This Week In Baseball History

Don Drysdale was one of the most intimidating pitchers to ever take a big league mound, and his career seemingly reached its peak 57 years ago this week when he broke the record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched just before having the record snapped at 58 2/3 innings. Mike and Bill look back at this icon of the 1960s and are surprised to find out, while he became an ace almost immediately, it took a few years for Big D to p...

When we think of Lou Gehrig, we usually think about one of two things: his tragic early death or his record breaking consecutive games played streak, which began this week 100 years ago. This week, we celebrate the happier of those two aspects of his life and career, looking back at the 2,130 games that made up Gehrig's incredible accomplishment. Through it, you get a sense of just how determined, exceptional, and lucky Laruppin' L...

Due to a personal conflict, Mike was unable to help with a new episode this week. So, in honor of Memorial Day, we are re-running a very early episode of TWIB History, in which Mike and Bill celebrate the life and career of Eddie Grant, an underappreciated Phillies, Reds, and Giants third baseman who gave his life in the Argonne Forest in the closing days of World War I. Grant's sacrifice was commemorated by the Giants 104 years ag...

Bobby Doerr is not talked about much outside of Boston these days, but was a pretty big deal back in the 1940s, when he suddenly elevated his game to become a perenial All Star and a Hall of Fame caliber player. The Red Sox recognized that 37 years ago this week, when they made him just the third player to have his number retired by the club. Mike and Bill look back on the career of this largely silent Hall of Famer, finding one of...

It's one of the most iconic records in sports, Joe DiMaggio's unbelievably improbable 56 game hitting streak, that began 84 years ago this week. With Kyle Schwarber's 47 game on-base streak now snapped, Mike and Bill thought it was appropriate to revisit the greatest streak of them all, going step by step through this incredible accomplishment and marvel at the talent and luck it took to ultimately pull it off. Plus, happy birthday...

Sometimes it takes a while for a prospect to reach his full potential. Sometimes, all it takes is five starts. That's what happened with Kerry Wood, who not only pitched the game of his life 27 years ago this week, but possibly the greatest game anyone has ever pitched, striking out 20 Astros batters while walking zero and allowing one scratch hit. Mike and Bill look back on this game, the phenomenon Wood caused, and on his surpris...

One of the most awe-inspiring superstars of all time, Jimmie Foxx didn't start out that way, joining Connie Mack's Athletics at the age of 16. Foxx spent three years mostly ridiing the bench while he matured, during which, 100 years ago this week, he collected his first hit. Mike and Bill look back on The Beast's incredible career and sad end and find a lovable good-natured man who turned into a monster with a bat in his hands.

Plu...

Every great story begins somewhere, and the world home run king's journey to 868 career home runs began 66 years ago this week, when Sadaharu Oh hit his first career home run. To celebrate that, and the man who became a baseball god on the other side of the globe, Mike and Bill talk to MLB.com's Michael Clair. During the Tokyo Series to kick off the 2025 regular season, Michael scored a rare interview with the great Oh-san, and has...

Between the generations of three inning late game relievers like Rollie Fingers and Goose Gossage and the one inning high leverage relievers like Mariano Rivera and Trevor Hoffman, there was Lee Smith. Smith bridged the gap between these groups, starting his career as a stopper and ending it as a closer. Along the way, 32 years ago this week, Smith set the major league record for career saves, which lasted until Trevor Hoffman and ...

The Joker famously believed that all it took to drive someone insane was one bad day. But Gordon didn't have to go through what MLB pitchers did 25 years ago this week, on April 7, 2000, when batters hit a combined 57 home runs around the league, setting a new record. Mike and Bill look back on this absolutely wild day and the players who made it so, finding significant milestones, the start and end of careers, and a whole lot of w...

55 years ago this week, if the story is to be believed, a truck waited at a rest area in the middle of Utah, waiting to find out if it should travel west or east. In the balance hung the hopes of two cities that each wanted a big league baseball team. In Part 1 of a two part episode, Mike and Bill look at the troubled first year of the Seattle Pilots and the messy process that left them on the verge of moving to Milwaukee. Plus, ha...

Continuing their recent run of outfielders who may or may not be Hall of Fame material, Mike and Bill look back this week at the life and career of "Cuy" Cuyler, on the 92nd anniversary of him breaking his leg in an exhibition. It was his second straight year missing time with a broken leg. Did that ultimately hurt the case of this early all star and World Series hero? Tune in to learn more.

Plus, happy birthday to Ray Kremer and W...

As they gear up for the start of the regular season, Mike and Bill proudly present an encore episode from the early days of the show:

With all due respect to the 1899 Spiders, the worst team in baseball history was undoubtedly the one managed by Charlie Brown in Peanuts, the iconic comic strip written by Charles Schulz. And no one knows more about that team than special guest Larry Granillo (@wezen_ball), who joins Mike and Bill to...

The parade of questionable Hall of Fame outfielders continue, as Mike and Bill celebrate Chuck Klein being elected to Cooperstown by the Veterans Committee 45 years ago this week. Klein put together some of the greatest seasons in baseball history, but in some of the weirdest contexts in baseball history, before suddenly flaming out. What happened? And did the strange conditions in which he played make his election a mistake? Like ...

Despite being a fine player for 17 seasons and a World Series hero three times over, Harry Hooper is one of the least discussed Hall of Famers in 2025. But 124 years ago this week, he was the only man who could replace Joe Jackson and return credibilty to the White Sox, who acquired him from Boston. On this anniversary, Mike and Bill look back on one of the best outfielders of the young American League to see what made him the man ...

Over more than a century, the Yankee pinstripes have perhaps become the most iconic uniform element in all of sports, instantly identifiable to fans everywhere. And 113 years ago this week, the New York then Highlanders announced they'd be wearing them for the first time. Mike and Bill looks back at the history of the uniform pinstripes, as well as the Old English D on Tigers uniforms, the Athletics' continued association with elep...

With the baseball history cupboard relatively bare this week, Mike and Bill fire up the ol' randomizer, which settles on an early season Reds and Pirates game from April 24th, 1937. In the process of talking about the game, they learn about Paul Waner, Frank McCormick, pitchers who refuse to allow home runs, batters who don't strike out, Forbes Field and more!

Plus, happy birthday to Logan Hensley and Wally Pipp!

And farewell to Ju...

After threatening for years, Mike and Bill finally get around to the short-lived Senior Professional Baseball Assocation to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the league's only championship. How did this glorious thing come to be and why did it fail? What happened in between? Was its downfall inevitable, or could the idea actually work today? All these questions will be answered (or at least speculated about)!

Plus, happy birthday t...