The screwball relies on movement and lots of feeling. It begins in one direction and unexpectedly breaks in the opposite direction. When it’s good, it’s incredible, and when executed perfectly, you’ll never forget it. --- Note: This story was originally published 40 years after the height of Fernandomania and is

This story was originally published on MLB.com on Oct. 3, 2015. This year's National League Championship Series between the Dodgers and Mets, which opens with Game 1 on Sunday at 8:15 p.m. ET on FOX, will mark the fourth postseason meeting between the clubs. They last faced off in the

Editor's note: This article was originally published in September 2020

Charlie Blackmon is now one of the best hitters in all of baseball, with a batting title, four All-Star appearances, a pair of Silver Slugger Awards and a career OPS+ of 116 on his resume. But once upon a time, he was coveted for his left arm much more than

The final months of Vera Clemente’s life were filled with beautiful images and vivid dreams. Her husband, Roberto Clemente, was a constant presence in these visions, she would tell others. He’d pick her up in a brand-new Cadillac and they would drive around Puerto Rico, just like the old days.

On a bright June morning in Cooperstown, N.Y., Dr. Fred Worth pulled into Lakewood Cemetery on the eastern shore of Otsego Lake. He stepped out of his 2024 Buick Encore – a new car that, in less than a year, has already ticked past 44,000 miles – and walked up

On Sept. 6, 1995, Cal Ripken Jr. played his 2,131st consecutive game, breaking Lou Gehrig’s "unbreakable" 56-year-old record to become baseball’s new Iron Man. The Orioles’ 4-2 win over the Angels that night was a generational event, a celebration of one of its most beloved figures. Ripken’s streak has been

Saturday marked the 25-year anniversary of one of the most notorious promotions in Major League history, the cult classic known as "Turn Ahead the Clock Night," which included the brief but memorable reign of the Mercury Mets. A version of this story originally ran in July 2019.

Over the course of his remarkable seven-year career in the Major Leagues, Shohei Ohtani hasn't met his match often. But the generational unicorn had to adjust a bit when confronted with the likes of Gravedigger and El Toro Loco. About a year and a half ago, the team at New

Decades after his final game, Willie Mays stands among the greatest athletes and ambassadors baseball has ever seen. Few players, if any, have looked like a more natural fit to play baseball than Mays. He doesn’t top many all-time statistical lists (though he’s darn close in so many of them),

SAN DIEGO -- Parked at a gas station somewhere near Lakewood, N.J., a frustrated Quintin Berry could not, for the life of him, figure out why he couldn’t hit the changeup. Playing in the early months of his first full professional season, Berry decided to give his former college coach

Like the pitch, the knuckleball factory is mysterious. Fleeting, hard to track down. Even when you have its location – about 15 minutes southeast of L.A.’s Redondo coast in Torrance, Calif. – you’ll start questioning yourself during the drive: “Wait, this can’t be the way? Do I have the right

DETROIT -- The Comerica Park usher didn’t recognize the guy in the Elon University baseball cap and the personalized Tigers jersey. But the MLB Network camera crew following his every move was an obvious tipoff that he was somebody of note. So the usher had to take the opportunity to

Like the pitch, the knuckleball factory is mysterious. Fleeting, hard to track down. Even when you have its location – about 15 minutes southeast of L.A.’s Redondo coast in Torrance, Calif. – you’ll start questioning yourself during the drive: “Wait, this can’t be the way? Do I have the right

Aaron Judge, the new AL home run king with 62, has become one of the biggest names in Major League Baseball, though his road to stardom was a long and winding one. From his time as a marginal prospect in high school to his selection by the Yankees in the

When you're a right-handed pitcher from Texas, and you throw hard, and you have been tabbed as "The Next Big Thing," the comparisons are inevitable. Nolan Ryan. Roger Clemens. Kerry Wood? Wood was still a fresh-faced kid starring at Grand Prairie High School when the comparisons to Ryan and Clemens

The catcher called for a slider. Kevin Rychel shook him off. Rychel still asks himself, all these years later, why he did this. He rarely shook off the catcher back then, in the midst of a seven-year Minor League career in the Pirates’ organization. But on this muggy July night

The ballpark has no dugouts. It has no locker rooms. It has no restrooms, no concession stands and no scoreboard. No warning track lines its chain-link outfield fence. No plumbing routes run beneath its all-dirt infield or its spartan slab seats. Set foot in the facility known as Fleming Field

The game was well underway at Ted Williams Field in the North Park neighborhood. It was, it appeared, an ordinary evening in the San Diego City Softball League, with a handful of people in the stands watching grown men perform an athletic activity largely centered on the consumption of beer

She would never retreat to the bedroom to sleep. Instead, she’d lay on the living room couch, waiting for her husband to come home from work, waiting to share in his joys or unpack his frustrations. It might be midnight before he’d walk through the door, and the kids would

On the night of June 1, 2012, in the 8,020th game in franchise history, Johan Santana delivered the Mets’ first no-hitter. It required a Herculean pitch count, a questionable foul call and a generational catch by a Queens native at Citi Field. Ten years later, those who were present offered

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- It does not currently hang at CHS Field alongside Kevin Millar’s No. 15, Darryl Strawberry’s No. 17 and the other digits formally retired by the St. Paul Saints. But within the world of this ballclub that serves as the Triple-A affiliate of the nearby Twins, there

If you've ever enjoyed a modern ballgame, you should thank a Veeck. Whether you dig the new pitch clock, the ivy on Wrigley's famed outfield walls, or the kind of wacky ballpark promotions that thrive in Major and Minor League parks around the country, it was likely the brainchild of

This story was originally published on July 23, 2015. CHICAGO -- There was a comment made by Mark Buehrle, shortly after throwing the second perfect game in White Sox franchise history, that perfectly summed up the surprise of the day's event, even for the left-hander. "I don't know how to

LOS ANGELES -- When asked how many hits his father, Cuban baseball legend Lazaro Vargas, recorded during his illustrious career in the Cuban National Series, Miguel Vargas quickly answers: 991. He can recite all of his father’s on-field accomplishments, highlighted by his two Olympic gold medals. And yet, despite a