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 farewell season in 2016, David Ortiz positively scoffed and sneered and even snarled at that old figure, Father Time. Playing his final game of the year just a couple of months shy of his 41st birthday, Ortiz concluded his age-40 campaign with 38 round-trippers and a .620 slugging […]
On September 25, 1964, Angels right-hander Dean Chance claimed his 20th win of the year, but it wasn’t easy, as his Halos scored their only run in the bottom of the eighth. Given a lead, at last, Chance then retired Harmon Killebrew on a flyball to right, got Jimmie Hall […]
The Red Sox and Yankees have been tussling since 1903, a span that has seen the clash tally up to nearly 2,300 contests. For the team in Boston, this epic rivalry has witnessed Cy Young and Smoky Joe Wood emerge as the winningest pitchers, each collecting 20 victories against the […]
Major League Baseball’s story in the 21st century has been significantly devoted to single-season longball feats – a Major League record here, an AL record there, a shuffling of NL and AL rookie records, perhaps a new record for catchers this season. The narrative has been much less consumed by […]
The 1950 Red Sox scored 1,027 runs – the 12th highest buildup in history and one that hasn’t been matched or surpassed since it rose so high. That club had some doozies when it came to single-game pinnacles, tallying at least 20 runs on three separate occasions, with a high […]
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 […]