Almost exactly 38 years ago, on July 20, 1987, the Yankees’ Don Mattingly tied the nine-inning, AL record for putouts as a first baseman, with 22. The landmark achievement, which had been accomplished twice before in the league (both occurrences coming in 1906), gave Mattingly a line in the record […]
In 1923, while helping guide a Reds pitching staff to the best ERA In the Major Leagues, backstop Bubbles Hargrave also made an immense etching on the offensive side, posting a .333/.419/.521 line. The effort not only gave the 31-year-old a place among the top-10 in the NL in all […]
When Jimmie Foxx hit 50 home runs for the Red Sox in 1938, his home environs at Fenway Park offered a seductive set of dimensions for the slugger – so much so that 70% of his round-trippers (35 of 50) came in the home whites. Right now (but seemingly not […]
A quick run-through of recent Major League Baseball news reveals the degree to which the sport relies on the wow factor of its lightning-strewing arms. One MLB.com article from late June, recounting Shohei Ohtani’s third mound outing following his return from elbow surgery, came with the headline “Ohtani dials […]
Casting an evaluative glance back 91 seasons, the choice for the AL’s starting pitcher in the 1934 All-Star Game appears as easy and devoid of controversy as any. 25-year-old Lefty Gomez entered the pause in regular season action pacing the circuit outright with 14 wins and a 2.03 ERA while […]
A jubilant Ted Williams almost galloping around the basepaths in the aftermath of his swing against Claude Passeau in 1941. Stan Musial thrilling the crowd at County Stadium with his typically understated trot from home to home in 1955. Johnny Callison taming The Monster – Dick Radatz – with a […]
Late in the Giants’ season in 1923, first baseman George Kelly came to the plate five times, and, in the old refrain, “fell a triple shy of the cycle.” No matter, for Kelly, instead, homered three times in an exquisite 5-for-5 day at the plate. The performance marked only the […]
During his famed run from 1921 through 1925, Rogers Hornsby scripted a slash line that reads like some fantastical pull from another dimension: a .474 on-base percentage and .690 slugging mark to support the inconceivable three digit number that begins it all – a .402 batting average. Yes, the baseball […]
In 1982, Expos teammates Andre Dawson and Al Oliver each finished the year with 67 extra-base hits. The spotlight hasn’t been swiveled in their direction for any pure, numerical reason, but for where that number stood in relation to all the other extra-base hit figures produced by the NL’s batsmen: […]