Developed by four former Major League Baseball employees, Coffee & Box Scores delivers a unique brand of baseball content, where the present connects to the past in a celebratory, fun and thought-provoking style. Producing daily notes, essays and artwork, Coffee & Box Scores is made for baseball fans seeking creative and stimulating content.
Since 1994 when baseball structured each league to provide three divisional buckets for its teams, there have been two occasions where a single division – right from the start – turned into an extended, dueling banter of “Whatever you can do (in this case, win), I can do too.” In […]
On August 15, 2015, Boston’s Jackie Bradley, Jr. came to the plate six times. His first essay in the batter’s box resulted in a two-run homer. He then doubled, and then struck out to put a small, but fleeting damper on his afternoon at Fenway. After the whiff, he doubled […]
In 2002, reigning NL MVP Barry Bonds opened the season looking like he had taken a couple of days – rather five months – off. Through the Giants’ first three games for that encore campaign, Bonds collected six hits with five going for extra bases. There was a double and […]
In 1987, homers ruled. Mark McGwire launched 49 to obliterate the existing rookie record. Over in the NL, Andre Dawson matched that tally, making the ’87 season the first since 1961 to see multiple players climb so high. In all, 28 players hit at least 30 home runs, more than […]
With the cold weather still lingering in many parts of the country, winter-weary baseball fans can take comfort in knowing that the action ramping up across ballparks in Florida and Arizona heralds the arrival of spring. But while the Grapefruit and Cactus League games have been an annual component […]
There’s a wonderful old commercial for Starting Lineup sports figures that features an unseen singer waxing about his childhood dream of becoming a big league baseball player, ending with the line, “And summer would go on forever.” Coincidentally, around that time summer did linger past its usual expiration date – […]
On January 21, members of the BBWAA will reveal the results of the 2025 Hall of Fame balloting. Because we here at Coffee & Box Scores didn’t receive official ballots (surely they got lost in the mail), I will reveal my own personal choices in this space, with Roger to […]
In his recent article about Carlos González, my colleague Roger highlighted Car-Go’s 2010 numbers as an example of a Hall-of-Fame-type campaign from a player who stands little to no chance of earning a plaque of his own. He also took the fun step of revealing an all-time starting nine of […]
Almost exactly one year ago, 27-year-old Tarik Skubal opened the Tigers’ season with six innings of three-hit, no-run ball. The 1-0 final in Detroit’s favor was, in a way, the initial abracadabra in what turned out to be a magical, fantastical year for both pitcher and team. Now, Skubal – […]
To anyone equipped with access to Baseball Reference and a healthy combination of curiosity and affection for the numbers, rabbit holes can appear with a time-destroying frequency and head-spinning expansiveness. Recently, one came a-calling in a most – seemingly – benign form: Bernie Williams’ headshot on BR’s homepage. The image […]
Naturally and appropriately, Hideo Nomo carries a banner for introducing a “first” to the magic of season openers. The historic event occurred on April 3, 2000, when the right-hander became the first Japanese-born hurler to make an Opening Day start. Nomo allowed three runs over seven innings that Monday in […]
The very first Opening Day home run in the modern era came from an unlikely source: the bat of pitcher Jack Powell. On April 19, 1901, in front of the home crowd in St. Louis, the hurler helped his cause in what was ultimately an 8-7 loss to Chicago (on […]
