Cool baseball related photos

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Harmon Killebrew with his 500th and 501st home run balls, 1971

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LOOKING BACK AT THE 1914 "MIRACLE" BOSTON BRAVES ...
THE GREATEST COMEBACK IN MLB HISTORY ... 110 YEARS AGO
Braves left fielder, Joe Connolly reported that x-rays of his left leg, broken last September when he overslid a base in St. Louis, have come back negative and that he has been given a clean bill of health to report to spring training.
Joe Connolly was a prominent member of the 1914 Boston Braves World Champions. He was an excellent defender in left field and the Boston Sunday Post wrote, "he is fairly fast, the possessor of a strong wing (arm) and he covers a good extent of territory."
Connolly made his professional debut as a pitcher in 1906 with the Putnam, Connecticut team of the New England League. From 1908 to 1912, he divided his playing time with Class-A Little Rock and Class-B Zanesville teams, playing some outfield when he was not pitching. In 1911 he led the league hitters with a .355 batting average,.
Joe was sold to the Boston Braves in 1913 and became the team's regular left fielder. The sportswriters often referred to him as the Braves' “slugger” or “star.” His rookie season ended prematurely when he broke his ankle, but he led the team with a .281 BA, 57 RBIs, and a .410 slugging percentage.
In 1914, Connolly was the offensive star of the Braves and usually hit third in the batting order. He led the team with a .306 BA and finished second in the NL batting race to Brooklyn's Jake Daubert. He also led the team with nine home runs and 28 doubles.
Joe, however, went just 1-for-9 with one RBI, during the World Series. Nevertheless, the respect for him was further highlighted by a comment made during the World Series by his manager George Stallings. "Connolly showed a remarkable instance of pure grit when he went head-first into the left-field bleachers in a fruitless attempt to snag a line drive that went for a double."

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Brooklyn Dodgers spring training in Cuba, 1942

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Red Ruffing lost more than 20 games twice while pitching for the last-place Red Sox and won at least 20 for four straight years with the World Series champion Yankees.
Ruffing joined the Red Sox in 1924, just as the club plunged into the bleakest period in its history. The Sox finished last in each of his five full seasons, losing more than 100 games three times.
Although Ruffing was the Red Sox’ top pitcher, he showed no sign of greatness. Today he would be tagged with the backhanded compliment “inning eater.” Relying primarily on a whistling fastball, he posted a better-than-average ERA only once, and then just barely better.
After he batted .314 in 1928 however, while losing a league-leading 25 games, the Sox considered shifting him to the outfield. But he had a bad foot from an injury that slowed him down too much.
Red Sox owner Bob Quinn faced one of his frequent financial crises in May 1930. He said he’d have to raise $67,000 in 48 hours to make a payment. So he swapped the 25-year-old Ruffing to the Yankees for backup outfielder Cedric Durst plus $50,000 and, an additional $50,000 loan from Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert.
Sound familiar? Dejavue when Frazee had to make a loan payment in 1920 and sold Babe Ruth to get the cash from Ruppert ten years before.
The deal made Ruffing’s career. The turnaround in his fortunes began the first time he took the mound for the Yankees. He would go on to have a Hall of Fame career, while Cedric Durst, played in 102 games for the Red Sox, both in left field and in right, hit .245 with 24 RBIs, and in February was released.

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Sandy Koufax holds up four balls with zeros on them, one for each of his no-hitters. Koufax threw his fourth no-hitter and downed the Chicago Cubs, 1-0, with a perfect game. September 9, 1965.

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Rod Carew acknowledges the cheers of the fans after his 3000th hit, August 5, 1985