Albert Pujols’ first 10 seasons were as close to ideal as any player has ever experienced – a full-time player from day one, no significant time lost to injury or labor issues or global conflict or global pandemic, a start at a very young age, eye-popping numbers throughout. That […]
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 […]
When he finished his Hall of Fame career in 1947, Hank Greenberg had scorched, sailed, soared and smacked 781 baseballs for extra-base hits. That tally represented 47.97% of all the hits he had produced over his 13-year career, a percentage that 78 years after he was done tormenting big league […]
The 1925 Athletics roster featured four future Hall of Famers, with three of them in their debut seasons – Jimmie Foxx, Lefty Grove and Mickey Cochrane. The fourth, Al Simmons, was experiencing his second go-round and did he ever make a splash: a league-leading 253 hits, a league-leading 392 total […]
For all the enjoyment a Major League ballgame can provide when its young stars showcase their extraordinary physical gifts – those unimaginable blends and demonstrations of reflex and reaction time and flexibility and adjustment – the opportunity to savor something with a different profile can be equally alluring. Historically, this […]
More than a century ago, a 22-year-old right-hander named Eddie Stack signed his name into the Major League register. His debut came in front of the home fans at Philadelphia’s Baker Bowl and had the Cubs as the invited guests. This was the Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance Cubs (although Evers was out of […]
In 1987, homers ruled. Mark McGwire launched 49 to obliterate the existing rookie record. Over in the NL, Andre Dawson matched that tally, making the ’87 season the first since 1961 to see multiple players climb so high. In all, 28 players hit at least 30 home runs, more than […]