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 […]
In his farewell season in 2016, David Ortiz positively scoffed and sneered and even snarled at that old figure, Father Time. Playing his final game of the year just a couple of months shy of his 41st birthday, Ortiz concluded his age-40 campaign with 38 round-trippers and a .620 slugging […]
A year ago, Shohei Ohtani flirted with the exceptional achievement of clocking triple digits in extra-base hits, a feat that’s been managed only 15 times in this National Pastime’s history. Ultimately falling one shy of the century mark, Ohtani had to settle instead for a belt that was stitched with […]
Across his magnificent, inaugural Hall of Fame class career, Christy Mathewson paced all his NL peers in fewest walks per nine innings on seven different occasions, a repetition of supremacy that since Matty had his last leadership campaign in 1915, has been surpassed by only Greg Maddux. Before Mathewson started […]
In 1925, Hall of Famer Gabby Hartnett became the first player ever to position himself behind the dish for at least half his games and reach the 20-homer plateau, knocking the ball around for 24 four-baggers. Seemingly empowered by the feat, Hartnett then significantly raised the bar in 1930, producing […]
From the time the 20th century got rolling through the year before Franklin D. Roosevelt captured his first presidential election, big offensive seasons from NL or AL second basemen weren’t all that rare. This is in thanks, just about exclusively, to the immortal trio of Nap Lajoie, Rogers Hornsby and […]
In the first game of a doubleheader on August 19, 1930, Cubs center fielder Hack Wilson delighted the home crowd with his 43rd home run of the year – an astounding total from a couple of perspectives. There was this: by day’s end, Wilson enjoyed a 14-homer leadership advantage over […]
The 1950 Red Sox scored 1,027 runs – the 12th highest buildup in history and one that hasn’t been matched or surpassed since it rose so high. That club had some doozies when it came to single-game pinnacles, tallying at least 20 runs on three separate occasions, with a high […]
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 […]
Sometimes, a player’s line doesn’t need the author’s flourishes – the adjectives, the superlatives, the flow-y and show-y. The numbers, with perhaps just a little context, are all that’s required to … sing. Here’s one such story – just the facts. On June 25, 1987, the visiting Reds lost […]