Major League Baseball announced that opening day in 2023 falls on March 30th, with 30 teams slated to play 15 games. Baseball players are athletic, clever, and—surprisingly—steeped in bizarre superstitions.

Why Bizarre Superstitions Were So Popular in the 19th Century

From the post‑Civil War boom to the professional era of the 1870s‑1905, players searched for any edge, often turning to odd rituals that today would raise eyebrows. Below are ten of the most outlandish practices recorded from that golden age.

10 Drinking Hot Turkey Gravy

In 1894 the Baltimore Orioles clinched the National League pennant by winning 24 of 25 games. Their lineup boasted six Hall of Famers, with every starter batting above .300 and five players driving in over 100 runs. Yet the team credited a far stranger habit for their luck: each player gulped a glass of hot turkey gravy before batting practice. The ritual had nothing to do with their on‑field dominance, but the Orioles also resorted to sneaky tactics—icing balls, spreading soap around the mound, and even skewing baselines to make bunts roll past the foul line.

9 The Evil Eye

William “Billy” Moffat Earle, a catcher who bounced among five clubs between 1889 and 1894, earned a reputation as much for his creepy demeanor as for his glove work. He claimed to be a hypnotist, and teammates whispered that his stare possessed an “evil eye.” In 1887 a Mississippi River boat crash left one of his companions dead; the survivor recalled Billy’s unsettling gaze as the tragedy unfolded. Publications even suggested he wielded magnetic powers, and the legend of his evil eye lingered long after his playing days ended.

8 Not Speaking to His Own Starting Pitcher

Cap Anson, a future Hall of Famer who spent 22 seasons with the Chicago White Stockings (later the Cubs), was notorious for his racist attitudes and alleged KKK ties. Beyond those controversies, Anson adhered to a peculiar pre‑game rule: he never spoke to his own starting pitcher. While most teammates chatted before a game, Anson kept his mouth shut whenever the pitcher was involved, a superstition whose origins remain a mystery.

7 Believing His Bats Had Individual Personalities

Louis Rogers “Pete” Browning, dubbed “The Louisville Slugger,” played outfield from 1882 to 1894, mainly with the Louisville Eclipse/Colonels. He was the first player to commission custom‑made bats, a practice still common today. Despite chronic deafness and frequent headaches, Browning took his bat obsession to another level: he gave each bat a name, spoke to it, and retired it after a brief spell, convinced each piece held a limited number of hits.

6 Putting Pebbles in His Back Pocket

Shortstop John Wesley “Jack” Glasscock, a dominant player from 1879 to 1895, earned the nickname “Pebbly Jack” because he collected tiny stones from the infield and tucked them into his back pocket. He believed the pebbles prevented bad hops, and indeed teammates who ignored the habit suffered more erratic grounders. Glasscock’s superstition may be the only one that offered a tangible performance boost.

5 Believing a Cross‑Eyed Woman Hexed a Game

John Joseph “Blackjack” Burdock, a second‑baseman who played over two decades, was famed for his fielding tricks and hidden‑ball maneuver. A June 1879 Chicago Tribune story recounts that Burdock spotted a cross‑eyed woman in a storefront window on his way to face the Cincinnati Reds. After his team lost, he blamed the loss on the woman’s hex, a superstition that lingered despite the article’s problematic language.

4 Never Proceeding from the Bench to Second Base

Bill “Bad Bill” Eagan, a rough‑mannered player known for suspensions and late‑night bottle‑throwing, adopted a quirky routing rule. He would never run directly from the bench to second base. Instead, he would detour via third base or loop around first, believing the indirect path would ward off bad luck.

3 Always Swinging at the First Ball

John W. “Bud” Fowler, one of the first African‑American players and a ten‑season veteran, developed a simple yet stubborn ritual in 1889 while with the Michigan State League. No matter how high or wild the pitch, he would swing at the first ball that crossed the plate, trusting that the initial offering held good fortune.

2 Using Children, Dogs, and Monkeys as Good Luck Charms

William “Buck” Ewing, a stellar catcher who hit over .300 ten times, surrounded himself with mascots. He recruited street‑wise boys like William Breslin, kept a ring‑tailed monkey, and even a toy barking dog as talismans for the New York Giants, believing each charm could turn the tide in his favor.

1 Bat‑Carrying Redheads Were Bad Luck

Shortstop William “Bill” G. Gleason, who played from 1882 to 1889 and famously shared an infield with his brother, harbored an aversion to red‑haired bat carriers. An 1884 interview in the Harrisburg Telegraph reported that Gleason turned ghostly white at the sight of a red‑haired boy lugging a bat bag, convinced the sight spelled the worst kind of bad luck.

These ten bizarre superstitions illustrate how 19th‑century ballplayers blended folklore, personal quirks, and sheer desperation in the quest for victory. While many of the rituals would raise a laugh today, they remind us that the love of the game often walks hand‑in‑hand with a dash of the irrational.

This list examines and ranks moments in American professional baseball’s history we would all like to forget, some because of human folly, some because of terrible fate. Add your own favorites to the comments as always. It’s the top 10 worst moments you never wanted to see on the diamond.

10 George Brett Pine Tar Incident

Everyone loves to see a person get really angry. It’s entertaining. But on 24 July 1983, with the Kansas City Royals playing the Yankees, Royal George Brett realized every kid’s dream of saving a game in the 9th inning by slamming a homer. It was a two‑run blast that put the Royals up 5‑4. As he crossed home and disappeared into the dugout, the home‑plate umpire, Tim McClelland, was alerted by Yankees manager Billy Martin that Brett’s bat might have more than 18 inches of pine tar on it, from the tip of the handle up.

More than 18 inches of any substance on the bat is a violation of the rules, and after several minutes of measuring the bat against the wide end of home plate, which is 17 inches, the three umpires agreed that Brett was in violation. McClelland then searched for him in the dugout, found him, and motioned that he was out. This is all televised and can be found on YouTube.

Brett immediately charged out of the dugout, so infuriated that his face was bright pink, bellowing profanity and raging at McClelland that he was going to kill him. The Royals manager, Dick Howser, and several of Brett’s teammates had to tackle him to keep him off McClelland, who also voided the home run and declared the game over and the Royals the losers.

A sports commentator quipped, “Brett has become the first player in history to hit a game‑losing home run.” The Royals protested the ruling, and it was overturned because an illegal bat would necessitate the batter being called out, but that because pine tar did not assist the distance of a struck baseball, Brett’s home run would count. The game was ordered to be resumed from that point, and the Royals won, 5‑4. Brett’s rampage did not exactly send a good message to his young fans.

9 George Steinbrenner Beard And Hair Tyranny

Steinbrenner was the majority owner of the New York Yankees from 1973 to his death in 2010 at the age of 80. During those 37 years, he made the players, coaches, assistant managers, and fans hate his guts. His nickname was “the Boss” which, by the bye, was also Josef Stalin’s nickname among other Soviets.

Among his more ridiculous tyrannies was forcing the players to shave their beards and keep their hair cut military‑style. This was during the 70s and 80s, when The Big Hair was in. Players were allowed very thin mustaches if they wanted. He once told coach Yogi Berra to order Goose Gossage to shave his beard. Berra loathed Steinbrenner, and told him several times that the only reason he worked under Steinbrenner was because he loved the team, and that he did not need or care about the money. Steinbrenner immediately asked him if he wanted a raise, to which Berra answered, “Yeah. Sure.”

Gossage protested the demand by wearing his mustache in the style of Hulk Hogan, which was also against the Boss’s rules. Steinbrenner actually benched Don Mattingly, one of the Yankees’ best at the time, for refusing to cut his mullet. When this infuriated teammates and fans, Steinbrenner relented.

Steinbrenner attended a lavish baseball banquet once and met legendary pitcher Tom Seaver, who made no secret of his disdain for Steinbrenner, criticizing him right to his face. Steinbrenner exploded at him and threatened to fire him on the spot, to which Seaver replied, “I play for the Mets, George.” Steinbrenner snorted and walked off.

He seemed to maliciously enjoy firing people, because he fired managers over 20 times. The most famous of these is Billy Martin, whom Steinbrenner fired and rehired 5 times. The reason for Martin’s firing was always his outspoken criticism of the Boss, and for the Boss to retaliate by firing him every time made a very poor impression throughout the MLB: say one thing he didn’t like and you were gone. There was no margin for error and no possibility of pleasing Steinbrenner.

8 Juan Marichal Vs John Roseboro

As far as “clearing the benches” goes, no professional incident showers quite such magnificent brutality and dishonor on the sport as the notorious spat between Juan Antonio Marichal Sanchez and John Junior Roseboro that took place on 22 August 1965. Marichal pitched for the San Francisco Giants; Roseboro caught for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the two teams were (and are) arch rivals.

Twice in the first three innings, Marichal deliberately pitched so close to lead‑off Maury Wills’s head that he had to duck, just to aggravate him. Roseboro decided to trash talk Marichal when he was up at the plate in the bottom of the 3rd. Marichal was already irritable at being shown up by opposing pitcher Sandy Koufax (more on him later), and he and Roseboro exchanged profanity at the plate, until Roseboro started returning Koufax’s pitches deliberately close to Marichal’s head.

Roseboro finally jumped up and got in Marichal’s face to yell, and Marichal simply backed up and smashed Roseboro in the head three times with his bat, knocking him down and opening a gushing gash in his scalp that required 14 stitches. This cleared both benches into a 15‑minute, home‑plate brawl. Willie Mays of the Giants helped Roseboro back to his dugout while Koufax tried to stop it all. The most famous photograph of the fight shows Marichal with the bat reared over his head and Roseboro falling at his feet.

Marichal was given only nine days suspension and a $1,750 fine, a very light punishment according to most critics. Roseboro recovered without a problem and the two became friends.

7 Pete Rose Bets On Himself

Rose played for the Cincinnati Reds from 1963 to 1986, and during that time, he accumulated more hits than anyone else in the history of MLB, 4,256. Ty Cobb had held the most hits for 57 years with 4,191 (Rose had 2,624 more at‑bats). They are still the only two players with over 4,000 hits. “Charlie Hustle” was one of the finest contact hitters in the history of the game. A contact hitter is so called because he regularly makes contact with the ball, but rarely puts home‑run power behind it. Cobb was also one of the greatest.

Rose was one of the finest all‑round players ever, outstanding as a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd baseman, and a right and left fielder. He got his nickname for his fast base running and his zeal to win games. But frequently during his career, he gambled on himself to win and on his own team to win. He never bet that he or his team would lose. That would have amounted to throwing games. Instead, he knew his team was best and figured he could make a little extra money on the side. He didn’t see it as hurting anyone.

The problem was that he knew it was against MLB’s rules and that if discovered, he would face dire consequences. So when scrutiny came upon him, he lied about it. His fans generally agree that this dishonesty is the only qualm they have with him. He also did no good for his personal reputation when, in 1990, he pled guilty to income tax evasion. He went to prison for that, and his gambling addiction finally found mainstream coverage. He finally came clean in 2004, a long time to treat people like they’re stupid.

Nevertheless, by this point, there is even more shame on MLB, and the staff that votes for Hall of Fame inductees, for still refusing to allow such a superlative talent into the Hall of Fame. Its lack of forgiveness for mistakes dishonors the spirit of the game, just as Rose did. In the end, the Hall of Fame itself is tarnished for such an absence, since the Hall of Fame is supposed to honor talent and legacies. Like the Academy Awards, there should be no politics or decisions based on anything other than performance. But as with all voting awards, humans are the voters, and humans can be given to holding grudges.

6 Ty Cobb Violence And Racism

What would a pejorative baseball list be without Ty Cobb? He may be the greatest player ever. Hard to say. He still holds several hitting records after a whole century, including career batting average (.367), and most career batting titles (12). He scored 4,191 and stole home 54 times (with his freshly sharpened cleats aimed right at the catcher’s face). But in terms of personality, Cobb was a monster. He had a notoriously vicious, intemperate disposition, and was extremely racist, once slapping a black elevator operator for mouthing off to him, and even stabbing a black constable who tried to stop him.

He once knocked the Detroit Tigers’ groundskeeper’s teeth out for not raking his (the groundskeeper’s) footprints out of the infield before a game, then wrapped the groundskeeper’s wife up in a chokehold when she grabbed him. He and umpire Billy Evans once resolved to settle their extremely vulgar shouting match during a game by fists afterward. Cobb won the fight by beginning with a kick to Evans’s groin, then pinning him and punching him on the ground.

His worst moment, though, occurred on 15 May 1912, when a heckler named Claude Lueker insulted Cobb at the top of his voice for six full innings. Not a good idea. To his credit, Cobb tried to ignore him for three innings, calling on the opposing manager and two policemen to eject Lueker from the park, but no one did. Finally, at the end of the sixth inning, with Cobb walking back to the dugout, Lueker shouted, “You’re a half‑nigger, Cobb!”

Cobb calmly tossed his hat into the dugout and climbed into the stands before anyone could stop him. Lueker was severely handicapped, with one hand and three fingers of the other hand missing from an industrial accident. Cobb punched him right in the face and when the crowd shouted that Lueker had no hands, Cobb roared, “I don’t give a damn if he got no feet!” and continued pummeling him until he was tackled by his own teammates.

He was suspended for the rest of the season, and his Tiger mates boycotted the next game in his defense. Cobb finally exhorted them to play the season out. He put Lueker in the hospital with a broken jaw and nose.

5 1919 Black Sox Scandal

If you’re a baseball fan, you need no backstory to this. But for those who don’t know, the 1919 World Series was played between the Chicago White Sox (who were branded “Black Sox” for what they did) and the Cincinnati Reds. The White Sox were owned by Charles Comiskey, a tyrannical jerk who viewed the players as his property to do with as he liked. He made Ty Cobb look like Jesus Christ. Comiskey, like all owners, was allowed to pay his players whatever he felt like paying them, and under the MLB Reserve Clause, the players had no say in the matter.

Comiskey promised Eddie Cicotte, a pitcher, a $10,000 bonus if he could win 30 games. When Cicotte won his 28th, Comiskey benched him for the rest of the season to keep from paying up. Comiskey promised the whole team a bonus if they won the 1919 pennant. That bonus was a case of 12 bottles of flat champagne. He forced them to pay their own laundry bills for their uniforms.

Comiskey’s infuriating behavior toward the team caused at least six of them to conspire to throw the 1919 World Series to punish him. They were Eddie Cicotte, Arnold Gandil, Charles Risberg, Fred McMullin, Oscar Felsch, and Claude Williams. These six men, along with two others, were banned from professional baseball for life. The other two were George Weaver and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, accused of knowing about the fix and doing nothing to stop it.

Today, history looks more kindly on Weaver, and much more kindly on Jackson. Jackson was illiterate and honestly had no direct knowledge of the fix. He may have safely assumed something was wrong after watching the six conspirators make ridiculous errors. Weaver knew what was up, but refused to rat out his friends. He and Jackson played magnificently throughout the series. Jackson is today remembered as one of the absolute finest hitters in history, third in all‑time career batting average with .356. In his rookie season of 1911, he hit .408.

The Reds won the series 5‑3. Back then the series was of nine games. The conspirators were great ballplayers but terrible actors, because in the games they decided to throw, even the batboys knew something was amiss. Cicotte, an outstanding pitcher, somehow gave up five runs in the fourth inning of the first game. This drew immediate suspicion. The Sox lost this game 9‑1, a ridiculous score for such a fine team.

They lost the second game, too. Dickie Kerr, a rookie pitcher, pitched a shutout in the third, proving he had nothing to do with the fix. Jackson, in the fourth game, attempted to throw a man out at the plate, but Cicotte deliberately caught and fumbled the ball to let him score. Jackson hit a monumental .375 for the series. By the time the series was over, there were more boos than cheers throughout the games. Had it not been, the following year, for a new star the fans could get behind, Babe Ruth, baseball might have died altogether because of this debacle. The eight players listed above are still ineligible for the Hall of Fame.

4 Sandy Koufax Arm Retirement

One of the saddest ends to what could have been universally accepted as the greatest pitching career in baseball history was the premature retirement, due to severe arthritis, of Sandy Koufax. He played for 12 years, always for the Brooklyn or Los Angeles Dodgers, and yet after those 12 short years, he had posted 2,396 strikeouts, and a career ERA of only 2.76, second lowest in the history of the live‑ball era.

His best seasons were 1965 and 1966. For several years, he was pitching full nine innings of game after game with horrible pain in his left arm, centered at the elbow. The morning after one of these games, he woke to find his arm black and blue from shoulder to wrist from hemorrhaging. To deal with the pain, he began taking codeine nightly, sometimes during a game, as well as butazolidin, and applying a capsaicin cream to his elbow. After each game, he had to immerse his left arm in a tub of ice.

And still, he went out and pitched another complete game the next day, and again, and again. On 9 September 1965, in spite of his agony, he pitched a perfect game. More people have orbited the Moon than have pitched perfect baseball games. It is defined as no hits, walks, struck batters, or any base reached safely by the opposing team. 27 up, 27 down. Koufax’s perfect game also featured the most strikeouts, 14 out of 27.

His pitches were the stuff of legend. Carl Yastrzemski remarked that “hitting the curveball off Sandy Koufax was like drinking coffee with a fork.” Koufax threw with a marked over‑the‑top arm motion, not out to the side. This, along with his extremely strong legs, gave him blazing speed with every pitch. His curveball was clocked at 94 mph. It curved from 12 o’clock to 6 o’clock all within the last third of the distance to the batter, forcing batters to swing almost straight up, as if golfing, to hit it in its descent.

He threw a four‑seam fastball that floated upward up to four times before reaching the catcher. All the while, his arm was hurting so badly that he began tipping his pitches, letting batters know what he was about to throw as he wound up. Nevertheless, as Willie Mays put it, “I knew every pitch he was going to throw and still I couldn’t hit him.”

At the end of 1966, with a 1.73 ERA in the books, he had to call it quits. He couldn’t sleep because of the pain, and considered having his arm amputated. Once he gave up pitching, however, his arm quickly healed. Jeff Torborg, who caught his perfect game, once remarked, “It’s like God came and took his arm back.”

3 Steroid Era Home Run Scandal

The phrase that has been thrown around quite a lot during this ongoing scandal is, “The Babe did it on hotdogs and beer.” A lot of people hate to see a decades‑old record broken, because they get used to the number involved. The most famous home run number is “60,” ever since Ruth hit that many in a season. Maris broke it 34 years later by just one run. But then, 37 years later in 1998, both Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa surpassed this record in a race against each other. Sosa finished with 66, McGwire with the magic 70.

It seemed too good to be true that not one, but two players could bring down such a hallowed record simultaneously. Then Sosa was caught using a corked bat, which is said to enhance swinging speed. His career never recovered. In 2005, steroids hit the major news media so hard that Congress subpoenaed McGwire, Jose Canseco, and Rafael Palmeiro, three power hitters, to testify under oath. Sosa was discovered to have been using steroids. Canseco admitted to using them and personally injecting Palmeiro, who vehemently denied ever using them. Months later, he was caught using them. He had lied to Congress and the fans. McGwire simply took the fifth on every question, but five years later he came clean and admitted to using them for years to overcome injuries. He claimed they had nothing to do with his home runs, which is obviously false, since all steroids enhance physical strength.

The scandal still hasn’t gone away, and probably never will, since the records remain in the books, and the two most hallowed hitting records, single‑season and career home runs, are now held by Barry Bonds, who has himself been convicted of obstructing justice in the steroids scandal, and is widely believed, though not yet confirmed, to have used them many times throughout his career. After he broke both records, with 73 homers in the 2001 season, and a career 762 homers in 2007, it was expected that he would remain an active player for years afterward, but the San Francisco Giants refused to renew his contract, and no other team would buy him, the truest testament to public opinion of him.

2 Christy Mathewson Gas Tragedy

Mathewson was one of the mightiest pitchers in baseball’s history. His whole career fell within the dead‑ball era, when a single ball was used for the entire game. Such balls were difficult to see after they were covered in infield dirt and tobacco spit (spitballs were legal until 1921). Mathewson was no stranger to the spitball, but he was known as a “control pitcher,” as opposed to a power pitcher like Nolan Ryan. Whereas Ryan could heave a 100+ mph fastball, he isn’t renowned for his skill at any other pitch, and had quite a few wild ones.

Mathewson, however, could throw strikes with everything. You name it: the 2‑seam fast, the 4‑seam, the forkball, slider, sinker, curve, knuckle, knuckle‑curve, palm, palm‑curve, and his money pitch, the screwball, which curves in the opposite direction of the curveball. Mathewson could fling them all right into the strike zone and fan anyone.

Consider that, whereas Nolan Ryan scored the most career strikeouts at 5,714, 839 more than second place, he also scored the most walks with 2,795. Thus he walked about 49% of the batters he faced throughout his career. Mathewson, on the other hand, struck out 2,507 batters, while he walked only 848, which is 33% of them. That’s a gargantuan margin of difference between two greats and serves to show the accuracy of “the Christian Gentleman.”

Unfortunately, he was stolen too early from baseball’s posterity, when, in 1918, he enlisted into WWI as a chemical weapons trainer for the infantry. Ty Cobb and George Sisler also enlisted into the same unit, and the three saw each other frequently in France. As a captain, Mathewson’s job was to oversee the training, in gas chambers, of controlled release of mustard gas amid soldiers wearing their gas masks.

Mathewson’s voice inside the chamber was misunderstood by the gas operator outside as the order to release the gas. Once they heard the hiss, Mathewson first saw to the soldiers’ safety by ordering their masks on immediately. Only then, when milliseconds were precious, did he shout for the gas to be turned off. The operator did so, but there was a delay of more time than Mathewson could hold his breath. One private attempted to remove his mask, but Mathewson, with his eyes shut tight, knowing the sound of a mask being removed or put on, quickly yanked the man’s hands from his face and shouted for him to remain still.

Mathewson finally had to take a breath or risk blacking out. That single breath before the room was purged gave him tuberculosis. He tried coaching for a while when he returned the next year, but had to take frequent vacations for his lungs’ health, before finally retiring in 1921. He died four years later at 45 years old. His teammates openly wept at the first game following his death.

1 Lou Gehrig ALS Diagnosis

Lou Gehrig has the persistent misfortune to remain in Babe Ruth’s shadow as a power hitter. Gehrig hit his stride in 1926, his third season as a professional, in which he scored 20 triples, 47 doubles, 16 home runs, 116 RBIs, and an average of .313. Ruth posted much better home‑run and batting‑average scores, but if there was any ignoring that Lou Gehrig had joined him in the ranks of power hitting, he shattered that illusion the next year.

The 1927 Yankees remain, in most opinions, the finest professional baseball team in history. Ruth did himself proud by slamming 60 home runs to Gehrig’s “mere” 47, but Gehrig outpointed him in RBIs at 175, especially impressive given that Ruth batted third and Gehrig fourth, and thus the bases were frequently emptied right before “the Iron Horse” stepped up. The Yankees’ lineup that season featured “Murderers’ Row”: Earle Combs, Mark Koenig, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Bob Meusel and Tony Lazzeri.

Combs and Koenig were outstanding contact hitters and routinely on base to be batted in by the next two. Gehrig’s position as fourth is why he still holds the career grand‑slam record of 23. His average that season was .373, by far the highest of the team, with Ruth and Combs at .356 (still stellar).

Late in his career, Gehrig, generally considered the finest first baseman in history, began having trouble making easy put‑outs at first. He had run the bases like lightning for years but now only trotted, and slid very clumsily. He tripped over bases, and most obvious, by late 1938, his hitting power was noticeably diminished. He could make contact but somehow couldn’t manage home runs as well.

Everyone knew he was not guilty of partying and bingeing like his recently retired friend, Babe. This was not in Gehrig’s nature. By April 1939, he was posting his very worst scores ever. Only a .143 average with 1 RBI. Commentators remarked that he was hitting the ball on a regular basis like always, but the ball wasn’t going anywhere.

It was 2 May of that year when he finally broke his consecutive‑games streak of 2,130, a record that stood until 1995. Gehrig walked up to the coach and said, “I’m benching myself, Joe.” He saw that he was only hindering the team and couldn’t do anything anymore.

His wife and he finally flew to the Mayo Clinic, where, after six days of testing, Dr. Charles Mayo himself wept as he read Eleanor Gehrig the diagnosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. It causes the brain’s motor functions to deteriorate over several years or even decades, such that the victim tries to run or walk or stand up but gets slower and weaker without any impairment to the brain. The brain slowly loses its ability to communicate with muscles all over the body. There is almost never any pain at all, and for an athlete, seemingly no good reason for the bad performance.

Gehrig’s farewell, on 4 July 1939, between the games of a doubleheader, remains what most consider the most painfully bittersweet moment in the history of baseball. Gehrig was showered with gifts from teammates, rival players, coaches, managers, owners, and fans, which he took and quickly set down on the infield because he was too weak to hold them.

After Babe Ruth said a few words, Gehrig addressed the crowd of 61,808 in Yankee Stadium and told them not to feel bad for him, that he was “the luckiest man on the face of the earth.” His number 4 uniform was the first to be retired by any team in MLB history. In December of that year, he became the youngest inductee into the Hall of Fame at the age of 36. He received the most votes for a position on the All‑Century Dream Team in 1999.

He died one and a half years later on 2 June 1941 at his home, due to asphyxia from the ultimate paralysis of his diaphragm and abdominal muscles. Many sports writers and experts are of the opinion that had he played a long career of 20‑25 years, instead of just 16, he would have surpassed many of Babe Ruth’s hitting records.

The top 10 greatest photographs in baseball history were chosen by weighing four factors: historical importance, visual composition, the level of action captured, and the personalities involved. Many of the picture nicknames were supplied by the original lister, adding a dash of character to each frame.

Why These Are the Top 10 Greatest Baseball Photos

1 Pete Rose Collides With Ray Fosse

One of the most talked‑about moments in baseball lore unfolded at the climax of the 1970 All‑Star Game. With the ball in play, Pete Rose, then a third‑base man for the Cincinnati Reds, sprinted full‑tilt toward home plate. Instead of sliding, he barreled straight into the catcher, Ray Fosse of the Cleveland Indians, delivering a full‑force body check. Both players tipped the scales at over 200 pounds, yet Rose emerged the victor, tagging home and sending Fosse sprawling. The impact was so severe that Fosse’s right shoulder was dislocated—a blow many argue accelerated the decline of his career.

The collision sparked a firestorm of criticism, with detractors labeling Rose’s aggression as excessive for an exhibition game that technically held no stakes. Unapologetic, Rose defended his hustle, invoking his nickname “Charlie Hustle” and insisting he was simply trying to win. If anyone should protest such ferocity, the next entry provides a compelling counterpoint.

2 Cobb Steals Home

This picture perfectly illustrates the ferocious nature Ty Cobb displayed on the diamond. The incident took place on July 4, 1912, when Cobb, rather than sliding around the catcher, chose a far more violent route: he drop‑kicked the catcher squarely in the groin. At the time, baseball shoes featured iron spikes on the toe and heel, and Cobb, famed for his blistering speed, sharpened his spikes with a steel file before charging. The rules did not forbid such a move, and officials deemed Cobb safe while the catcher writhed in pain.

Cobb’s relentless aggression helped him amass a record 54 steals of home, a feat still unmatched. The runner who suffered in the photograph was Paul Krichell, who endured Cobb’s brutal tactic. This image underscores why Cobb’s name remains synonymous with aggressive baserunning.

3 Mickey Mantle Tossing His Helmet

Mickey Mantle, celebrated for his prodigious power and blazing speed, was plagued throughout his career by chronic knee problems. Yet he still managed to sprint from home to first in a mere 3.4 seconds. Over his tenure, Mantle posted a .298 lifetime batting average and belted 536 home runs, many of them monstrous blasts—one measured at 565 feet, another rumored to have traveled 634 feet if not for striking the Yankee Stadium upper deck.

The photograph, taken in 1965, captures a rare moment of frustration: Mantle, having just struck out, flings his helmet away in clear disgust. In the background, John Dominis waits at the plate. The image is striking both for its composition and for the way it showcases Mantle’s massive forearms—so large they rival Popeye’s—highlighting the raw power behind his swing. It serves as a reminder that even legends have off‑days.

4 Honus Wagner In Mid‑Air

Known as “The Flying Dutchman,” Honus Wagner earned the moniker “the human vacuum cleaner” for his uncanny ability to snatch balls from the air. This snapshot freezes Wagner mid‑leap as he races from third base toward home, his feet hovering roughly a foot above the ground in a graceful, almost trapeze‑like motion. The picture captures the very essence of his speed and athleticism.

Beyond his swiftness, Wagner was a gentleman on and off the field, a stark contrast to the notorious Ty Cobb. Both men share the record for most single‑inning steal cycles—four times each—where they stole second, third, and home within the same inning. Wagner’s elegance and sportsmanship are on full display in this iconic frame.

5 He Was Out!

This image immortalizes Jackie Robinson, the first African‑American to break baseball’s color barrier, as he darts home against the legendary catcher Yogi Berra during Game 1 of the 1955 World Series—the Dodgers’ first championship. Robinson’s foot slid under Berra’s mitt, allowing him to touch home plate before the catcher could bring the glove down.

The photograph gained legendary status when, years later, a fan stopped Berra on a sidewalk, showing him a copy. Berra signed it “He was out! Yogi Berra,” explaining that he had barely grazed Robinson’s shoe, but the umpire, positioned behind him, missed the play. The signed copies became coveted collectibles, even reaching President Lyndon Johnson’s hands.

6 Yogi Berra Hugging Don Larsen

Don Larsen may not be listed among the all‑time greats, but his perfect game in Game 5 of the 1956 World Series stands alone as the only perfect performance ever recorded in a World Series. The tension, exhilaration, and ultimate jubilation of that night are encapsulated in this photograph.

After Larsen retired the final batter, Dale Mitchell, with a called third strike, Yogi Berra leapt into the pitcher’s arms, hugging him tightly as the crowd erupted. The image captures pure, unfiltered joy—a moment of shared triumph between two baseball legends.

7 Lou Gehrig Looking At His Trophies

Perhaps the most heartrending scene ever captured on a baseball field is this photograph of Lou Gehrig’s farewell. On July 4, 1939, before a crowd of 61,808 fans, with Babe Ruth and both the Yankees and Senators present, Gehrig was presented with a mountain of trophies during a double‑header’s intermission.

The image shows Gehrig bowed over the awards, his head lowered, while teammates and officials stand behind him, hats in hand, and Mayor Fiorello La Guardia addresses the crowd. The trophies lie on the ground because Gehrig’s debilitating illness—later identified as ALS—had stripped him of the strength to even lift them.

8 The Catch

Game 1 of the 1954 World Series produced one of baseball’s most iconic defensive moments, forever known simply as “The Catch.” Willie Mays, playing shallow center field for the New York Giants, sprinted full‑speed toward a 450‑foot fly ball hit deep into the Polo Grounds’ center‑field “dead zone.”

In a sequence of photographs, the final frame freezes Mays just before the ball lands in his glove, a mere three or four feet from the towering wall. The ball hovers about a foot and a half out of his glove, yet Mays secures it with a perfect basket catch, then whirls and hurls the ball back to third base with such force his hat flies off. The image epitomizes athleticism and clutch performance.

9 The Babe Bows Out

While most remember Babe Ruth through dramatic shots of him mid‑swing, the most poignant photograph captures the aging slugger in a moment of quiet reflection. Taken on June 3, 1948—just two months before his death from nasopharyngeal cancer—the image shows Ruth, an old man, leaning on his bat at Yankee Stadium, surrounded by thousands of fans.

Photographer Nat Fein earned a Pulitzer for this shot in 1949. The picture reveals Ruth not as a mythic figure but as a mortal man, his shoulders slumped, the iconic number 3 on his back the only reminder of his legendary status. Ruth’s career boasted monstrous home runs—some exceeding 625 feet—yet this image reminds us of his humanity.

10 Cobb Steals Third

This photograph, captured by Charles Conlon on July 23, 1910, epitomizes the ferocity of baseball’s most daring player, Ty Cobb. Using a large‑format Graflex camera set on a tripod behind third base, Conlon documented Cobb’s aggressive baserunning.

In the image, Cobb steals second base by tripping the catcher with his shoulder, then barrels past third‑base man Jimmy Austin, who is forced to jump aside. The picture freezes Cobb mid‑charge, his eyes fixed on home plate, embodying the raw intensity that defined his career.

Baseball is a sport that thrives on the unexpected, and over the decades it has produced a parade of jaw‑dropping incidents that still make fans gasp. Below you’ll find 10 wild moments that proved the game can be as chaotic as it is classic, each one a reminder that anything can happen on the diamond.

10 Wild Moments Overview

10 Year-Old Girl Strikes Out Babe Ruth And Lou Gehrig

In the spring of 1931, a remarkable story unfolded that still feels like a page out of a comic book. Jackie Mitchell, barely 18 and a left‑handed pitcher for the Double‑A Chattanooga Lookouts, was given a chance to face the New York Yankees in an exhibition showdown. The Yankees sent two of their most feared sluggers—Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig—up to the plate, and Mitchell answered with a side‑arm delivery that bewildered both giants.

Against all odds, Mitchell struck out Ruth first, prompting the legendary slugger to fling his bat in frustration. She then turned her attention to Gehrig and sent him back to the dugout without a hit. While some historians argue the whole episode was a publicity stunt, the Commissioner of Baseball promptly voided Mitchell’s contract, claiming the sport was “too strenuous” for a woman. Regardless of the controversy, that day Jackie Mitchell etched her name alongside Ruth and Gehrig as the only pitcher—male or female—to silence both in a single at‑bat.

9 Disco Demolition Night

When the Chicago White Sox teamed up with rock radio station WLUP in July 1979, they imagined a simple gimmick: fans could bring a disco record to the ballpark and receive a discounted ticket. The plan was to toss the collected vinyl into the outfield and blow it up between a doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers.

What happened instead was pure pandemonium. The explosion ignited a frenzy; thousands of fans flooded the field, dancing on the dugouts and setting the shredded records ablaze. The chaos escalated to the point where police had to intervene, and the White Sox were forced to forfeit the second game because the field was rendered unplayable. Disco Demolition Night remains one of baseball’s most infamous promotional disasters.

8 Two Grand Slams In One Inning

On April 23, 1999, Fernando Tatis of the St. Louis Cardinals achieved a feat that still makes statisticians shiver. Facing the Los Angeles Dodgers, Tatis stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and launched a towering grand slam. The Cardinals batted around, and before the inning could even settle, Tatis found himself again with the bases jammed and delivered a second grand slam off the same pitcher, Chan Ho Park.

The back‑to‑back grand slams generated eight runs in a single inning—an MLB record for RBIs in one frame. The Cardinals rode that explosive surge to a 12‑5 victory, and Tatis’s twin slams have remained untouched for more than two decades, a testament to the sheer unpredictability of baseball.

7 Handed Pitcher

Jim Abbott’s career reads like a Hollywood script, yet it unfolded on real diamonds. Born without a right hand, Abbott refused to let his physical limitation dictate his destiny. He mastered a unique technique: after delivering a pitch, he would quickly slip his glove onto his left hand, ready to field any batted ball.

Abbott’s perseverance earned him a ten‑year tenure in the majors, highlighted by a no‑hitter for the California Angels in 1993 against the Cleveland Indians. His story stands as a powerful reminder that determination can eclipse any perceived handicap, and it continues to inspire athletes across all sports.

6 Babe Ruth’s Called Shot

The 1932 World Series still echoes with one of baseball’s most debated legends: Babe Ruth’s “called shot.” In Game 3 at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, the Yankees trailed the Cubs, and Ruth stepped up with two strikes against him. Supposedly, he pointed toward the center‑field bleachers, signaling where he intended to hit.

On the very next pitch, Ruth launched a towering home run that landed precisely in the area he had indicated, sending the crowd into a frenzy. Some historians argue he was merely gesturing at the pitcher, while others maintain he genuinely “called” his own blast. Regardless of the truth, the moment cemented Ruth’s larger‑than‑life aura and endures as a hallmark of baseball folklore.

5 Ted Williams’ Last At‑Bat

When the curtain fell on Ted Williams’s storied career on September 28, 1960, the baseball world witnessed a poetic finale. Playing his final game for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park against the Baltimore Orioles, Williams stepped into the eighth‑inning box and faced pitcher Jack Fisher.

With a swing that still echoed his reputation as “The Splendid Splinter,” Williams sent the ball soaring over the center‑field wall for a home run—his 521st and final career hit. He didn’t pause to celebrate; he simply rounded the bases and slipped back into the dugout, embodying his no‑frills, all‑business approach. That solitary blast perfectly encapsulated a career defined by relentless excellence.

4 The Curse Of The Billy Goat

While the Red Sox’s infamous Curse of the Bambino dominates baseball lore, the Chicago Cubs endured a similarly strange jinx—the Curse of the Billy Goat. During the 1945 World Series, Billy Sianis, proprietor of the famed Billy Goat Tavern, attempted to bring his pet goat, Murphy, to Wrigley Field for Game 4, even securing a ticket for the animal.

Fans complained about the goat’s odor, and stadium officials ejected both Sianis and Murphy. In retaliation, Sianis allegedly declared, “Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more!” The Cubs subsequently lost the series and then endured a 71‑year championship drought, a period many fans attributed to the goat’s curse. The spell finally broke in 2016 when Chicago captured the World Series, ending the legend of Murphy’s lingering shadow.

3 Johnny Vander Meer’s Consecutive No‑Hitters

In 1938, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Johnny Vander Meer accomplished a feat that still stands alone in baseball history. On June 11, he threw a no‑hitter against the Boston Bees, silencing the lineup for nine flawless innings. Just four days later, on June 15, Vander Meer repeated the miracle, blanking the Brooklyn Dodgers in the first night game ever held at Ebbets Field.

The back‑to‑back no‑hitters cemented Vander Meer’s legacy, and despite countless near‑misses over the decades, no pitcher has ever matched his consecutive no‑hitter record. It remains one of the sport’s most untouchable achievements.

2 Bobby Thomson’s Shot Heard ‘Round The World

October 3, 1951, will forever be known for one of baseball’s most electrifying climaxes: Bobby Thomson’s “Shot Heard ‘Round the World.” In a decisive National League tiebreaker series, the New York Giants trailed the Brooklyn Dodgers 4‑2 in the bottom of the ninth inning. Thomson stepped up with runners on second and third, facing pitcher Ralph Branca.

He launched a three‑run homer into the left‑field stands, flipping the scoreboard to a 5‑4 Giants victory. Radio announcer Russ Hodges erupted with a repeated, ecstatic “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!” The moment has since become an iconic piece of baseball mythology, epitomizing the sport’s capacity for drama.

1 The 26‑Inning Game

On May 1, 1920, the Boston Braves and the Brooklyn Robins (later the Dodgers) entered the annals of endurance with a marathon that spanned 26 innings without a single run. Pitchers Leon Cadore (Brooklyn) and Joe Oeschger (Boston) each threw more than 20 innings, a workload unimaginable in modern baseball.

Both teams remained deadlocked at 1‑1 after an exhausting 3 hours 50 minutes of play. As darkness fell, the umpires called the game a tie, marking it the longest professional baseball contest by innings that did not end in a tie. The sheer stamina displayed that night still captures the imagination of fans and historians alike.