Search Results

Rickey Henderson spent 2001 in pursuit of long-established records and exclusive hitting clubs. In his second tour with the San Diego Padres and 23rd major-league season, the 42-year-old Henderson broke Babe Ruth’s lifetime big-league walks record, then neared all-time marks for runs scored and games played in left field, as well as his 3,000th career […]

Joaquín Andújar was running out of time. Bruce Sutter was, too. When the St. Louis Cardinals opened a season-ending three-game series against the National League East Division champion Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on September 28, 1984, Andújar was making his fourth attempt to win his 20th game. Sutter, meanwhile, needed one save to tie […]

Pete Rose’s 24-season career, spent entirely in the National League, included 17 All-Star Game appearances and three batting titles. He won the NL Rookie of the Year Award in 1963 and the Most Valuable Player Award in 1973. Rose played on three World Series champions and was the World Series MVP in 1975, when his […]

Montreal Expos manager Tom Runnells raised more than a few eyebrows during spring training in 1992 when he proclaimed his squad was “the team to beat” in the National League East.1 Although they had a promising group of young ballplayers, Montreal had finished dead last in the division in 1991 and a worst-to-first turnaround defied […]

Is it better to start a World Series with a rested team or with one riding the wave of momentum? The defending World Series champion New York Yankees clinched the 1962 American League pennant on September 25, five days before the end of the season.1 In the National League, the San Francisco Giants trailed the […]

It was the “best pitching in my career,” exclaimed an elated Johnny Kucks after the struggling pitcher’s improbable three-hit shutout in Game Seven of the 1956 World Series.1 After losing the first two games of the Series, the New York Yankees’ 9-0 thrashing of the reigning title-holding Dodgers in Brooklyn was a “loud and emphatic […]

When the regular season ends on a Sunday afternoon in late September or early October, baseball fans are of two minds. Some try to relax their nerves readying for the postseason baseball of their favorite team. Others just go home, anticipating the “hot stove league”1 that helps alleviate the anxiety or boredom of the long […]

By the time Corky Miller had been three weeks in the major leagues, observers had him pretty well pegged: solid catcher, excellent handler of pitchers, “and a great guy to have in the clubhouse.”1 Also, because of his limitations as a hitter, a guy “more likely to play out his career in Chattanooga and Indianapolis” […]

Lew Burdette had been close twice before. He had hurled two one-hitters — in 1954 and 1957 — but the third time proved to be charmed as he no-hit the Philadelphia Phillies 1-0 the night of August 18, 1960, in front of 16,338 fans. The day of the game had been a difficult one for […]

“Getting the American league franchise formerly held by Philadelphia was a glorious triumph for the Kansas City spirit. … [H]undreds of thousands of supporters are atingle for the opening of the big league era the A’s now bring.” — Kansas City Star, April 11, 19551   Philadelphia had been home to Connie Mack’s Athletics since […]

On a day when a sparse crowd was hoping to see its home team sweep its first series of the season, Atlanta Braves fans left the game with a shocking surprise. With a 5-0 lead in the ninth inning, a Braves victory seemed a sure thing. Even after their reliable closer gave up two singles […]

For 20-year-old Jerry Walker, only two years removed from high school in Ada, Oklahoma, it was a fairytale ending to his third season with the Baltimore Orioles. Starting against the league-leading Chicago White Sox on September 11, 1959, Walker threw 16 shutout innings in the second game of a doubleheader at Memorial Stadium. in Baltimore. […]

Rusty Staub’s 23-season career was dotted with distinctions that established him as a consistently productive hitter, though not quite a Hall of Famer. Staub retired in 1985 as the first man to have collected at least 500 hits with each of four different teams.1 And he trailed only the legendary Ty Cobb as the second […]

Ted Williams hit the first of his 521 major-league home runs on Sunday afternoon, April 23, 1939, at Fenway Park against the visiting Philadelphia Athletics. It was the Red Sox’ fourth game of the season. Twelve thousand fans had come out to see the game despite it being a rather cold and rainy day. The […]

Life was hard for an Appalachian coal miner and his family in the 1920s and 1930s. So it was for Lloyd “Whitey” Moore. His father died when the lad was 13. He and his older brother Lester dropped out of school and found employment to support their mother and younger brother. Lloyd Albert Moore was […]

Gary Gaetti did it all over 20 seasons (1981-2000) for five major-league teams. He spent the first decade of his career with the Minnesota Twins, where he was a two-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner at third base. In 1987, when the Twins won the first championship in franchise history, he was the MVP […]

Over the years, the Red Sox have had players on their roster who were perhaps better known for the uniqueness of their name than for anything they did on the playing field. You may recall Jennings Poindexter, Carmen Fanzone, Creighton Gubanich, Gar Finnvold, Izzy Alcantara, Win Remmerswaal, Osee Schrecongost, Hipolito Pichardo, and Arquimedez Pozo, to […]

Pedro Cepeda, better known as Perucho, was the first player considered a superstar in Puerto Rican professional baseball. He began playing baseball when there was no formal professional baseball league on the island. About 5-feet-11-inches tall, he could play in various positions, both in the infield and the outfield, and was a consistent hitter who […]

Ken Holcombe was a Jehovah’s Witness who first caught the attention of big-league scouts at a tryout camp. A right-handed pitcher of modest stature, he was 5-foot-11 and listed at 169 pounds. Kenneth Edward Holcombe was born in Burnsville, North Carolina, on August 23, 1918, to Lee Polk Holcombe and Eula Pansy (Wilson) Holcombe. Lee […]

“How does it feel to be the smallest player in the majors,” a Houston reporter asked Fred Patek in 1968. “A heck of a lot better than being the tallest player in the minors,” countered the rookie shortstop.1 Patek’s quip matched his quickness on the field and the basepaths for 14 years in the major […]

When the New York Mets obtained minor leaguer Don Bosch in a trade with Pittsburgh, on December 6, 1966, anticipation ran high. Bosch was touted to be as good defensively as Willie Mays, and for the Mets and their fans, it seemed that their search for a reliable center fielder was finally over. To acquire […]

He made his big-league debut on a day when Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed thousands of civil rights marchers on the Boston Common, and flourished as a pitcher during the Summer of Love. As he struggled with injuries, Americans grappled with the strain of assassinations, racial riots, and the escalating Vietnam War. Jim Lonborg’s […]

Note: On Wednesday morning, April 23, 2014, Conrado Marrero passed away quietly in his native Havana, Cuba, marking the end to one of the most celebrated and tenacious baseball lives on record. The sad news comes less than two days before the seemingly ageless Cuban legend would have reached his 103rd birthday, extending a remarkable […]

The San Diego Padres celebrated their 50th season in Major League Baseball in 2019. (SAN DIEGO PADRES)   San Diego’s quest for major-league baseball began earnestly in the mid- to late 1950s, around the time California’s largest cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco, ascended to “the bigs.” Home of the Pacific Coast League Padres since […]