The Streak Nobody Was Counting

The Streak Nobody Was Counting (1907)

Ed Killian lived on a sinker, and for four years nobody could get the ball in the air against him. Then Socks Seybold of the Athletics caught hold of one and beat him with it, ending a run of 1,001 innings without a home run allowed that stretched back to 1903. Killian gave up nine home runs in his entire career. Nine. He won 25 games that season, and one swing from Seybold was the only thing that went wrong all year.

Turkeyfoot Comes Home (1923)

Frank Brower spent three seasons with Washington before the Senators shipped him to Cleveland eight days into 1923. He came back and went 6 for 6. His teammates piled on behind him: 26 hits off three Washington pitchers, one of whom, Squire Potter, never appeared in another major league game. Brower stole a base in the ninth with Cleveland up 21 to 2. It ended 22 to 2. Nobody had to ask how he felt about the trade.

Cooperstown Opens the Door (1972)

Eight men were inducted that afternoon, Yogi Berra and Sandy Koufax among them. Two of the names had never been permitted on a major league field. Josh Gibson and Buck Leonard, the heart of the Homestead Grays, were chosen by the Committee on Negro Baseball Leagues in its second class. Leonard was there to hear his name. Gibson was not. He died in 1947, the same year Jackie Robinson reached Brooklyn, and it took 25 more years for the game to say out loud what everyone who saw him knew.

Boggs Puts a Flag in the Mountain (1999)

Wade Boggs hit 118 home runs in 18 seasons. He was a singles hitter who worked counts and shot the ball the other way, so when he came up in the sixth one hit shy of 3,000, nobody was waiting on a homer. He drove a Chris Haney pitch over the right field wall, pointed to the sky for his mother, then knelt and kissed home plate. No one had ever reached 3,000 that way. Derek Jeter would, 12 years later. Tony Gwynn had gotten his own the day before.