Bill James called him “the slowest man who played baseball,” yet his ten years with a batting average over .300 would make him attractive to any team. In his seventeen years, he was the first catcher to earn two NL Batting Awards. He finished with a career .306, but it was one lapse of concentration in Game 4 of the 1939 World Series he would be remembered for. Taking a hard-hit ball without a protective cup in the tenth inning left him dazed while the World Series winning run stole...

There are pitchers who have storied careers, workhorses who can support a team’s offence for many years, and pitchers who shine brightly and burn out in a single season. Fritz Peterson was a workhorse. He had a winning record in seven of his eleven years in the Majors and posted a career 133-131 record. His time and productivity with the New York Yankees puts him currently in ninth-place in the all-time games started, and tent on innings pitched. However, it was the year 1970 that truly...

Legendary manager and player Whitey Herzog died this week at the age of 92. Here at Classic Baseball Radio, we'd like to take a moment to remember a career that caught fire after the playing ended, with one of his last appearances on the diamond. Herzog made it to the majors, playing for the Washington Senators in 1956. He spent time with the Athletics, Orioles, and Tigers before retiring from on-field duty in 1963. Only then, with his playing career no longer a hindrance, would Herzog and...

Imagine your playing career saw you selected seven times to play in the All-Star game, led the league in stolen bases, posted four seasons of .300 plus baseball, had a hitting streak of 34 games, and averaged over 100 runs per season throughout your career. Yet his name is one that never stood out, partly because he's on a Red Sox team with the greatest hitter who ever lived… and his older brother was Joe DiMaggio. This is the life of Dom DiMaggio, who spent eleven years of his eleven-year...

Can you go through an entire season on First Base without having an error charged to you? Unless your name is Steve Garvey, the answer is no. As you might have surmised, Garvey did just that, posting his yet-to-be-equalled feat in 1984 with the San Diego Padres. With a career .294 on 2599 hits and 272 home runs, Garvey's no slouch. A standout number, though, has to be his 1270 consecutive games played. Let's rewind the clock to 1973. It's September 28th, and the Dodgers have sewn up the...

899 games pitched, all in relief, with a lifetime 99-76 record; the delightfully named Sparky Lyle was an era-defining relief pitcher. Take his 1977 Cy Young award, the first AL reliever to do so, twice picking up the AL saves record, and three all-star appearances. Then you have his back-to-back World Series in 77 and 78, plus writing the book on the 78 season ('The Bronx Zoo'). Lyle has the numbers, the prestige, and the passion to lay claim to being one of the most important relievers in...

Apart from the occasional “one and done” years, the only team to have a winning record over .500 in every year they played is the Milwaukee Braves. There were losing years under the Boston Braves and Atlanta Braves banners, but the thirteen years in Milwaukee stand apart not just in this franchise but in every franchise. From the pennant-winning streak between 53 and 59, through record-breaking appearances, to a World Series win in 1957, this is a storied part of the team's history. Let's...

Johnny Bench was the acknowledged leader of the Big Red Machine, the Cincinnati Reds’ era-defining team that won six divisional titles, four pennants, and two World Series. A master of both offence and defence, Bench held the record for home runs by a catcher for over thirty years, along with two years leading the National League for home runs and three years leading with RBIs. Alongside those awards sit ten Golden Gloves, 100 games or more behind the plate for 13 straight years Bench is...

He's probably the greatest first basemen of all time, with a career .273, 2,583 hits, 1,305 runs, and 1,636 RBI; he was called up to the All-Star game fourteen times, and was the ninth player to reach 500 home runs. Yet Ernie Banks never won a World Series ring. The simple answer is that he started his Major League career with the Chicago Cubs, played with them for eighteen years, and retired from the Majors as a Cub. His one-club career earned him the nickname “Mr. Cub,” which he wore with...

Who’s the best pitcher baseball ever saw? There's a lot of names to cosndier. Who's the best left-handed pitcher baseball ever saw? That list is a lot shorter, and near the top - perhaps at the very top - is Lefty Grove. There’s ’s no louder-than-life personality to help us remember him by; there’s no stunning images on early TV coverage, nor are there mythical stories to pass on. As the image of baseball moved on in the fifties, the exploits of Grove and many of his compatriots faded from...

If you're looking for the greatest baseball dynasty, you have to consider the Alou brothers. Three exceptional ball players—Felipe, Matty and Jesús—hold a joint first as the first 'three brothers on one team' when they all played for the Giants against the Mets on September 10, 1963. Between them, they gather World Series rings, All-Star appearances, and batting championships before moving into the back offices of various clubs and influencing countless up-and-coming players, including...

Eleven years after becoming the first expansion team in the American League, the Washington Senators left the capital, headed to Texas, and became the Rangers. It wasn't an easy start, with 100 losses picked up in both 72 and 73. The Rangers would bounce back with 74 and 75's records above .500. Titles would take a little longer, with the franchise not picking up a league title until 1996, a first pennant in 2010, and a first World Series victory in 2023. For this week's broadcast, we're...

For the 1961 season, the Washington Senators moved out of the capital to play ball in Minnesota as the Twins. Marque names such as Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison, and Jim Perry helped the team make its mark in its new home. Four years later, the Twins would win the AL pennant and bring it to Minnesota for the first time. As for Washington, the city would not be left without a baseball team. Immediately replacing the Washington Senators in 1961 were… the Washington Senators. The team with an...

A gentleman in demeanour but a superman when slugging. That was Harmon Killebrew, Idaho's greatest home-run hitter and a legend at the plate. He was a 13-times All-Star, a 6-time AL home-run leader, a 3x AL RBI leader, and the 1969 MVP. When he retired, he was fifth in the all-time Home Run record, and his 573 bombs are still enough to hold twelfth place today. He could easily reach the edge of the yard, notably being the first of only four players to ever bat over the left field roof of...

He was the the first Caribbean and the first  Latin-American player to be inducted into the Hall of Fame; he hit .317 over 17 years with exactly 3000 hits in a career cut short in a tragic plane crash. He was selected for 15 All-Star games, won 12 Gold Gloves as an outfielder, and led the NL batting tables for four years. On top of that, he undertook countless opportunities to work with charities, always looking to make a difference in people’s lives. When the MLB renamed its trophy to the...

The Cleveland Indians were the team to beat in 1954, and frankly, nobody in the American League that year showed anything like the form needed to offer a consistent challenge. With a record of 111-43, the Indians walked away with the pennant and a record of .721—a record in the shorter 154-game seasons. They were the clear favorites going into the 1954 World Series, so it was a shock to lose two on the road to the New York Giants. With Game 3 in Cleveland, it was time to regain control from...

Knuckleballer Wilbur Wood may not be one of the first names that come to mind when you ask about notable pitchers, but he left his mark in the books. Take the 1968 season, where he set the record for games pitched (88). He held the AL record for starting games for four years running, with a record 49 games started in 1972.  And in 1972 he set a record that stands to this day. 376 and two-thirds innings pitched in a single season. Let's skip over the other record he still holds, namely the...

It would be hard for any pitcher to stand out with Sandy Koufax as a teammate. Don Drysdale made it look easy.  The left-handed Koufax and the right-handed Drysdale are arguably the best pairing in Los Angeles sporting history, no matter the sport.  Drysdale's lifetime ERA of 2.95 curiously matches his World Series ERA on a 3-3 record. Putting aside the first and last years of his 14-year career, he had more than ten wins per season, with 49 shutouts to his name. And he's sixth on the...

Minnie Miñoso earned his legendary status countless times. He was the first Afro-Latino in the Majors, the first black player for the White Sox, and one of the first Latin Americans in the All-Star Game. He picked up three Gold Gloves, batted eight seasons over .300, and was the second player to appear in major league games in five different decades. Of course the White Sox retired #9. Our broadcast today goes back to 1953, and Miñoso is on course to post a .313 for the year. The White Sox...

Let's take another game to appreciate the legendary Nolan Ryan. A Hall of Famer who played in the major leagues for 27 years, Ryan laid claim to be one of the greatest pitchers of all time. A lifetime .526 record, a record 5714 strikeouts, a record seven career no-hitters, a joint-record 12 one-hitters, and appearances in four separate decades. Yet he never won a Cy Young Award… perhaps another record he holds (most career walks by a pitcher, at 2795) played a part in that. His career took...

Bob Brice has a pitching career anyone would be proud of. His 1964 season was probably the pinnacle; with nine complete games, four shoutouts, an ERA of 2.76, and one immaculate inning. Like many pitchers, Bruce's speed tailed off and his ERA climbed in his final years, not helped with a lengthy period on the 1966 IL with an eye infection in his final year with the Astros, but there are still moments worth noting. One such is when he and the Astros welcomed the New York Mets to the...

Pitchers have it easy with their triple crown. Batters find it more of a challenge. Only 18 have achieved it, and only 12 in the live-ball era. Miguel Cabrera managed it in 2012, but you have to go back to 1967 to find the next. And there you'll find Carl Yastrzemski. Yaz racked up 44 home runs, 121 runs batted in, while batting .326. More than enough to take the Triple Crown, along with the MVP, an All-Star appearance, and a Golden Glove. Yastrzemski and the Red Sox in 1967 lived "The...

Jim Perry made three appearances on the All-Star stage, won the Cy Young Award, lead the AL twice for wins, and in 2023 is 84th on the all-time wins list with 215 successful appearances. Yet you probably know him as the older brother of Gaylord Perry. Curiously, the two pitching brothers only met once. July 3, 1973 with Gaylord pitching for the Twins and Jim for the Tigers. Gaylord was charged with the 5-4 loss, and I'm pretty sure that Jim brought this up over Thanksgiving dinner for many...

Gaylord Perry won the Cy Young in both the American and National Leagues, had five seasons with over 20 wins, was the third pitcher to rack up 3,000 strikeouts, joined the 300 win-club in 1982, and many more achievements. As the 2023 season ends, Perry is ranked 17th in the all time winners list. Yet Gaylord Perry is remembered for one pitch in his arsenal, the spitball. A pitch with a wicked level of drop while offering a huge amount of control to break inside or out in the hands of a...