Armstrong was the first person to set foot on the moon. And Phil Garner […]

“Rarely has there been a baseball player as good as George Grantham whom it was so difficult to settle in one regular position.” — James J. Long, Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph 1   George Grantham, 5-foot-10 and 170 pounds in his prime, was tough and durable. A perennial .300 hitter despite frequent nagging injuries, he had unexpected […]

In their inaugural season of 1993, few will dispute that the biggest bat in the Colorado Rockies lineup belonged to Andres “Big Cat” Galarraga. Aided by the rarefied air in Denver, Galarraga won the NL batting title that year with a .370 average, had an OPS of 1.005, and drove in 98 runs in 120 […]

One night at Toots Shor’s restaurant, Edward Bennett Williams was asked what he wanted to do when he grew up — an odd question for a man in his mid-30s who’d already gained a reputation as a distinguished trial lawyer. “I want to own a ball club and be president,” said Williams,1 who as a […]

Few multi-purpose stadiums in North American history can rival Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium for the number, variety and stature of events held there. Set in a vast fairgrounds complex on the shore of Lake Ontario, the municipal facility originally known as Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) Stadium served as the largest sports and entertainment venue in Canada’s […]