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The Yankees were expecting a huge crowd at the Polo Grounds on May 11, 1919, for the first American League game to be played on a Sunday in New York. After all, the Giants had played to a full house in the same ballpark the week before for the first Sunday game for either league […]
The largest crowd to ever watch a baseball game was 115,300 at the Los Angeles Coliseum on Saturday, March 29, 2008, for an exhibition between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the reigning World Series champion Boston Red Sox.1 It outdrew the crowd of “about 114,000”2 who had seen a game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground […]
“Bob Trice has richly earned this reward,” proclaimed Ottawa Athletics manager Frank Skaff, in response to Trice’s September 1953 call-up by Philadelphia’s American League club.1 There was no doubt that Trice’s promotion was warranted. The 27-year-old right-hander had successfully made the jump from the Class C (Québec) Provincial League to the International League that season, […]
“ ‘Now they want a Bill Veeck Night! It’s a good idea, but here’s another suggestion. Let’s have a ‘Joe Earley Night.’ “I pay my rent and my landlord spends it on things that keep business stimulated. I keep the gas station attendant in business by buying gas regularly. I keep the milkman in clover […]
Less than two years after the Los Angeles Dodgers selected him in the first round of the June 2006 amateur draft, Clayton Kershaw made an impressive major-league debut. He pitched six innings, struck out seven, and held the St. Louis Cardinals to two runs as the Dodgers won 4-3 in 10 innings on May 25, […]
The New York Mets were 12-10 in 2002 as they began a weekend series at home against the Milwaukee Brewers in late April. The Mets had missed the postseason in 2001, finishing third in the National League East Division with an 82-80 record. New York had made some changes to its roster in the offseason. […]
Eric Davis is described in his SABR biography as having “all the tools, and when his body was right, he was one heck of a ballplayer.”1 Unfortunately, he dealt with injuries for a good part of his amazing career, limiting his playing time. In 17 years in the major leagues, Davis never played more than […]
On August 2, 1997, Ryne Sandberg announced his second retirement from the Chicago Cubs, a season after the star second baseman had returned from his earlier retirement. “Everyone has their time,” Sandberg said. “My time has come.”1 He played his final game on September 28, the last day of the 1997 season, at St. Louis’s […]
“Oh, no, not Larry Jaster.” Many Dodgers players probably mumbled that and more when they found out that the 23-year-old left-hander for the St. Louis Cardinals would be starting against Los Angeles on April 24, 1967. Jaster faced the Dodgers five times in 1966 and racked up five shutouts. He had already seen them once […]
The 1972 AL East race was beginning to take shape when the Detroit Tigers visited Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium in late June for a three-game series with the Orioles. Through 56 games, Detroit was in front of the AL East with a one-game lead over the second-place Baltimore. The season had got off to a later-than-usual […]
The New York Yankees were hurting. The 1961 AL Fireman of the Year, Luis Arroyo, had not pitched since the end of April and was on the disabled list with a sore elbow.1 Mickey Mantle had torn a muscle in his right thigh on May 18 while running out a grounder for the final out […]
The largest crowd to witness a baseball game in Canada so far, 59,260 boisterous fans, jammed Montreal’s Olympic Stadium for a doubleheader between the Expos and Pittsburgh Pirates on July 27, 1979.1 The fans had plenty of reasons to be enthusiastic that evening. Not only were the Expos involved in the first real pennant race […]
The New York Mets were at the end of a brief but miserable road trip. They had lost four of the previous six games and were ready to return home to Shea Stadium. Their time on the road was marred by Vince Coleman’s misdeed on July 24 when he threw a powerful M-100 firecracker out […]
The baseball season is long enough that on any given day, a team like the 1962 New York Mets can channel the power of the 1927 Yankees. And when the lousy team lays it on the good one, the sweetest revenge is a shutout win the next night, with a triple play thrown in for […]
“[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 phrase “first-place Montreal Expos” still had a novel ring when the Expos met the Philadelphia Phillies on the night of May 15, 1974. That season was Montreal’s sixth in the National League, and the first in which the Expos held first place at any point after the end of April. Gene Mauch’s Expos entered […]
On October 28, 2011, the St. Louis Cardinals won their 11th World Series championship. Among those celebrating with the team was 88-year-old Red Schoendienst, who had first tasted World Series victory as a young second baseman for the Cardinals in 1946. Sixty-five years after he savored his first World Series win, Schoendienst was still an […]
A hitting star for more than a decade in the minor leagues, Joe Hicks batted over .380 twice and compiled a career batting average of .313 while playing in the White Sox, Senators, and Mets farm systems. Hicks’s major-league career was brief and a lot less successful (a .221 career average in 416 official at-bats), […]
Baseball suffered during the depression years of the 1930s and was further affected by the player shortage during World War II. The war ended and veterans returned to a free country with a robust economy. Peace and prosperity meant it was time to fill rosters and take in a game. Joe Mayer was a young […]
He pitched 18 seasons in the major leagues but for Grant Jackson, it all came down to one inning in the final game ever played in the 1970s. It was familiar territory for the left-hander. Eight years before, the Baltimore Orioles took a lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1971 World Series, which culminated with […]
St. Louis Cardinals catcher Darrell Porter leapt into the waiting arms of relief pitcher Bruce Sutter after the last out of the 1982 World Series. Fireworks lit up the sky above Busch Stadium. Fans roared with delight; many jumped onto the field and joined the celebration. Porter, voted the Series MVP, said afterward, “I didn’t […]
“For quickness in getting rid of the ball and accuracy, I’d have to pick Grote”1 — Lou Brock If one were to visit Shea Stadium on October 17, 1969, the first thing they may have noticed was the condition of the playing field. The turf was shredded, causing big holes all over. Firecrackers and […]
“He would come in and relieve Satchel, and when they put Johnson out there, we thought we’d have it easy then. And he would come in and throw harder than Satchel did! Just like jumpin’ from the frying pan into the fire.” – Warren Peace, Newark Eagles1 Connie Johnson made his White major-league debut […]
Juan Berenguer combined a high-90s fastball and a menacing appearance to become the first Panamanian-born pitcher to win a World Series ring, starting 27 games for the Detroit Tigers in their 1984 championship season. And he did it again three years later, earning the monikers “Señor Smoke” and “El Gasolino” for the 1987 Twins. Berenguer […]