1929 All-Star Game: Junior Loop Wins Second Straight All-Star Tilt

JUNIOR LOOP WINS SECOND STRAIGHT ALL-STAR TILT, REGAINS LEAD IN SERIES Combs, Foxx Lead Swatsmiths  TEAMS COMBINE FOR 17  RUNS AND 32 SAFETIES ST. LOUIS, July 9.—The Americans and Nationals battled to a 5 to 5 tie through four and a half frames before the juniors pushed four more across the dish in the bottom […]

Roger Peckinpaugh, Joe Cronin…Ian Desmond?

During the two decades when the Washington Nationals fielded quality Major League teams (1912-1933), the infield was invariably anchored by excellent shortstop. Clark Griffith, as manager and owner of the team during those years, valued the gritty ballplayer who could do it all and his on-the-field leaders included such great players as George McBride, Roger […]

The King of Baseball

Hey baseball fans! As some of you know, Masahiro Tanaka won his 25th consecutive game pitched a couple days ago for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of the Japanese professional baseball league, breaking the 75-year-old record that was held by Carl Hubbell, the Hall of Fame pitcher for the New York Giants. Some of you might be asking […]

Adjusting for Military Service

Many fans have wondered over the years about those players who lost playing time to military service – and how that may have impacted their total careers. One interesting aspect of win shares and the CAWS Career Gauge is that it is fairly easy to reasonably adjust a player’s career numbers to reflect this lost […]

Off the Beaten Basepaths #3: The Eastern Shore

Maryland’s Eastern Shore and the Delmarva Peninsula has a rich baseball history. Hall of Famers Jimmie Foxx and Frank “Home Run” Baker were born there as were many other Major League ballplayers. An excellent musuem, the Eastern Shore Baseball Hall of Fame, is located in Salisbury. But there’s no sense reading about it, when you […]

Fun With Retrosheet: Nelson Cruz Made Me Do It

Normally, I try to find someone else to blame for suggesting one of these posts, but this silly one is all mine. After noticing that Nelson Cruz had seven RBIs in the eleventh innings of Texas’ playoff series with the Tigers, I wondered what player had the most extra-inning HRs and RBIs in a season […]

Fun With Retrosheet: Come-From-Behind Batting Champions, An Update

John Pastier was wondering (among other things) about the record for the most days leading the league in batting average without winning the title. Here’s the list: Player Year LED DNL DNQ First Last Pete Reiser 1942 131 36 0 5-11 9-24 Lenny Dykstra 1990 125 37 10 5-11 9-14 Larry Walker 1997 124 57 […]

Fun With Retrosheet: Come-From-Behind Batting Champions

Trent McCotter sent me a note yesterday pointing out that Matt Kemp has very nearly closed a recent 19-point gap in the NL batting race as part of his three-prong effort to capture the triple-crown. Which got us to wondering about the largest deficits overcome by batting champions. Since 1918, here they are: Days ToGo […]

Fenway Park’s 100th Anniversary: There’s Nothing Like Being at the Game

I’ve never considered myself religious by any means. Yet, I’m a believer that everyone has some place where they just feel at home, or safe. A sanctuary, of sorts. To some of the more religious types, a church. Baseball stadiums are my church. There is just something about passing through the gates and walking into […]

Only a Friend Would Know

Learned. The dictionary defines the adjective “learned” as “having much knowledge”; “acquired by experience.” Yep, I’d say 95 years of life qualified Elden Auker. This week, read the righty’s take on baseball’s biggest stars along with proud and humbling moments from his years around the game. “Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms“ by Elden Auker with […]

The Favorite Toy and…Tony Conigliaro

Since I went with all-time greats, Babe Ruth and Grover Cleveland Alexander, in my first two articles in this series, I figured I’d shift gears and go with a should-have-been great in Red Sox slugger Tony Conigliaro whose potentially brilliant career was derailed on August 18, 1967 when he was struck in the face by […]

The Favorite Toy and…Babe Ruth

With the 2011 season still a few months away, I thought it was too early to bust out The Favorite Toy to determine what milestones we might see next year, so I thought I’d go retro and look at some of the game’s greats, not-so-greats and what-might-have-beens to see what odds The Favorite Toy gave […]

The Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic: Game Four

In part one of my Ultimate Seven-Game Fall Classic series, I featured Game One of the 1988 World Series between the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Dodgers, won by the latter on Kirk Gibson’s walk-off two-run homer off Dennis Eckersley, ironic because it was Eck who coined the phrase “walk-off piece.”  Part two featured an […]

Just How Good is Jim Thome?

Jim Thome recently passed Mark McGwire for the #9 spot on the all-time home run list with 584 round trippers.  So, an obvious question arises: Just how good is Jim Thome?  Or, better yet, does his career really reflect Hall of Fame numbers? The answer is Yes.  At the end of the 2009 season, Jim […]

The Curse of the Virtual Bambino

Even in the world of virtual reality, Babe Ruth is king. It seems that I’m always working on serious research for my next book or article, spending almost all of my free time on it, that I almost forgot what it was like to have fun. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the research/writing process […]

Just How Good is Albert Pujols?

Would you believe that Albert Pujols is already one of the top twenty position players of the modern era (since 1920)?  In addition to that, he is the third best first baseman of the period – behind only Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx.  These are conclusions drawn from the CAWS Career Gauge. Bill James’ Win […]

Jimmie Foxx Pitching in 1945: A Surprising Story

Back in July 1980, the Boston Globe recalled that Jimmie Foxx’s “final appearance in the majors was as a pitcher. “In 1945, when he was 37, Foxx had slipped badly and was hanging on by his fingertips with the Phillies. One day, Ben Chapman, Phils’ manager, came to Jimmie.” Chapman told Foxx, “We’re desperate. Would […]