Once upon a time, back on Sept. 10, 1999 in a game I remember vividly, Pedro Martinez shut down the Yankees. He struck out 17 Yanks and allowed just two base runners as Chuck Knoblauch was hit by a pitch and Chili Davis homered. While the Yanks held the Red Sox to just three runs, it was all for naught. Last week, Davis sat down with BP writer and keeper of the Pinstripe Bible Steven Goldman to talk about that game. It’s a glimpse back to both Pedro and the Yankees in their respective late-1990s primes.
Revising Ruth’s medical history
For the baseball history buffs among us, here’s a good story for you: A dentist interested in both dental history and baseball lore researched Babe Ruth’s medical history and discovered that the Yankee slugger did not die of throat cancer as legend has it. Rather, Dr. William Maloney believes Ruth died of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, an exceedingly rare form of cancer. According to Maloney, Ruth participated in medical trials that eventually paved the way toward modern cancer treatments. Interesting stuff.
It was 25 years ago today…
…that George Brett and pinetar become indelibly linked in the collective baseball memory of our country. Tyler Kepner profiles the infamous incident. I enjoyed Kepner’s piece because, while I know the story behind the pine tar brouhaha, I was nearly four months old at the time and don’t remember it all that well. As a sidebar, Kepern checks in on the bat as well.