A Baseball Book of Days

Almost anywhere on a calendar you can pinpoint the date of a memorable baseball moment: Jackie Robinson’s first game, Eddie Gaedel’s only game, the sale of Babe Ruth to the Yankees and the clause that might have prevented it. These and dozens more are recounted in this book chronicling hallmark days.
From the first no-hitter in modern baseball (maybe) to the deep roots for the first night game in the major leagues, this book provides a detailed narrative of the game’s most important moments, told in 31 singular, remarkable days. Covering the long path to integration, the rise of Dominican players in the game and the infamous banning of the spitter, this calendar of the diamond covers baseball from every angle and in every month of the year.

Phil Coffin is a longtime editor at The New York Times and has been a member of the Society for American Baseball Research since 1994. He lives at the Jersey Shore.

Phil Coffin
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 250
Bibliographic Info: 8 photos, glossary, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2025
pISBN: 978-1-4766-9597-6
eISBN: 978-1-4766-5475-1
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Moments of the Game 1
Glossary 5

One. January 1: Role Players Without a Role 7
Two. January 5: In the Best Interests of Baseball 13
Three. February 9: The Day They Banned the Wet One 18
Four. March 16: Spring Training Comes to Indiana 23
Five. March 18: Go West, Old Teams: The Migration Begins 31
Six. March 21: The Uniqueness of Spring 41
Seven. April 1: Parades, Presidents and Opening Day 43
Eight. April 15: Jackie Robinson Opens the Door. Quietly 49
Nine. April 15: Deep in the Heart of Dixies 60
Ten. April 19: Boston’s Trinity: Patriots’ Day, the Red Sox and the Marathon 65
Eleven. May 24: The Night the Lights Went On in Major League Baseball 68
Twelve. May 25: Babe Ruth’s Last Hurrah 78
Thirteen. June 2: The Day Lou Gehrig Died 85
Fourteen. June 15: Why Is There a Trade Deadline? Blame New York 88
Fifteen. June 21: The Boys of Summer, and the Summers Boys 91
Sixteen. June 29: The Moonlight Grahams of the Majors 97
Seventeen. June 30: The First Modern ­No-Hitter (Maybe) 121
Eighteen. July 4: Born to Diamond Glory 125
Nineteen. July 6: An ­All-Star Game Is Born 130
Twenty. July 17: Stopping Joe DiMaggio 142
Twenty-One. July 21: The Last to Integrate 146
Twenty-Two. August 4: Birds Versus Baseballs 161
Twenty-Three. August 19: The Day in the Life of Eddie Gaedel 165
Twenty-Four. September 4: Gill’s Boner 171
Twenty-Five. September 23: The Dominican Pipeline Begins, in New York 177
Twenty-Six. October 1: Fall Classics, From the Beginning 187
Twenty-Seven. October 1: That Close to Batting .400 196
Twenty-Eight. October 2: A Day Off 199
Twenty-Nine. November 1: Here Comes Mr. November 204
Thirty. December 12: Veeck Does (Funny) Business at the Winter Meetings 211
Thirty-One. December 21: The ­Seldom-Seen Winter of Baseball 217

Bibliography 221
Index 225