25 years ago today, one of the biggest and best examples of an immediate gratification free agency signing occurred. On Jan. 29, 1988, the Dodgers signed star Tigers outfielder Kirk Gibson. Yeah, this turned out to be a good move. Behind Gibson, the Dodgers would win the 1988 world title—still the last one in franchise […]

A reader’s comment from last week has spurred some additional research and a follow-up to the loss of Hall of Fame manager Earl Weaver. Faithful reader Dennis Bedard asked me to provide some details on Weaver’s ejection from a game in 1969. That prompted a trip to the Hall of Fame Library and a look […]

10,000 days ago, a memorable baseball fight occurred. It was an unusual fight in one way because it pitted a manager against his own player. Then again, it was all too usual, because that manager was Billy Martin. Ultimately, it was the last fight in Martin’s baseball career. Martin always had a reputation as a […]

50 years ago today, the lords of baseball made a rule change that had a profound effect on the game. They messed with that most vital element of the game—the strike zone. On Jan. 26, 1963, the owners voted to widen the strike zone. They felt that run scoring had become too easy. In 1961, […]

10 years ago today, the Red Sox made one of their best moves to help their roster. On Jan. 22, 2003, they signed a player recently released by his old team – David Ortiz. Yeah, that worked out well for them. Ortiz had been a Twin. He made his big league debut as a young […]

One could make an argument for Tommy Lasorda, Dick Williams, Bobby Cox, or Joe Torre, among others. But I suspect that a number of baseball observers would nominate Earl Weaver, who died on Saturday at age 82, as the finest manager of the expansion era. When it came to use of statistics, in-game smarts, and […]

Twenty years ago today, one of baseball’s best and most consistent players of all time passed away, Tigers Hall of Fame second baseman Charlie Gehringer. Passing away at age 89, he’d lived a full life. Gehringer was never the best player in the game (though he did win an MVP in 1937), but he was […]

For Cardinals fans of the past 15 years, the greatest player they’ve ever witnessed wearing the birds-on-a-bat jersey obviously is Albert Pujols. For fans such as me who grew up watching Whitey Herzog’s runnin’ Redbirds, it was Ozzie Smith. A generation before that, it was Bob Gibson or Lou Brock. But the greatest St. Louis […]

75 years ago today was a turning point in the history of the Dodgers franchise. On Jan. 19, 1938, they got a new boss to run their baseball operations, a visionary who later ended up in Cooperstown for his ability to understand that game. No, not that one. Not Branch Rickey. He was still in […]

The Washington Nationals took on the role of agent Scott Boras’ “mystery team” on Tuesday, signing closer Rafael Soriano to a two-year, $28 million deal that includes a vesting option for a third year if Soriano finishes 120 games over the next two years. Immediately, the baseball world exploded into a cacophony of thinly veiled […]