Search Results

“To encounter Walter Johnson even one time during a series is considered misfortune for any ball club,” lamented the New York Times, “but to inflict him on an opposing ball club twice in the same afternoon verges on downright cruelty.”1 The Big Train, the Washington Senators’ hard-throwing right-hander, proved to be the hero of the […]

The Philadelphia Phillies were finally mounting a rally against Mike McCormick and the San Francisco Giants. Trailing 4-0, they had the bases loaded with no outs in the bottom of the sixth with the heart of their order due to bat. Then the rain came. It was a “torrential downpour,” accompanied by thunder and lightning, […]

On July 12, 1972, 21-year-old Bert Blyleven threw a five-hit complete game as the Minnesota Twins beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 7-1. It was the Twins’ 1,000th victory since they moved from Washington, D.C., to Minnesota prior to the 1961 season.1 Fast-forward to September 1985. Blyleven was 34 and had spent most of the intervening seasons […]

One never knows how a given game will work out. On the Fourth of July in 1983, two lefties faced off: Dave Righetti of the Yankees against John Tudor of the Red Sox. It was Yankees owner George Steinbrenner’s birthday. Both teams were very much in contention, Boston 39-37 and New York 40-35. The Red […]

There was no highly hyped home-run chase in 1919. That’s one of the many things Babe Ruth put on the baseball map. First, he raised the home run to an art form and a focal point, after decades of 90-feet-at-a-time offense in the Deadball Era. Then, when Ruth slammed 60 home runs in 1927, every […]

Oh, what a difference a day makes. In the first game of an August 29, 1916, doubleheader at Fenway Park, Hubert “Dutch” Leonard was knocked out of the box in the first inning after facing just five St. Louis Browns. Two of them got hits, one was hit with a pitch, and another walked. During […]

“I guess it shows they play ball in that other league too.” — National league manager Fred Hutchinson 1   Chicago’s Wrigley Field hosted the best of baseball on July 30, 1962, in front of a crowd of 38,359. The All-Star Games had started back in 1933 when the players congregated on Chicago’s South Side […]

Chet Laabs of the St. Louis Browns is carried off the field by his teammates after hitting two home runs in the Browns’ pennant-clinching victory over the Detroit Tigers on October 1, 1944. (St. Louis Star/Newspapers.com)   By October 1, 1944, the United States was fully engaged in World War II. War had raged for […]

Largely overlooked today, George Van Haltren was a speedy center fielder who batted .316 on 2,544 hits during his 17-year big-league career. Described by historian Bill Lamb as “late 19th-century baseball’s premier leadoff man,” Van Haltren averaged almost a run scored per game during his prime as a five-tool player.1 But his reputation as a […]

When the Orioles nearly went from worst-to-first in their “Why Not?” 1989 season, Jeff Ballard epitomized their surprising success. Though he struck out fewer than three batters per nine innings, no major league lefty won more games than Ballard in 1989. By the time Baltimore did return to the post-season seven years later, however, Ballard […]

Bert Campaneris had a distinguished 20-year major-league career that included six All-Star selections, six American League stolen-base crowns, and a major role in the Oakland Athletics’ three world championships in the 1970s. Dagoberto Campaneris was born on March 9, 1942, in Pueblo Nuevo, Cuba. His father was a mechanic in a factory. Campaneris had three […]

In 1978 Cincinnati Reds’ manager Sparky Anderson, referring to the San Francisco Giants’ mound corps, said, “That’s the best pitching staff in baseball and Knepper is their best pitcher.”1 A year later, future Hall of Famer Willie McCovey echoed this sentiment when he compared his club’s rotation to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ fearsome staffs of […]

The annals of baseball are filled with stories of players with talent who were sidetracked by the injury bug and never reached prominence. To this list we add the name of Chester Arthur Crist. When he played for the independent Cincinnati Shamrocks, a newspaper writer raved: “Chester Crist, recognized as one of the cleverest of […]

Carlos Beltrán jump-started his terrific career in 1999 by winning the AL Rookie of the Year Award. He rose to national stardom in 2004, when he turned in one of the greatest postseason performances ever, batting .435 with eight home runs in 12 games. Possessing a rare combination of power and speed, Beltrán is one […]

Professional football or professional baseball? That was the choice for pitcher Steve Renko. At 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, Renko also starred as a basketball player at the University of Kansas. He was the school’s last three-sport letterman. The big right-hander ultimately chose baseball. Renko had an up-and-down career in the major leagues from 1969 to […]

David LeFevre, who once tried to buy the Cleveland Indians, said it: “I want to stand next to Gabe Paul when they drop the atomic bomb.”1 Because Paul was a survivor. In his first 20 years as a major league general manager, he never won a pennant and only once came close. Then he sold […]

One of the greatest right-handed sluggers of all time, Ed Delahanty dominated the 1890s like no other hitter, batting better than .400 three times, leading the league in slugging percentage four times, and capturing three RBI crowns on his way to a lifetime batting average of .346, the fifth best mark in baseball history. Known […]

An accepted piece of conventional wisdom in baseball says that if you can pitch a baseball with your left hand you can pitch for a long time regardless of how well you do so. The rarity of left-handers in general and pitchers in particular make the combination one of the sport’s most coveted assets. One […]

Eddie Boyd was a little-known player who had brief stints with the Detroit Stars and Chicago American Giants in 1920, the first year of the Negro National League’s existence. After his time with those two franchises, Boyd became a jack of all trades for the barnstorming Winnipeg Giants team that served as a developmental squad […]

Just 10 days after team owner Harry Frazee sold the Boston Red Sox to a group headed by Bob Quinn, one of the first moves the new administration took was to purchase the contract of right-handed pitcher Les Howe, who was wrapping up his third season with the Eastern League’s Waterbury (Connecticut) Brasscos. The Boston […]

In 1958, a 20-year-old left-hander from rural Oklahoma was making a name for himself pitching for the Rochester Red Wings. Cal Browning was dominating the International League for the St. Louis Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate, using his fastball to lead the league in strikeouts and earn a spot on the league’s All-Star team. He and Bob […]

Eddie McFarland was one of the most talented catchers of his day but suffered badly from alcoholism, many years missing big chunks of playing time during the course of a season. Despite ultimately drinking himself out of the game, he still had a long career. He must have had a strong constitution, because he also […]

On September 27, 2004, the Boston Red Sox trailed the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 2-0 when Red Sox first baseman Dave McCarty led off the top of the fifth inning with a line-drive single to left-center field. He took second base on a walk and scored on a three-run home run by center fielder Johnny […]

A journeyman in the best sense of the word, Kent Mercker made his name over the course of an 18-season career as a young, hard-throwing left-hander in the Atlanta Braves’ bullpen before moving to the back end of the Braves’ dream rotation in the mid-1990s that featured future Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, […]