It seems, it feels remarkable that the final contest of the 2025 Fall Classic echoes so many of the beats that were produced in the final World Series game in 1912. 113 years ago. The remarkable-ness comes from opposite poles. How in the world can two events separated by so […]
Three times in his career, Whitey Ford accepted the starting assignment in a Game 6 with his Yankees facing the dire commandment – win or go away. The first time this not so impossible mission presented itself, Ford got to stand atop his home mound of dirt, and, perhaps feeling […]
During the 1973 postseason, Mets right-hander Tom Seaver fanned 13 Reds in the first game of the NLCS and then sat down a dozen Athletics in the third game of the Fall Classic. Exceptional strikeout tallies for the time, but probably not that surprising. After all, the 28-year-old had already […]
There’s exhilarating footage of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig taking batting practice before the 1927 World Series – a kind of perfect encapsulation of the knockout combination these two provided. Watching one finish and the other begin, there is a sense and acknowledgment of the devastation about to be wrought: […]
Frank Baker’s famous sobriquet, “Home Run,” flew into the baseball consciousness for his efforts in the 1911 World Series, when the third baseman touched Rube Marquard and Christy Mathewson for longballs in back-to-back games. The one off Mathewson came in Game 3, and arrived in the top of the ninth […]
During the 1995 regular season, the Cleveland Indians averaged 5.8 runs per game while winning 69 percent of their contests. This combination had last been seen (and perhaps ducked away from) in 1939, when the Yankees of Joe DiMaggio, Charlie Keller, Bill Dickey, Red Rolfe, Joe Gordon and George Selkirk […]
By the time he was able to play ball under some World Series bunting, Ted Kluszewski was a few weeks past his 35th birthday, nearing the end of his career, playing for his third team in as many years. He’d make his initial stride across the biggest stage one to […]
George Springer’s very first brush with the postseason, a single-game elimination affair in the 2015 AL Wild Card Game, occurred – somewhat appropriately, it now seems – in New York against the Yankees; for over the next 10 years, as the outfielder/DH has piled up an extraordinary amount of playoff […]
As if he hadn’t already generated enough thrills during his mania-inducing season, Fernando Valenzuela took the Dodger Stadium hill on October 10, 1981 with his club down 2-1 in the best-of-five opening series, one more loss to the Astros away from having the rest of the year off. So the […]
When Babe Ruth made the last of his three World Series starts on the mound, he was batting in an untraditional spot for a pitcher – sixth. On the mound on this ninth day of September in 1918, Ruth kept the Cubs off the board for the first four innings […]