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The 32,040 fans who came to Royals Stadium for a Monday night game in late June were in for a treat, as they saw California’s 39-year-old Dave Winfield become the oldest major leaguer to hit for the cycle. In addition, Kansas City’s Bill Pecota was involved in a few rare occurrences of his own. While […]
The Detroit Tigers, who didn’t arrive home from Texas until 4 AM., were off to a red-hot 16-1 start. The Bengals’ start had Detroiters wondering if the team was really that good or if its early-season opponents were that bad. The Cleveland Indians were off to a somewhat surprising start themselves. The second-place Tribe came […]
It was only the third day of the 1924 season. A crowd of about 1,000 turned out to Comiskey Park on a Thursday afternoon to watch their White Sox host the St. Louis Browns. According to the Chicago Tribune, the weather forecast was predicted to be “rain and colder” with game time temperatures in the […]
On Sunday, October 4, 1942, a crowd of 69,902 filled Yankee Stadium for Game Four of the World Series, breaking the Series attendance record set only the day before. Having lost two games in a row, the Yankees and their fans were stunned. Their 2-0 loss in Game Three was the first time they had […]
After Philadelphia defeated the Chicago Cubs 4-1 in Game One of the 1910 World Series behind the three-hit pitching of Chief Bender and bat of Frank “Home Run” Baker, Athletics founder and manager Connie Mack gave the ball to staff ace Jack Coombs. After four pedestrian years in which the Iowa-born right-hander went 35-35 with […]
When the Chicago Cubs took the field for their first game in September of 1961 they had a new manager – or as they called him, “head coach” – and a new catcher. For the season, the Cubs had instituted a field management strategy that involved rotating a “College of Coaches,” each taking turn as […]
The “first-place Washington Senators” may seem like an oxymoron, but that was exactly the scenario when the undefeated Senators visited Yankee Stadium for a two-game series in April 1955. In Washington’s Griffith Stadium the day before, the Senators had defeated the Baltimore Orioles 12-5. The New York weather hovered around the 80-degree mark in mid-April, […]
Harmon Killebrew was the face of the Minnesota Twins during the team’s first 14 years in the Twin Cities. He hit 475 home runs as a member of the Twins, 244 of which came at Metropolitan Stadium.1 On this day, Killebrew was making his final appearance in Minnesota, wearing an unfamiliar Kansas City Royals uniform. […]
On the day of Whitey Herzog’s first game as manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, he found himself, somewhat baffled, in Marietta, Georgia, trying to get to the team hotel in nearby Atlanta. His misadventure began when he was given the wrong departure time for his flight. Then, after catching a later plane to Atlanta, […]
The New York Yankees had every reason to feel confident. They had won three consecutive World Series championships, 1949-51. When they arrived for a five-game series, July 25-28, 1952, at Briggs Stadium in Detroit, they were again in first place in the American League. And they had won eight of their last 10 games against […]
“What followed that year [2005] – after the new Nats brought baseball back to the District ending a 33-year drought – was an unexpectedly fun joyride, a 100-win pace through half a season that helped Washington re-embrace the sport that abandoned it.” – Barry Svrluga, Washington Post1 Baseball is a game of numbers, […]
Despite widespread fan anger over the just-ended strike, almost 46,000 people showed up to watch the National League West’s two top teams, the Dodgers and Reds, reboot their rivalry for the division title. Rookie sensation Fernando Valenzuela was on the mound for Los Angeles. But it was a rookie in the Reds’ bullpen who emerged […]
The 1950 season was Connie Mack’s 50th year as manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, and before the game against the Boston Red Sox at Shibe Park on Saturday April 22, Mack was honored during a ceremony at home plate. Much later – 3 hours and 44 minutes later, to be exact – pinch-hitter Paul Lehner […]
“Hurrah! Hurrah! Hurrah! Tiger! Hish! Boom! Ha!” According to the New York Sun, that cheer “peculiar” to Princeton erupted from its triumphant team after the Yale players’ own gracious cheer in tribute to their collegiate foes after having been subjected to the first nohitter in the history of organized ball. It’s not clear, however, whether […]
Opening Day is usually a day of optimism, celebration, and a big crowd as fans flock to the ballpark after a long winter without baseball. Those very crowds, however, can overwhelm a team with poor ballpark security. Perhaps the modern nadir in Opening Day crowd control occurred in Chicago on April 5, 1974, when the […]
The 1977 Chicago White Sox – known ever after as the “Southside Hitmen” – may have been the most celebrated third-place club in major-league history. From Opening Day until season’s end, the Hitmen were never dull, either in victory or defeat. But Bill Veeck’s players really outdid themselves on the morning (and early afternoon) of […]
Frank McManus was a turn-of-the-century catcher who saw brief tours of duty with four major league teams. A substandard batsman, McManus was a first-rate defensive backstop with an exceptional throwing arm. At various times during his career, observers wondered why, given his talents, McManus seemed unable to secure a place on a big league roster. […]
Was it nature or nurture? Plenty of both figured in the life of Milton Joseph Bolling III, a former Red Sox shortstop who spent 43 years with the organization. He was born on August 9, 1930, in Mississippi City, Mississippi, while his parents were on vacation; but he grew up in a baseball town – […]
Right-hander Chuck Rainey was a first-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox, the 19th pick overall in the January 1974 draft. A little more than five years later, he broke into the big leagues with Boston, pitching for the Red Sox, Cubs, and Oakland Athletics in a major-league career that lasted six seasons. Red […]
Pitcher Jack Sutthoff, whose 90-game career in the major leagues spanned the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, recorded his best big-league season in 1903, when he went 16-9 for his hometown Cincinnati Reds. His status as a former Red, the pitcher who in 1904 broke the Reds’ losing streak on Opening Day, and his pleasant personality […]
Dee Moore’s major-league career consisted of less than 100 games with three teams, spread over four seasons spanning 11 years. A career .232 hitter, he was characterized not by his ability but by his versatility. During his 98 major-league games, Moore pinch-hit, played left field, first base, and third base, and pitched and caught. Other […]
The name Luis Aparicio is closely linked with Venezuela. Both Luis Aparicio Ortega (Ortega) and his son, Luis Aparicio Montiel (Aparicio), had a significant impact on bringing the game of baseball to new heights in Latin America. For that reason, many say that when talking about one, you can’t help but think of the other. […]
“In my mind’s eye, I can still see Joe Torre – he was playing third base for the Cardinals – jumping and the ball going over his glove. Jerry Reuss was pitching. He threw me a slow curve. It was a clean hit. A single down the left-field line. When you get only one hit, […]
Right-handed pitcher Elmer Riddle was from a mill town in Georgia, and is one of the few such players who did not enter the major leagues through the textile leagues. He was also half of a brother act in baseball, joining his brother, catcher Johnny Riddle, with Indianapolis in the minor leagues and Cincinnati and […]