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The First Pitch: August 26, 2025
A day after pummeling two home runs, Cal Raleigh keeps it riding with his 50th of the year, helping the Mariners to a 9-6 win over the visiting Padres. Raleigh is the first American Leaguer not named Aaron Judge to reach 50 in a season since Chris Davis in 2013.
Boston rookie Roman Anthony becomes the youngest player in franchise history to hit a leadoff homer, doing so at the age of 21 years and 104 days—just 12 days younger than the previous record holder, Hall of Famer Bobby Doerr in 1939. Anthony will be one of three Red Sox players to cross the plate in the fifth, on Jarren Duran’s three-run homer—accounting for the Sox’ other runs as they defeat the Orioles at Baltimore, 4-3.
For the first time since 1997, the Cardinals draw a home crowd below 20,000—and the relatively few fans who show are rewarded with a 7-6 victory over the Pirates, capped by Alex Burleson’s two-out, tie-breaking, walkoff homer. The Cardinals drew smaller crowds early during the 2021 season, but those were capped because of lingering COVID-era restrictions.
The Cleveland Guardians match a franchise mark by being shut out for the third straight game, suffering a 9-0 home loss to Tampa Bay. Ian Seymour and three relievers combine to shut down the Guardians on just two hits; Junior Caminero (see below) provides much of the offense with a single, double and two home runs—giving him 39 on the year.
The strain shows in the Cleveland dugout as Guardians starter Tanner Bibee, after giving up a leadoff homer in the seventh to Yandy Diaz (leading to his departure), lets off some negative steam and is barked at by manager Stephen Vogt to cool it.
The Guardians previously have been shut out in three straight games five times, most recently in 1991.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Hitters Edition)
5-4-4-3—Junior Caminero, Tampa Bay
Cal Raleigh and Aaron Judge are going to pick up the lion’s share of the AL MVP votes in a few months, but don’t be surprised if the Dominican third baseman—who just turned 22 back on July 5—gets the lion’s share of the remaining votes. Caminero pounded two homers to total 39 on the year, added a double and single, and even stole a base as the Rays swamped the Guardians at Cleveland, 9-0. Only Carlos Pena, with 46 homers in 2007, has hit more in a season wearing a Tampa Bay uniform than Caminero—who has 31 games left to equal or break the mark.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Pitchers Edition)
7-1-0-0-1-3—Shane Smith, Chicago White Sox
It’s been an awfully peculiar year for the 25-year-old rookie. He impressed early on but kept getting cheated out of wins thanks to a combination of poor run support and early yanks from his coaches. Then he struggled, posting a 7.22 ERA over his last nine starts. But against the Royals, Smith rediscovered the sweet spot with his best outing yet, even picking up the win—only his fourth in 23 tries—as the White Sox prevailed, 7-0. Smith needed just 80 pitches to get the job done.
It Was Whatever-Something Years Ago Today
1910: In the Pirates’ 4-2 victory over the Brooklyn Superbas, a combined one putout is registered by the outfielders from both teams, setting a major league record.
1939: The first-ever televised major league game is broadcast by New York station W2XBS. Red Barber performs the play-by-play as the Reds defeat the Dodgers in the first game of a doubleheader at Ebbets Field, 5-2. With less than 1,000 television sets in New York City at the time, it’s doubtful many are watching.
1987: A 39-game hit streak by the Brewers’ Paul Molitor—the AL’s longest since Joe DiMaggio’s historic 56-game ride—comes to an end in the 10th inning when he’s left hitless on deck as Rick Manning, the man hitting ahead of him, drives home the winning run. The Brewers’ fans celebrate by booing Manning.
2024: Danny Jansen becomes the first major leaguer to play for both teams in the same game, entering a contest he started Toronto back in June…before the game was suspended by bad weather. With the contest resumed two months later in advance of the regularly scheduled game, Jansen—since traded to Boston—takes over as Boston’s backstop. Jansen’s former team will win, 4-1.
You Say It’s Your Birthday
Happy birthday to:
Detroit first baseman Spencer Torkelson (26)
Philadelphia pitcher Ranger Suarez (30)
Elvis Andrus (37), two-time All-Star shortstop; all-time Texas stolen base leader
David Price (40), pitcher of 157-82 record; 2012 AL Cy Young winner; two-time AL ERA leader; five-time All-Star
Born on this date:
Alex Kellner (1924), postwar pitcher of 101 wins, including 20 as a rookie in 1949
Sparky Adams (1894), infielder and leadoff man for 13 years; three-time league leader in at-bats
Jesse Barnes (1892) two-time 20-game winner—and two-time 20-game loser; won two Word Series contests for 1921 world champion Giants
Chick Fraser (1873), turn-of-the-century pitcher with 175-212 record; 22-game winner for Philadelphia A’s in their inaugural 1901 campaign
Shameless Link of the Day
Take a look back at the 1991 season.
Book Review: “Attorneys in the Baseball Hall of Fame: A Collection of Biographical Essays”
Edited by Louis H. Schiff and Robert M. Jarvis
One of the things I’ve always loved about baseball literature is its expansive and diverse nature of subjects. For every book that focuses on, say, the storied but familiar history of the New York Yankees, there’s another that digs deeper into the weeds and nudges you with a subject that leaves you thinking, “Huh—I didn’t know that.”
Such a book is Attorneys in the Baseball Hall of Fame: A Collection of Biographical Essays. Published by MacFarland Books—the North Carolina-based baseball book factory—this collection of articles overseen by retired judge Louis Schiff and law professor Robert Jarvis is a meticulously researched book that focuses on a fascinating collection of 11 people who played, managed or ran the game of baseball and, at some point in their lives, took up law. Fun fact, as revealed in this book: Eight managers in the history of major league baseball acquired law degrees—and six of them are in the Hall of Fame. All six are profiled in this book.
What makes Attorneys in the Baseball Hall of Fame such an intriguing read is how these 11 people used their law experience to great benefit during their time in baseball. Branch Rickey, almost overqualified for a life in law school, used his lawyerly instincts to trailblaze his way through baseball history, perfecting the art of the farm system, overhauling failing franchises and, of course, shattering baseball’s race barrier by bringing Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers. Larry MacPhail, less the law prodigy than Rickey, nevertheless leveraged what he learned into a far more successful calling as a businessman known for turning companies (and major league teams) around. Walter O’Malley fused his knowledge of the law with his father’s past as a corrupt New York City politician to become the man that tactfully stole the Dodgers from Brooklyn. And Tony La Russa, failed major league ballplayer, eagerly pursued a law degree to empower his stature as a rising manager—first in the minors, then at the major league level where he collected more wins than anyone not named Connie Mack.
Some of those featured in the book are not surprising for their inclusion, like O’Malley or Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Federal judge turned baseball’s first commissioner. One unexpected subject is Hughie Jennings, who from past reading always struck me as the whoop-it-up baseball character who would have least thought of a career in law. Less ironic but still surprising is Miller Huggins, manager of the Yankees during the 1920s who, as a child, was encouraged by his working-class father-in-law to get a law degree because of his penchant for arguing—and was fortunate enough to be taught by, among others, future President William Howard Taft. There’s also Jim O’Rourke, the man who struck the first-ever hit in National League history whose lofty use of “five-syllable words”—which would have made even George Will blush—gained him the nickname “Orator,” lending himself all too naturally to a post-baseball career in law.
The 10 writers who contribute to Attorneys in the Baseball Hall of Fame are not lightweights; they’re highly experienced lawyers, professors and judges who know their craft—and they know their baseball, too. This double-barreled knowledge results in a smooth, self-assured narrative, not delving too deep into law linguistics that might wear down the many laymen among us (to which I count myself as one). And while most of the authors play it buttoned up and refrain from overt opinion, Elizabeth Marquez’s write-up on Bowie Kuhn stands out for her critical views of the former commissioner, writing that he “often…turned out to be on the wrong side of history” with his rulings and opinions.
Some readers adverse to long books may feel compelled to back away from the 253 pages offered in Attorneys in the Baseball Hall of Fame, but nearly half of the content consists of footnotes and addenda, greatly shortening the core writing while being made available as an option for further digestion of the facts. The book can be useful for reference, or simply enjoyed as 11 well-written bios on some of baseball’s most influential men, and how their appetite for the law helped mold their place in the game.
Attorneys in the Baseball Hall of Fame can be purchased from MacFarland Books, Amazon, and other online book sellers.
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