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The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis became the home for the Minnesota Twins in 1982. The multipurpose stadium, whose main professional tenants were the Twins and the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings, replaced Metropolitan Stadium in suburban Bloomington, where both teams had played since 1961. The first Metrodome event was an exhibition game […]

For the second time in 18 days, a sellout crowd of over 55,000 came to Yankee Stadium hoping to witness right-handed starter Roger Clemens’ 300th career win.1 Clemens, who had begun his career with the Red Sox and won three Cy Young Awards there, had won number 299 in Boston on May 21, beating Red […]

“One of the toughest losses I’ve had to deal with in a while.” – Joe Torre, August 18, 20001 “I haven’t been around that long, but to me, that was the biggest comeback we’ve ever had.” – Darin Erstad, August 18, 20002   Not too many fans in the announced crowd of 37,053 were still […]

Twenty-four-year-old Ernie Banks exploded on the national baseball scene with the Chicago Cubs in 1955, his second full major-league season. Not only did his 44 home runs shatter the single-season record for homers by a shortstop, but his five grand slams set a new major-league record.1 A lighter 31-ounce bat that added as much as […]

The postgame talk after the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Atlanta Braves, 11-2, on August 28, 1980, focused on Cardinals outfielder Dane Iorg—and with good reason. A day after going 4-for-5 against the Houston Astros, the veteran left-handed batter collected a career-high seven RBIs with two doubles and a single. But the following day, all […]

Tom Lasorda is lucky Dodgers fans were willing to give him a second chance. Lasorda built a Hall of Fame career as manager of the Dodgers from 1976 to ’96, but his first stint with the franchise came as a minor leaguer in 1949. By the mid-’50s, he was a young pitcher trying to break […]

Not even the oppressive St. Louis heat could break Bob Sykes on the Fourth of July in 1980. With the Busch Stadium on-field temperature a reported 140 degrees,1 the Cardinals left-handed pitcher spun a 10-inning shutout against the Philadelphia Phillies. Center fielder George Hendrick hit a walk-off home run with one out in the bottom […]

It was April 1964. The top five songs on the Billboard Hot 100 were by the Beatles. The Ford Mustang was introduced to consumers.1 The New York Yankees were the Kings of American League Baseball. A perennial power throughout the ’50s and beyond, the Yankees were the only American League champions thus far in the […]

The 1939 Boston Red Sox fell from first place to second on their May 10 offday, when the New York Yankees won in St. Louis and advanced from second place to first, overturning a half-game deficit in the American League standings. Four months later, on September 10, the Red Sox’ demotion in the standings had […]

The second-place New York Yankees hosted the last-place Chicago White Sox in the second game of a four-game series on Monday, June 25, 1934, at Yankee Stadium. Before a sparse crowd of about 4,000,1 New York put together an 18-hit attack, won 13-2, and moved into first place by .004 over the Detroit Tigers. Led […]

Here are the SABR Bookshelf listings for Winter 2016. To get your NEW book listed on The SABR Bookshelf, make sure a review copy is sent to: The SABR Bookshelf, Cronkite School at ASU, 555 N. Central Ave. #416, Phoenix, AZ 85004. An e-book file will also suffice; please send the e-book in PDF, EPUB […]

The proclaimed best recruit to ever come out of the Central Association, albeit one that was unsuccessful in eight at bats for the St. Louis Cardinals of 1912, “Doc” Shanley later became a successful dentist before passing away at too young an age. Harry Root Shanley was born on January 30, 1889 (the 1900 census […]

Don Richard “Richie” Ashburn, a Hall of Fame outfielder, who made the most putouts of any outfielder in major-league baseball during the 1950s, started out as a catcher, which should not be surprising because throughout his long career in baseball, Richie Ashburn had always been his own man. His independent quality even emerged during his […]

Tim Naehring played for the Boston Red Sox during portions of eight seasons — from 1990-97. He hit .282 overall, with 49 home runs and 250 RBIs. Known for his versatility, he played various infield positions before becoming the team’s regular third baseman in 1995. Unfortunately, his time in the major leagues was frequently interrupted […]

Catcher Bill Moore played in five games near the end of the 1926 Boston Red Sox season and 44 games in 1927. It was an era of last-place finishes for the Red Sox. They were 46-107 in 1925 and 51-103 in 1926. Last-place finishes were nothing new for Bill Moore. Not a lot is known […]

Billy Sorrell was the type of player scouts coveted: a 6-foot, 190-pound left-handed hitter with power and speed who could play both infield and outfield. Legendary scout Tony Lucadello tracked and signed Sorrell for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1959. Sorrell was a good batsman, often clutch, who played 14 professional seasons from 1960 until 1973, […]

Chris Carpenter spent 15 seasons in major-league baseball, first with the Toronto Blue Jays and then with the St. Louis Cardinals .His won-lost record was 144-94 with an earned-run average of 3.76, and in 2005, his 21-5 season and 2.83 ERA won him the National League’s Cy Young Award. But statistics alone don’t tell the […]

Relentless desire and unshakable determination define Carmen Hill’s 17 years in Organized Baseball. In 1915, the 19-year-old bespectacled hurler jumped from a Class B league to debut with the Pittsburgh Pirates, becoming the just the second major-league pitcher to wear glasses on the diamond in more than a quarter-century. For 12 years, Hill endured a […]

“Do what you love. Know your own bone; gnaw at it, bury it, unearth it, and gnaw it still” – Thoreau George Adrian Witt was not born, as most sources will cite, on November 9, 1933. In a bit of historical foreshadowing, the big (6-feet-3, 200-pound) right-hander known as Red (for his red hair) opted […]

Ox Eckhardt has the highest lifetime average in the minor leagues of batters with over 1,000 games played. Some sources even suggest that his career batting average was the best of all time.1 A left-handed hitter with an extremely open stance, he was “almost in motion toward first when he hit the ball. Result, a […]

One day in the mid-1930s, in the New York City borough of Staten Island, teenager Karl Drews anxiously watched as older boys of his small community of Eltingville climbed into a truck to go to a baseball team tryout. As the truck was about to depart, Drews pleaded with the older boys to take him […]

In the American League’s first-ever season-ending tiebreaker, the Cleveland Indians’ rookie sensation, Gene Bearden, faced the Boston Red Sox on October 4, 1948 at Fenway Park. At stake was who would face the Boston Braves in the World Series. Bearden’s last two starts had been shutout victories, giving him a 19-7 won-lost record for the […]

“He’s wild, his fast ball isn’t fast, his curve ball is just a wrinkle, he gives up a lot of walks, he weakens in the eighth or ninth inning, and we knock him out of the box —but we can’t beat him.  He must live right.”1 So exclaimed Chicago White Sox manager Jimmy Dykes after […]

Shortstop Humberto “Chico” Fernández played the game with flair. It was a flair that endeared him to fans and fellow players, but often saw him at odds with his many managers. He was a daring, some would say reckless, baserunner. Playing for the Detroit Tigers, he showed that special flair in the second game of […]