PODCAST · history
This Week In Baseball History
by Mike Bates and Bill Parker
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.
Episodes
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Episode 424 - This Country Runs On Baseball
The World Series was seemingly made to create heroes, and Enos Slaughter became one 80 years ago this week when he made his mad dash from first base, scoring the winning run of Game 7 of the 1946 World Series for the Cardinals on a weak double (or perhaps a single) . Slaughter's baserunning...
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Episode 423 - The Imperfect Man
It takes a career to make it into the Hall of Fame. But sometimes it just takes one swing or one pitch or one game to become a legend. That happened to the otherwise unremarkable Don Larsen 70 years ago this week, when Don pitched a perfect game against the Dodgers in the World Series. Mike and...
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Episode 422 - Our Idiot Brothers, Part 4: The Quest For Peace
If you think it's tough spending the Holidays with your siblings, you should try being in the same lineup. That's what happened 28 years ago this week to two sets of brothers: David and Aaron Boone, and Barry and Stephen Larkin. They were all in the same lineup. In the same infield, in fact. It…
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Episode 421 - Cy Young Wins His Last
At times, it seemed like Cy Young might just pitch forever. But everything, eventually, meets its end. And Cy won his last big league game 115 years ago this week. In honor of one of the game's true giants, Mike and Bill look back at his long and incredible career that spanned MLB's early and...
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Episode 420 - George Sisler Stops a Big Train
They don't really make players like George Sisler these days. A slick fielding, average dependent first baseman who demonstrated incredible bat control but almost no power, leading to two .400 seasons. But, before that, the St. Louis Browns tried to use him as a pitcher as well, culminating in a...
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Episode 419 - 2001, A Baseball Odyssey
Like the rest of the United States, the baseball world stopped 25 years ago this week when the country suffered the most devastating terrorist attack in its history. There aren't words to adequately describe the sum of the national trauma that still resonates today, but maybe there are words to...
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Episode 418 - The Pirates Look Good In Black
The Pirates proved themselves the best team in baseball in 1971, winning the NL East, the pennant, and the World Series against the Orioles. But they are celebrated these days for another accomplishment, fielding the first all-black and brown lineup in baseball history 55 years ago this week...
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Episode 417 - Follow the Money: Boston Red Sox
Editor's Note: Bill's audio goes crazy about two-thirds of the way into this episode. We have cleaned it up as much as we're able and apologize in advance. When Tom Yawkey signed his name to the MacPhail Report, delivered 80 years ago this week to new Commissioner Happy Chandler and which argued...
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Episode 416 - Adam Darowski and Dan Cichalski -- Bill and Two Buds
Mike is still on vacation this week, so Bill talks to two of our friends who also presented really interesting information at the most recent SABR convention: Adam Daroski, on his quest to identify members of the elusive 400-win club, and Dan Cichalski, on Bruce Springsteen and whether or not you...
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Episode 163 (Re-run) - Baseball's Back (45 Years Ago)!
With Mike away, cruising around the Pacific Northwest, the podcast is on the briefest of hiatuses. But all of baseball was on hiatus until this week, 45 years ago, when the owners and the players finally agreed to resume the 1981 season after missing almost 40 percent of the regular season. Mike...
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Episode 415 - Radio Killed the Telegraph Stars
Today, you can follow baseball on the radio, tv, laptops and phones. But that wasn't the case until 105 years ago this week, when the Pirates and Phillies game was sent out over the airwaves to the greater Pittsburgh area. It was the start of a surprisingly slow process that brought us to where…
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Episode 300 (re-run) - SABR Pirate Radio with Mike Veeck
With Mike and Bill at the 2026 SABR convention this week, they're reaching into the past to pull out one of their favorite SABR memories, when they got to speak to the great Mike Veeck, with their good friend, Mike Duncan. This was a special epsiode. Mike Veeck is, of course, the son of Bill…
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Episode 414 - Joe Medwick Is Just Ducky
Though not talked about much today, there was a time when Joe Medwick seemed like he might become an inner circle Hall of Famer. And never more than 90 years ago this week, when he collected 10 straight hits over the course of three games. Mike and Bill look back at the man they called Ducky…
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Episode 413 - The Texas Rangers and Special Guest T.R. Sullivan
Beat writers and ballplayers have all the best stories, but it's the writers who tell them best. Mike and Bill are reminded of that this week when they talk with legendary Rangers beat writer T.R. Sullivan about his fantastic new memoir, The Texas Rangers and Me: A Baseball Writer's Thirty-Two...
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Episode 158 (Re-run) - Arky Quits...Kind Of (with special guest Steven Goldman)
With Bill still on the mend this week, we're happy to revisit the crazily still relevent story of how and why Arky Vaughn walked away from baseball for three years. Vaughan was one of the most underappreciated superstars in history until his reputation was restored by Bill James. His…
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Episode 412 - Hal Chase and a Preacher Walk Into Arizona... (with special guest Jacob Pomrenke)
Some stories are just to strange to be fiction, and that was the case 100 years ago LAST week when Sister Aimee McPherson held an impromptu rivival at the ballpark in Douglas, Arizona, days after her miraculous reappearance following six weeks of...something. Was she kidnapped? Did she run away?...
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Episode 411 - Random Game VIII
In truth, the boys could have picked an actual topic this week, but the randomizer was just sitting there in the office, looking so tempting. So Mike and Bill pushed it and came up with this September 16, 1914 contest between the Cincinnati Reds and the New York Giants. In their research, they...
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Episode 410 - Cronin Keeps Coming Through In a Pinch
Few men can boast the breadth of career that Joe Cronin can (or could; he's dead now). He went from being a Hall of Fame caliber shortstop to a manager to a GM to a league president in an almost 50 year career in Major League Baseball somehow without making any enemies. Rarer still, as Mike and...
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Episode 409 - Follow the Money: Cincinnati Reds
On the 30th anniversary of Major League Baseball suspending Marge Schott for two years over her comically stupid and wrongheaded comments about a certain German chancellor, Mike and Bill debut a new series of episodes, tracing the ownership history of every original MLB franchise from their...
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Episode 408 - The Twins and Rangers Go Dutch
For as beloved as he is today in Minnesota, Bert Blyelven couldn't get out of there fast enough 50 years ago this week, when the Twins dealt him to Texas rather than lose him as a free agent. It would become something of a pattern for Bert, an iconoclast who just happened to be one of the best...
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Episode 407 - The Lives and Legacies of Bobby Cox
There is no denying the impact of Bobby Cox on the history of baseball, and that his passing marks the loss of an incalculable acumen that shaped the game in the 1990s and 2000s. But baseball has tried to deny another aspect of Cox: his impact off the field. Mike and Bill try to sort through both...
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Episode 406 - A Big Debut Review
Nothing is more exciting in baseball than a prospect who is called up and immediately makes an impact. You can dream forever on guys like that. We've already seen so many incredible careers start in 2026 from Kevin McGonigle to Konnor Griffin to guys who don't have Ks and Gs figuring prominently…
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Episode 99 (Rerun) - Herb Score Gets Hit
Apologies! We had to scrap a new episode this week due to some unexpected personal conflicts. Luckily, we have a banger (no pun intended waiting in reserve. There have been few pitching prospects as exciting as Herb Score, and few downfalls that have been disappointing. This week, 69 years ago,...
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Episode 405 (Repost) - The Satchel Paige Project (with special guest Mark Armour)
Do to some technical issues in the original file, this is a re-posting of Episode 405 Any debate about the best pitchers of all time includes Satchel Paige on everyone's shortlist. Virtually everyone who saw Paige pitch or hit against him thought he was at least in the discussion. But the nature…
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Episode 404 - A Trio of Farewells
The baseball world has been rocked over the past few weeks by the loss, in quick succession of Phil Garner, Davey Lopes and Garrett Anderson. All three were excellent players, multiple-time All Stars and World Champs, who helped define their teams and their eras. In tribute, Mike and Bill look…
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Episode 403 - Pete Gray and His Amazing Friends
It is exceptionally hard to play baseball in the Major Leagues. Now imagine if you had to do it with one hand or arm. Or with one leg. Or while battling a dibilitating disorder. Mike and Bill were thinking about that alot this week when they realized it was the 81st anniversary of Pete Gray's…
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Episode 402 - The Grey Eagle Flies to Cleveland
It is rare for a Hall of Fame player to be traded in the middle of his peak away from a contending team, but that's just what happened to Tris Speaker 110 years ago this week, when the Red Sox dealt him to Cleveland. Mike and Bill take the opportunity to look back at one of the inner circle Hall…
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Episode 144 (Re-run) - A Finch Lands On the Mets
Baseball is vastly richer because of the characters who have become part of the game's legend. And no one was more of a character than Mets pitcher Hayden "Sidd" Finch, who was unveiled by Sports Illustrated 41 years ago the day this re-run (first aired on April 1, 2020) drops. Mike and Bill go...
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Episode 401 - We Sacrifice This Ep To Baseball (with special guest Michael Clair)
If you love baseball like Bill and Mike love baseball, you love watching other people love baseball too. And no one has made anyone love baseball more than the Czech Republic national team did in 2023 when they appeared in the World Baseball Classic. That's the subject of special guest Michael...
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Episode 285 (Re-run) - Los Dos Tiantes
Perhaps the greatest father/son pitching duo in baseball history, Luis E. and Luis C. Tiant pitched at least a total of 29 years at the big league level, and an unknown number of other seasons in the Caribbean and for high quality barnstormers. While they could not be more different on the mound,...
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Episode 400 - Meet the Mets (and Some Other Guys)
Happy episode 400, everybody! Can you believe it? We certainly can't. It's time to celebrate, and there's no better way to do that than with some music. So, on the 63rd anniversary of the release of Meet the Mets, Mike and Bill look back at that classic, and other famous baseball fight songs…
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Episode 399 - One Random Game VII
With so many meaningless exhibitions going on before the WBC gets going in earnest and the regular season follows, Mike and Bill were interested in talking about a game that actually counted for something. So they fired up the ol' randomizer and it landed on...well, it's hard to say the game on...
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Episode 398 - The Amazing Mazeroski
Last week, we lost the great Pirates second baseman, Bill Mazeroski. He was perhaps the best defensive player to ever man the keystone, a magician on the double play, and the author of the greatest moment in Bucs history. He was beloved by his teammates and by the city of Pittsburgh. And, in…
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Episode 397 - Sparking a Minor Revolt
You might have assumed that Sparky Anderson was born at 60 years old and stayed that way for the rest of his life. But Mike and Bill were surprised to find that was not the case as they celebrated his decision, 31 years ago this week, not to manage the replacement players Tigers owners had hired...
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Episode 396 - The Legendary Life of Mickey Lolich
Mickey Lolich was great Tiger, whose World Series heroics were only the start of his legendary run in Detroit that unexpectedly made him one of the best pitchers in baseball. Through it, the everyman's athlete became beloved in The Motor City for the rest of his life, which ended last week. In...
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Episode 395 - Hulbert's League
William Hulbert had an idea. I mean, probably more than one, but one that really took off. And he made that idea a reality 150 years ago this week when he and seven other owners got together and founded the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs to replace the National Association of...
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Episode 394 - Across the Ocean, Inside the Park (with Special Guest Rob Fitts)
This week, Mike and Bill welcome five-time SABR Research Award winner Rob Fitts to talk about his latest book, In the Japanese Ballpark: Behind the Scenes of Nippon Professional Baseball. Fitts's book is a terrific point of entry for anyone interested in learning more about the unique and raucus...
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Episode 393 - Oops, (Almost) All Memorials!
We were already way behind on memorials even before we took an extra week off over the holidays, but because the backlog was getting ridiculous, Mike and Bill decided it was best to devote almost an entire episode to ballplayers who have left us recently. It doesn't catch us all the way up, but...
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Episode 392 - Our Idiot Brothers III: Tokyo Drift
As foretold in the updated descriptions of our reruns, this week it is time to return to the realm of siblings. But not just any siblings. The siblings that got forgetten about along the way. The siblings who had no business being mentioned in the company of their superstar bros. The siblings who...
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Episode 305 (Rerun) - Our Idiot Brothers, Part II
Bill and Mike are both still recovering from holiday colds that their adorable nephew and niece shared with them, respectively. So this week's episode is a re-run of the second in our Idiot Brothers series to get you ready for next week, when your intrepid hosts will return with Part III. Until...
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Episode 279 (Re-run) - Our Idiot Brothers, Part 1
Mike and Bill are back home for the Holidays and, as every year, are confronted with the reality that they're the idiot brothers of some very talented and impressive people. So, in honor of that, we present this re-run of Episode 279: Sometimes it's hard being brothers. It's even harder being...
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Episode 391 - Catfish Wriggles Off the Line
Aside from "The Babe," there's probably no more recognizable nickname in baseball than "Catfish." But Jim Hunter proved easy to catch and hard to keep for Athletics owner Charlie Finley 51 years ago this week, when Finley's negligence led to an arbitration decision that freed Hunter from his...
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Episode 390.5 - Memorializing Gary Gray
After accidentally excising Bill's memorial segment last week, Mike sheepishly presents it here, on the life and career of Gary Gray.
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Episode 350 (Re-run) - Ron Santo Stays In Chicago
One of the greatest Cubs of all time, Ron Santo was almost traded out of his beloved adopted home 46 years ago this week, but turned the tables on his team, becoming the first player to invoke his 10-and-5 rights and forced a trade to the other side of town. Mike and Bill recount the life and...
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Episode 390 - Jim Piersall Gets Rehomed
Life is hard. Life with a mental illness is harder. Life as a celebrity with a known mental illness is harder still, as Jim Piersall discovered. But Piersall's illness was also hard for others, including the Boston Red Sox, who decided life was simpler without him 67 years ago this week and…
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Episode 389 - Jim Jam Comes Home
One of the most feared sluggers in history, Jim Thome is universally regarded as possibly the nicest. On the 20th anniversary of his trade from the Phillies back to the American League Central, Mike and Bill look back at career of the gentlest giant in baseball history and come away with exactly...
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Episode 388 - George Brett Nabs Some Hardware
After nearly hitting .400, you'd think that George Brett would be an easy choice for AL MVP in 1980. And, while he'd snag the award 45 years ago this week, it was over some pretty hilarious objections by Yankees writers. Mike and Bill look back at Brett's incredible career that defined more than…
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Episode 387 - The Old Gray Fox Runs Down Its Quarry
It's impossible to talk about the American League's early years without talking about Clark Griffith, the former pitcher and manager who, this week 106 years ago, finally completed his quest to become a big league owner. Griffith's Senators would eventually become a laughingstock, and his legacy...
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Episode 386 - Strawberry Shakes Up the Dodgers
Darryl Strawberry looked to be on a Hall of Fame path when he signed the second biggest contract in big league history with the Dodgers. But his homecoming to Los Angeles would prove to be bitter fruit, as injuries, legal, and personal problems short circuited his career. Strawberry's story is a...
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Episode 385 - A Very Red World Series
Oh Lord, what a few weeks it's been on the podcast, with problems both technical and personal getting in the way and forcing a truncated episode this week. But don't worry, because 50 years ago this week, the Reds and Red Sox squared off in one of the greatest World Series of all time. And Mike…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
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.
HOSTED BY
Mike Bates and Bill Parker
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does This Week In Baseball History have?
This Week In Baseball History currently has 100 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is 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.
How often does This Week In Baseball History release new episodes?
This Week In Baseball History has 100 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to This Week In Baseball History on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts This Week In Baseball History?
This Week In Baseball History is created and hosted by Mike Bates and Bill Parker.
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