In the very first postseason contest in Major League Baseball’s Modern Era – Game 1 of the 1903 World Series – Pittsburgh’s Deacon Phillippe baffled Boston’s batters and silenced the partisans at the Huntington Avenue Baseball Grounds with a 10-strikeout, no-walk display. This established introduction – reach double-digits in K’s […]
In his entry for “tater,” Paul Dickson (The Dickson Baseball Dictionary, Third Edition, 2009), mentions that “the term may have originated in the Negro Leagues as potato but took on new life when George Scott made a habit of calling his home runs “taters” after coming to the Boston Red […]
When 19-year-old Mickey Mantle stepped onto the diamond for his big league debut on April 17, 1951, the single-season high mark for home runs by a switch-hitter rested at 35, courtesy of Ripper Collins’ efforts representing the 1934 Cardinals. When the 1955 campaign came to a close, the mark was […]
A consideration of the variables and measurements that impact the resonance (or ephemerality) of a performer’s stretch of success is beyond this mere little introduction; suffice it to say, why and how and to what degree we recall and remember and imprint could fill up a season’s worth of dialogue. […]
In an easy-going, 20-4 rout of the St. Louis Browns on May 21, 1925, Philadelphia Athletics backstop Mickey Cochrane erupted for three home runs. The verb is useful here, as Cochrane entered the game with one four-base hit on his career ledger; then again, he had only played 27 games […]
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 […]
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 […]
If they (and we) are fortunate, defending MVPs Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge will end their respective seasons with somewhere north of 150 games played – an almost daily entry across six months of regular season baseball. In contrast, the best pitchers will present their arms and offerings – if […]
Among the more robust RBI men in the game this year, there are four who belong to a family of sorts: let’s call it the Al Simmons Club (you’ll see why later on). Among other notables both hidden inside and blaring out of his Hall of Fame statistical record, Simmons […]
After Chris Sale and Tarik Skubal made the 2024 season the first ever in which left-handed Triple Crown winners emerged from both the AL and NL, the pair have contributed to sculpting this current campaign into another celebration of those who deliver pitches from the port side. This year provides […]