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 […]
“Sandy Koufax for two weeks …” For nearly 20 years, that’s how I’ve thought of (and described to others) what Kenny Rogers did from October 6 through October 22 in 2006. That was, and is, overstating the case a little bit, but somehow the hyperbole seems appropriate, for what that […]
One of the reflective joys of the postseason comes in the echoes and reverberations, the links to the past that are constructed, seemingly, on the fly. Something happens in the present, or a series of somethings, and almost instantly, moments and performances and names from the past – often having […]
In 2001, Randy Johnson – author of 21 regular season wins, an MLB-best 2.49 ERA and a universe-vibrating 372 strikeouts – had the chance to continue his otherworldliness into the postseason. Chance received, challenge accepted, opportunity knocked outta the park. In six appearances that October and early November, the southpaw […]
A number of candidates could have vied for top 2024 honors when it came to “wow” – those elevated, extra-magnetic, enchanting, exciting, entrancing individuals who commanded the highlights, flirted with the record books and treated baseball fans to six months filled with daily performances that made one joyous and awed […]
“No way,” I insisted. “The Mets are not beating the Dodgers.” It was October 1988. I was huddled on a street corner outside our junior high school with a few other friends who enviously watched the braver boys interact with the girls, but at that point I was focused […]
The very first time the Mets faced the wrenching possibility of postseason elimination – Game 5 of the 1973 NLCS against the defending pennant-winners, the Reds – the club received an imposing harmony of contribution. The NL’s ’73 Cy Young Award winner, Tom Seaver, gave the club an ace-like line, […]
Imagine a postseason résumé that contains the following numbers for a single year: 10 games played, 15 hits with seven going for extra-bases, 12 RBI, a .341/.370/.750/1.120 slash line. Looks and feels like a middle of the order guy, right? Maybe Jay Buhner in 1995 or Bernie Williams in 1996 […]
In the very first game of the very first World Series, Pittsburgh’s starter, Deacon Phillippe, did something that, to this day, has been replicated only 20 times: he issued no walks while fanning double-digit batters (he had 10 K’s). No one matched Phillippe’s feat for 46 years, until Brooklyn’s […]
If the 2010 postseason wasn’t quite a pitching version of “anything you can do, I can do better,” that’s mainly because Roy Halladay set the bar too high to begin things. In Game 1 of the Phillies’ NLDS tussle with the Reds, the right-hander was nearly perfect, allowing just one […]