During the Yankees’ three-game sweep of the Rangers in the 1999 ALDS, Derek Jeter came to the plate 13 times and in that baker’s dozen opportunities to provoke a bit of chaos for the opposition, managed quite nicely, going 5-for-11 with a double, a triple and two walks. All smashed […]
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, […]
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 […]
When Dave Kingman joined the Mets for the 1975 season, Cleon Jones possessed more home runs than any other player in the franchise’s history, with 93. Over 664 games with New York, Kingman would clobber 154, ending his tenure with the Mets in 1983 as the club’s career home run […]
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 […]
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 […]
Yes, pace can be a dangerous navigator, a “The sign is pointing askew” proposition – blindly follow the arrow’s point toward the extrapolated destination and all sorts of problematic surprises might await, perhaps camouflaged by regressions to the mean or hiding behind rocky slumps or lying among Injured List stints. […]
As of right now, the big league leaderboard for OPS fans out to reveal a dozen players with a mark above .900. The reigning MVPs – Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani – are there, holding down the top two slots. Kyle Schwarber makes the cut as he positions himself for […]
The 1950 Red Sox scored runs at a volume almost unsurpassed in the World Series era, touching the plate 1,027 times (only three Yankees clubs from the 1930s made it home more often). The pinnacle of that season at the midpoint of the 20th century came on June 8, when […]