In many ways the New York Yankees and owner George Steinbrenner helped create the free agent market in baseball. When the Oakland A’s failed to pay an insurance premium on Catfish Hunter following the 1974 season, the right-handed pitcher became baseball’s first free agent. Nearly every team in baseball bid on Hunter’s services, but the Yankees won the war.
Before he was a superstar pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Koufax was a teenage “bonus baby” for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
In the history of baseball, since they began tossing a ball to a plate and someone with a stick was swinging at it, maybe no more than
The Baseball Hall of Fame has never tinkered with the 75 percent voting standard for election. Since the first ballots were cast in the first vote in
In less than two weeks the 2020 baseball season will (finally) begin. But it will be unlike any season we’ve ever seen in professional baseball. The league
What is the greatest catcher/pitcher combination in baseball history? The best duo to ever form a battery? How do we answer that question? Where do we start?
In this, the latest installment of my series on franchise leaders, I focus on the greatest Twins of all-time. At least according to Wins Above Replacement, otherwise
This article has been updated. Now that Jack Morris and Alan Trammell have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, the 1984 Tigers have two members
The most important player on the field is the pitcher. The baseball is literally in his hand to start every play. Starting pitchers log the most innings.
Almost as much as any other facet of the game, the usage of starting pitchers has evolved quite a bit throughout the history of baseball. Originally, in
This Wednesday afternoon we’ll learn who will be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame by the baseball writers. As I did last year, I will
This is the first in a ten-part series looking at the Baseball Hall of Fame’s Pre-Integration Era Ballot. When he was at his peak, Wes Ferrell was
It was the seventh game of the World Series and only days earlier the owner of the team had tried to fire his second baseman. Their pitcher,
2020 October 17, 2020, at Petco Park, San DiegoTampa Bay Rays vs. Houston AstrosAL Championship Series Game SevenAt Stake: Spot in World Series The Rays eliminated the
For the first time since 1999, the Baseball Hall of Fame will induct a starting pitcher this summer, but it won’t be Jack Morris. Morris, who won more games (by far) than any other pitcher in the 1980s, and who pitched one of the greatest games in baseball history in Game Seven of the 1991 World Series, is still waiting for his Cooperstown call. With Blyleven now off the ballot, Morris’s candidacy will take center stage over the next three years – his final three chances via the Baseball Writers.
From 1903-1989, every World Series winning team except two have boasted at least one future Hall of Famer on their roster. In most of the cases, the winning team has had more than one player who have gone on to be immortalized in Cooperstown.
This is the second article in a series on baseball style that we call “Fashion Plate.” When we look back at the 1970s there’s a lot to
Eight pitchers have managed to win 100 games for TWO teams. All but two of them are in the Hall of Fame. All of them were great hurlers.