Baseball
June 24, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
On June 24, 1962, the New York Yankees defeated the Detroit Tigers 9-7 in 22 innings. The game lasted exactly 7 hours, making it the longest ever played in terms of elapsed time as of that date. The Yankees and the Tigers had battled for the 1961 pennant, with the rest of the American League far behind. But heading in late June of 1962, as the Yankees headed to Detroit
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June 19, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Mark Judge’s piece about Bryce Harper as conservative hero appears to have offended Dan Steinberg, a sports blogger for the Washington Post whose frivolous jottings also spill into the print edition of the sports page (a sign of the times, I guess). Steinberg heaps ridicule (but no analysis; that’s not in his repertoire) on Judge’s thesis. He also quotes Charles Pierce who apparently blogs for Esquire: Mother of God, there’s
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June 19, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
There’s an old line that goes: “Do you know what I like about Los Angeles? It’s not Buffalo.” Using the same construction, I say: “Do you know what I like about sports? It’s not politics.” Sports and politics are, indeed, as antithetical as Los Angeles and Buffalo (with sports, if anything, representing the Eastern city in the analogy). In politics, opinion and popularity are paramount; in sports, they count for
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June 5, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Tonight, Bryce Harper drove in the winning for the Washington Nationals, a walk-off hit in the 12th inning. It was Harper’s second RBI of the night. Both of these hits were to the opposite field, as was his sharpest blast of the night, which was caught. Harper’s ability to use the whole field is another reason why he seems special.
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June 5, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
To the extent that I’m still a serious baseball fan, I am of the tiresome “seen it all before” variety. The fact is that I have seen about half of “it” – i.e., the history of baseball in the modern era. And I have read extensively about the other half. Thus, when the Washington Nationals called up teen-age phenom Bryce Harper I was prepared to be a skeptic and a
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May 28, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
On Saturday, I wrote about Al Kaline’s great, win-preserving catch against the New York Yankees on May 26, 1962 at Yankee Stadium. Kaline broke his collar bone making the play. It turns out that Bill Kristol was at the game, sitting with his father near right field, where Kaline made the play. He recalls the catch here, and provides a great link to sports writer Bill Dow’s recollection of it,
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May 26, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
On May 26, 1962, the Detroit Tigers defeated the New York Yankees 2-1 at Yankee Stadium. With two out in the bottom of the ninth, Al Kaline preserved the win with a diving catch of an Elston Howard line drive. Without the catch, Hector Lopez might have scored from first base to tie the game. But the victory came at a big cost. Kaline broke his collar bone making the
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May 9, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
On May 9, 1962, the New York Mets, in their first year of existence, obtained Marv Throneberry from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for a player to be named later. “Marvelous Marv” would become the symbol of the futility of the 1962 Mets, who set the modern baseball record for futility by losing 120 games. Actually, the acquisition of Throneberry probably improved the Mets offense. It enabled Casey Stengel to
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May 7, 2012 — Paul Mirengoff
Washington, D.C. has been off of the baseball map since 1969, the year Ted Williams took over as manager of the Washington Senators and led the club to its first winning season in 17 years. Washington literally fell off the map three years later, when the Senators left for Texas. Although baseball returned in 2005 with the Washington Nationals, that team has been nothing to write home, or even to
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October 10, 2011 — Scott Johnson
A long-time reader wraps up his coverage of the 1961 World Series. On October 9, 1961, the New York Yankees completed a three-game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds at Crosley Field to win the World Series 4 games to 1. As we have seen, the first of these games, Game 3, required the Yankees to come from behind late in the contest. Games 4 and 5 were routs. Much of
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October 7, 2011 — John Hinderaker
Here is another report about the 1961 World Series from a long-time reader. The third, and as it turned out the pivotal game of the 1961 World Series took place in Cincinnati on October 7. It featured another good pitching matchup – Bill Stafford for the Yankees and Bob Purkey for the Reds. Only 22 years old, Stafford seemed on his way to a great career. In less than a
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October 6, 2011 — Scott Johnson
A long-time reader is following the 1961 World Series. He files this dispatch: On October 6, 1961, the New York Yankees and the Cincinnati Reds prepared for Game 3 of a World Series that was tied at one game apiece. Many observers had expected a cake walk for the Yankees. They had, after all, won more than 67 percent of their regular season games, compared to 60 percent for the
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October 1, 2011 — Scott Johnson
A long-time reader writes about one of the biggest days ever in baseball history: On October 1, 1961, the New York Yankees played their 162nd (and final) game of the regular season. Going into that game, Roger Maris had hit only one home run in the previous seven contests, meaning that he needed one more to break Babe Ruth’s record of 60 for a season. A crowd of 23,154 showed
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September 26, 2011 — Scott Johnson
A long-time reader updates his coverage of Roger Maris and reflects on the history of his 1961 home run record. On September 26, 1961, the New York Yankees played their 158th official game of the season. Roger Maris entered that contest with 59 home runs. He needed one more to tie Babe Ruth’s single season record. The Yankees were at home against the Baltimore Orioles, facing Jack Fisher. Five days
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September 20, 2011 — Scott Johnson
Here’s more from a long-time reader about the 1961 home run race. On September 20, 1961, the New York Yankees played their 154th game of the season. Roger Maris had 58 home runs at the start of the day. This meant that he needed to swat two more to match Babe Ruth’s record for a 154 game season. Although the season had been expanded to 162 games, baseball commissioner Ford
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September 19, 2011 — Scott Johnson
A long-time reader files this report on an epic 50 year-old home run race. After the New York Yankees swept their three game series with the Detroit Tigers on Labor Day Weekend of 1961, the only remaining suspense in the American League centered on the race for home run leadership between Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle, and on the quest of both to break Babe Ruth’s single season record of
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September 5, 2011 — Scott Johnson
A long-time reader provides this report on the third and final game of the 1961 Labor Day Weekend series between the Detroit Tigers and the New York Yankees. The Cincinnati Reds didn’t play on Sunday September 3, 1961, so their manager, Fred Hutchinson, took the train from Philadelphia to New York to scout his two potential World Series opponents. If the Detroit Tigers didn’t salvage the final game of their
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