George Springer’s very first brush with the postseason, a single-game elimination affair in the 2015 AL Wild Card Game, occurred – somewhat appropriately, it now seems – in New York against the Yankees; for over the next 10 years, as the outfielder/DH has piled up an extraordinary amount of playoff […]
When Babe Ruth made the last of his three World Series starts on the mound, he was batting in an untraditional spot for a pitcher – sixth. On the mound on this ninth day of September in 1918, Ruth kept the Cubs off the board for the first four innings […]
For all his gaudy career numbers, Eddie Murray doesn’t possess much in the way of single-year supremacy. There’s an AL-best number of walks in 1984 to go along with the circuit’s best on-base percentage (and the league’s best OPS+) that year, a few seasons with more intentional walks than any […]
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 […]
Even with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx in its corner, the AL has played second fiddle to its older sibling when it comes to producing players to reach 400 total bases in a season, with the Junior Circuit having 12 to the NL’s 18. From 1921 (when […]
The NL roster for the 1920 season counted eight clubs; in order of finish that year: the Robins (Dodgers), Giants, Reds, Pirates, Cubs, Cardinals, Braves, Phillies. From that season to the one currently being unfurled, each franchise can crane its metaphorical neck from one end to the other, gazing at […]
All the way back in June of 1929, Mel Ott (all of 20 years old) punished NL pitchers to the tune of a .339/.500/.711 slash line that featured an astounding 47 RBI. The month featuring the start of summer has never since seen one player drive in as many runs […]
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 […]
Since 1994 when baseball structured each league to provide three divisional buckets for its teams, there have been two occasions where a single division – right from the start – turned into an extended, dueling banter of “Whatever you can do (in this case, win), I can do too.” In […]