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June 15, 1967, seemed like an unlikely day for the Houston Astros’ 25-year-old slugger Jimmy Wynn to make history. He wasn’t feeling very well, and consequently took only two turns in the batting cage in the mammoth Astrodome. “I’ve been feeling tired for three or four days,” he said.1 While his teammates finished BP and […]

A crowd of 27,446 showed up on a cool, clear late-summer night1 in Toronto to watch a series opener between two teams headed in opposite directions. The host Blue Jays were locked in a tense American League East Division race with Detroit. Both teams began play with identical 85-57 records, six games ahead of third-place […]

“[Hideki Irabu] literally took on a nation to come here. He said, ‘I want New York,’” exclaimed New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner after his new pitcher’s successful debut in US major-league baseball.1 Indeed, the road to the Big Apple for the nine-year veteran megastar of Japan’s Pacific League was rocky; systematic restrictions inhibited Japanese […]

The sky was overcast for the Wednesday afternoon matchup between the Chicago Cubs and Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley Field on September 21, 1966. School had been in session for weeks and the Cubs were at the bottom of the National League standings. With the season in its next-to-last week, the Reds were in seventh place […]

“The Little Man makes a big difference. He can do a lot of things.” – Bob Lemon, Kansas City Royals manager, July 9, 19711   The Minnesota Twins hosted the Kansas City Royals for a three-game series the weekend before the All-Star Game in July 1971. Things were going badly for Minnesota; after two American […]

There was no love lost between the Orioles and Royals in the aftermath of Kansas City’s sweep of the 2014 American League Championship Series. Despite their four straight victories, the series was anything but a cakewalk for the Royals, with two of the games being decided by one run and the other two by a […]

The first week of a new season is supposed to be a time for optimism. But even the most diehard fans of the 1994 Florida Marlins and San Diego Padres knew to temper their expectations. The Marlins were in their second year of existence and were not expected to seriously compete in any race except […]

In the fourth inning of the Los Angeles Dodgers-Milwaukee Braves game at County Stadium on the night of May 29, 1963, Braves coach Dixie Walker grabbed a bat and took the field. The former National League batting champion, retired as a player since 1949, wasn’t making an impromptu comeback at age 52. Rather, he was […]

David Cone took advantage of an injury to Rick Aguilera to get into the Mets’ starting rotation in 1988. He pitched a shutout in his first start and finished May with a 7-0 record. That left little doubt that New York’s high hopes for the 25-year-old right-hander were warranted. Joseph Durso of the New York […]

The New York Mets arrived at Wrigley Field in August 1986 with a commanding lead in the National League East. But the Chicago Cubs opened their five-game series with two wins. The second came when pinch-hitter Jerry Mumphrey snapped an eighth-inning tie with a three-run homer on August 5, leading the Cubs to an 8-5 […]

The Montreal Expos broke camp in the spring of 1978 with the strongest team in their 10-year history, raising expectations for the team’s first winning season. The dynamic trio of Andre Dawson, Ellis Valentine, and Warren Cromartie were generally considered the best young outfield in baseball, and with five of their eight starting position players […]

Some baseball games, like some roller coasters and some horror movies, should come with warnings that their ups and downs are not for the faint of constitution. One such game took place on June 14, 1975, in the Triple-A International League. An umpire’s mistake spawned an unusual protest that overturned the game’s original ending, requiring […]

Kazuo Matsui arrived in the United States looking like a superstar. The flamboyant orange-haired shortstop with an “iron man” reputation signed a three-year, $20 million contract with the New York Mets before the 2004 season. His contract terms, including a travel allowance, housing, and interpreters, were almost exactly the same as the deal signed by […]

The Cleveland Indians’ 1985 season featured a cavalcade of wild and wacky moments. The Indians opened the campaign with five straight losses, were forced to take early-morning fielding practice a week into the season,1 literally lost their best hitter for a game in New York,2 saw their ace put up an “obscene gesture” toward Baltimore’s […]

Looking back on it now, it was something akin to a 1972 moviegoer watching the final scene of The Godfather and immediately thinking, “I hope they make another one.” Sequels were not commonplace then, but it seemed everyone wanted to see more of Michael Corleone and his trigger-happy family. So it was with the September […]

When Willie Montanez walked to the plate from the on-deck circle he would flip his bat end over end like a baton. When he swung and missed he had a high, circular finish reminiscent of a matador twirling his sword at a charging bull. At first base, he would sometimes tap runners on the rear […]

Stan Benjamin used to say, “If they let you steal first base, I would have batted a thousand.”1 He was easygoing with a great sense of humor, often self-deprecating. His personality must have been forged early in life because a cartoon of the top regional high-school football players in 1932 labeled him “happy-go-lucky” and showed […]

For 40 years, the Chicago White Sox wandered in the wasteland of baseball as the Israelites had once wandered in the Sinai desert. Was it punishment for their sinful dealings in the 1919 World Series? No one can say for sure, but in 1959, absolution was at hand. A member of that 1959 White Sox […]

“I never wanted to be a superstar, or the highest paid player,” Don Sutton said. “[A]ll I wanted was to be appreciated for the fact that I was consistent, dependable, and you could count on me.”1 By that measure, Sutton achieved his goal and more, as few pitchers in baseball history were as reliable, and […]

Joe Pignatano was almost out of baseball within a month of his debut. Instead, his mother intervened and he enjoyed 38 years in the game, 27 of those in the majors as a player and coach. He was the bullpen coach for the 1969 Miracle Mets, and the backup catcher to John Roseboro on the […]

When Calvin Griffith sold the Minnesota Twins in 1984, he was the one of the last of the family owners whose franchise represented their principal business and source of wealth. Griffith spent nearly his entire life in baseball, spending his young adulthood working in one capacity or another for the Washington Senators organization that his […]

Right-handed pitcher Renie (pronounced REE-nee) Martin spent 10 years in professional baseball, including all or parts of six seasons (1979-1984) with the Kansas City Royals, San Francisco Giants, and Philadelphia Phillies. In 1980, he was an early-season hero for the Royals’ first American League pennant-winning team, earning victories in six of his first seven starts […]

Rookie Granville Lyons received his first shot in the Negro Leagues in 1931 after Willie Bobo, the starting first baseman for the Nashville Elite Giants, died during winter ball on the West Coast following a night out in Tijuana, Mexico. Three years later, in July 1934, Lyons experienced quite the 11-day stretch in the Negro […]

This whippet-quick outfielder made jaw-dropping catches wherever he played. Unfortunately, he didn’t hit enough to stay in the majors. The only time he spent at the top was parts of the year with “The Worst Team That Money Could Buy,” the 1992 New York Mets. Yet as late as 2004, Pat Howell was still chasing […]