The Kid Gets There First

The Kid Gets There First (1900)

Boston's Kid Nichols beat Chicago 11 to 4 for the 300th win of his career, and he was only 30 when he did it. More than a century later, he is still the youngest pitcher ever to reach 300 wins, and that record looks safer every year. Nichols finished with more than 360 wins and a plaque in Cooperstown. This one just keeps getting older and lonelier at the top.

Old Satch Answers the Bell (1948)

On his 42nd birthday, Satchel Paige signed with Bill Veeck's Cleveland Indians, the oldest rookie in major-league history. The Sporting News called it a publicity stunt and said a man that old had no business on a big-league mound. Paige had spent two decades in the Negro Leagues waiting for a door that racism kept shut, and when it opened he went 6 and 1 with a 2.48 ERA. Cleveland won the pennant and the World Series. The critics never wrote him another word.

Three Days, Zero Runs (2004)

Kyle Lohse shut out the Royals 12 to 0 at the Metrodome, and the score barely tells the story. It was the Twins' third straight complete-game shutout in three days: Radke on the fifth, Santana on the sixth, Lohse on the seventh. Nobody scored on Minnesota for the better part of a week. It set a franchise record for scoreless innings that stood for two decades, until the 2024 Twins matched it.

The Best Seat on Sheffield Avenue (1993)

Tom Browning was not pitching that day, so the Reds left-hander decided to see the game the way the neighbors did. He slipped out of the Wrigley Field dugout in full uniform, walked across the street, and climbed onto an apartment rooftop on Sheffield Avenue, where he sat on the railing and waved to his teammates. Kevin Mitchell, who homered twice, said he spotted someone in a Reds jersey waving from across the street and never dreamed it was Browning. Manager Davey Johnson fined him $500. The man who had thrown a perfect game five years earlier called it money well spent.