From the Bleachers
The best baseball stories don't come from the press box — they come from the cheap seats. We take real fan comments, check the facts, and retell them the way they deserve.
206
Billy Herman's hits in 1932, playing all 154 games at second base
The count
10 months
from win No. 299 in September 1962 to No. 300 in Kansas City
“The box scores ended in 1956. The friendship never did.”
16-3
the Yankees' record in four straight World Series, 1936-1939
0.96
Dutch Leonard's 1914 ERA, still the lowest of the 20th century
13
Cubs struck out by Howard Ehmke in Game 1 of the 1929 World Series, a record for 24 years
111
wins by Mel Harder's 1954 Indians staff, with a 2.78 team ERA
“Every box score has a family behind it.”
103
RBIs for Hank Greenberg at the 1935 break, still a record, and no All-Star invitation
Charlie Hustle
Whitey Ford's spring 1963 jab, worn proudly for 24 years
★ For the record ★
A century later, still the Dodgers' all-time leader in hits, doubles, triples, and total bases
Zack Wheat, Brooklyn, 1909-1926
4
straight Cy Young Awards, starting the season he turned 36
13
future Hall of Famers in one game, May 24, 1928 — still the most in any regular season game
1953 — led the American League in both, missed the Triple Crown by one point, unanimous MVP
A bum's game
What Giuseppe DiMaggio called baseball, before three of his sons played center field in the majors
75
games in which Mathews and Aaron both homered — still a record
1.12
Gibson's 1968 ERA — the lowest since the deadball era, and a big reason the mound came down five inches
Ebbets Field, 1950 — 17 total bases in a 19-3 rout of the Braves
Mark the date
April 16, 1945
Robinson, Jethroe and Williams work out at Fenway for about ninety minutes. Nobody called.
18
Gold Gloves, 1990 through 2008 minus one — more than anyone at any position
106 games, 0 starts
Mike Marshall, 1974 — 208 innings, 83 games finished, and the first Cy Young for a reliever
2 MVPs
and a plaque in Cooperstown for the small second baseman Nellie Fox retooled in Houston
Mark the date
September 30, 1927
Ruth's 60th home run in the eighth, Walter Johnson's final at bat in the ninth
982
Career wins from Seaver, Ryan, Koosman and Matlack — one farm system, inside one decade
Can't anybody here play this game?
12
RBIs in one game — Jim Bottomley, September 16, 1924, and Mark Whiten, September 7, 1993
Crazy Horse
What his Orioles teammates called Mike Cuellar — 185 wins without a fastball
7 strikeouts
in 223 at-bats across the 56-game streak, May 15 to July 16, 1941
The count
2 days
from the Newark Eagles on July 3, 1947 to a Cleveland uniform on July 5
17 more seasons
on a knee ligament that was never repaired, torn October 5, 1951
61
home runs in 1961, three seasons after Cleveland shipped him out hitting .225
Take that.
Tale of the tape
90 feet
from third to home, October 12, 1972 — the slide tied the pennant game and ended his season
11
strikeouts in 234 at-bats in 1945 — swinging a 35-ounce bat with one arm
Lombardi's Snooze
what the papers called it — the Yankees were already up three games to none
.168
what opposing hitters batted against Tiant in 1968 — a major league record that stood until Pedro Martinez broke it in 2000
Tale of the tape
About 150 miles of Atlanta beltway
Two laps around I-285, maybe three — accounts differ — on the night he was supposed to start
Mark the date
August 10, 1981
Baseball's first day back from the strike, 60,561 at Veterans Stadium, with Musial in the building
Hope your target in the future is better than mine in 1951.
I will never forget you.
10 for 24
Mattingly's entire postseason career, the 1995 Division Series against Seattle
Dick, Not Richie
What Philadelphia kept printing, and what Chicago finally got right
.370
What Gates Brown hit off the bench in 1968, in a league that hit .230
15
Times the writers passed him over for the Hall of Fame — the Veterans Committee added eleven more
89
Minutes from first pitch to last — Randy Jones vs. Jim Kaat, May 4, 1977
112
Bunt singles as a Twin — more than double any other player in franchise history
12 of 16
December 2021 — the bare minimum required for election, after falling one short in 2014
Mark the date
May 12, 1956
Ebbets Field — Erskine no-hits the Giants, 3-0, on the Game of the Week
32 clubs, 650 players
The Cardinals farm system by 1939 — nine pennants and six championships out of it
An old 30.
★ For the record ★
46-4
July 1930 through September 1931 — the best fifty-game stretch any pitcher has thrown
★ For the record ★
Still the oldest man who ever played
59 years old, twelve years after his last major league pitch
Mark the date
April 11, 1970
Candlestick Park — twenty-five days before his thirty-ninth birthday
★ For the record ★
110 shutouts, still the record.
3,509 strikeouts across twenty-one seasons
Tale of the tape
Past 520 feet
Off the light tower on the Tiger Stadium roof
★ For the record ★
One of two men ever taken first overall who never played a major league inning.
Steve Chilcott, New York Mets, June 1966
75,000 miles
five summers spent finding men their own teams had lost track of
900,000 letters
arrived in 1973 — the Braves hired a secretary just to open them
5 million copies
and the only sports title on the New York Public Library's Books of the Century list
★ For the record ★
Three straight titles, 1972-74
the only club besides the Yankees ever to do it
1,117
consecutive games from 1962 to 1970 — the streak ended only because he finally asked Durocher for a day off
$4,000
the first pick in the 1954 draft, and the price of Roberto Clemente
4,256
career hits — and in forty years the closest anyone has come is Derek Jeter, 791 short
★ For the record ★
The fourth-highest batting average in baseball history
and, until 2025, a permanent blacklist
★ For the record ★
200 strikeouts in each of his first two seasons
the first pitcher in the modern era to do it
4
straight years leading the NL in outfield assists
If he could hit like Joe and Joe could talk like him, they'd have made one great guy.
Pops
he held the whole clubhouse together
114 strikeouts
in more than 7,000 career at-bats — once every 63 trips to the plate
Facing that Orioles infield was like trying to throw a hamburger through a brick wall.
★ For the record ★
In 85 years, nobody ever hit a fair ball out of the old Yankee Stadium.
Not Ruth. Not Gehrig. Not DiMaggio.
★ For the record ★
Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same season, the first player in history to pull it off.
Fred Lynn, center field, 1975
The greatness was quieter in 1938. It was greatness all the same.
The only time I ever saw Maglie laugh on a baseball field.
the 1978 line — unanimous Cy Young
Got a story from the stands?
The series runs on fan memories. Drop yours in a comment on any of our posts — if it's a keeper, we'll fact-check it and give it the retelling it deserves.
