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After four years in the National League cellar, the New York Mets finally moved up to ninth in 1966 when they finished 66-95, a gain of 13 wins over their previous season high. Their success, such as it was, pushed the Chicago Cubs to the bottom of the league when their 59-103 mark left them […]

Whenever the New York Yankees were in Washington, Miller Huggins enjoyed spending time in the archives of the Library of Congress. With a passion for law, the Yankees’ manager would delve into the tomes available on the subject.1 After the second game of New York’s April 1925 series at Washington’s Griffith Stadium, there was something […]

The Triple-A Rochester Red Wings’ home opener against the Richmond Braves on April 22, 1971, brought together some baseball names on their way up, others on their way out – and one caught intriguingly in the middle. The future stars on the rise included Rochester’s Don Baylor and Bobby Grich and Richmond’s Darrell Evans, who […]

“It was not a tidy game, but an exciting one,” declared New York Times sports editor Arthur Daley about the Brooklyn Dodgers’ 8-5 victory over the New York Yankees in Game Four to even the World Series at two games each.1 Described by Times sportswriter John Drebinger as a “bruising contest of power hitting,” the […]

Against a Pittsburgh Pirates lineup whose first three batters were each hitting .300 or above (Maury Wills at .300, Matty Alou at .303, and Roberto Clemente at .344), New York Mets rookie Tom Seaver pitched his first major-league shutout in the first game of a doubleheader on August 13, 1967. New York’s 3-0 win was […]

The 1994 season was one of the darkest in baseball history. A players strike in August led to the first season in 90 years without a World Series, and fans were not happy. Average game attendance dropped by 6,000 fans from 1994 to 1995.1 Yet, in the two years between 1996 and 1998, total attendance […]

“There is a new heroic figure in the Cardinals picture,” gushed St. Louis sportswriter J. Roy Stockton after Roy “Tarzan” Parmelee emerged victorious in an epic 17-inning pitchers’ duel with Carl Hubbell to defeat the New York Giants, 2-1.1 Parmelee, who finished with a six-hitter, “gave a masterful demonstration of his skill,” opined John Drebinger […]

Game Two of the fall classic promised a potential pitchers’ duel between the Orioles’ Jim Palmer, a three-time AL Cy Young Award winner, and the Pirates’ curveball specialist Bert Blyleven. Palmer was a four-time World Series participant and two-time champion with a 7-2 postseason record, who had had returned in July from tendinitis in his […]

The magic number was 3 at County Stadium in Milwaukee on Saturday, May 14, 1983, as the Brewers hosted the Boston Red Sox. The temperature was brisk (53 degrees) but Ben Oglivie was hot, entering the game hitting .323 with a .427 on-base percentage. His bat would play a deciding role on this evening. The […]

When Warren Spahn took the hill for Game Four of the 1957 World Series, he had started two previous Series games, losing to Bob Lemon of Cleveland in 1948 and to Whitey Ford of the New York Yankees in 1957’s Game One. Would today be his day? He was up against Tom Sturdivant of the […]

Residents of Wampum, Pennsylvania, and neighboring towns cheered hometown hero Dick Allen at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field during his 1964 National League Rookie of the Year season with the Philadelphia Phillies, even honoring him in on-field ceremonies before three games against the host Pittsburgh Pirates. But Allen scuffled in Pittsburgh in ’64, batting .182 in nine […]

The 1969 Chicago White Sox didn’t fare well in other teams’ ballparks. En route to an American League-worst 27-54 road record, the team went 1-8 in Minnesota, 1-5 in Washington and New York, and 3-6 in Oakland, Seattle, and Kansas City.1 The White Sox did find one travel stop where they not only emerged undefeated […]

On the first Saturday of summer in 1986, Bo Jackson gave the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers a stiff-arm that would’ve made John Heisman proud. In a long-anticipated press conference held in Birmingham, Alabama, Jackson, the former Auburn University running back who six months earlier had won the trophy bearing Heisman’s name and iconic pose, rejected […]

In the 30-year period from 1957 to 1986, the Baltimore Orioles compiled the best record in the major leagues, collecting three World Series championships, six American League pennants, and eight division titles along the way. And then suddenly, after winning the 1983 World Series, the team went into a rapid decline, winning progressively fewer games […]

  Wahconah Park: an outdated barn or a precious relic? A swamp or a hallowed slab? A money pit or a landmark? After well over a century, the dichotomy persists. Baseball players were facing off there before Babe Ruth was born, before “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” was written, before architects sketched the […]

When the curtain came down on the 1948 regular season, the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox were both atop the American League standings, sporting identical 96-58 records. For the first time in the history of the junior circuit, a one-time, chips-in-the-middle-of-the-table, winner-take-all playoff game was played – on October 4, 1948, at Fenway […]

Less than two weeks into the 1968 season, Jon Warden had three victories to lead the American League in that category. That fact was quite unexpected considering the rookie left-hander was pitching out of the bullpen. National Guard service interrupted his 1968 season, but the tall hurler still performed well, especially on the road, and […]

He owned and operated the Kansas City and Oakland Athletics for 20 years. Nearly everyone, including fellow owners, players, the fans of his teams, the media, and the baseball commissioner, disliked or even despised him. When his team lost, he blamed everyone but himself. When they won, he was apt to call the radio booth […]

Jackie Robinson’s theft of home plate in Game One of the 1955 Fall Classic is widely considered one of the most electrifying moments in World Series history. Standing in the batter’s box as Robinson broke for home was Brooklyn Dodgers pinch-hitter Frank Kellert, who saw up close New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra’s tag, one […]

Sam Jones was an intimidating pitcher. He was big (6 feet 4 and 200 pounds), threw hard, had a massive sweeping curveball, and could be quite wild. Three times he led the National League in both strikeouts and walks (1955, 1956, and 1958). He narrowly missed this feat a fourth time in his finest season, […]

The big front page news in the Oroville (California) Mercury-Register on September 13, 1948, was the death of Julian Wera, a member of the fabled 1927 New York Yankees. Wera, the business manager of the Oroville Red Sox of the Class D Far West League, was found that morning dead in his apartment with a […]

When Phil Rizzuto went to his first Major League tryout, a New York Giants coach told him he was too small to play in the big leagues and suggested he should make a living by shining shoes.1 But in a later tryout with the Yankees, Rizzuto impressed scout Paul Krichell, who recommended they sign the […]

Many baseball greats have ended long careers without either playing in a World Series or earning a coveted championship ring. In contrast, Ed Mierkowicz, who appeared in only 35 major-league games, achieved both feats. As a 21-year-old rookie he was a late-inning defensive replacement for Hank Greenberg in the seventh game of the 1945 World […]

Juan Francisco Herrera Villavicencio played three years for the Philadelphia Phillies (1958; 1960-61). Yet that accomplishment just scratches the surface of Herrera as a ballplayer and a man. “Pancho” – or, as he was typically known in Cuba, “Panchón” – was a childhood idol to many who grew up in his homeland. He also played […]