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What came to be known as the Yankees Dynasty began under the twenty-four-year stewardship of Jacob Ruppert. Known as “Colonel” because of his prior service in the National Guard, Ruppert owned and operated a profitable brewery, served four terms in the United States Congress, and in 1915 purchased half of the New York Yankees. His […]

Would “The Kid” still have it? Opening Day of the 1946 season saw Ted Williams come back after three years in military service during the Second World War. He’d set a rookie record in 1939 that still stood in 2020, with 145 RBIs. In 1941, he hit .406 — the last batter in major-league baseball […]

“Night baseball will never happen in Washington,” said Clark Griffith, the president of the Washington Senators and owner of the team’s ballpark. In 1930, Des Moines, Iowa, had hosted the first professional night baseball game. This failed to impress Griffith, who said, “You can make it as strong as you want that I’m opposed to […]

“I’m just relieved to have this over with,” said 43-year-old Nolan Ryan after tossing 146 pitches (including 103 strikes) over 7⅔ innings against the Milwaukee Brewers at County Stadium to win his 300th big-league game. “The last 15 days have been the toughest emotionally that I’ve ever gone through.”1 Since holding the Detroit Tigers to […]

The 1991 Atlanta Braves (94-68) were the surprise of the National League, putting to rest a dreadful six-year stretch of losing at least 89 games each season. Fighting their way back from a 9½-game deficit to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the All-Star break, the Braves clinched the West Division crown on the next-to-last day of […]

The streets of Baltimore were jam-packed with an estimated 350,000 baseball fans who warmly welcomed (at least in name) their Orioles home. “A wonderful, wonderful parade!” exclaimed one fan, Blanche McGraw.1 She was the widow of John McGraw, the longtime New York Giants manager whom old-timers would tell you was first a star on the […]

“On August 8 I won a tough game in Milwaukee,” Sandy Koufax recounted of his second victory over the Braves in 1964. “Tougher than I thought.”1 Indeed, the star Los Angeles Dodgers lefty had to struggle through a complete game after jamming his throwing arm while diving back to second base and avoiding a fifth-inning […]

The major sports story of the day for September 22, 1927, was the defeat of Jack Dempsey by Gene Tunney, the heavyweight boxing champion. It concentrated on how Tunney was aided by what appeared to be a long count when he was knocked to the canvas by the challenger. A sportswriter described the scene: “A […]

Johnny Vander Meer was enjoying a summer to remember. A spot starter for the last-place Reds in 1937, Vander Meer played a significant role as Cincinnati emerged into a first-division club in 1938. Achieving fame from pitching consecutive no-hitters in June, the 23-year-old Vander Meer sported a 10-3 record and 2.28 ERA as Crosley Field […]

A packed Riverfront Stadium celebrated future Hall of Fame catcher and lifetime Cincinnati Red Johnny Bench’s career achievements. The 17-year veteran had announced his retirement earlier in the season,1 and now the Reds’ faithful enjoyed the opportunity to acknowledge his many contributions to baseball and the Queen City. The two-time MVP and 1970s Big Red […]

A marquee matchup was scheduled on June 10, 1981, with the Houston Astros in town to face the Eastern Division-leading Philadelphia Phillies. The two teams, which met in the NL Championship Series in 1980, were playing at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia on that Wednesday night. Several headlines dominated the festivities. First, barring a last-minute settlement, […]

The Los Angeles Dodgers and the Philadelphia Phillies were meeting for the second consecutive year in the 1978 National League Championship Series. LA took the series in 1977, ousting the Phillies in four games. “Three is my lucky number,” said Philadelphia manager Danny Ozark. “I wear number 3 and this is our third time here. […]

Montreal Expos fans were bursting with excitement in the summer of 1979. Although they had enthusiastically supported more than their share of cult heroesin the franchise’s early years, they certainly didn’t have much on-field success to cheer about. In the team’s first decade (1969-1978), Montreal averaged a woeful 91 losses per year, failing to finish […]

The Sporting News cover for March 5, 1977, featured a picture that was worth a thousand words: Joe Rudi, Don Baylor, and Bobby Grich, all clad in their new California Angels uniforms, were posed reaching into a pair of leather saddlebags, a metaphor for team owner Gene Autry’s wallet. With the 1975 Messersmith decision having […]

The Western Massachusetts city of Holyoke went 64 years between professional baseball teams. As pro baseball returned to Seattle and Toronto in the form of the major-league Mariners and Blue Jays in 1977, the minors also re-emerged in Holyoke in the form of the Holyoke Millers of the Double-A Eastern League. Going into the 1977 […]

There are many long-standing myths about Washington, one of which asserts that the city was originally built on a swamp. The myth perhaps explains the misery inflicted on its residents through unbearable heat and humidity on many midsummer days. In the summer of 1932, there was much to be miserable about and not just the […]

Heading into the game that came to define his career, 21-year-old rookie left-hander Rick Ankiel wasn’t nervous. “I was not hurt. I was not afraid. I was not sick or distracted or particularly anxious,” he wrote 17 years later. “In game one of the National League Division Series, on a warm and sunny afternoon with […]

Left-handed pitcher Spike Merena had a rather brief baseball career – four games in the big leagues and 77 games in all. His major-league career began with the Boston Red Sox on September 16, 1934, and ended exactly two weeks later, on the last day of the month. John Joseph Merena had grown up in […]

As a big leaguer, Ed Charles was perhaps the most accomplished player in the brief history of the ill-fated Kansas City Athletics, and he achieved fame as a baseball poet, reciting his poetry on television a few times per year and mailing verse to young fans with requested autographs. But he is best remembered today […]

The plight of the World War II-era (replacement) player included questioning stares and unflattering comments from fans wondering why seemingly healthy specimens were wearing flannel instead of khaki. The jaundiced looks were especially tough on a strapping 6-foot-3, 193-pound first baseman from Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, named Ed Butka. Despite numerous trips to his local induction center, […]

A three-time All-Star with the Milwaukee Brewers, Dan Plesac was a left-handed pitcher with a mid-90s fastball and a biting slider who became one of the game’s dominant closers during the late 1980s. In addition to the time spent with the Brewers, Plesac’s 18-year major-league career included stints with the Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Toronto […]

Rick Wise won 188 major-league ballgames, was a two-time All-Star, threw a no-hitter (and barely missed three others), and was the winning pitcher in what many still say was the greatest baseball game ever played, Game Six of the 1975 World Series. He had a lot of support from his family growing up. Wise’s father, […]

“It’s a shame … he would have been a helluva player if he hadn’t gotten hurt. Ron Jones was a hitting machine.” — Lee Thomas, general manager, Philadelphia Phillies (1988-1997) 1   Ron Jones was a stocky outfielder from Seguin, Texas. Shortly after he reached the majors, in September 1988, the Philadelphia Daily News wrote, “Jones, […]

“People don’t know how good the Pacific Coast League is,” a onetime miner named H.V. “Hardrock Bill” Lane said in 1935. “There’s Oakland, or San Francisco.”1 A year later he moved the then-Double-A Hollywood Stars to San Diego, renamed them Padres for a nearby mission, opened single-tier 9,100-seat Lane Field, and began to fill a […]