This Week In Baseball History

By Mike Bates and Bill Parker

History Professional Sports & Recreation

What's This Week In Baseball History about?

This Week In Baseball History is a weekly podcast devoted to the history of baseball, hosted by Mike Bates and Bill Parker, the co-founders of The Platoon Advantage and writers on many fine websites.

Download our free app to listen on your phone

This Week In Baseball History episodes:

04.19.2024
Episode 330 - The Rangers' Big Inning
How many rakes do you have to step on before the spectacle of it goes from funny to unfunny to hilarious again? Unfortunately for Baltimore fans, the Orioles put this to the test 28 years ago this week when the...
04.12.2024
Episode 329 - Fox On The Sox
Was Nellie Fox overrated by old school types who voted him into the Hall of Fame? Or is he undervalued by today's modern metrics that rank him as one off the weakest members of that exclusive club of players? The...
04.05.2024
Episode 328 - His Grace, Duke Edwin Snider
Overshadowed by the greatness of Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle, the third of the holy trio of Golden Age, New York-based center fielders, Duke Snider, was a marvel in his own right. A five tool player whose short peak rivaled...
03.29.2024
Episode 327 - Sammy Sosa Takes the Crosstown Express
The Cubs might not be willing to acknowledge it today, but it was 32 years ago this week that they acquired one of the greatest players in franchise history, trading away aging slugger George Bell for a dynamic, young Sammy...
03.22.2024
Episode 326 - Judy Johnson Refuses To Go Gray Gracefully
It was the most expensive trade in Negro League history. It was also specificallly designed to be the killing strike that finished off the Pittsburgh Crawfords. Finally, it ended the career of Hall of Fame third baseman Judy Johnson, who...
03.08.2024
Episode 325 - Baseball Beyond Borders (with Michael Clair)
From the very beginning of the National League, baseball's overlords have attempted to grow the sport beyond America's borders. These efforts have met with varying levels of success over the years, but it's clear that baseball has never been more...
03.01.2024
Episode 324 - Baseball In the Little Big Apple (with special guest Kevin Baker
For as long as it has existed, baseball has been intertwined with New York City, with the two developing alongside one another into American institutions. With special guest Kevin Baker, author of The New York Game: Baseball and the Rise...
02.23.2024
Episode 37 Rerun - Danny Gardella and the Mexican League Declare War
Major League Baseball rarely faces a realistic challenge to its hegemony, but, 72 years ago this week, Danny Gardella became the first American-born player to sign with Jorge Pasquel's Mexican League, touching off a short war that challenged the reserve...
02.16.2024
Episode 323 - No Less, Nomo
Compared to some of the other Japanese pitchers who have transitioned to the United States, Hideo Nomo's American career seems relatively short and underwhelming. But the impact it had on two nations, how players move between leagues, and what fans...
02.09.2024
Episode 322 - Two Of Life's Three Constants
With Mike's attention divided this week, Bill suggested a scaled down episode where the boys focus on birthdays and memorials for the recently departed. And so, happy birthday to Smoky Burgess and Germany Schaefer! And farewell to Chuck Harrison, Dick...
02.02.2024
Episode 85 (Rerun) - Roy Campanella Misses A Turn
Despite being acknowledged as one of the all time greats and a very deserving Hall of Famer, Roy Campanella's career doesn't get the appreciation it deserves because of its late start due to segregation and early finish due to an...
01.26.2024
Episode 321 - Mike and a Mate: The Return of Steven Goldman!
With Bill on vacation, Mike welcomes walking baseball encyclopedia Steven Goldman (@gostevengoldman) in for a chat. They talk about Steve's podcast, The Infinite Inning, returning to a weekly format, what makes a great baseball story, the worst teams in history...
01.19.2024
Episode 320 - Welcome Home, Cecil Fielder!
When Cecil Fielder returned from a year in Japan, 34 years agoo this week, it was without fanfare. But by the end of 1990, after slamming 51 homers, Fielder had become one of the most iconic faces in baseball. His...
01.12.2024
Episode 319 - Jay Jaffe Returns! (with special guest Jay Jaffe)
It's still Hall of Fame season for, like, one more week, so Mike and Bill sit down with Fangraphs Senior Writer Jay Jaffe, inventor of JAWS, the preeminent tool to evaluate potential Hall of Famers, to talk about the current...
01.05.2024
Episode 318 - Rogers, Over the Threshold and Into the Hall of Fame
One of the greatest and one of the ornriest players in baseball history, Rogers Hornsby presents a conundrum. Too good not to want on your team, but so disruptive that he was traded in three straight offseasons and wore out...
12.22.2023
Episode 317 - The Hall of Fame Ballot, 2024
With their scheduled guest ailing, Mike and Bill take a thorough look at all the candidates on this year's Hall of Fame ballot and decide they're probably going to need more votes. Plus, happy birthday to Cy Williams and Leo...
12.15.2023
Episode 316 (Repost) - The Cubs Get the Finger(s)
When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. And when life mangles your hand, learn a curveball. That was the path to greatness for legendary Cubs right hander Mordecai Brown, whose handicap wound up baffling National Leauge hitters for the better...
12.08.2023
Episode 315 - Lou Piniella Finds a Home
Sweet Lou was never an apt nickname for Lou Piniella, whose fiery temper and aggressive play earned him respect and fear around the game after he joined the Yankees 50 years ago this week, and became an essential cog in...
12.01.2023
Episode 314 - All is Golden For Al Rosen
Because his peak was so short, Al Lopez is often overlooked when we think about the great sluggers of the 1950s. But no one could ignore his incredible season in 1953 when, 70 years ago this week, he became just...
11.24.2023
Episode 313.5 - A Couple Announcements and a Farewell
Mike and Bill briefly have some podcast related announcments and Thanksgiving well-wishes up top and then say farewell to the great Willie Hernandez.
11.17.2023
Episode 313 - One Random Game II
With a dearth of interesting topics this week, Mike and Bill fire up the random number generator and provide the annotated story of the Montreal Expos visit to Cincinnati on May 1, 1976 against the Big Red Machine. Would the...
11.10.2023
Episode 312 - Dale Does It Again
He was one of the best players of the 1980s and, 40 years ago this week, became one of only 13 players in baseball history to win back-to-back MVP Awards. But Dale Murphy is still on the outside looking in...
11.01.2023
Episode 174 (Rerun) -- Lefty O'Doul Goes Back to Japan (with Special Guest Yuriko Gamo Romer)
Mike got an unexpected opportunity to attend a World Series game this week, so we're going back to this time of year in 2020 for this week's episode. When relations between the United States and Japan broke down in the...
10.27.2023
Episode 311 - The Blue Jays' Biggest Fly
The most important hit in Blue Jays history came 30 years ago this week when Joe Carter launched a walk-off three run home run down the left field line off of embattled Phillies reliever Mitch Williams in Game 6 of...
10.20.2023
Episode 310 - The Impossible Happens
He was supposed to be too injured to run. But you don't need to run when you hit a baseball as far as Kirk Gibson did 35 years ago this week, when he hit a flat-footed pinch-hit, walk off home...
10.13.2023
Episode 309 - The 2003 NLCS Is Up In the Air
If the foul pop off Luis Castillo's bat in Game 6 of the NLCS had landed a foot either way, the life of one ordinary Cubs fan would have remained anonymous and thoroughly normal. Instead, 20 years ago this week,...
10.06.2023
Episode 308 - Enter the World's Series
120 years ago this week, Barney Dreyfuss's big idea came to fruition, as his Pirates took on the Boston Americans from the upstart American League to try to prove the NL's dominance. But a funny thing happened, as the Junior...
10.03.2023
Episode 307.5 - RIP Brooks Robinson and Tim Wakefield
In honor of two great ballplayers who have fallen in the past week, Mike and Bill re-release portions of episodes 253 and 162, which catalogue the lives of the great Brooks Robinson and TIm Wakefield
09.29.2023
Episode 307 - Orel Hershiser Streaks!
He looked, according to so many, like a choir boy. But on a pitcher's mound, with a ball in his hand, Orel Hershiser became Tommy Lasorda's bulldog. And his bite was never stronger than it was 35 years ago this...
09.22.2023
Episode 306 - The Cubs Meet Their Mister
Has there ever been a player as inextricably linked to his team as Ernie Banks was to the Chicago Cubs? Perhaps not. That beautiful, tragic relationship began 70 years ago this week when Banks suited up for the first time...
09.15.2023
Episode 305 - Our Idiot Brothers, Part 2
It remains hard, at times to be brothers. We covered that back in January with a set of siblings who fell well short of their illustrious kin. But there are still so many bad (or just mediocre) brothers out there!...
09.08.2023
Episode 166 - No-Nos No More!
When is a no-hitter not a no-hitter? When Fay Vincent decided, 32 years ago this week, that it shouldn't be. Specifically, he decreed that any no-hitters shorter than nine full innings or that was broken up after the ninth no...
09.01.2023
Episode 304 - Ya Gotta Believe!
50 years ago this week, the Mets lost and fell back into the cellar in the National League East. Five short weeks later, they would finish the season at the top. And then, shortly thereafter, facing the A's in the...
08.25.2023
Episode 303 - Juan Bad Day
The Joker thinks all it takes to turn a good man bad is one bad day. And, in the eyes of many baseball fans, that's what happened to Juan Marichal 58 years ago this week when he attacked Dodgers catcher...
08.18.2023
Episode 164 (Rerun) - The Death of Ray Chapman
Ray Chapman was the toast of Cleveland, until 103 years ago this week, when his life was tragically cut short by a Carl Mays fastball that crushed in his skull. Mike and Bill go through the lives of the star-crossed...
08.11.2023
Episode 302 - We Give Up
It's hard enough to lose when you straight up get beat on the field. But when circumstances conspire to prevent you from even being able too compete? That's especially frustrating. That's what happened to the Dodgers 28 years ago this...
08.04.2023
Episode 301 - Two Bad Big Apples (with special guest Chris Donnelly)
As hard as it might be to believe in 2023 (he says with the sarcasm dripping in his voice) there once was a time when New York City was not particularly pleased with its two representatives in the American and...
07.24.2023
Episode 300 - SABR Pirate Radio with Mike Veeck
Unlikely as it seemed seven years ago, here we are at episode 300. And to celebrate, Mike and Bill and Mike Duncan present a special interview from the recently completed SABR convention with the great Mike Veeck, the son of...
07.18.2023
Episode 299.5 - SABR Pirate Radio with Dan Levitt and Adam Darowski
In their second installment from this year's SABR Convention in Chicago, Mike and Mike and Bill talked to a couple people you're familiar with if you've listened to the podcast. Dan Levitt (@dlevs1), co-author of Intentional Balk: Baseball's Thin Line...
07.12.2023
Episode 299 - SABR Pirate Radio with Kat Williams and Katie Krall
Once again, Mike and Bill join forces with Mike Duncan to talk to some of the most exciting people at the SABR convention. This year, we kick off with Kat Williams, professor, historian, author, President of the International Women’s Baseball...
07.07.2023
Episode 56 (Rerun) - A League Almost Their Own (with special guest Frankie de la Cretaz)
The All American Girls Professional Baseball League gave women an unprecedented chance to organize and play professional baseball. But, as special guest Frankie de la Cretaz (@thefrankiedlc) points out, it also worked to obscure its queer players with rigid "femininity...
06.30.2023
Episode 298 - Chicago Chicanery, or It's 3 Minutes To Midnight Somewhere
With the White Sox threatening to leave the Windy City and abscond to Tampa if they didn't get a new stadium 35 years ago this week, and with the Illinois legislative session winding down to the end of its session...
06.23.2023
Episode 297 - 12 Straight Hits in 1930
What are the odds of a coin flip coming up heads 12 times in a row. Seriously, we're asking. Because we're not good at math. But it's pretty darn unlikely. So what are the chances of a team essentially doing...
06.16.2023
Episode 296 - The Browns Get a Goose For Their Heine
Like a binary star system, Goose Goslin and Heine Manush kept circling each other throughout their careers, but probably never moreso than when the Browns sent Manush and General Crowder to the Senators 93 years ago this week for Goslin....
06.09.2023
Episode 295 - Greg Proops's Giants
With Bill sidelined this week, Mike talks to comedian, improvisor and actor Greg Proops about growing up as a Giants fan in San Francisco in the 1960s and 70s. Mays! Marichal! McCovey! And Alous galore! And, of course, the mystery...
06.02.2023
Episode 294 - Even Babe Ruth Comes to an End Eventually
We've talked about Babe Ruth before, but not about the end. This episode covers the Babe from 1933--right after his last championship and maybe most famous moment--through the end of his career and way-too-short life. Also, happy birthday to Carlos...
05.26.2023
Episode 50 Rerun - The Beaning of Mickey Cochrane
By any objective measure, Mickey Cochrane is one of the greatest players in the history of baseball, despite his career ending prematurely 81 years ago this week, when his skull was fractured by an errant Bump Hadley fastball. In this...
05.19.2023
Episode 293 - A Ballplayer Wears Many Hats (with special guest Michael Clair)
Since almost the beginning of baseball, they have been there, perched atop the domes of American athletes. The hat. The cap. The lid. But it wasn't always thus, and it wasn't always the caps we see on the field today....
05.12.2023
Episode 292 - Feeling the Vida Blues
Vida Blue was, for a moment, the best pitcher in the world, and then carved out an excellent career beyond that. With his recent passing, Mike and Bill explore the surprisingly contentious career of one of 1970s greatest pitchers, and...
05.05.2023
Episode 200 (Re-run) - The Twins' Killer
With the podcast coming up on Episode 300 and Mike in an existential pit of terribleness this week, we're re-running our joyous and celebratory 200th episode, in which we tell the story of the great Harmon Killebrew, and are joined...

What's This Week In Baseball History about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

This Week In Baseball History episodes:

Episode 330 - The Rangers' Big Inning

Episode 329 - Fox On The Sox

Episode 328 - His Grace, Duke Edwin Snider

Episode 327 - Sammy Sosa Takes the Crosstown Express

Episode 326 - Judy Johnson Refuses To Go Gray Gracefully

Episode 325 - Baseball Beyond Borders (with Michael Clair)

Episode 324 - Baseball In the Little Big Apple (with special guest Kevin Baker

Episode 37 Rerun - Danny Gardella and the Mexican League Declare War

Episode 323 - No Less, Nomo

Episode 322 - Two Of Life's Three Constants

Episode 85 (Rerun) - Roy Campanella Misses A Turn

Episode 321 - Mike and a Mate: The Return of Steven Goldman!

Episode 320 - Welcome Home, Cecil Fielder!

Episode 319 - Jay Jaffe Returns! (with special guest Jay Jaffe)

Episode 318 - Rogers, Over the Threshold and Into the Hall of Fame

Episode 317 - The Hall of Fame Ballot, 2024

Episode 316 (Repost) - The Cubs Get the Finger(s)

Episode 315 - Lou Piniella Finds a Home

Episode 314 - All is Golden For Al Rosen

Episode 313.5 - A Couple Announcements and a Farewell

Episode 313 - One Random Game II

Episode 312 - Dale Does It Again

Episode 174 (Rerun) -- Lefty O'Doul Goes Back to Japan (with Special Guest Yuriko Gamo Romer)

Episode 311 - The Blue Jays' Biggest Fly

Episode 310 - The Impossible Happens

Episode 309 - The 2003 NLCS Is Up In the Air

Episode 308 - Enter the World's Series

Episode 307.5 - RIP Brooks Robinson and Tim Wakefield

Episode 307 - Orel Hershiser Streaks!

Episode 306 - The Cubs Meet Their Mister

Episode 305 - Our Idiot Brothers, Part 2

Episode 166 - No-Nos No More!

Episode 304 - Ya Gotta Believe!

Episode 303 - Juan Bad Day

Episode 164 (Rerun) - The Death of Ray Chapman

Episode 302 - We Give Up

Episode 301 - Two Bad Big Apples (with special guest Chris Donnelly)

Episode 300 - SABR Pirate Radio with Mike Veeck

Episode 299.5 - SABR Pirate Radio with Dan Levitt and Adam Darowski

Episode 299 - SABR Pirate Radio with Kat Williams and Katie Krall

Episode 56 (Rerun) - A League Almost Their Own (with special guest Frankie de la Cretaz)

Episode 298 - Chicago Chicanery, or It's 3 Minutes To Midnight Somewhere

Episode 297 - 12 Straight Hits in 1930

Episode 296 - The Browns Get a Goose For Their Heine

Episode 295 - Greg Proops's Giants

Episode 294 - Even Babe Ruth Comes to an End Eventually

Episode 50 Rerun - The Beaning of Mickey Cochrane

Episode 293 - A Ballplayer Wears Many Hats (with special guest Michael Clair)

Episode 292 - Feeling the Vida Blues

Episode 200 (Re-run) - The Twins' Killer