Jimmie Foxx was one of the greatest home run hitters of all-time. After Babe Ruth reached the 500 mark, Foxx became the second player in the major league history to climb to that plateau. The slugger finished his career in 1945 with 534 homers and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in […]
Category: Baseball History
I was only nine years old. I didn’t know where Nicaragua was located. After reading a small article in the newspaper on my living room floor, I was upset. It was shocking. Where was Nicaragua? I had to look it up in an encyclopedia. It was a country in Central America. I really didn’t know […]
Strat-o-Matic is a baseball simulation that began as a cards and dice game in the early 1960s before entering the computer age. These featured games on Shoestring Catches are part of season replays or tournaments played with cards and dice with a few exhibitions thrown in for fun. Today’s game is a rematch of game […]
There is a new No. 47 in town. With the trade of Johnny Cueto to the Kansas City Royals the Cincinnati Reds acquired pitchers John Lamb, Brandon Finnegan and Cody Reed. Reds fans will get a look at Lamb as he makes his major league debut in Los Angeles against the Dodgers on Friday, Aug. […]
Playing minor league baseball has always been difficult with long bus rides and sleepless nights between stops. There is also a certain amount of anonymity that goes with being in the minors. A popular question from fans is “Who is that guy?” As I sat in the stands at Victory Field in Indianapolis, no one […]
The recent induction of John Smoltz into the National Baseball Hall of Fame always brings the discussion of the trade that brought him to the Atlanta Braves. Many view it a lopsided deal, but was it? Smoltz was sent to the Braves from the Detroit Tigers for Doyle Alexander on Aug. 12, 1987. Yes, Smoltz […]
Frank Gifford was a part of my childhood. I never met the National Football League legend, but he became a weekly visitor to my house in the 1970s. His 1964 football card has been in my collection for about 40 years. While I laughed at Howard Cosell and Don Meredith on Monday Night Football, I […]
There are a lot of people today who claim that the pace baseball is slow. Just takes too much time and not enough action. Those people would have been happy to be at Navin Field when that afternoon’s contest lasted one hour and 13 minutes on Aug. 8, 1920. Detroit right-hander Howard Ehmke tossed a […]
Two teams splitting a doubleheader isn’t really that unusual. Joel Youngblood was part of a win and a loss on August 4, 1982. The unique part of his story is that the win was in Chicago and the loss in Philadelphia. Youngblood began the day in Wrigley Field as the centerfielder for the New York […]
A National Baseball Hall of Fame career began on this date 56 years ago. The rookie first baseman for the San Francisco Giants got four hits as he led his team to a 7-2 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on July 30, 1959. Willie McCovey singled in his first big league at bat off Robin […]