This Week In Baseball History

Bill and Mike are both still recovering from holiday colds that their adorable nephew and niece shared with them, respectively. So this week's episode is a re-run of the second in our Idiot Brothers series to get you ready for next week, when your intrepid hosts will return with Part III. Until then:  It remains hard, at times to be brothers. We covered that back in January, 2023 with a set of sib...

Mike and Bill are back home for the Holidays and, as every year, are confronted with the reality that they're the idiot brothers of some very talented and impressive people. So, in honor of that, we present this re-run of Episode 279: Sometimes it's hard being brothers. It's even harder being brothers when you're the black sheep of the family. The guy who has to watch his sibling, who shares so mu...

Aside from "The Babe," there's probably no more recognizable nickname in baseball than "Catfish." But Jim Hunter proved easy to catch and hard to keep for Athletics owner Charlie Finley 51 years ago this week, when Finley's negligence led to an arbitration decision that freed Hunter from his contract with Oakland. As baseball's first modern free agent, Hunter served as an excellent test case for b...

After accidentally excising Bill's memorial segment last week, Mike sheepishly presents it here, on the life and career of Gary Gray.

One of the greatest Cubs of all time, Ron Santo was almost traded out of his beloved adopted home 46 years ago this week, but turned the tables on his team, becoming the first player to invoke his 10-and-5 rights and forced a trade to the other side of town. Mike and Bill recount the life and career of the self-professed biggest Cubs fan in the world, even when his team and fans weren't always his...

Life is hard. Life with a mental illness is harder. Life as a celebrity with a known mental illness is harder still, as Jim Piersall discovered. But Piersall's illness was also hard for others, including the Boston Red Sox, who decided life was simpler without him 67 years ago this week and traded him to Cleveland. On this anniversary, Mike and Bill look back at the first ballplayer to speak openl...

One of the most feared sluggers in history, Jim Thome is universally regarded as possibly the nicest. On the 20th anniversary of his trade from the Phillies back to the American League Central, Mike and Bill look back at career of the gentlest giant in baseball history and come away with exactly the same picture that hoped to. Plus, happy birthday to Clint Thomas and Jimmy Sheckard. And farewell t...

After nearly hitting .400, you'd think that George Brett would be an easy choice for AL MVP in 1980. And, while he'd snag the award 45 years ago this week, it was over some pretty hilarious objections by Yankees writers. Mike and Bill look back at Brett's incredible career that defined more than a decade of Royals baseball and come away with an incredible appreciation not just for his abilities, b...

It's impossible to talk about the American League's early years without talking about Clark Griffith, the former pitcher and manager who, this week 106 years ago, finally completed his quest to become a big league owner. Griffith's Senators would eventually become a laughingstock, and his legacy complicated by his complicity in perpetuating the color line, but his early years were filled with succ...

Darryl Strawberry looked to be on a Hall of Fame path when he signed the second biggest contract in big league history with the Dodgers. But his homecoming to Los Angeles would prove to be bitter fruit, as injuries, legal, and personal problems short circuited his career. Strawberry's story is a complicated one, full of condemnable behavior and moments of what seemed like hard-earned redemption. B...

Oh Lord, what a few weeks it's been on the podcast, with problems both technical and personal getting in the way and forcing a truncated episode this week. But don't worry, because 50 years ago this week, the Reds and Red Sox squared off in one of the greatest World Series of all time. And Mike and Bill have a lot to say about it as they recount the titanic battle between two exceptional teams - t...

We've talked about the 1985 World Series before on this podcast, but never with the guy who literally wrote the book on it. Marshall Garvey joins Mike and Bill for the 40th anniversary of when the teams clinched their respective pennants, setting up the second all-Missouri World Series matchup. Garvey's new book, Interstate '85: The Royals, The Cardinals, and the Show-Me Series relies heavily on p...

There are so many ways in which Edgar Martinez's career might not have happened. He could have missed the open tryout where he was discovered. He might have become disheartened by his extended minor league apprenticeship. The Mariners might have been dissuaded by the potentially debilitating vision problems he fought hard to overcome. But it did, fortunately for Seattle, because 30 years ago this...

The decades of baseball in Brooklyn were mostly marked by one failure after another until the club got their act together in the 1940s. Still, the Dodgers seemed uniquely capable of breaking their fans' hearts until 70 years ago this week, when they finally beat the Yankees to claim their one and only World Series in their original home. That moment in the sun was all too brief, however, as they'd...

Mike's doing better after his bout with pneumonia, but his voice is still on the fritz this week. So we have one more classic episode of TWIBHistory for you before we get back to business of recording new material. Apologies all around, but the good news is that we get the chance to rebroadcast one of the most compelling and tragic stories we've done. Lyman Bostock was one of the most dynamic youn...

So, it turns out Mike has pneumonia. He's getting better. But while we wait for him to complete his rehab assignment, please enjoy this re-release of Episode 168 on Kens Griffey Sr. and Jr.  Baseball is a game that is most often passed down from one generation to the next. But some of those handoffs are more effective than others, like with the the Griffeys, Kens Sr. and Jr., who hit back-to-back...

Please excuse Mike this week, as he is dealing with some laryngitis and was on restricted duty during this episode. But Bill certainly stepped up as the pair celebrate the life and career of the great Davey Johnson to mark his passing at the age of 82. Johnson was a star as a player and a superstar as a manager, leading the Mets to their second championship in 1986 and adding significant value to...

Baseball is a beautiful game when it's played well. But when it isn't...well, you get games like one that occured 103 years ago this week, when the Phillies and Cubs squared off in the highest scoring game of all time. 51 hits, 21 walks, and 9 errors later, the teams had collaborated to produce 49 runs, of which only 28 were earned. What exactly went wrong here and who were the players who had to...

Apologies for an extra re-run this month. Mike is dealing with a personal thing, and we will be back with a new episode next week. Some people podcast about history. Some people witness it. Melissa Ludtke made it happen, successfully fighting back against Bowie Kuhn and Major League Baseball to ensure women in journalism could be on equal footing with male sportswriters. Mike, Bill and Mike Duncan...

Perhaps nothing unites more baseball fans than the shared experience of playing Little League Baseball. But, until 1974, only boys were allowed to play. After that, it took until 1984, 41 years ago this week, before the first girl played in Little League's crowning jewel, The Little League World Series. On this auspicious anniversary, Mike and Bill look back at the origins and history of Little Le...

Every now and again, Mike and Bill like to take a break from the exciting world of actual baseball history and delve into the much more relaxing regular season games where nothing historic happens to talk about whatever strikes their fancy. The randomizer this week chose September 11, 1987's contest between the Pirates and Phillies. In the process of talking about the game, they share about Kevin...

With Mike on vacation this week, we dig once again into our archives to present a classic TWIB History. One of the best ballplayers and most incredible athletes in modern history, Dave Winfield's baseball career should speak for itself. Unfortunately, two figures get in the way of that: George Steinbrenner and a stupid seagull, which was accidentally killed by a Winfield warmup toss 42 years ago t...

Some guys don't get mentioned on baseball history podcasts because they're underrated. This week's guys don't get mentioned on most baseball history podcasts because they are, in fact, properly rated. They, for one brief moment at least, stunk on ice. But they did so in a way that is monumentally rare. They all allowed runs without recording an out. On the 107th anniversary of Harry Heitmann becom...

The 1986 Mets are one of the truly iconic teams in baseball history, with a roster full of unbelievable talent, unbridled machismo, and borderline criminal tendencies. And 39 years ago, several of the mildest mannered of those Mets were arrested in a Houston bar called Cooter's Executive Games and Burgers after a night of debauchery. With certified Mets sicko and Defector Editor David Roth (@david...

For so long, we've thought that the 4,000 hit club was one of the most exclusive in baseball history, with just two members. But on the 98th anniversary of Ty Cobb's 4,000th hit, Mike and Bill are joined by Sports Reference's Executive Director of Design, Negro Leagues expert and Latin baseball researcher Adam Darowski (@adarowski.bsky.social) to talk about his presentation at SABR 53, and how muc...