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Sixty Years Ago, Johnny Callison Was An All-Star Hero
As I write this, Major League Baseball is in the 2024 All-Star break. The Philadelphia Phillies sent eight players to this year’s classic, tying an All-Star Game record. This is a wonderful accomplishment for a franchise that often had to rely on the “one player from each team rule” to place anybody on the team. In 1960, for example, second baseman Tony Taylor was the only Phillie named to the team, and he had only been a Phillies player for two months after coming over in a May 13 trade with the Chicago Cubs. Taylor singled sharply to center in the only All-Star at-bat of his 19-year career.
A Quick Study of Yankees Managers and World Championships
Once the Yankees started winning championships in the 1920s, they developed an insatiable appetite to win more and more (and more). And, for the most part, they have won, a lot. No team has won more World Series than the New York Yankees.
First-Ever Walk-Off Pitch-Clock Violation Won’t Be the Last
Nationals’ closer Kyle Finnegan already had eight pitch-clock violations, three more than any other pitcher this season, when he entered the game on June 22. So it’s no surprise that night in Colorado he became the first ever to surrender the winning run on an automatic Ball Four charged because he delivered too late.
The Day The Aaron Brothers Made History
Today is a significant baseball anniversary few people remember. On July 12, 1962, ninth-inning home runs by the Aaron brothers highlighted a five-run uprising that gave the Milwaukee Braves an 8-6 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Milwaukee County Stadium.
My Favorite All-Star Game Memories
Contrary to critics who contend the All-Star Game is a meaningless exhibition, I retain many marvelous memories of games I have covered. That streak began in 1972, when I covered my first Midsummer Classic, and extended all the way through 2023, the most recent. This year’s game will contain a touch of pixie dust too, since it will be played in Globe Life Field, the only active ballpark I have never seen in person.
The Most Famous Stolen Base In MLB History
My son Gordon and I recently did a podcast on the evolution of stolen bases. We discussed the most famous stolen base in baseball history. It’s a subjective claim obviously, and maybe it’s easier to describe the worst failed stolen base in MLB history. That must be New York Yankee Babe Ruth’s futile attempt to steal second base in Game 7 of the 1926 World Series, which was won by the St. Louis Cardinals.
Eight Major Leaguers Who Hail from Chicago's South Suburbs
This year's College World Series consisted of teams from only the SEC and ACC. An overwhelming majority of the players on those rosters hailed from the Southern states. For the most part, top baseball talent in this country first emerges from the warm weather states. However, the south suburbs of Chicago has produced a multitude of Major Leaguers. Here are eight who started in the Chicago southlands and made it to the show.
Ozuna Deserves All-Star Spot Over Any Phillies
OPS: .953 (third) Phillies DH Kyle Schwarber didn’t rank among the NL’s top five in any of these categories. He ranked 13th with a .820 OPS. A late rush from Philadelphia ballot-box stuffers helped Schwarber but sentiment against Ozuna still runs strong in the wake of his legal problems (suspensions and fines for alleged domestic violence in 2022 and driving under the influence a year later).
What Willie really left behind . . . namely, rip-roaring arguments over the greatest living player
Three days before the Field of Dreams Negro Leagues tribute game at Birmingham, Alabama’s Rickwood Field, Hall of Famer Willie Mays expressed regret that his health would keep him from being on hand in the first professional ballpark in which he played. One day later, Mays went to the Elysian Fields at 93.
Finding Perfect Game Pitcher Is Impossible These Days
Complete games are rare. No-hitters are scarce. And perfect games may be tucked into a cozy corner of Cooperstown forever. Baseball history shows only two-dozen — two of them in the 19th century — and no repeaters. In fact, such luminaries as Nolan Ryan (seven no-hitters) and Warren Spahn (363 wins, 382 complete games) never pitched one.
Ten Obscure Objects to See in the Baseball Hall of Fame
Every trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown is special, but this author's journey to upstate New York had an added layer of anticipation and excitement. That's because I visited Cooperstown right when post-Covid lockdowns were being lifted. Visiting the hall shortly after reopening began gave me an extra appreciation for what I got to see and do.
Minor League Baseball All-First Half Team
We are now past the halfway point of the minor league baseball season. It has been a very interesting season so far, with injuries and promotions to top prospects coming into the season affecting the performances we’ve seen in the minors from those players. Let’s put together a team of the top players in the minor leagues to this point of the season:
How Rookie Tigers are Faring
The Detroit Tigers opened the 2024 season with just two rookies in their opening day lineup: second baseman Colt Keith and center-fielder Parker Meadows. Since Opening Day, the team has had four more rookies crack the lineup with three of them making their major-league debuts.
Adding Negro Leagues Records To MLB Books –- What Could Go Wrong?
The recent decision, and attendant actions, by MLB to ratify seven of the Negro Leagues as major leagues, and to incorporate the statistics from those leagues into the canon of MLB records, has generated a great deal of positive press from around the baseball community.
Braves, Phils Should Dominate NL All-Star Staff
Teams seldom place a pair of pitchers on an All-Star roster. This year, however, two teams seem poised to place three. Both the Atlanta Braves and Philadelphia Phillies, the top title contenders in the National League East, have passed the midway mark in the season with a troika of likely All-Stars in their rotations.
Earl Wilson: Author Of A Historic No-No – And More
As Louisiana-born Earl Wilson took the mound at Fenway Park on June 26, 1962, against the Los Angeles Angels, he had no reason to believe he was about to put his name in the baseball record books. His Boston Red Sox team was struggling, sitting at 32-38, and he was facing Bo Belinsky, who came into the game with a 7-2 mark, a record that included a no-hitter against the Baltimore Orioles on May 5. But by the end of the night, Wilson, the first Black pitcher for a Red Sox franchise that was shamefully late to add African American talent, became the first Black player in American League history to pitch a no-hitter.
The Purple Heart That Never Was
This editorial appeared in the Huron Plainsman on June 8:. If you come to the fork in the road you better take it. In 2021, blogger Big Geek Daddy released this fun tune, utilizing quotes from the Yankees’ enigmatic Hall of Fame catcher as the lyrical basis of a bouncy tune that is bound to make you smile. The video for the song can be found on YouTube.
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