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Michael Thomas “Mike” Roarke grew up playing ball in West Warwick, Rhode Island, starred in football and baseball at Boston College before graduating in 1952, built a reputation as a stellar catcher and handler of pitchers in the minor leagues in the 1950s, came to the Detroit Tigers in a multi-player trade with the Milwaukee […]

Few players have been as synonymous with a team as George Brett and the Kansas City Royals. Yet the amiable, self-deprecating, and sometimes volatile Brett never viewed himself as being greater than the team he loved. A throwback to an earlier time, Brett favored pine tar over batting gloves, chewing tobacco over bubble gum, and […]

Casey Stengel is best remembered for his managerial accomplishments with the juggernaut New York Yankees of the 1950s and the bumbling, beloved New York Mets of the early ’60s, but decades earlier he was a hard-hitting outfielder who compiled a .284 batting average over 14 seasons in the National League. Planting his right foot closer […]

One of the rarest things in baseball is a shut-down righty-lefty bullpen. Players, managers, and – let’s face it – agents, like relief roles defined. Today you have eighth-inning guys and ninth-inning guys. And if you’re lucky, you have hurlers who can form a human bridge from the starters to those players. Having two closers—one […]

Baseball is a young man’s game. A game of quick reflexes, short memories and the daily grind. In the opening week of the 2009 season, 22-year-old Nick Adenhart had already overcome an untimely Tommy John surgery and four seasons in the minor leagues to make the Los Angeles Angels’ Opening Day roster as their number-three […]

The major league baseball season is a marathon to be sure. A team’s journey is often fraught with periods of starts and stops, twists and turns, heartbreaking defeats and miraculous victories. Injuries, trades, and slumps test a manager’s mettle. For those fans who are fortunate enough to root for a team that is in the […]

Among a lifetime of lively anecdotes, perhaps none better evokes the colorful and adventurous life of Ed Burns than that told by another renowned sportswriter from the profession’s glory days, Red Smith. Writing four days after Burns’s untimely death, on January 27, 1955, at the age of 64, Smith suggested that his colleague “probably was […]

Every major leaguer dreams of making the postseason and hoisting the World Series trophy. A few will get to not only hoist the trophy, but be the hero of the World Series. Not many players can say that they hit a home run to win the deciding game of the World Series, or that they […]

“Al Benton, 45, once the relief pitching ace of the Tigers, now partly blind, was one jump ahead of the FBI on a car-theft charge today.”1 That’s the kind of news story that attracts attention. Indicted in May 1957 on charges of driving a stolen car from Sacramento to Oklahoma City three years earlier, Benton […]

On August 30, 1977, there were two numbers that headlined the baseball sections of the Cleveland dailies. Those numbers were 1 and 893, each representing baseball records at opposite ends of the spectrum. The evening before, the Cleveland Indians hosted the Chicago White Sox in a regionally-televised broadcast of ABC’s “Monday Night Baseball.” The White […]

Bryan Roberts Price was born in San Francisco, California, on June 22, 1962. He spent his childhood in Mill Valley, just north of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, in an environment with a rich baseball heritage and abundant opportunities for young ballplayers.1 Price attended Tamalpais High School, where he developed into a solid left-handed pitcher with […]

Jesse Levan was the last baseball player to be banned for trying to fix games. A two-time minor-league batting champion, he was held back by injuries and was no longer a prospect when he was banished from professional baseball for life in 1959. He always denied conspiring to throw games, but the damning evidence against […]

Perseverance and a love for the game guided sure-handed utility infielder John Donaldson through a 12-year career in Organized Baseball (1963-1974), including parts of six seasons with the Kansas City/Oakland A’s and the Seattle Pilots. The hard-nosed North Carolinian played in 405 big-league games and weathered trades, demotions, promotions, and outright releases, but looked back […]

Andy Karl was one of those ballplayers who were able to benefit by the departure of many established ballplayers during the Second World War. He broke into Organized Baseball in 1937, playing for the Boston Red Sox affiliate in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Karl was a right-handed pitcher who stood 6-feet-1 and weighed 175 pounds. […]

For 20-year-old Ted Williams, this was the third visit to Cleveland. The rookie right fielder had already accumulated a dozen home runs by the mid-July visit. The Red Sox were riding an eight-game winning streak when they arrived. They took the July 13 game, winning in 10 innings. A win in this game would make […]

In 1980 Minnesota’s Gary Ward wasn’t even in the majors long enough to use up his rookie status. (His official rookie season took place in 1981.) Even so, against the Milwaukee Brewers on September 18, 1980, Ward accomplished what fewer than 200 other major-leaguers – and only 12 actual rookies – did when he hit […]

The Atlanta Braves had been spiraling downward. From a division championship in 1982, Atlanta’s plummet to the National League West Division basement was slow but sure. In 1983 the Braves finished in second place, three games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 1984 they were second again but looking up at the San Diego Padres, […]

Game Five. Two words guaranteed to bring angst to the heart of any Washington Nationals fan. Three times since 2012 the Nationals had made it to a National League Division Series Game Five – and all three times they had lost, in heartbreaking fashion.1 A fourth NLDS trip, in 2014, had resulted in three one-run […]

“Was just telling you that boy could hit that long ball this year and he just did it.” – Al Helfer1 The baseball season is about to burst into bloom. Examine the Opening Day starting lineups closely. You may recall stories of favorite players or the memories of visits to the ballpark. Perhaps a rivalry […]

“Three homers in a game. I’ve never done that before,” 26-year-old Philadelphia Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard said after adding to his club-record season total in an 8-7 win over the Atlanta Braves in the first game of a doubleheader on September 3, 2006.1 Braves pitcher Tim Hudson, who surrendered all three of Howard’s home […]

The annual Patriots Day game in Boston started just after 11:00 A.M. on Monday, April 19. The Red Sox had taken two of the previous three games from the visiting New York Yankees.1 Boston made it three of four with a comeback 5-4 win, aided by contributions from some of the less-celebrated Red Sox players. […]

The hopes of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of repeating as division champion in 2008 appeared to be derailed by injuries before the season began. As players reported to spring training in Tempe, Arizona, number-two starter Kelvim Escobar suffered a reaggravation of a shoulder injury and was certain to begin the season on the […]

The Detroit Tigers headed to Cleveland for a three-game, two-day set with the Indians in August 1958. The Tigers were holding down fourth place in the American League. The Indians were right behind them in fifth. Both clubs, as well as the whole league, were double-digit games behind the first-place New York Yankees. Nobody was […]

When the Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Braves played a Sunday doubleheader in Milwaukee County Stadium on August 20, 1961, they were headed in opposite directions. The fourth-place Braves were riding a nine-game winning streak, including the first three games of the series with Philadelphia, which left them eight games behind the first-place Cincinnati Reds. The […]