Now that Major League Baseball has announced that it will suspend Alex Rodriguez on Monday, there are a host of questions that need to be answered. Initially, it was reported that the Commissioner was planning to suspend A-Rod under the provisions of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), rather than the Joint Drug Agreement (JDA) in […]

Apropos of nothing, you might be interested in a little baseball data. A reader at Bill James Online recently asked how often the team that throws fewer pitches in the first inning wins the game. Our own James Gentile did the research for all games between 2002 and 2012 and found that… {exp:list_maker}When teams threw […]

Giants 2, Phillies 1: A few days ago Jonathan Papelbon watched his team lose another game and said “I definitely didn’t come here for this.” Well, they didn’t show up at the ballpark yesterday expecting Papelbon to give up four singles and blow the lead. Again. Cole Hamels’ eight shutout innings were for naught and […]

40 years ago today, one of the greatest third baseman in history made his major league debut: longtime Kansas City Royals star George Brett. Drafted as an 18-year-old out of high school, Brett had torn through the minor leagues. To the modern eye, his minor league stats don’t look that impressive, but the 1970s were […]

Indians 6, White Sox 5: Living with a Tigers fan is kinda hard sometimes. Like, when you have the Indians-White Sox game on the TV, she wants the Indians to lose, the White Sox blow a two-run lead in the ninth and then Carlos Santana hits a walkoff homer in extras. It’s even more complicated […]

Pirates 2, Cardinals 1; Pirates 6, Cardinals 0: First. Place. Pirates. And the best record in baseball. A walkoff in the opener and a beatdown in the nightcap. Six straight losses by the reeling Cardinals, who lost Yadier Molina to the DL on top of it all. And maybe—just maybe—the end to the now-silly “are […]

Fifty years ago today, Paul Foytack had his moment of infamy. He did something that no pitcher had ever done before, and no pitcher would ever do again for several decades. And it’s something that no pitcher ever wants to do. On July 31, 1963, Foytack surrendered back-to-back-to-back-to-back home runs. In 1963, Foytack was an […]

A little bit of the 1970s died when George Scott passed away on Sunday at the age of 69. Scott, who had struggled with diabetes in recent years, was one of my favorite players. Some of that is attributable to the distinctive look that he cut during his years with the Red Sox. With his […]

Pirates 9, Cardinals 2: In what is the most meaningful baseball played in Pittsburgh in over 20 years, Francisco Liriano was dominant and Pedro Alvarez hit his NL-leading 27th homer and the Pirates pulled to within a half game of first place. Rays 2, Red Sox 1: Gotta love that a blown call impacted a […]

When the sun rose 40 years ago today, on July 30, 1973, 20 of the 24 major league teams had ever had a no-hitter. When the day ended, their ranks had risen to 21. On July 30, 1973, the Rangers celebrated the first no-hitter in franchise history, courtesy of the right arm of Jim Bibby. […]