For Yankees fans of a certain age, the name Edgar Martínez probably produces a host of emotions – none very good. The name might conjure teeth gnashing, it might inspire cold sweats, it very well could induce jagged breathing and even a few tears. To a baseball fan without any […]
Ken Griffey, Jr. may have been gone. Álex Rodríguez may have left town. Randy Johnson may have been but a memory. But Ichiro Suzuki was the new king of Seattle. Jamie Moyer and Edgar Martínez and Dan Wilson were still around. Facing the Indians at Safeco Field on October 15, […]
There are 185 instances of a postseason batter – perhaps surrounded by bunting, perhaps hearing extra jeers or cheers from a crowd feeling the intensity, perhaps extra-energized by the heightened tension that seems to come with every delivery from mound to dish – generating at least two home runs in […]
The 1929 Cubs featured a quartet of fearsome right-handed hitters, a foursome of .500 or better sluggers named Rogers Hornsby (slugged .679 that year), Hack Wilson (.618), Riggs Stephenson (.562) and Kiki Cuyler (.532). They all posted on-base percentages above .400 that year, Wilson’s .345 batting average was the lowest […]
Entering 2025, the postseason account books showed 67 players who drove in at least 14 runs through their first 18 games, with Lou Gehrig and Adolis García tied for the most, 22. A second focus revealed a much smaller collection to have scored at least 17 runs through their first […]
In the very first postseason contest in Major League Baseball’s Modern Era – Game 1 of the 1903 World Series – Pittsburgh’s Deacon Phillippe baffled Boston’s batters and silenced the partisans at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds with a 10-strikeout, no-walk display. This established introduction – reach double-digits in K’s […]
On the season’s final day in 1980, the Royals skipped to a 4-0 win, able to generate the offense even without that season’s AL MVP – George Brett – in the lineup. Taking the day off, Brett finished the year short in his pursuit of being the first batter since […]
The 1996 Rockies roster boasted the NL leader in home runs and RBI (Andrés Galarraga), the league’s top base stealer (Eric Young, Sr.) and the top guy in runs scored, total bases, extra-base hits and slugging percentage, Ellis Burks. Burks’ line also dazzled with 40 home runs and 32 steals, […]
In his entry for “tater,” Paul Dickson (The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, Third Edition, 2009), mentions that “the term may have originated in the Negro Leagues as potato but took on new life when George Scott made a habit of calling his home runs “taters” after coming to the Boston Red […]
On July 6, 2025, Tarik Skubal and his Tigers were in Cleveland to take on Gavin Williams and his Guardians. Detroit’s southpaw was in complete – cruising beautifully – control, logging seven scoreless innings in which he fanned 10 with no walks. Williams nearly matched the reigning AL Cy Young […]