40 years ago, Catfish Hunter made two people feel very good. I’m sure he didn’t want to, as they were opposing hitters, but that’s the way things happen. In a game against the Orioles, Hunter faced two batters who had never homered in the big leagues before, only to have them launch back-to-back balls over […]

Mets 1, White Sox 0: For as good a pitcher as Matt Harvey is, something is clearly wrong with him given that he did not get the win in this game. The object of the game is to win it, Matt. You clearly lack The Will to Win, as I’m sure Hawk Harrelson mentioned during […]

There are plenty of hot topics in baseball today, a sampling of which includes: {exp:list_maker}Justin Upton is killing the ball while his brother, B.J., is getting killed. The Red Sox and Yankees are 1-2 in the American League East, just as God—or at least ESPN—intended it, while the Blue Jays absorbed the Marlins’ big payroll […]

Forty years ago today, Willie Stargell did something that no one else had ever done before and no one else had ever done since. He smacked a ball completely out of Dodger Stadium. Not just out of the playing field, but out into the parking lot itself. On May 8, 1973, the Dodgers hosted Stargell’s […]

Braves 7, Reds 4: The Braves weren’t going to be able to maintain any sort of momentum if the offense was all Justin Upton — who can’t do it alone — and Evan Gattis — who is, after all, a rookie. Last night they had help from Andrelton Simmons who hit two bombs and drove […]

The 2012 Josh Donaldson seems like Billy Beane’s offseason hopes coming true: a player the organization had high hopes for helping out during a playoff run. A former first-round pick and catching prospect with the Cubs who came to Oakland in the Rich Harden trade way back in 2008, Donaldson displayed skills that made it […]

Ninety years ago today, Casey Stengel completely lost his composure on the ball field. Everyone has heard of Stengel, but the popular image of him is entirely that of a manager. That makes sense, as he won ten pennants in 12 seasons helming the Yankees, including the unprecedented trick of five straight world titles from […]

Yesterday, I published the American League version of a Team Runs graph—so today is National League Graph day. Every graph deserves its own day, right? Anyway, to mostly repeat what I said yesterday, here is a simple runs scored/allowed graph for the National League this year, through Sunday’s games. Runs scored are on the X […]

Cardinals 10, Brewers 1: The four-game sweep of the Brewers. Four RBI for Allen Craig. That’s six straight wins for the Cards, who are in their customary first place position in rather quiet fashion. The six first place teams right now: Boston, Detroit, Texas, Atlanta, St. Louis, San Francisco. Not many surprises there. I guess […]

I’ve been creating these graphs for about 20 years or so. For a while, I mostly created them for myself, because I’m kind of a visual person. When the Internet came along, I posted them on a website of my own (http://www.baseballgraphs.com) and then I moved them here to the Hardball Times nearly ten years […]