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Pete Rose’s return to the Cincinnati Reds on August 17, 1984, marked a high point in a desperately low season for the team. At 51-70, the Reds had little left to play for and only the San Francisco Giants gave the Reds a cushion from the dampness of the NL West basement. Rose, Cincinnati-born and […]

The Chicago White Sox exploded, according to sportswriter Robert Markus of the Chicago Tribune, “like so many 4th of July skyrockets” on Wednesday, July 7th, knocking off the Detroit Tigers, 7-0.1 This game signaled the emergence of a new offensive threat, 23-year-old Harold Baines. The third-year player walloped three consecutive home runs, one of which […]

On June 10, 1991, Major League Baseball awarded one of the two National League expansion franchises, set to begin play at the start of the 1993 season, to South Florida businessman H. Wayne Huizenga. Part-owner of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, Huizenga paid the $95 million expansion fee but looked at ownership of the Florida Marlins […]

After falling nine games off the pace on May 8 and treading water during the month of August, the Los Angeles Dodgers battled back to finish the 2018 season with a record of 91-71, tied for first in the National League West Division with the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies won nine of their final 10 […]

Willie Mays became just the fourth major leaguer to hit at least three home runs twice in one season. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)   One week after a legendary four-homer performance,1 the Say Hey Kid stood on the steps of Connie Mack Stadium, looking out at a cool, foggy May 6 night. He patiently […]

The 1961 American League baseball season ushered in change. The Washington Senators moved to Minnesota, becoming the Twins. It was the inaugural season for two new expansion teams, the Los Angeles Angels and the new Washington Senators. Julio Becquer also experienced change as the season got under way. Beginning in 1955, Becquer had played for […]

Nolan Ryan debuted in the major leagues with the New York Mets as a teenager in September 1966, joining the team full-time in 1968. It was the start of a 27-year Hall of Fame career in which he set numerous records for pitching excellence. In 1990 Ryan was the ace of the Texas Rangers pitching […]

On Saturday, July 10, 1926, the temperature in Washington reached 99 degrees, the hottest day of the year. In the late afternoon and evening, heavy storms rumbled through the city, downing trees and blowing glass from windows. The next morning, the Washington Post reported the storm’s toll in graphic headlines – “ARTERY OF WOMAN’S ARM […]

After a hard-fought Game One of the 1924 World Series in which Washington fell to the New York Giants, 4-3 in 12 innings, it was thought the Senators had shaken their jitters off and were more confident going into Game Two. Senators skipper Bucky Harris called on 28-year-old left-hander Tom Zachary, a 15-game winner who […]

Pitcher Andy Messersmith made a deep impact on the Angels’ record book during his five seasons with the team. While some fans might remember him as a Los Angeles Dodger or a free-agent signing with the Atlanta Braves, Messersmith began his career in the majors as an Angel from 1968 to 1972. At the start […]

Baseball is a humbling game. On any given day, even one of the league’s best hitters can look lost at the plate and fail miserably in the clutch. That’s exactly what happened to New York Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez against the Philadelphia Phillies on August 14, 1985. Hernandez, the National League’s batting champion and […]

Jay Bell stepped into the batter’s box in Minneapolis wearing his Cleveland uniform for the first time. The date was September 29, 1986, the place the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, and not only was this Bell’s first major-league game as a player, it was also the first major-league game he ever attended. The Cleveland Indians […]

In the long history of the Rookie of the Year Award, Butch Metzger gained the dubious distinction as the recipient with the fewest innings played over a major-league career. This was a bizarre idea to teammates and coaches alike, who once projected a far more productive path for the righthander. In 1976, Metzger tied Hooks […]

Whenever the subject of best baseball names comes up, Scipio Spinks is sure to be on the short list. A classic wild flamethrower, Spinks was breaking through to success in 1972. If he hadn’t torn up his knee in a collision with Johnny Bench, he would have more to show than a career record of […]

“[Joe] Taylor has such a vile reputation that I guess I couldn’t have the remotest interest in him, but he impressed me very much as a player.” – Branch Rickey1 “When Taylor is ‘right’ he is definitely a Major League hitter. He has great reflexes, terrific wrist action and tremendously quick hands. He has as much […]

The game meant nothing. Well, virtually nothing. The Detroit Tigers were ending a three-game series in Cleveland looking for a sweep after taking the first two contests. But that was all that Detroit was playing for on August 14, 1958. The Tigers and Indians were playing out the string, holding down fourth and fifth place […]

An aggressive right-hander who threw mostly fastballs, Roger Erickson pitched six years in the majors (1978-1983) for the Twins and Yankees. One of the top rookies of 1978, he bounced back from elbow surgery to enjoy another fine season, but threw his last big-league pitch at age 26 because of shoulder woes. Roger Farrell Erickson […]

From 1960 through 1964, Cuban righty Ed Bauta pitched in one full major-league season and parts of four others with the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets. Bauta wasn’t a strikeout artist, averaging between five and six K’s per nine innings throughout his recorded pro baseball career. He relied on a sinker, thrown from […]

Jackie Robinson in a portrait with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. (SABR-RUCKER ARCHIVE)   Jackie Robinson is perhaps the most historically significant baseball player ever, ranking with Babe Ruth in terms of his impact on the national pastime. Ruth changed the way baseball was played; Jackie Robinson changed the way Americans thought. When Robinson took […]

They were as synchronized as a barbershop quartet, as harmonious as Motown’s Four Tops, and as strong as Marvel’s Fantastic Four. From June 1973 through 1981, the Los Angeles Dodgers’ infield of first baseman Steve Garvey, second baseman Davey Lopes, shortstop Bill Russell, and third baseman Ron Cey remained intact. Cey earned six of the […]

“Some people say he was the greatest African American player ever. That may be so — I don’t know — but what seems clear is that he was the best black player of his time.” — Monte Irvin   The story of John Henry “Pop” Lloyd has many facets. It is a story of communities […]

In a four-year voyage to an all-too brief career in big league baseball, Val Heim embarked in 1938 from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He sailed on to Jackson, Mississippi, Jonesboro, Arkansas, and Waterloo, Iowa, before commencing his big-league career at Comiskey Park in Chicago, Illinois, in late August 1942. His excursion began with an […]

When the expansion Kansas City Royals hired Cedric Tallis as the team’s GM, he assumed an almost impossible task. Before the first expansion season was even half over in 1969, Kansas City owner Ewing Kauffman was proclaiming that a glorious future was not far away. A hard-driving yet generous pharmaceutical entrepreneur, Kauffman publicly stated that […]

Jim Landis had a memorable stint with the Go-Go White Sox of the late 1950s, and is considered to be one of the best defensive center fielders in big-league history. He also played with the Kansas City Athletics, Cleveland Indians, Houston Astros, and Detroit Tigers before finishing his career with a short but memorable stint […]