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.
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.
