ORIGIN, INNOVATION, and EVOLUTION

President Benjamin Harrison attended a major-league game nine years before the advent of the American League. He did it in 1892, when the major leagues consisted of the National League and the American Association.

The first modern-era player to homer in his first at-bat was Johnny Bates of the Boston Braves on April 12, 1906. As a result, Boston beat Brooklyn, 2-0.

BALL CLUBS

Double trouble: the hapless St. Louis Browns gave up 36 runs in one day when they lost a doubleheader to the Detroit Tigers by scores of 16-1 and 20-7 on Aug. 14, 1937. No team has ever scored more runs in a doubleheader.

Even with Ted Williams in their lineup for the first time, the Boston Red Sox finished on the wrong end of a 2-0 shutout against the Yankees on April 20, 1939.

 Does history repeat? The Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves played a 23-inning tie game in 1939 – 19 years after the same two teams played to a tie in the same cavernous ballpark (Braves Field). Only the scores were different: 2-2 in 1939 and 1-1 in 1920.

Although they rewrote baseball history, the Braves managed to lose a game in which they hit four consecutive home runs and another in which one player hit four home runs. On June 8, 1961, Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron, Joe Adcock, and Frank Thomas connected in succession against Cincinnati – the first time any team hit four in a row. In 1986, Bob Horner’s four-homer burst was not enough to top the Montreal Expos.

The 2005 Baltimore Orioles were the first team with two 500-homer hitters in the same lineup: Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro.

The 30 teams drew 79.5 million fans in 2007, a record average of 32,785 per game.

Three times in eight years, the New York Yankees and New York Mets made up rained-out games by playing two games in one day – in different ballparks. In 2000, 2003, and 2008, day-night doubleheaders involved both Yankee Stadium and Shea Stadium, ballparks that are five miles apart. The Yankees swept the first two split twinbills against their interleague rivals from Flushing, Queens.

The 2008 Tampa Bay Rays were the first team in modern-day baseball history to have the best record on Memorial Day after having the worst the year before.

BALLPARKS

Although it was built in 1914, Wrigley Field was first called Weeghman Park, then Cubs Park. The ballpark took on its present name in 1927 when William Wrigley decided the name change would help promote chewing gum sales.

The dimensions of Braves Field were so lopsided that the 1922 New York Giants once hit four inside-the-park home runs in the same game, on April 29.

Warren Spahn’s homer at Busch Stadium, St. Louis, on Aug. 15, 1955 gave the Milwaukee Braves pitcher at least one home run in every National League park.

It must be in the water: among those who served as ushers at Washington’s Griffith Stadium were Bowie Kuhn, later the Commissioner of Baseball, and Ted Lerner, a real estate magnate who bought the Washington Nationals.

What a difference: the Dodgers drew 6,702 fans to their last game in Brooklyn, in 1957, but 78,672 to their first game in Los Angeles.

The roof of the Skydome did little to protect Toronto fans on April 18, 2000, the night it rained little hot dogs. Frankfurters fired from the “Hot Dog Blaster” into the stands during a promotion exploded in midair, showering fans with bite-size pieces. Pass the mustard, please.

The 2007 Yankees sold 4,262,761 tickets, a franchise record.

When members of the Colorado grounds crew were trapped under a wind-blown tarp at Coors Field in 2007, players from the visiting Philadelphia Phillies rescued them. One of those players, Shane Victorino, later homered to give his team a win in the Sunday game.

The largest crowd at a baseball game in the United States turned out for a spring training exhibition game between the Red Sox and Dodgers at the Los Angeles Coliseum during 2008 spring training. Attendance was 115,300. The March 29 game was the first big-league action at the converted football facility in 46 years – since Dodger Stadium opened in 1962. The Dodgers spent their first four seasons in Southern California at the cavernous Coliseum, where they once drew 93,000 fans for an in-season exhibition game honoring paralyzed catcher Roy Campanella.

Though the Dodgers spent their first four California seasons playing home games in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the park proved poorly designed for baseball – especially in left field. The foul pole stood just 251 feet from home and the wall was topped by a 42-foot fence. When the stadium hosted a 2008 exhibition game designed to mark 50 years of baseball in Los Angeles, the configuration was 201 feet down the line and the screen stood 60 feet high.

The grandfather of current Dodgers owner Frank McCourt was part-owner of the Boston Braves.

Fans attending games at Nationals Park in Washington discovered the best views of the Capitol, Washington Monument, and National Mall could be had from the cheapest seats. The park, which also had a row of cherry trees behind the left-field fence, opened on March 30, 2008. 

The baseball gods didn’t like the idea of playing a game at Yankee Stadium in the month of March. Rain cancelled the scheduled 2008 opener on March 31, keeping intact the record of no games played at the Bronx ballpark in the third month of the year. The stadium, which opened in 1923, will not have another opening game.

Having a domed ballpark allowed the Minnesota Twins to open the 2008 season at home while heavy, wet snow covered the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. It also made fans wonder why the team decided to build a topless park, slated to open in 2010.

The 2008 Boston Red Sox topped three million fans for the first time – by stretching Fenway Park to maximum capacity (39,928 seats). Since the current owners bought the team in 2002, the Sox have added 269 seats above the Green Monster in left field and made other upgrades.

The Green Monster in Fenway Park measures 37 feet high by 231 feet long. The view from any of the seats on top is equivalent to looking down from a four-story building.

Although it served as a big-league stadium for only four years, the Los Angeles Coliseum sports four bronze plaques related to the game. There’s one each for Jackie Robinson, a Los Angeles native who retired before the Dodgers moved west from Brooklyn; Vin Scully, who broadcast Dodger games in both cities; Walter O’Malley, the innovative owner who opened the door to the West; and the four-year stay of the Dodgers before Dodger Stadium opened in 1962.

The average price of a 2008 baseball ticket was $25.43, according to Team Marketing Report. That was cheaper than the average price of a ticket for hockey ($48.72), basketball ($48.83), or football ($67.11).

The new Yankee Stadium is the first billion-dollar ballpark. Construction cost of the 52,325-seat park (4,600 less than the former home of the Yankees) is expected to be $1.3 billion.

Hank Steinbrenner on the new Yankee Stadium: “It actually looks more like the old Yankee Stadium from the outside and has a more classic feel. You’ve got to remember: we renovated Yankee Stadium in ‘74 and ‘75. So as Yogi (Berra) says, it really isn’t there anymore anyway.”

When Minnesota opens its new open-air ballpark in 2010, Twins fans walking along Fifth Street can stop to scan the action through knotholes in the wall.

BATTERS and PITCHERS

When Walter Johnson lost a 1-0, 13-inning game at Boston’s Fenway Park on Aug. 15, 1916, the winning pitcher was Babe Ruth.

Short stop: Henry Heitman started a 1918 game for the Brooklyn Dodgers against the St. Louis Cardinals, yielded four straight hits, and disappeared into the dustbin of history.

Gavvy Cravath, holder of the modern-era home run record before Babe Ruth, was a player-manager when he connected for the last time on April 20, 1920. He named himself a pinch-hitter during a scoreless game and produced a three-run homer – the only runs in a 3-0 Phillies’ win over the New York Giants.

Cleveland’s Wes Ferrell was a one-man team on April 29, 1931: he not only no-hit the St. Louis Browns, 7-0, but homered and doubled. One of his hitless victims was his brother Rick, then a catcher with the Browns.

Home runs by pitcher Wes Ferrell in the eighth and twelfth innings gave the Red Sox a 3-2 win over the White Sox on Aug. 22, 1934.

Sydney Cohen of the Washington Senators surrendered Babe Ruth’s last American League home run.

Hitting for the cycle is hard enough. But doing it in reverse is almost impossible. Not that it hasn’t been done, though. On April 20, 1937, Detroit’s Gee Walker hit a home run, triple, double, and single in that order as the Tigers topped the Indians, 4-3.

Ralph McLeod got only one hit in his career. He delivered for the Boston Braves against Paul Dean of the St. Louis Cardinals in the opener of a twinbill on Sept. 21, 1938 – the same day the Great Hurricane of 1938 hit New England. Poor conditions forced postponement of the second game. 

BOSSES

Cubs majority owner Albert Lasker conceived the idea of a baseball commissioner with authority to rule the game. His master plan led to the selection of federal judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

Joe McCarthy had more consecutive winning seasons (20) than any manager. His Cubs and Yankees finished on the sunny side of .500 every year from 1926-45.

Many managers have managed the same team more than once but only two had more than 20 years between tenures. Bucky Harris ended one stint with the Detroit Tigers in 1933 and started his next in 1955, while Paul Richards left the Chicago White Sox in 1954 but returned in 1976.

Because Branch Rickey violated the edict of Commissioner Happy Chandler against signing players in the service, the Brooklyn Dodgers had to add $5,000 to the original $3,500 they offered 19-year-old pitcher Carl Erskine, still in the Navy when he signed in July 1946.

The three umpires in Norman Rockwell’s painting are (l to r) Lou Jorda, Beans Reardon, and Larry Goetz.

When future Mets owner Fred Wilpon was a pitcher at Brooklyn’s Lafayette High School, he threw batting practice for Jackie Robinson and babysat for the Robinson children. Sandy Koufax, a Wilpon teammate, played first base when Wilpon was pitching.

Ed Vargo, the home-plate ump when Hank Aaron tied Babe Ruth’s home run record in 1974, was the only umpire to be behind the plate for a no-hitter and perfect game by the same pitcher. He called balls-and-strikes for the 1964 Sandy Koufax no-hitter and the lefty’s perfect game a year later.

The day after buying the Yankees from CBS, George Steinbrenner promised a hands-off approach. “We plan absentee ownership as far as running the Yankees is concerned,” he said. “We’re not going to pretend we’re something we aren’t. I’ll stick to building ships.”

Jeff Torborg’s first game as a coach for the Yankees was the day after the August 1979 funeral of team captain Thurman Munson, killed in the crash of the private plane he was piloting. Bobby Murcer, who later succumbed to a brain tumor, won that game for New York with a five-RBI performance.

During his tenure as media relations director of the Yankees from 1989-93, Jeff Idelson (now president of the Baseball Hall of Fame) could expect calls from owner George Steinbrenner at any hour. One call came while Idelson was showering in his Minnesota hotel room. When Steinbrenner started rattling off information, the quick-thinking Idelson used the steamed-up bathroom mirror to record it with his finger. “I had to crank up the hot water to keep the steam going,” he said.

Hank Steinbrenner was 7 when his father George took him to a Beatles concert.

No tips please: while under suspension in 2000, White Sox manager Jerry Manuel appeared in a bellhop’s uniform at the team’s hotel in Detroit.

Joe Girardi, who managed in both leagues, said Tony LaRussa was his role model for managing a game. Girardi, manager of both the Marlins and the Yankees, said LaRussa was better prepared for a game than any other manager.

DEALS and STEALS

The only members of the 3000 Strikeout Club to pitch exclusively for one team were Walter Johnson (Washington Senators) and Bob Gibson (St. Louis Cardinals).

Although he was acquired in the middle of the 1957 season, Red Schoendienst was such a key cog in the successful pennant push of the Milwaukee Braves that he finished third in the MVP voting behind Hank Aaron and Stan Musial.

Roger Maris faded fast. After hitting 61 home runs, then a single-season record, and winning his second straight MVP award in 1961, Maris never topped 40 in a season again. Traded by the Yankees to the Cardinals for little-known third baseman Charlie Smith after the ‘66 season, Maris hit just 14 home runs in two seasons for St. Louis.

Before he joined the Mets, Omar Minaya was general manager of the Montreal Expos. In three years on the job, he made 25 trades but was prohibited from adding September call-ups in 2003 because Major League Baseball considered it too expensive. From 2002-04, the Expos were owned by the 29 teams and controlled by MLB.

Signing pitchers to big-buck contracts is almost always a sticky wicket. After losing 2004 World Series heroes Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe to free agency, the Boston Red Sox gave Matt Clement a three-year deal worth $25.5 million. He made good only for three months, winning an All-Star spot in 2005 before disappearing. Over a 29-start stretch afterward, he went 9-11 with a 6.59 ERA and needed rotator cuff surgery.

Less than two years after inking a seven-year, $126 million contract to pitch for the San Francisco Giants, lefthanded starter Barry Zito went 0-6 in April 2008 and was banished to the bullpen.

Less than a year after he started the 2007 All-Star Game for the American League, pitcher Dan Haren was traded from the Oakland A’s to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Japanese import Kosuke Fukodome, in his first game for the Chicago Cubs after signing as a free agent, hit a home run with two men on.

BIG EVENTS

Although he often mocked his own playing skills, Joe Garagiola was one of three rookies to get four hits in a World Series game. Fred Lindstrom of the 1924 New York Giants did it first, followed by Garagiola of the 1946 St. Louis Cardinals and

Jacoby Ellsbury of the 2007 Boston Red Sox.

Heinie Manush was the first player ever ejected from a World Series game. It happened in 1933 Game 4 when he snapped the umpire’s elastic bow tie! Charlie Moran threw him out.

Adding rookie Jacoby Ellsbury to the postseason roster was a master stroke by Boston manager Terry Francona. After the centerfielder hit .361 during the September stretch drive, Francona made him a regular and watched him hit .438 and post a .500 on-base percentage against Colorado in the World Series.

The 2007 Red Sox were the first team since the 1998 Yankees to win the World Series after also winning the most games during the regular season.

During the 2007 World Series, Franklin Morales, pitching for the Colorado Rockies against the Boston Red Sox, became the first relief pitcher in Fall Classic history to yield seven runs without getting three outs.

From 2003-07, the Boston Red Sox went 15-2 in postseason elimination games.

Terry Francona, the only manager to win his first five World Series games, actually won his first eight. His Boston Red Sox engineered sweeps in both 2004 and 2007.

All but two of the 16 NL teams have reached the World Series at least once since 1979. The two who didn’t: the Chicago Cubs and the Washington Nationals (nee Montreal Expos).

BallTALK

“Take Me Out to the Ballgame” was conceived while author Jack Norworth was riding a New York City subway train in 1908. Norworth was an actor, singer, and songwriter who had never attended a game but saw a sign advertising an upcoming game at the Polo Grounds.

“I’d rather be lucky than good,” Lefty Gomez once told reporters. He proved the point when he walked 11 men while pitching a shutout on Aug. 1, 1942, when the Yankees beat the St. Louis Browns, 9-0. No other pitcher has ever issued so many free passes while keeping the opposition scoreless.

When they appeared in Cooperstown for the 1943 Hall of Fame Game, the Brooklyn Dodgers weren’t fazed by the nationwide gas shortage; they rode into town on horseback.

After Jim Bouton won 21 games in 1963, Yankee clubhouse man Pete Sheehy offered to move his locker away from the doorway – traditionally the spot inhabited by rookies. Bouton declined, saying, “I want to stay where I am so I never forget how close I am to the highway.”

When The Odd Couple movie was shooting on location during a Mets game at Shea Stadium, the script called for Felix Unger (Jack Lemmon) to distract Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau) with a phone call to the press box. As a result, Madison claimed he missed seeing a triple play – an extremely rare feat. Before the Hollywood crew left the ballpark, however, an actual triple play occurred in the game they were using as a backdrop.

In her book Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels, NBC’s Andrea Mitchell recounted the day when Joe DiMaggio met Queen Elizabeth. It happened at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore in 1991, a year before Camden Yards opened. Mitchell, watching from the owner’s box, saw DiMaggio pull out a baseball and ask one of the royal escorts for the Queen’s autograph. Joe D’s request was refused rather brusquely: “The Queen does not sign baseballs.”

From 1940-79, the Baseball Hall of Fame staged an annual exhibition game between big-league opponents on Induction Day. It was later moved to the Monday following the Sunday induction ceremonies before becoming a standalone separate event. The exhibition was scrapped only after the 2008 season, when Commissioner Bud Selig cited tight scheduling (162 games in 180 days), interleague play, and interdivisional matchups.

PALMS AND CACTI: SPRING TRAINING

Holman Stadium, long-time spring training home of the Dodgers in Vero Beach, Florida, was completed in 55 days at a cost of $50,000. The 5,000-seat ballpark, which opened in 1953, included 2,000 portable seats from the Polo Grounds, home of the arch-rival New York Giants before they shifted to San Francisco. The seats were purchased for $1 each by Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley.

All four umpires at the exhibition game between the New York Mets and the University of Michigan Wolverines on Feb. 26, 2008 were female. The long red ponytail of home-plate umpire Perry Barber, who hired the rest of the crew, was clearly visible to fans in attendance at Port St. Lucie, FL.

Less than a year after a gunman killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus, the New York Yankees played an exhibition game there. The Yankees, who donated $1 million to the school shortly after the rampage, faced the Virginia Tech varsity on March 18, 2008.

When the Padres and Dodgers played a pair of 2008 spring training exhibition games at China’s Wukesong Stadium in Beijing, 12,224 ticket holders heard the cries of vendors selling hot dogs, peanuts, beer, and plastic bottles of tea.

The 2008 Oakland Athletics played three exhibition games immediately after opening the regular season. The A’s opened the season against the Boston Red Sox in Tokyo March 25, played another game that counted the next day, then played their annual Bay Bridge Series against the San Francisco Giants from March 28-30 while adjusting to the Pacific Time Zone in the United States.

When comedian Billy Crystal batted in a spring training exhibition game for the 2008 New York Yankees, it was not just a publicity stunt timed to coincide with his 60^th birthday. The lifelong Yankees fan was captain of his Long Beach (NY) school team and hit .348 as a senior. Years later, he produced and directed the movie *61, which depicted the 1961 chase of Babe Ruth’s single-season home run record by Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle.

COLOR, CLOUT, and CONTROVERSY

Because baseball stayed segregated until 1947, Leroy (Satchel) Paige claimed to pitch 100 no-hitters and work in 2,500 games as an ironman pitcher in the Negro Leagues. He also claimed to be the winning pitcher more than 2,000 times.

 Del Crandall, who later blossomed into an All-Star catcher with the Braves, was thrown out in the first inning of his first game in the majors. It happened on June 17, 1949 when he complained about the ball-and-strike calls of home-plate ump Jocko Conlan. “I don’t think my parents had gotten to their seats yet,” Crandall said later.

As a kid, Al Rosen never dreamed he could be an athlete. The Spartanburg, S.C. native had such severe asthma that his family was forced to move to Miami. The climate change worked and Rosen developed into an American League All-Star.

Al Rosen missed winning the 1953 Triple Crown because he missed first base while trying for an infield hit in his last at-bat of the season. Though assured of the home run and RBI crowns entering the Cleveland finale in ‘53, Rosen trailed Mickey Vernon for the batting crown by three points. A base-hit in his last at-bat would have put him over but missing first cost him. Rosen finished at .336, a point below Vernon’s .337.

Who says pitchers can’t hit? When not pitching, Tommy Byrne was often used as a pinch-hitter. On May 16, 1953, he was sent to plate in the ninth inning with the bases loaded and the White Sox trailing, 3-1. Hitting for Vern Stephens, a shortstop with 10 grand-slams on his resume, Byrne homered off Ewell Blackwell, giving the Sox a 5-3 win over the Yankees.

Hank Aaron finished fourth in the 1954 NL Rookie of the Year voting. Ahead of him were Wally Moon, Ernie Banks, and Gene Conley.

Hall of Fame shortstop Luis Aparicio picked his future wife out of the stands – when his Chicago White Sox were taking batting practice before a game in 1956. Aparicio spotted Sonia sitting in the box seats and the rest is history.

Bill Bruton, centerfielder for the 1957 World Champion Milwaukee Braves, was the son-in-law of Negro Leagues Hall of Famer William (Judy) Johnson.

Vic Power stole only three bases in 1958 but two of them were steals of home that won a game. The Indian infielder stole home in the 8^th and 10^th innings as the Tribe beat the Tigers, 10-9, on Aug. 14.

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                                          Troublesome tandems

 Games in which these teammates homered:

 75 - Hank Aaron & Eddie Mathews, Braves

73 - Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig, Yankees

68 - Willie Mays & Willie McCovey, Giants

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Ernie Banks, the first Cub to have his number retired, was also the first Cub player honored with a statue outside Wrigley Field.

Tom Cheney of the 1963 Washington Senators is the only pitcher to escape April with a perfect 0.00 ERA (minimum 25 innings pitched). Despite the strong start, however, he went 5-9 with a 3.38 ERA thereafter and wound up in the bullpen as the Senators finished last.

Bennie Daniels, an ambidextrous pitcher who sometimes warmed up as a southpaw but threw righthanded in games, appeared in the last games played at both Ebbets Field in Brooklyn and Griffith Stadium in Washington. He also pitched in the first game played at D.C. Stadium, later called RFK.

Although he grew up playing ball in the Bronx sandlots surrounding Yankee Stadium, future Hall of Famer Rod Carew never went inside the ballpark until the Minnesota Twins invited him for a tryout in 1967. Manager Sam Mele curtailed Carew’s audition, theorizing that the Yankees might get wind of his abilities and sign him to a richer contract.

Tom Seaver fanned a record 10 straight San Diego hitters to end a Mets-Padres game on April 22, 1970. He had nine other strikeouts in the game.

According to 1979 National League co-MVP Keith Hernandez, Hall of Famer Phil Niekro tipped his pitches. On the rare occasion when he didn’t throw his trademark knuckleball, Niekro gritted his pearly-white teeth – a clear sign to Hernandez that something other than the knuckler was coming.

Steve Carlton was the first lefthanded member of the 3000 Strikeout Club. He got there on April 29, 1981.

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Pitchers who threw no-hitters in both leagues:

$          Jim Bunning

$          Nolan Ryan

$          Hideo Nomo

$          Randy Johnson

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Although modern closers rarely work more than an inning per game, Goose Gossage worked his way to Cooperstown by assuming heavier workloads. Of his 310 career saves, 193 of them came from outings that lasted longer than a single frame. Gossage, who had 24 career saves that lasted at least three innings, topped 100 innings in relief four times.

The only Yankees to hit home runs in four consecutive at-bats were Lou Gehrig and Bobby Murcer. The former had four homers in the same game, while Murcer connected in his last at-bat of a twinbill and first three trips in Game 2.

The decline of Barry Bonds as a ballplayer began at age 34 in 1999. He hit 34 home runs that year, the third straight season his power numbers had declined. Then things changed: he hit 49, a career peak at that point, in 2000 and then a record 73 at age 36 in 2001. Something must have changed – players don’t usually improve with advancing age.

Future NL batting king Todd Helton learned to hit to the opposite field in his parents’ Tennessee garage. Helton, a lefthanded batter playing with his father, had to hit the opposite way to avoid smacking the ball into his dad’s boat.

Brooks Kieschnick of the 2003 Milwaukee Brewers was the only player to home as a pitcher, pinch-hitter, and DH in the same season.

When Mark Teixeira of the Texas Rangers racked up 144 RBI in 2005, he carved a niche in the record book. No switch-hitter had that many runs batted in during a single season since George Davis of the New York Giants in 1896.

San Francisco catcher Mike Matheny was forced to retire with post-concussion syndrome after he was hit by a series of foul tips. The four-time Gold Glove receiver suffered several concussions in May 2006.

During the 2007 season, Cardinals infielder Aaron Miles made twice as many pitching appearances as staff ace Scott Carpenter. The latter succumbed to surgery after taking a beating from the Mets on Opening Day.

Jason Jennings had a first inning to forget on July 29, 2007. Pitching against San Diego, the Houston righthander became the first pitcher in 113 years to yield 11 earned runs without getting three outs.

Milton Bradley injured a teammate and himself in separate incidents on the same day. First, he stepped on the hand of centerfielder Mike Cameron in the outfield. Then he tore his ACL when San Diego manager Bud Black grabbed him from behind during an argument with umpire Mike Winters. The loss of the two outfielders on Sept. 23, 2007 was a key factor in San Diego’s failure to stop the red-hot Rockies from winning the NL wild-card race.

Justin Verlander wears No. 35 because of Frank Thomas. He first picked it in Little League when the coach had a box of jerseys and offered them around. “I settled on Thomas because he could hit and he’s one of those guys everybody likes.”

Ryan Brain won NL Rookie of the Year honors in 2007 even though the Milwaukee Brewers did not call him up from the minors until May 25. He finished with a .324 average, 34 homers, 97 RBI, and a league-best .634 slugging percentage in 113 games.

Ryan Braun, the 2007 NL Rookie of the Year, was 7 years old when his parents moved to the United States. He’s the only sabra, or native-born Israeli, in baseball history.

During their 12 years as teammates in Atlanta, Andruw Jones outhomered Chipper Jones, 368-363.

Dennis Eckersley, Derek Lowe, and John Smoltz are the only pitchers to post 40-save and 20-win seasons.

Four replacement players during the 1994-95 strike remained on big-league rosters when the 2008 season started: Ron Mahay (Kansas City), Matt Herges (Colorado), and Kevin Millar and Jamie Walker (Baltimore).

All but five of the 20 players in their 40s at the start of the 2008 season were pitchers. Jamie Moyer (Philadelphia) topped the list at 45, followed by Randy Johnson (Arizona) at 44 and Kenny Rogers (Detroit) at 43.

The wives of Red Sox pitchers Curt Schilling and Mike Timlin ran in the 2008 Boston Marathon.

Curt Schilling’s Red Sox contract extension for 2008 called for a $1 million bonus if he got a single Cy Young Award vote plus potential weight bonuses of $333,333 if he met predetermined goals six times during the season. P.S. Plagued by shoulder problems, Schilling never threw a pitch in 2008.

At the tender age of 17, future Red Sox star Daisuke Matsuzaka threw 250 pitches while pitching a complete game that lasted 17 innings. He followed that tournament victory two days later with a no-hitter, also in his native Japan.

Geremi Gonzalez, a pitcher with a world of potential, was always hoping lightning would strike. It did – two years after he retired. Gonzalez went 30-35 during a checkered nine-year career that included stints with five different teams. He was just 33 when he was killed by a bolt of lightning while standing on a beach in his native Venezuela on May 25, 2008.

Oakland first baseman Daric Barton suffered a disabling neck injury during the 2008 All-Star Break after diving into a pool that was too shallow.

After missing 46 games in 2008 with a torn tendon in his thigh, Colorado shortstop Troy Tulowitzki lasted three weeks before returning to the disabled list. The new injury was self-inflicted: he smashed his maple bat into the ground in frustration, only to have it splinter into a jagged weapon that sliced his palm. The wound required 16 stitches.

Micah Owings is the Babe Ruth of active pitchers. In his first 88 at-bats in the majors, the righthander hit .341 with five home runs – all for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Nearsighted reliever Ryne Duren, who intimidated hitters by blending a blazing fastball with erratic control, was charged with a wild pitch 40 years after he retired. Attending a charity banquet in Florham Park, New Jersey in 2008, Duren learned that the young woman sitting opposite him had won the table favor. He picked up the small bag in front of him and tossed the equivalent of a 55-foot fastball – spilling the woman’s water all over her dress. A writer sitting near him couldn’t resist saying, “Ryne – you still can’t see!” By the way, the beneficiary of the charity dinner Duren attended was St. Joseph’s School for the Blind.

As a result of their unchecked splurge into the free-agent market, the Toronto Blue Jays will owe $50 million in 2010 to just four men: Roy Halladay, A.J. Burnett, B.J. Ryan, and Vernon Wells.