This Great Game
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This Great Game
@thisgreatgame.bsky.social
The Online Book of Baseball History. The daily news, yearly history, lists, interviews, lists, opinions, lists, and ballparks. Not here to escape, but to expand. Thanks for checking in.
Donora, PA barely has a population of 5,000, yet is the birthplace of two left-handed slugging, HOF legends both born 49 years apart on the same date—today.

Happy birthday to Stan "the Man" Musial and Ken "the Kid" Griffey Jr.
November 21, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Reposted by This Great Game
Sometimes you run across an old quote that stops you cold. From a Jayson Stark article in January 2000:
November 13, 2025 at 3:06 PM
ESPN can't wait for next season.
November 2, 2025 at 8:14 PM
Today's First Pitch looks back at one the greatest games in baseball history. Check it out.
thisgreatgame.com
November 2, 2025 at 5:31 PM
Have pitchers gotten wilder?

According to @Stathead, there have been 24 instances of a team throwing three or more wild pitches in a postseason game since 1982.

Before 1982? None.
October 30, 2025 at 1:45 PM
First Pitch incoming. Obviously, a lot to talk (and write) about out here on the West Coast.
October 28, 2025 at 3:01 PM
This is the deal with the devil that sports entities have made and are now seeing the consequences of.

Beware #MLB...and NFL, and NBA, and so on...

www.espn.com/nba/story/_/...
Sources: Billups, Rozier arrests tied to gambling
Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups and Heat guard Terry Rozier have been arrested as part of a pair of investigations related to illegal gambling, sources told ESPN.
www.espn.com
October 23, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Random thought: Ever since Arte Moreno stripped "Anaheim" from the #Angels team name in 2016, they haven't had a single winning season. The Curse of Anaheim?
September 30, 2025 at 2:50 PM
The #Mets' Juan Soto has stolen two bases tonight at Miami. He needs two more to become a 40-40 man.
September 27, 2025 at 12:21 AM
He won the AL MVP 73 years ago and he's still with us. Happy 100th birthday to Bobby Shantz!
September 26, 2025 at 3:01 PM
In losing another game, 8-4 to the #Marlins, the #Rockies see their season run differential dip to -402; if that stands (or gets worse) by season's end, they'll be the first team in the modern era to finish a year at or over -400.
September 18, 2025 at 4:30 AM
For the second time in three games, the #Dodgers are taking a no-hitter into the ninth inning. If they complete this one, it will be a combined effort, with Tyler Glasnow (seven innings) and Blake Treinen (one) keeping the #Rockies hitless—but not scoreless.
September 9, 2025 at 4:28 AM
For those who want to know:

This season, there have been 65 position players who have appeared in a combined 122 games as an emergency (late-inning batting practice) pitcher. In 134 innings, they've given up 269 hits, 171 runs (163 earned), 38 HRs, 50 BBs, and have hit 21 batters.

ERA: 10.95.
September 9, 2025 at 12:26 AM
A woman umpire, the year's longest winning streak, baseball at a NASCAR racetrack, and the latest four-homer performance. All that and much more, including some surprises on our rundown of the month's Best & Worst, in our August Comebacker. thisgreatgame.com/comebacker/
The Monthly Comebacker—This Great Game
A look back at the big events, milestones, news-makers and outrageous moments that was baseball history over the last month.
thisgreatgame.com
September 1, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Besides the four home runs he hit tonight, Kyle Schwarber set a #Phillies record with nine RBIs. Four players had held the old mark of eight, most recently Jayson Werth in 2008.
August 29, 2025 at 2:27 AM
Position players who are not paid to pitch are embarrassing to the game. #MLB needs to make it harder for them to enter a game.
August 28, 2025 at 4:04 AM
The #Mariners' Cal Raleigh is the first AL player not named Aaron Judge to hit 50 HRs in a season since Chris Davis in 2013.
August 26, 2025 at 3:22 AM
The crowd of 17,675 at Busch Stadium tonight is the smallest (non-COVID-impacted) since the ballpark opened in 2006—and the smallest for a #Cardinals home game since 1997.
August 26, 2025 at 2:53 AM
The #DBacks' Corbin Carroll has two triples for the fourth time this season. That ties a #MLB record held by five other players—most recently by Carl Crawford in 2004.
August 20, 2025 at 4:10 AM
The #Rays have tied a team record by giving up eight HRs tonight against the #Yankees.

It's only one out in the sixth inning.
August 20, 2025 at 3:17 AM
It was 59 years ago today that Art Shamsky hit three HRs for the #Reds despite not entering the game until the eighth inning. Shamsky recalls that game in our interview with him earlier this year. thisgreatgame.com/art-shamsky/
They Were There: The TGG Interview with Art Shamsky
The former slugger talks about hitting four home runs in a row, his time with the 1969 Mets, managing in Israel, and writing books.
thisgreatgame.com
August 12, 2025 at 2:34 PM
This is a friendly reminder that the #Rockies are 4-0 when playing with an eight-game losing streak.

They'll have a chance to make it 5-0 on Tuesday after losing their eighth straight game for the fifth time this year on Monday, 3-2 against the #Cardinals.
August 12, 2025 at 4:15 AM
For the first time in 47 MLB starts, the #Pirates' Paul Skenes gives up more than six hits, with seven allowed to the #Reds —yet still allows no runs over six innings.

Also:
23 starts in 2024: 1.96 ERA
24 starts in 2025: 1.94 ERA
August 8, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Over their last six games, the #Nationals have allowed 103 hits over 248 at-bats for a .415 batting average; that’s the most hits conceded over a six-game stretch since the St. Louis Browns gave up 104 in 1936.
August 6, 2025 at 3:11 AM
In today's First Pitch:
* Farewell, Ryno
* Emmanuel Clase caught up in gambling probe
* Can Cade Smith be Clase on the mound? (Last night's answer: No)
* Manfred v. Harper
* Astros finally score first, still lose
*Ohtani plates his 100th

Check it out! thisgreatgame.com
July 29, 2025 at 2:19 PM