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The 1993 Los Angeles Dodgers didn’t win the World Series, the National League pennant, or the NL West Division. Truth is, they were a .500 ballclub. But after a season-ending 12-1 blitzkrieg of the rival San Francisco Giants leveled their record at 81-81, the Dodgers couldn’t help but celebrate as though they had achieved something […]

Opened to baseball on April 19, 1984, Pfitzner Stadium is plopped in the heart of the McCourt Government Center in Woodbridge, Virginia, seating 6,000.1 The “Pfitz” has been the home of several incarnations of a Class-A franchise, the Potomac Nationals, under the ownership of Art Silber. The field has never drained well. On the evening […]

On a blustery afternoon at Three Rivers Stadium, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Montreal Expos launched the 1979 season toward its down-to-the-wire destiny. Foreshadowing the tightly contested division race ahead – if not its ultimate outcome – Montreal’s Steve Rogers frustrated Pirates batters and baserunners and dueled Bert Blyleven to a draw, and the Expos spun […]

After bolstering their pennant-winning roster with high-profile free agents Reggie Jackson and Don Gullett, the New York Yankees skidded into last place in the American League East two weeks into the 1977 season. Manager Billy Martin responded with a revamped batting order, purportedly drawn from a hat, on April 20 against the Toronto Blue Jays […]

“Once a Designated Hitter assumes a defensive position this move shall terminate the Designated Hitter role for the remainder of the game.” — 1973 American League regulations, Section 2.71   On September 25, 1973, New York Yankees manager Ralph Houk managed himself out of a designated hitter. In so doing, he might have managed himself […]

One of just two Philadelphia Athletics to make the 1934 American League All-Star roster, third baseman Mike “Pinky” Higgins was the subject of gossip that offseason that he might be sold to the New York Yankees for as much as $50,000. Owner-manager Connie Mack was peppered with questions about the proposed deal in January 1935 […]

Since 1881, 30 major-league players have hit an ultimate grand slam.1 This rare feat happens when a player hits a bases-loaded walk-off home run with his team down by three runs in its final at-bat. In essence, it gives the home team a one-run margin of victory. The list of ultimate grand slam hitters includes […]

The 1999 American League Division Series shifted back to a sold-out Jacobs Field1 for a Monday night winner-take-all Game Five between the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox had retreated to Fenway Park down two games to none after losing Game Two on October 7, unsure if their ace Pedro Martinez would […]

An ugly incident on July 3, 1965, between budding superstar Dick Allen and veteran bench player Frank Thomas threatened to tear the Philadelphia Phillies apart. It began with some verbal sparring during batting practice and quickly escalated. Allen punched Thomas, who responded by striking Allen on the shoulder with his bat.1 It took seven or […]

Mike Schmidt began 1987 needing five home runs for admission to baseball’s 500-home-run club. On a sunny April afternoon in Pittsburgh, he punched his ticket with a ninth-inning game-winner, rescuing the Phillies from collapse and sinking a Pirates’ comeback. Already entrenched among the game’s all-time greats,1 Schmidt bolstered his legend in 1986 by posting a […]

Selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the second round of the 1983 MLB amateur draft, Bob Milacki garnered little attention with a pedestrian record of 16-21, 3.79 in his first 290 innings in the minor leagues. “I’d been in the organization [three] years and never impressed anybody,” the right-hander later acknowledged.1 In 1988, as the […]

For those who saw Tim McCarver break in with the St. Louis Cardinals, it was probably a surprise that he became better known for his broadcasting career than for his days as a catcher. Not that he wasn’t always articulate and glib, and that his finding a home in the broadcast booth was a shock; […]

The routine remains one of the enduring spectacles in modern baseball history: In a heavy downpour, with the infield covered by a tarpaulin and the fans huddled beneath umbrellas or hunched over in ponchos in an attempt to ward off the rain, the second coming of Babe Ruth approaches home plate with the same small, […]

When looking back at the career of Rick “The Rooster” Burleson, the fiery, intense shortstop of the Boston Red Sox, California Angels and Baltimore Orioles from 1974 to 1987, a quotation from former teammate Bill Lee perhaps sums it up best: “Some guys didn’t like to lose, but Rick got angry if the score was […]

If reviewing the list of examples of baseball stars who fell victim to the fabled sophomore jinx, you are sure to find the name of Joe Charboneau near the top. Charboneau captured the imagination of Indians fans during the summer of 1980 like no other player since Rocky Colavito. However, the man called “Super Joe” […]

Infielder Bill Ripken attacked the game of baseball with reckless abandon and paid the price, sustaining an inordinate number of injuries during his career. He never changed his all-out, hustling style of play, earning the reputation of a player who left it all on the field. The Ripkens were a baseball family. Bill’s father, Cal Ripken […]

In major-league baseball when a team dominates its opponents for several years, it’s usually because it has a solid nucleus of players. For instance, in the early 1970s in the American League the Oakland Athletics captured three successive World Series. In the National League the Cincinnati Reds were a powerhouse. Both clubs had a strong […]

As the third-base coach on the 2004 Red Sox, Dale Sveum earned the first of two World Series rings that were the high points of a lengthy and multifaceted career in professional baseball. Through his efforts as a player, coach, and manager, the former high-school football star earned a reputation as a savvy, classy baseball man, […]

In June 1950 Jimmy Bloodworth, one of the oldest players on the Philadelphia Phillies youthful roster, quipped, “It took me 34 years to become a Whiz Kid.”1 In truth, Jimmy was soon to turn only 33 but that didn’t prevent him from another of the many wisecracks that endeared him to fans and teammates alike. […]

After the landmark Messersmith-McNally decision was handed down by arbitrator Peter Seitz in December 1975, the California Angels quickly engaged in what some pundits referred to as “checkbook baseball,” a process in which financially well-off teams like the Angels and the New York Yankees sought to bolster their rosters by bidding for the best free […]

“The bonus rule will ruin baseball if it isn’t curtailed,” proclaimed Branch Rickey, Pittsburgh Pirates general manager, in August 1952.”1 A revised rule was adopted by the major leagues that winter. Clubs were required to carry any player receiving a signing bonus of more than $4,000 on their major-league roster for a minimum of two […]

South Korean lefty Dae-Sung Koo was the 10th of his countrymen to play in the major leagues.1 He pitched part of one season with the New York Mets in 2005. Koo, who had previously played for 12 years in his homeland and Japan, was 35 years old when he signed with the Mets. In New […]

On August 29, 1977, Gene Richards was nearing the end of what was one of the finest rookie seasons in baseball history. His 56 stolen bases during that season were an all-time rookie record. However, on this particular evening, he stood silent at first base at San Diego Stadium, next to a man who had […]

“Combining a career since 1947 in professional baseball with an interest in stamps since age ten has brought a lifetime of enjoyment. To be able to combine these two childhood interests into business and pleasure in adulthood has been my good fortune.”1 Those were Elten Schiller’s words penned in a 1982 book he authored about […]