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Delivered from minor-league limbo in 1979 as a pinch-hitting specialist with the World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates, Mike Easler assumed a larger role as a platoon left fielder when injuries jeopardized Pittsburgh’s title defense in 1980. Easler’s play as the platoon’s lefty-swinging half heralded his arrival as a big-league slugger, most prominently when he hit […]

Rookie knuckleballer Tim Wakefield boosted the Pittsburgh Pirates to their third consecutive National League East Division crown in 1992 after getting called up in July to fortify a shorthanded starting rotation. With the Pirates trailing the Atlanta Braves two games to none in the NL Championship Series, Wakefield continued his late-season infusion, tossing a five-hit […]

The Florida Marlins were in their fourth season in 1996. Their record had improved each year since they joined the National League as an expansion franchise in 1993, and they hoped a series of free-agent signings in the 1995-96 offseason would make them, according to general manager Dave Dombrowski, a playoff contender.1 Veteran starters Kevin […]

On Saturday, August 2, 1975, in the midst of a ferocious regional heat wave, the western Massachusetts town of Chester reported a temperature of 107 degrees. So did the city of New Bedford, on the state’s southern coast.1 As of January 2021, these readings remained the hottest officially recorded temperatures in the history of Massachusetts.2 […]

On September 3, 1964, Don Larsen of the lowly Houston Colt .45s tossed a four-hit shutout against the first-place Philadelphia Phillies at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia.1 Larsen allowed only six baserunners en route to his first whitewash in more than five years.2 Phillies third baseman Dick Allen, who was favored to win the National […]

On April 16, 1972, Apollo 16, NASA’s eighth of nine manned lunar missions, took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. On that same day, some 3,000 miles away in Anaheim, California, there was another blast-off of sorts. The Texas Rangers, behind eight strong innings by hard-throwing right-hander Pete Broberg, won their first-ever game. After 11 mainly […]

For nearly two months in the summer of 1981, major-league stadiums were empty. On June 12, after a year of negotiations failed to produce an agreement on the structure of baseball’s free-agent compensation system, the players voted to strike. With the work stoppage still in progress on July 14, the All-Star Game was postponed. Instead, […]

Johnny Markham must have looked long and hard at Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe. He knew what the signal meant and it must have been somewhat of a relief, even though it would load the bases. After all, who would want to pitch to Josh Gibson at all, let alone with freezing hands in Game Three […]

With Washington’s new ballpark due to open, the Nationals lobbied Major League Baseball to let the team to start the National League season on ESPN’s Sunday-night game, March 30, 2008.1Despite the team’s dim prospects, MLB granted the request, putting Washington in the national spotlight for an opener for the first time since the Senators left […]

Baseball insiders and fans were asking a lot of questions as the World Series opener loomed. Would Ernie Lombardi and Lonny Frey be ready to play? Lombardi had suffered a severely sprained ankle chasing a pop foul at Ebbets Field on September 15. Frey bruised and broke a big toe on September 28 when a […]

Roman candles and bottle rockets lit up the evening sky on the Fourth of July in the Twin Cities. In the afternoon the Minnesota Twins produced baseball fireworks in the first game of a doubleheader at Metropolitan Stadium against the Chicago White Sox. It was the summer of 1961, and fans were coming out in […]

Two years after Sports Illustrated published his spoof on the adventures of Hayden (Siddhartha, Sidd) Finch in the New York Mets’ 1985 spring-training camp, the ever-creative George Plimpton1 expanded the April 1, 1985, classic into a 275-page novel, also titled The Curious Case of Sidd Finch.2 SABR revisited the April foolery with a 30-year retrospective […]

“Ebbets Field just isn’t the same.” – Roscoe McGowen1 Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field was a special place for baseball fans of all ages. Baseball’s literature tells the story of the National League’s Brooklyn Superbas, Robins, and Dodgers – over 3,400 games in 45 seasons (1913-1957) and 28 World Series games in nine different postseasons.2 Ask any […]

Al Barlick rose from a Midwestern coal-mining family to a long career as a major-league umpire and eventual election to baseball’s Hall of Fame, the sixth umpire to be so honored. He gave his adult life to baseball and umpiring, working 57 years (1936-1993) in the game. Albert Joseph Barlick was born on April 2, […]

“Crooked Arm” Cremins faced 24 batters in the major leagues and four of them scored. The lefty pitcher from just outside New York had already met Albert Einstein when he was taken under the wing of Hall of Fame pitcher Iron Man Joe McGinnity. He faced Babe Ruth, had a long career connected with boxing, […]

The New York Yankees dynasty began with Jacob Ruppert Jr. When Ruppert purchased the franchise in January 1915 with his partner, the improbably named Tillinghast L’Hommedieu Huston, it was one of the American League’s most hapless teams. The previous owners, a gambler and a shady ex-police chief with Tammany Hall connections, had run a shoestring […]

Signed as a lanky, 16-year-old amateur free agent by the Detroit Tigers in December 1992, Juan Encarnación was the embodiment of a five-tool, can’t miss prospect. He could hit for average and power, run, play any of the three outfield positions with above-average range, and throw. He was blessed with all the tools for success. […]

In the first 150 years of professional baseball, more major leaguers came from Pennsylvania than any state but California.1 Only one — John “Brode” Shovlin — was born in the tiny coal-mining town of Drifton.2 A diminutive middle-infielder with only 18 games spread over nine years and a .209 career batting average, Shovlin went eight […]

Red Thisted never saw a professional baseball game until he was 20 years old. He made up for lost time, though. Over the course of four decades, he attended every home game played my Milwaukee’s ballclub, plus all of the away games when not prevented by wartime travel restrictions. From the start of the 1926 […]

As the Washington Senators’ 1938 spring training got underway in Orlando, Florida, no player was more anxious to get started in the warm air and brilliant sunshine than veteran outfielder John Thomas Stone. A respected American League veteran, John Stone had enjoyed a successful campaign in 1937, posting a .330 batting average in 139 games […]

When the Detroit Tigers took the field at Yankee Stadium on October 3, 1990, for the final game of the regular season, it didn’t feel like a momentous event. Only 13,380 fans were present on a Wednesday night to watch the home team finish the season in last place. The Tigers, who also had a […]

Consider the two nearly identical rookie seasons below:   AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI AVG Player #1 464 59 127 22 5 20 68 .274 Player #2 482 75 128 23 5 20 56 .266   These highly acclaimed prospects started 18 years apart. Both were center fielders, blessed with power and speed. […]

On September 21, 2001, amid heavy security, 41,235 fans1 filed into Shea Stadium for the first baseball game to be played in New York City after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Only a week before, the ballpark had served as a staging and relief area for rescue workers, and at the time there was debate […]

“I had a gift. That’s about all there was to it.” – Bill Byrd1 A Negro League ballplayer had no greater testimonial to his individual play than selection to the annual East-West All-Star Game. Of those who were pitchers, only three appeared in seven or more games. Leon Day led the way with nine, followed […]