When the day got started at Briggs Stadium in Detroit on July 19, 1955, rookie Babe Birrer was just a witness, two days removed from his last appearance. But when Frank Lary opened the sixth by surrendering a walk and a run-scoring double, Birrer made his entrance. Inheriting the tying […]
In 1988, Kirby Puckett was the most Kirby Puckett of all: more hits in a season (234) than any other in his career before or after; a higher batting average (.356) than in any other campaign across his 12-year career; a 3.33 walk rate that was (okay, fine) the second […]
The early part of any season is so much fun in so many ways, including the weirdness of early-season statistics. The box scores add up, the individual player lines reflect those accumulations and a couple or a few weeks into things, the numerical revelations can be worth a second glance […]
In 1998, Texas cleanup hitter Juan González embodied that descriptive amazingly well and often, with eight different games featuring at least five RBI. No other player in the modern era has produced so many big-RBI games, although a few aren’t too far behind. In 1930, Lou Gehrig had seven such […]
On April 22, 1983, George Brett, batting genius, stroked a double as his Royals improved to 7-4 on the year. The two-base hit gave the future Hall of Famer nine doubles to go along with four home runs and gave him more extra-base hits through his club’s first 11 games […]