Before all the self-proclaimed purists forecasting the destruction of baseball strategy and the very sanctity of the sport as we know it go berserk bemoaning the inclusion of a designated hitter in the National League this season, remember this:In a most remarkable October full of huge momentum swings, the pivotal blow that decided last year’s World Series was delivered by, yep, the NL DH.OK, that clang resonating off the right field foul screen at Minute Maid Park — courtesy of Howie Kendrick’s home run in Game 7 for the visiting Washington Nationals — probably won’t drown out the wailing of longtime National League fans over the plan to play this virus-delayed season with a (gasp!) DH in both circuits.And it certainly won’t quell the debate that’s raged since April 6, 1973, when Ron Blomberg of the New York Yankees stepped to the plate at Fenway Park as Major League Baseball’s first DH (and drew a bases-loaded walk from Luis Tiant).To many NL fans, the scribble of “DH” on the lineup card... [More]

Before all the self-proclaimed purists forecasting the destruction of baseball strategy and the very sanctity of the sport as we know it go berserk bemoaning the inclusion of a designated hitter in the National League this season, remember this:In a most remarkable October full of huge momentum swings, the pivotal blow that decided last year’s World Series was delivered by, yep, the NL DH.OK, that clang resonating off the right field foul screen at Minute Maid Park — courtesy of Howie Kendrick’s home run in Game 7 for the visiting Washington Nationals — probably won’t drown out the wailing of longtime National League fans over the plan to play this virus-delayed season (gasp!) with a DH in both circuits.And it certainly won’t quell the debate that’s raged since April 6, 1973, when Ron Blomberg of the New York Yankees stepped to the plate at Fenway Park as Major League Baseball’s first DH (and drew a bases-loaded walk from Luis Tiant).To many NL fans, the scribble of “DH” on the lineup card... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball owners gave the go-ahead Monday to making a proposal to the players’ union that could lead to the coronavirus-delayed season starting around the Fourth of July weekend in ballparks without fans, a plan that envisioned expanding the designated hitter to the National League for 2020.Spring training could start in early to mid-June, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the plan were not announced.MLB officials are slated to make a presentation to the union on Tuesday. An agreement with the players' association is needed, and talks are expected to be difficult — especially over a proposal for a revenue split that would be unprecedented for baseball. Players withstood a 7 1/2-month strike in 1994-95 to fight off such a plan.“If you do anything that resembles a cap, that smells like a cap, you've given too much,” said Dave Stewart, a four-time 20-game winner who is now... [More]

Everybody has a plan, Mike Tyson liked to say, until they get hit in the face.Major League Baseball signaled on Monday that it’s ready to let the pummeling begin.A plan to open an abbreviated season over the Fourth of July weekend isn’t exactly set in stone, and whether it actually happens is far from guaranteed. Still, just setting a starting date has to make fans everywhere excited about the prospects of baseball taking its traditional place alongside fireworks and hot dogs on America’s birthday.The plan is not complete, and it’s not perfect. There are so many moving parts that it could all fall apart and leave fans with nothing but late-night Korean baseball on the holiday weekend.But if there was ever a time to wave the flag and cheer the possible return for the boys of summer this summer, it’s now.An 82-game season that would have seemed awfully weird just a few months ago looks just fine now. So do expanded playoffs, with 14 teams making it into the postseason.And even hardened traditionalists... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball owners gave the go-ahead Monday to making a proposal to the players’ union that could lead to the coronavirus-delayed season starting around the Fourth of July weekend in ballparks without fans, a plan that envisioned expanding the designated hitter to the National League for 2020.Spring training could start in early to mid-June, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the plan were not announced.MLB officials are slated to make a presentation to the union on Tuesday. An agreement with the players' association is needed, and talks are expected to be difficult — especially over a proposal for a revenue split that would be unprecedented for baseball.“Bear with me, but it feels like we’ve zoomed past the most important aspect of any MLB restart plan: health protections for players, families, staff, stadium workers and the workforce it would require to resume a season,"... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball owners gave the go-ahead Monday to making a proposal to the players’ union that could lead to the coronavirus-delayed season starting around the Fourth of July weekend in ballparks without fans, a plan that envisioned expanding the designated hitter to the National League for 2020.Spring training would start in early to mid-June, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the plan were not announced.MLB officials are slated to make a presentation to the union on Tuesday. An agreement with the players' association is needed, and talks are expected to be difficult — especially over a proposal for a revenue split that would be unprecedented for baseball.Each team would play about 82 regular-season games: against opponents in its own division plus interleague matchups limited to AL East vs. NL East, AL Central vs. NL Central and AL West vs. NL West. Postseason play would be... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball owners gave the go-ahead Monday to making a proposal to the players’ union that could lead to the coronavirus-delayed season starting around the Fourth of July weekend in ballparks without fans, a plan that envisioned expanding the designated hitter to the National League for 2020.Spring training would start in early to mid-June, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the plan were not announced.MLB officials are slated to make a presentation to the union on Tuesday. An agreement with the players' association is needed, and talks are expected to be difficult — especially over a proposal for a revenue split that would be unprecedented for baseball.Each team would play about 82 regular-season games: against opponents in its own division plus interleague matchups limited to AL East vs. NL East, AL Central vs. NL Central and AL West vs. NL West. Postseason play would be... [More]

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball owners gave the go-ahead Monday to making a proposal to the players’ union that could lead to the coronavirus-delayed season starting around the Fourth of July weekend in ballparks without fans, a plan that envisioned expanding the designated hitter to the National League for 2020.Spring training would start in early to mid-June, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the plan were not announced.MLB officials are slated to make a presentation to the union on Tuesday. An agreement with the players' association is needed, and talks are expected to be difficult — especially over a proposal for a revenue split that would be unprecedented for baseball.Each team would play about 82 regular-season games: against opponents in its own division plus interleague matchups limited to AL East vs. NL East, AL Central vs. NL Central and AL West vs. NL West. Postseason play would be... [More]

May 121910 — Chief Bender of the Philadelphia Athletics pitched a 4-0 no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians.1937 — St. Louis’ Joe Medwick hit two home runs and two doubles to lead the Cardinals to a 15-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.1955 — Sam “Toothpick” Jones of the Cubs got a no-hitter the hard way. In the ninth inning against Pittsburgh, he walked the bases full and then struck out the next three batters for a 4-0 victory.1956 — Carl Erskine of the Brooklyn Dodgers pitched a 3-0 no-hitter against the New York Giants.1966 — Lou Brock’s RBI single in the 12th inning gave the St. Louis Cardinals a 4-3 victory over Atlanta in the opening of Busch Memorial Stadium. Felipe Alou hit two home runs for the Braves.1970 — Ernie Banks hit his 500th home run off Pat Jarvis in Chicago’s 4-3 victory over Atlanta at Wrigley Field.2000 — Boston’s Pedro Martinez, who had 17 strikeouts in his last start May 6 against Tampa Bay, struck out 15 in a 9-0 win over Baltimore, to tie an AL record... [More]

May 111904 - Cy Young’s 23-inning no-hit string ended. The streak included two innings on April 25, six on April 30, a perfect game against the Philadelphia A’s on May 5, and six innings today.1919 - Walter Johnson of the Washington Senators pitched 12 scoreless innings in a duel with Jack Quinn of the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds. The Big Train allowed only two hits and retired 28 batters in a row. Future football star George Halas, batting leadoff for the Yankees, went 0-for-5, striking out twice.1919 - Hod Eller of the Cincinnati Reds pitched a no-hitter to beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-0. Eller struck out eight and walked three.1923 - Setting several Pacific Coast League records, Pete Schneider of Vernon hit five homers and a double to knock in 14 runs in a 35-11 romp over Salt Lake City.1955 - Ernie Banks’ grand slam - the first of five on the year - led the Chicago Cubs to a 10-8 victory that snapped the Brooklyn Dodgers’ 11-game winning streak.1963 - Sandy Koufax pitched... [More]

We come not to praise the loogie, but to bury it.Already banned on sidewalks, outlawed indoors and pooh-poohed by polite society, that gob of saliva and Lord-knows-what-else is done mucking up sports. In the wake of the new coronavirus, teams are revoking the germ-landing privileges that turned dugouts, benches, boxing rings and even grass fields into potential biohazard sites.No sharing towels, hats, bats, gloves or water bottles. Which could mean the golden era of spitting, slobbering, gleaking, glanding, hawking, hocking, venoming and expectorating is about to dry up. Or not.“About time they did something,” said Bobby Valentine, who played and managed in the major leagues for more than 40 years, including two stints in the Japanese Pacific League.“I was over there for seven years and I could probably count on one hand how many times I saw a ballplayer spit. Heck,” he added, “they don’t even chew gum.”But a moment later, Valentine remembers a photo tucked in a drawer somewhere in his... [More]

May 101909 - Pitching for Winchester in the Blue Grass League, Fred Toney worked 17 no-hit innings before winning 1-0 over Lexington.1934 - Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees played five innings before removing himself from the game because of illness. By that time, he had two homers, two doubles and seven RBIs against the Chicago White Sox.1944 - Cleveland’s Mel Harder became the 50th player to win 200 games as the Indians beat the Boston Red Sox 5-4.1967 - Braves outfielder Hank Aaron hit an inside-the-park home run. It was the only one of his 755 homers which did not clear the fence.1970 - Hoyt Wilhelm pitched his 1,000th major league game, but the Atlanta Braves lost 6-5 to the St. Louis Cardinals.1981 - Charlie Lea became the first French-born pitcher to throw a no-hitter as the Montreal Expos beat the San Francisco Giants 4-0 in the second game of a doubleheader.1999 - Nomar Garciaparra hit two grand slams and a two-run homer to become the first AL player with 10 RBIs since 1975, leading the Boston Red Sox past the Seattle Mariners 12-4.2001 - Jeromy Burnitz went 3-for-4 with three homers and six RBIs as the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Cubs 11-1.2008 - Greg Maddux of the San Diego Padres became the ninth pitcher in big league history to win 350 games, allowing an unearned over six innings in a 3-2 victory over the Colorado Rockies.2015 - Felix Hernandez of the Seattle Mariners becomes the fourth youngest player to strike out 2,000 batters.

May 91901 — Earl Moore of the Cleveland Indians pitched nine hitless innings against the Chicago White Sox before giving up two hits in the 10th to lose 4-2.1937 — Ernie Lombardi of the Cincinnati Reds went 6-for-6 in a 21-10 rout of the Phillies in Philadelphia.1961 — Jim Gentile of the Baltimore Orioles hit consecutive grand slams in the first and second innings of a 13-5 rout of Minnesota.1973 — Johnny Bench of the Cincinnati Reds hit three home runs off Philadelphia’s Steve Carlton for the second time in his career, in a 9-7 victory. Bench drove in seven runs.1984 — The Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers battled for eight hours and six minutes in the longest game ever. After playing 17 innings the previous day, the teams met again before a regularly scheduled game, making the total 34 innings for two days. Harold Baines homered off Chuck Porter with one out in the bottom of the 25th for a 7-6 victory. Tom Seaver won both games for the White Sox.1987 — Baltimore’s Eddie Murray became... [More]

Tom Murphy has become somewhat of an online sensation during baseball’s shutdown for the array of workouts the Seattle Mariners' catcher posts on Instagram from his home in upstate New York.While staying in shape is a priority, Murphy also is thinking ahead. As in, how the game’s strategy might need to shift if teams have to play in empty stadiums.“It’s going to be one of those things that it’s going to add some different aspects to the game,” Murphy said.Whenever baseball returns after the delay caused by the coronavirus pandemic, there’s an element that might come into play like never before: the sound of silence.The crack of the bat and the pop of a glove might resonate with a rich, deep echo that invokes the nostalgia of the game — back to the days of playing in front of just family and friends in Little League or high school when the loudest noises were the ping of an aluminum bat and an overzealous parent. But a quiet ballpark also means a drastic departure for pro athletes accustomed... [More]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Ryan Zimmerman is a two-time All-Star infielder who has played 15 years in the majors, all with the Washington Nationals. He holds most of the team’s career hitting records, and his two homers and seven RBIs last postseason helped the Nationals win their first World Series championship. With baseball on hold, Zimmerman is offering his thoughts -- as told to AP Sports Writer Howard Fendrich -- in a diary of sorts while waiting for the 2020 season to begin. In the sixth installment, he discusses the return to American TV of baseball -- South Korean baseball.—-It does sort of show, I guess, how starved we are for sports content. And I don’t mean that in a bad way -- this is no knock on the Korean league -- but just to have live sports, of any kind at all, is really a big deal right now. If things were normal, there’s zero chance you would have people watching Korean baseball on TV here; they’d be watching us play. But there it is on ESPN, with Karl Ravech and other people who’d... [More]

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — When the Kansas City Royals learned that spring training was over and they were headed home, with questions swirling around if and when they might start the season, Mike Matheny sent them each a copy of a book called “Legacy.”Author James Kerr tells the story of the All Blacks, the famed New Zealand rugby team that has won more than 75% of its matches going back a century. Kerr breaks down the Kiwis' success and teases out lessons for individuals and teams that have to do with accountability, leadership and developing a winning culture.It's something that Matheny, who was hired this past offseason to replace the retired Ned Yost, wouldn't have been able to do during the regular season, when the daily grind chews up everybody's day. But with the coronavirus pandemic giving his players more free time than they've had since most of them were kids, Matheny decided to take advantage by giving them a little bit of homework — and in doing so, giving them a little insight... [More]

May 131911 — Detroit’s Ty Cobb hit his first grand slam. After six innings, the Tigers led the Red Sox, 10-1. Boston came back to win the game 13-11 in 10 innings.1911 — The New York Giants scored a major league record 10 runs before the St. Louis Cardinals retired the first batter in the first inning. Fred Merkle drove in six of the Giants’ 13 runs in the first en route to a 19-5 rout. Rube Marquard of the Giants entered the game in the second inning and set a record for relievers with 14 strikeouts in his eight-inning appearance.1923 — Joe Sewell of the Cleveland Indians struck out twice in one game for the first time in his career. Washington Senator rookie Wally Warmoth was the pitcher. In a 14-year career, Sewell had only one other multiple strikeout game.1942 — Boston’s Jim Tobin became the only pitcher in modern history to hit three home runs in one game. Tobin led the Braves to a 6-5 win over the Chicago Cubs. His fourth at-bat was a fly ball caught against the fence in left field.1952... [More]

May 91901 — Earl Moore of the Cleveland Indians pitched nine hitless innings against the Chicago White Sox before giving up two hits in the 10th to lose 4-2.1937 — Ernie Lombardi of the Cincinnati Reds went 6-for-6 in a 21-10 rout of the Phillies in Philadelphia.1961 — Jim Gentile of the Baltimore Orioles hit consecutive grand slams in the first and second innings of a 13-5 rout of Minnesota.1973 — Johnny Bench of the Cincinnati Reds hit three home runs off Philadelphia’s Steve Carlton for the second time in his career, in a 9-7 victory. Bench drove in seven runs.1984 — The Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers battled for eight hours and six minutes in the longest game ever. After playing 17 innings the previous day, the teams met again before a regularly scheduled game, making the total 34 innings for two days. Harold Baines homered off Chuck Porter with one out in the bottom of the 25th for a 7-6 victory. Tom Seaver won both games for the White Sox.1987 — Baltimore’s Eddie Murray became... [More]

May 61915 — As a pitcher for Boston, Babe Ruth had three hits, including his first major league home run when he connected off Jack Warhop of the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds.1917 — Bob Groom of the Browns duplicated teammate Ernie Koob’s feat of the previous day by pitching a no-hitter, a 3-0 victory against the Chicago White Sox in the second game of a doubleheader in St. Louis.1951 — Cliff Chambers of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitched a 3-0 no-hitter in the second game of a doubleheader against the Braves in Boston.1953 — Bobo Holloman of the St. Louis Browns pitched a 6-0 no-hitter against the Philadelphia Athletics in his first major league start. He never pitched another complete game in the majors.1982 — Gaylord Perry of the Seattle Mariners became the 15th major league pitcher with 300 victories when he defeated the New York Yankees 7-3 at the Kingdome.1994 — Anthony Young won as a starter for the first time in more than two years as the Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates... [More]

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The new baseball season began in South Korea on Tuesday with the crack of the bat and the sound of the ball smacking into the catcher’s mitt echoing around empty stadiums.After a weeks-long delay because of the coronavirus pandemic, umpires wore protective masks and cheerleaders danced beneath rows of unoccupied seats as professional baseball got back on the field.There were many faces in the stands in at least one stadium, but they were pictures instead of real people because fans aren’t allowed into the venues — at least for now.Instead, it was easy to hear players cheering and shouting from the dugouts. And it was a relief to fans watching from home in a country that is now attempting to slowly return to pre-COVID-19 normalcy amid a waning caseload.The country’s professional soccer leagues will kick off Friday, also without spectators in the stadiums.As one of the world’s first major professional sports competitions to return to action amid the pandemic, the... [More]