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 […]
The Red Sox and Yankees have been tussling since 1903, a span that has seen the clash tally up to nearly 2,300 contests. For the team in Boston, this epic rivalry has witnessed Cy Young and Smoky Joe Wood emerge as the winningest pitchers, each collecting 20 victories against the […]
Rickey Henderson’s 25-year journey across the big leagues saw him don uniforms for nine different franchises, a voyage that ultimately produced 297 longballs to pair with his 1,406 thefts. Many of the members of the 250-homer, 250-steal club experienced a fairly nomadic existence, with 10 of them playing for at […]
I wonder, in whatever realm franchises possess some sort of collective consciousness, if the Expos still have nightmares about the Barry Bonds experience from 2000. In nine games that season, Montreal pitchers were tagged for eight doubles and seven homers by the Giants’ left fielder. There were also two singles […]
Since June of 1920, there have been 138 pitchers to wend and wield and wind and whiff and wow to the tune and rhythm of at least five starts and five wins with no losses during this first month of summer. Athletics right-hander Slim Harriss was the first to brand […]
The 1895 Baltimore Orioles won more games than any other NL club that year and did so with a young array of talent that shimmers even when looking from a perch more than 125 years removed. By Baseball Reference’s accounting and evaluation, that club had a trio of position players […]
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 […]
When the 1965 season came to a close, so too did Warren Spahn’s career. The dazzling tallies from the graceful genius included 2,583 strikeouts, more than all but two other pitchers in history (Walter Johnson and Cy Young). The 2,500-strikeout club was an exclusive affair in those days with just […]
The Dodgers’ top-10 leaderboard for runs scored in a single season is littered with names from long ago: three players from the 1880s, six from the 1890s (including the top Dodger dog, Hub Collins and his 148 runs in 1890) and one from the 1930s. There is one name from […]
A brief history of the Mets and their individual pinnacles of run production … On August 1, 1962, left fielder Frank Thomas did a lot of lifting to try and push his club away from yet another loss: a two-homer, six-RBI line to establish a new high mark in RBI […]