Search Results

In August 1985, The Cosby Show was tops on television, Back to the Future was a box-office hit, and Mike Young was one of baseball’s hottest hitters. That month, Young went deep nine times in a 14-game stretch for the Baltimore Orioles. He finished the season with 28 homers – 20 of which came after […]

This outfielder was the first member of the Lumbee people of Robeson County, North Carolina, to play in the majors. Throughout his playing days, Gene Locklear’s skill as an artist also got attention. “They are both individual things, and you have to have talent. You can’t just have desire,” Locklear said in 2005.1 One of […]

Often overshadowed by those of two older brothers, Kerry Don McDaniel’s brief career in baseball is remembered by a nickname – Butch – appended to him by a neighbor’s father but never used professionally by the athlete. Instead he laughingly remembered being known solely as the younger brother of Lindy or, a few years later, […]

Manny Mota never seemed to age. “He’s scary,” said Steve Garvey, his teammate with the Los Angeles Dodgers. “I wish just one spring he would show up with one gray hair.”1 That was in June 1979, a couple of months before the Dominican set the career record for pinch hits. Mota wound up with 150 […]

A strong, quiet, and athletic 205-pounder who stood 6-feet-2, wore glasses, batted from the left side, and threw right-handed, Norm Siebern split time between first base and the outfield for six major-league teams. Originally a Yankee, he played in two World Series for New York, and was part of the package the Yankees sent to […]

Acknowledgment to the work of Raúl Porto Cabrales and John Jairo Capella. Cartagena, Colombia, is a city of many charms. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it is known for its historic walled district and Spanish colonial architecture. Cartagena also has a pleasant Caribbean climate and beautiful beaches nearby. Yet it has another less heralded distinction […]

A no-hitter without a strikeout. Since 1901, there have been only four recorded in either the American or National Leagues. Given the current trend of hard-throwing starting pitchers with fastball velocities averaging in the mid-90s and almost a quarter of plate appearances ending in strikeouts, there will likely never be another. Deadball Era hurlers Pete […]

Sixteen games into the 1939 season, Cubs player-manager Gabby Hartnett had seen enough. The defending National League champions had just lost 10-3 to the New York Giants on May 7 to fall into sixth place. Hartnett announced the benching of some lineup regulars, including team captain Billy Herman. Unsatisfactory play, not hustling, and low batting […]

Per Bobby Valentine, on the eve of what was to be the most important game of Bobby Jones’s baseball life, Jones’s wife, Kristi, spoke briefly with the Mets manager. Kristi said to Valentine, “Is Bobby pitching tomorrow?” After Valentine said, “Yes, he is,” Kristi said, “You won’t be sorry. He’ll pitch the game of his […]

The game between the Atlanta Braves and Colorado Rockies was one of the most exciting games of the year at Coors Field. The Braves entered the game with a 76-48 record, 2½ games ahead of the second-place New York Mets in the National League East Division. The Rockies were 62-63, good enough for fourth place, […]

The contrast between the two teams could not have been starker. The mighty Pirates, one of the oldest franchises in baseball, were perched atop the NL East standings, while the last-place Expos were struggling to compete in what was only their second year of existence. A few weeks earlier, Pittsburgh had christened monolithic Three Rivers […]

The game on Thursday, May 1, 1958, pitting the Pirates against the née Brooklynites, came in the midst of the Bucs’ first visit to Los Angeles after the Dodgers’ relocation. In the first two games of the five-game series, the Pirates prevailed, and would do so again in the third contest. Indeed, the game itself […]

Philadelphia Phillies manager Eddie Sawyer faced a dilemma. Who would pitch the first game of the World Series? His ace, Robin Roberts, had started three games in five days, including a 10-inning pennant-clinching effort on the last day of the season. He needed rest. Curt Simmons, whose 17 wins in the league were second only […]

“I knew I had a no-hitter after the first inning,” said Larry Dierker with an air of seriousness before breaking into a chuckle. “Walking back to the dugout, I wondered, ‘When was the last time I got through the first inning without giving up a hit?’”1 Dierker had come close to a no-hitter before. As […]

After winning the 1968 World Series, the Detroit Tigers seemed poised to be successful for years to come. They were a group of young players who had developed together since the early ‘’60s, led by veteran Al Kaline.They had overcome daunting adversity:From the 1967 Detroit Riots and the loss of the pennant on the final […]

When Dodgers player-manager Leo Durocher had Frenchy Bordagaray pinch-hit for him in the bottom of the fifth, the 5,010 paying fans at Ebbets Field witnessed the Lip’s final game as a player. During the offseason, Durocher signed a player-manager contract under which he not only managed Dem Bums for the 1945 season, but promised to […]

The Detroit Tigers, led by player-manager Ty Cobb, got off to a slow start in the 1925 season. Going into St. Louis in early May for a four-game series against the Browns, the Tigers had a 4-13 record with one tie. The team was stuck in the American League cellar and had yet to win […]

Less than a week before the 1944 midsummer classic, Boston’s “All-Star squad quartet”1 of second baseman Bobby Doerr, right fielder Pete Fox, pitcher Tex Hughson, and left fielder Bob Johnson paced the Red Sox to a 13-3 thrashing of the Detroit Tigers. A crowd of 5,146 at Fenway Park saw all nine of Boston’s starters […]

For the second time in 18 days, a sellout crowd of over 55,000 came to Yankee Stadium hoping to witness right-handed starter Roger Clemens’ 300th career win.1 Clemens, who had begun his career with the Red Sox and won three Cy Young Awards there, had won number 299 in Boston on May 21, beating Red […]

Many of the 25,884 fans in San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium on August 23, 1986, were looking forward to a postgame concert featuring The Monkees, an iconic rock group of the 1960s on their 20-year reunion tour.1 But the afternoon’s main attraction was a baseball game between the hometown Padres and the visiting Philadelphia Phillies. […]

In 1932 the MVP winners in both the American and National Leagues plied their trade in Philadelphia. A’s first baseman Jimmie Foxx won the AL award by blasting 58 home runs, more than any other hitter in the city’s professional baseball history. A mile away, Phillies outfielder Chuck Klein gained the NL’s accolade by slugging […]

“This was the best I’ve put all my pitches together this season,” said Jim Bunning of his overpowering victory over the Cincinnati Reds.1 In what Philadelphia Phillies beat writer Allen Lewis described as a “dandy display of power pitching,” Bunning matched his personal high with 14 strikeouts to win his eighth straight decision, equaling his […]

The Philadelphia Phillies captured the 1983 National League pennant with hitting and pitching metrics above league average. The team’s major weakness was defense; it was tied for the third most errors in the NL. Despite a major turnover in personnel in the offseason, the 1984 Phillies team had some similarities with their 1983 counterparts. Both […]

Every player goes through it. The speed slows just a bit, the reflexes do not fire as quickly as they once did, and there is someone waiting to take the player’s job. The impending task of finding a career after their baseball career becomes paramount. It is hard on the fans too, especially if the […]