Little time is required to recite the lineage of shortstops who’ve produced at least 50 doubles in a season. Boston’s Joe Cronin was the first to do this, reaching 51 two-base hits in 1938. Cronin was left all by himself for a long time, until a burst starting in the […]
For those within a certain age range, Dwight Gooden’s 1985 season resonates like no other. The alchemy of age, dominance, the fact that his curveball seemed to (to me, at least) hop upward before crashing down, being in New York, the heights and the depths of the numbers, all of […]
As part – an immense, electrifying part – of the 1971 Giants push to an NL West crown, Bobby Bonds made his first All-Star Game, picked up his first Gold Glove and finished fourth in MVP voting. The 25-year-old also finished in the top-seven in the NL in both home […]
Justin Verlander made his Major League debut in the second game of a doubleheader on July 4, 2005 – the records claim more than 33,000 chose to spend their holiday evening at Jacobs Field in Cleveland, witnessing the very start of, whaddayaknow, a Hall of Fame career. Things didn’t begin […]
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 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 […]
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: […]