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The First Pitch: June 24, 2025
The shovels officially plunge into the ground at the site the Athletics will soon call home in Las Vegas. Doing the honors at the corner of Tropicana and Las Vegas Boulevards is A’s owner John Fisher, who proclaims, “We are Vegas’ team” in front of a gathering that includes local politicians, former A’s players and commissioner Rob Manfred.
The folks picked a good day to hang out in the summer Vegas sun; the high temperature of 93 degrees is eight below the average of 101 for this date.
In the Pirates’ 5-4 win at Milwaukee, Oneil Cruz becomes the first MLB player this season to rack up 100 batting strikeouts, whiffing twice to end the evening with 101. To answer your next question, the all-time Pirates season record is 186, set by Pedro Alvarez in 2013.
The Bucs as a team strike out 16 times despite the win; the only Pittsburgh batter not charged with a K is second baseman Nick Gonzales, who goes 5-for-5 with two doubles and three singles.
For the first time in over a month, somebody gets to save the day for the Braves as Dylan Lee retires the final four Mets batters and gets the official save in a 3-2 victory. It’s the first save for any Atlanta pitcher since May 16—a span of 31 games, the longest such drought by a NL team since 1993.
During those 31 games, the Braves won 12—but they were far enough ahead in the ninth, or came from behind in walkoff fashion, not to allow any of their relievers a save opportunity.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Hitters Edition)
4-2-2-4—Pavin Smith, Arizona
The sixth-year Diamondback awoke from his June swoon (six hits in 38 at-bats) with a bruising night during a 10-0 romp of the White Sox at Chicago. Smith homered twice for the first time this season and added a walk; of the eight homers he’s belted this year, six have come against AL teams, with the other two smacked against just one NL team (the Marlins).
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Pitchers Edition)
8-3-0-0-0-4—Trevor Rogers, Baltimore
Largely absent so far this year as thanks to a knee injury suffered during the winter, the 27-year-old southpaw with a 7-24 record over the past three-plus seasons certainly was an unlikely candidate to become the first Orioles pitcher since late 2023 to complete eight innings. Those frames also represented a career high for Rogers, who needed just 101 pitches in his third start of the year to help silence the visiting Rangers, 6-0.
It Was Whatever-Something Years Ago Today
1970: Back-to-back home runs by Johnny Bench and Lee May in the eighth inning lift the Reds over the Giants, 5-4, in the last game played at Crosley Field.
1997: Oakland’s Mark McGwire crushes a 538-foot home run that’s the longest in the history of the Seattle Kingdome. McGwire’s blast helps the A’s defeat the Mariners, 4-1.
2017: Matt Olson, Jaycob Brugman and Franklin Barreto each go deep for the first time in their careers in Oakland’s 10-2 pounding of the White Sox at Chicago. It’s the first time three players have all hit their first home runs in the same game for the same team since 1914, when three players from the short-lived Federal League went deep for the Kansas City Packers.
You Say It’s Your Birthday
Happy birthday to:
Boston outfielder Wilmer Abreu (26)
Born on this date:
Doug Jones (1957), 16-year junkball reliever with up-and-down career; 303 career saves among 846 total appearances; five-time All-Star
Ken Reitz (1951), 11-year third baseman who played principally for the Cardinals; 1,243 career hits; 1980 All-Star; 1975 recipient of Gold Glove
Don Mincher (1938), 1960s slugger with 200 career home runs; two-time All-Star; member of 1969 Seattle Pilots
Rollie Hemsley (1907), five-time All-Star catcher; 19 total seasons with seven different ballclubs
George Harper (1892), left-handed slugger of the 1920s; career .303 batting average
Jake Stenzel (1867), 1890s center fielder; batted .360 over five-year tenure with Pirates
Billy Nash (1865), 19th-Century third baseman; scored over 100 runs four times
Shameless Link of the Day
Who were the 10 best hitters and pitchers from each league in 2002? Find out here.
Join Us on X and BlueSky
Besides our growing and active presence on X, TGG has spread its social media wings to BlueSky for those who’ve found the X culture too toxic. For those who are wondering, we provide the same posts on both platforms, and they’re non-political. We’re just talking baseball.
Meanwhile, we’ve given up our fight trying to reactivate our Facebook page, which was hacked last year. The page remains up but is frozen in time, as we are unable to access it—and Facebook, in all its infinite lack of wisdom, continues to provide absolutely no customer support in the matter as they literally have none. All the more reason to join us on X and BlueSky.
And Now For Something Completely Different From TGG Co-Founder Eric Gouldsberry
From 1975-78, my father, Ray Gouldsberry, took photographs of the original San Jose Earthquakes soccer team, an ingeniously marketed collection of colorful players embraced by a growing, sports-starved community which constantly sold out ancient, cozy Spartan Stadium. Shortly after my father’s passing in 2019, I took the negatives of all the precious, invaluable photos he snapped, scanned them, and put together Our Life & Times with the Earthquakes: Images and Memories from the Glory Days of San Jose’s Original Pro Soccer Team. It’s not only a tribute to the Earthquakes and the North American Soccer League, but to my father for capturing all the wonderful memories we shared during our time as season ticket holders of the team through its entire existence (1974-84).
Much like baseball’s Deadball Era, Our Life and Times with the Earthquakes looks at a similar era in soccer history when the game in America was boldly attempting to blaze its own trail clad in flamboyance and imperfection, giving the NASL vivid character. As with those early times of baseball, historical images from the NASL remain scarce and elusive, making Ray Gouldsberry’s photographic collection of the Earthquakes and other star NASL players all the more cherished.
Although the Earthquakes are the primary focus of Our Life and Times with the Earthquakes, the book also spotlights the vibrant and turbulent history of the NASL and its legendary list of stars such as Pelé, Giorgio Chinaglia and George Best (who briefly played for the Earthquakes), all through my father’s photos and the treasure trove of memorabilia I collected during those years.
Formatted at 8.25” x 8.25”, running 200 pages plus cover and containing over 200 photos, 100 images of memorabilia, and a foreword by former Quake and U.S. Soccer Hall of Famer Johnny Moore, Our Life and Times with the Earthquakes is available for purchase on Amazon. Read and enjoy!
To Whom It May Concern
We are proud of what we have built at This Great Game, but we also admit it is not perfect. Occasionally, fans from all walks of life check in and point out errors, and we are grateful to these external editors. Our site is all the better because of you.
Also, we have had many folks chime in on our various lists in the Lists and Teams sections, many of them disagreeing with some of our choices. Since all lists are made to be argued, this is to be expected. If your arguments are respectful, we will respond in kind and join in a civilized debate—and we’ll often see your viewpoints, since no list should qualify as The Gospel. But if your responses contain the sort of vitriol found so often these days in social media circles, you’re going to get ignored. So please, respond respectfully, engage in polite conversation with us, and enjoy the site!
