Vera and Roberto: Everlasting love, legacies
The final months of Vera Clemente’s life were filled with beautiful images and vivid dreams. Her husband, Roberto Clemente, was a constant presence in these visions, she would tell others. He’d pick her up in a brand-new Cadillac and they would drive around Puerto Rico, just like the old days.
A Shea in the life: Beatles, ballpark live on 60 years later
It was an August night in 2006, and an aging Shea Stadium was packed. Standing behind a podium near second base, Mets radio voice Howie Rose looked back at the crowd, the more than 57,000 fans celebrating the 20th reunion of the World Series champion 1986 Mets. But his mind
Ichiro has left a lasting impact on baseball -- and he's far from finished
Shohei Ohtani is considered by many to be the best baseball player in the world today. The two-way superstar is the headliner on a long list of Japanese players who successfully made the transition from Nippon Professional Baseball to MLB over the past 20-plus years. Others include Hideki Matsui, Daisuke
Reliving Jackson's 149-pitch no-no 15 years later
Initially, Miguel Montero couldn’t figure out what they were talking about. It was June 25, 2010, and Montero was preparing for another inning behind the plate. He saw Arizona Diamondbacks manager AJ Hinch speaking with an assistant general manager in the visitors' dugout, and for some reason, the assistant GM
Remembering the most dominant start ever
When you're a right-handed pitcher from Texas, and you throw hard, and you have been tabbed as "The Next Big Thing," the comparisons are inevitable. Nolan Ryan. Roger Clemens. Kerry Wood? Wood was still a fresh-faced kid starring at Grand Prairie High School when the comparisons to Ryan and Clemens
Here's how the Yanks landed Judge in '13 Draft
Aaron Judge, the AL home run king with 62, has become one of the biggest names in Major League Baseball, though his road to stardom was a long and winding one. From his time as a marginal prospect in high school to his selection by the Yankees in the first
The real story of MJ’s baseball career
The catcher called for a slider. Kevin Rychel shook him off. Rychel still asks himself, all these years later, why he did this. He rarely shook off the catcher back then, in the midst of a seven-year Minor League career in the Pirates’ organization. But on this muggy July night
They own baseball's longest winning streak. The story doesn't end there
When he heard the story about the 1987 Salt Lake City Trappers, Kelyn Ikegami knew it was one that would resonate with baseball fans. And anyone with a dream. “How in the world,” he thought to himself, “do people not know about this?” Ikegami was a media arts student at
'Ueck' carrying legacy into Crew's playoff run
A version of this story originally ran on October 10, 2021. Bob Uecker passed away on Thursday at 90.
The legend of Spike & Fat Boy: A softball team loaded with MLB ringers
The game was well underway at Ted Williams Field in the North Park neighborhood. It was, it appeared, an ordinary evening in the San Diego City Softball League, with a handful of people in the stands watching grown men perform an athletic activity largely centered on the consumption of beer
The wild story behind MLB’s last forfeit
It was sometime around 3 a.m. ET when the phone rang in Leonard Coleman’s hilltop home in New Jersey, rousting the National League president from his slumber.
Fernandomania still resonates decades later
The screwball relies on movement and lots of feeling. It begins in one direction and unexpectedly breaks in the opposite direction. When it’s good, it’s incredible, and when executed perfectly, you’ll never forget it. --- Note: This story was originally published 40 years after the height of Fernandomania and is
Oral history of epic Mets-Dodgers 1988 NLCS
This story was originally published on MLB.com on Oct. 3, 2015. This year's National League Championship Series between the Dodgers and Mets, which opens with Game 1 on Sunday at 8:15 p.m. ET on FOX, will mark the fourth postseason meeting between the clubs. They last faced off in the
Baseball's 'Miracle on Grass': An oral history
Editor's note: This article was originally published in September 2020
From forgotten pitching prospect to Silver Slugger
Charlie Blackmon is now one of the best hitters in all of baseball, with a batting title, four All-Star appearances, a pair of Silver Slugger Awards and a career OPS+ of 116 on his resume. But once upon a time, he was coveted for his left arm much more than
That's one way to remember some guys: Fred Worth has visited 10,146 baseball graves
On a bright June morning in Cooperstown, N.Y., Dr. Fred Worth pulled into Lakewood Cemetery on the eastern shore of Otsego Lake. He stepped out of his 2024 Buick Encore – a new car that, in less than a year, has already ticked past 44,000 miles – and walked up
An oral history of a record that may never be broken
On Sept. 6, 1995, Cal Ripken Jr. played his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking Lou Gehrig’s "unbreakable" 56-year-old record to become baseball’s new Iron Man. The Orioles’ 4-2 win over the Angels that night was a generational event, a celebration of one of its most beloved figures. Ripken’s streak has been
Were these the worst -- or best -- jerseys ever?
Saturday marked the 25-year anniversary of one of the most notorious promotions in Major League history, the cult classic known as "Turn Ahead the Clock Night," which included the brief but memorable reign of the Mercury Mets. A version of this story originally ran in July 2019.
Instant classic? New Balance unveils Ohtani 1, Shohei's first signature cleat
Over the course of his remarkable seven-year career in the Major Leagues, Shohei Ohtani hasn't met his match often. But the generational unicorn had to adjust a bit when confronted with the likes of Gravedigger and El Toro Loco. About a year and a half ago, the team at New
Timeline of Say Hey Kid's legendary career
Decades after his final game, Willie Mays stands among the greatest athletes and ambassadors baseball has ever seen. Few players, if any, have looked like a more natural fit to play baseball than Mays. He doesn’t top many all-time statistical lists (though he’s darn close in so many of them),
10 years after his passing, Tony Gwynn's fingerprints are still everywhere
SAN DIEGO -- Parked at a gas station somewhere near Lakewood, N.J., a frustrated Quintin Berry could not, for the life of him, figure out why he couldn’t hit the changeup. Playing in the early months of his first full professional season, Berry decided to give his former college coach
A trip inside baseball's knuckleball factory
Like the pitch, the knuckleball factory is mysterious. Fleeting, hard to track down. Even when you have its location – about 15 minutes southeast of L.A.’s Redondo coast in Torrance, Calif. – you’ll start questioning yourself during the drive: “Wait, this can’t be the way? Do I have the right
How baseball continues to bond father with late son
DETROIT -- The Comerica Park usher didn’t recognize the guy in the Elon University baseball cap and the personalized Tigers jersey. But the MLB Network camera crew following his every move was an obvious tipoff that he was somebody of note. So the usher had to take the opportunity to
A trip inside baseball's knuckleball factory
Like the pitch, the knuckleball factory is mysterious. Fleeting, hard to track down. Even when you have its location – about 15 minutes southeast of L.A.’s Redondo coast in Torrance, Calif. – you’ll start questioning yourself during the drive: “Wait, this can’t be the way? Do I have the right
We found them: They're the worst team ever
The ballpark has no dugouts. It has no locker rooms. It has no restrooms, no concession stands and no scoreboard. No warning track lines its chain-link outfield fence. No plumbing routes run beneath its all-dirt infield or its spartan slab seats. Set foot in the facility known as Fleming Field