The Eephus wasn't supposed to work.
It floated. It stalled. It embarrassed the hitter more than it beat him.
Across Sewell's career, it surrendered exactly one home run.
Of course, it came from Ted Williams in the 1946 All-Star Game.
Williams was generally the exception.
6/
So how did Sewell keep doing this into his 40s?
Not with velocity or intimidation.
With something that looked like a mistake drifting through time:
the Eephus pitch.
After a 1941 hunting accident wrecked his foot, Sewell invented survival.
A pitch that rose high, slow, and slightly ridiculous
5/
And then baseball waited 56 years before another Opening Day matchup featured two 40+ starters.
That finally happened in 2005:
Randy Johnson vs David Wells, both 41.
Turns out longevity isn't common. It just shows up, makes a point, and disappears again.
4/
Sewell didn't just show up on Opening Day; he owned it.
A perfect 5-0 record in season openers, including three shutouts at Wrigley Field (1943, 1947, 1949).
Not bad for somebody who played for Pittsburgh.
Some pitchers ease into the season. Sewell kicked the door in.
3/
For the first time in MLB history, both Opening Day starters were in their 40s:
Rip Sewell (41) vs Dutch Leonard (40).
Sewell won the duel the old-fashioned way with 90 pitches. 1-0. Shutout.
2/
Carson Picard has the @pitcherlist.com First Pitch Podcast ready for you this morning!
pitcherlist.com/daily-fantas...
Meanwhile, today in 1949, baseball briefly forgot it was a young man's game.
1/
Sixty-seven seasons later, he finally set it down.
A record no one is chasing, because no one lives like that anymore.
One voice, one team, one lifetime.
Vin Scully didn't just call games. He narrated a memory.
"It's time for Dodger baseball.”
4/
He learned the craft the old way, sitting beside giants.
Red Barber and Connie Desmond didn't just teach him baseball; they taught him how to let the silence breathe.
Four years later, Barber left for the Yankees.
The kid inherited the microphone.
Brooklyn never really let go.
3/
On April 18, 1950, a 22-year-old named Vin Scully called his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
A 9–1 loss to the Phillies at Shibe Park.
He was younger than most of the men he was describing.
2/
Joe Landolina takes a look at baseball history.
pitcherlist.com/this-week-in...
Today's @PitcherList History Lesson begins not with a pitch, but a voice.
1/
But something else happened that day, quieter and far more permanent.
That same game, a 21-year-old named Lou Gehrig pinch-hit for Pee-Wee Wanninger
It didn't look like history. It was
The first step in a 2,130-game streak, beginning as Ruth returned from myth and Gehrig started to become one.
5/
Without him, the lineup collapsed, the season unraveled, and the Yankees sank to the bottom like a piano in the East River.
June 1, 1925. Ruth is back.
Not quite the Sultan of Swat, but a man negotiating with gravity.
He stumbled in the field.
Got thrown out at the plate.
4/
The Yankees stuck with hot dogs. America nodded along.
The 1925 Yankees weren't just bad; they were unmoored.
Ruth showed up to camp near 270 pounds, then vanished for weeks.
3/
Rumors spread so fast that newspapers in Europe reported he had died
Hot dogs made for good copy. Reality was less charming.
Ruth spent 7 weeks hospitalized, undergoing surgery on April 17 for an intestinal abscess.
Whispers ranged from moonshine poisoning to venereal disease.
2/
Over The Wire looks at the third FAAB run of the year.
pitcherlist.com/otw-249-faab...
Meanwhile, on April 5, 925, Babe Ruth collapsed at a train station in Asheville.
The press blamed 12–18 hot dogs, dubbing it the "Bellyache Heard' Round the World."
1/
.
And decades later, Manning still represents Cleveland baseball on broadcasts, while this part of the story stays politely buried.
History doesn't disappear.
Sometimes it just gets a microphone and a nicer narrative.
5/
Eckersley: 197 wins, reinvented closer, Hall of Fame
Manning: stayed, declined, and later became a longtime TV voice of the franchise.
The trade wasn't just bad.
It was a masterclass in letting a human crisis dictate a baseball decision
4/
Cleveland had a choice:
Trade Manning (the instigator, low value due to injury)
Trade Eckersley (the ace, high value, also "difficult")
They chose Eckersley.
Because when organizations panic, they don't fix problems.
They move assets
3/
Eckersley's teammate, Rick Manning, had an affair with Eck's wife while staying at his house recovering from a serious back injury.
Yes. That sentence is real.
No, there was no "team-building exercise" that fixes that.
2/
Great stuff from Christopher Barnett
pitcherlist.com/bob-dylan-am...
Now to history.
ON THIS DAY IN 1978, Cleveland traded ace Dennis Eckersley to Boston.
Not for performance reasons.
Not for age.
Because their clubhouse had completely imploded
1/
Vance retired at 44, made the Hall in 1955, and found out because a highway patrolman told him a photographer was waiting at home.
Which feels exactly right.
6/
At his peak, Vance dominated the 1920s. Seven straight strikeout titles and an MVP in 1924 (28 wins, 2.16 ERA, 262 Ks). beating Rogers Hornsby, who casually hit .424 that year.
5/
On the mound, Vance wore a shredded, sweat-soaked undershirt with a flapping sleeve that drove hitters insane.
Opponents swore he cut it on purpose. Vance called it luck. The league checked, shrugged, and said, "Nothing illegal here."
Dead-ball era logic: ridiculous, but it works? Carry on.
4/
He slammed his elbow on a table, saw a doctor, and suddenly, after surgery, his fastball came back like it had unfinished business.
Baseball runs on strange miracles.
3/
Vance didn't truly arrive in the majors until age 31.
A decade in the minors, arm in constant revolt, career going nowhere, until a poker game in New Orleans.
2/
Get the latest MLB tea from Griffy Geiss
pitcherlist.com/rumor-roundu...
On this day in 1935, the St. Louis Cardinals released 44-year-old Dazzy Vance, months after a World Series appearance.
Naturally, he shrugged, signed with Brooklyn again, and went 3–2 while appearing in 20 games.
1/
His induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1997 wasn't a reward but an acknowledgement that time had, at last, negotiated a draw.
5/5
Circling his own origin story, he returned to Atlanta, the team he started his career with.
At 48, Niekro closed the loop and made one last start with Atlanta. Finishing with 318 wins, 3,342 strikeouts over 24 seasons.
4/5
Only deadball era pitchers Cy Young, Pud Gavin, and Walter Johnson threw more.
He signed with Cleveland, going 11-11 at 47. Then, one last wandering year, with stints in Cleveland and Toronto before returning to where it began.
3/5
