HOME
What’s Happening in Baseball Today
The First Pitch: May 17, 2025
Reunions take center stage as MLB’s “Rivalry Weekend” begins. The most prominent of them occurs at New York, where Juan Soto returns to Yankee Stadium for the first time since signing his record-breaking, $765 million deal with the Mets.
Soto is greeted in right field by a chorus of cackles and boos from the Stadium’s bleacher fans, many of whom turn their backs on him in derisive protest. At the plate, Soto—who takes the less-than-warm welcome in cheerful stride—walks three times and scores a run, but is otherwise nonexistent as the Mets are defeated by Carlos Rodon (five innings, a run allowed on two hits) and five relievers in a 6-2 win for the Yankees.
The Athletics, returning to the Bay Area for the first time since their last game in Oakland eight months ago, are throttled by the Giants and a potent 1-2 punch of Wilmer Flores and Logan Webb, 9-1. Flores, having a massive bounceback season (see below), belts three home runs including a grand slam to open the scoring in the third; he’s the second Giants player (after Joc Pederson in 2022), to go three-deep in Oracle Park history. Meanwhile, Webb (also see below) clamps down on the A’s for eight solid innings, improving to 5-3 with a 2.42 ERA.
The sellout crowd at San Francisco lacks the usual infiltration of green-and-gold seen in previous years when the Athletics visited from across the bay. Many local A’s fans, still seething over the team’s departure from Oakland, have either checked out or are protesting, in absentia, the franchise’s shift to Las Vegas via Sacramento.
In his first game back at Fenway Park after spending seven mostly injury-cursed seasons there as a Red Sock, Chris Sale gets the edge over current Boston ace Garrett Crochet, allowing a run on five hits with eight strikeouts through seven innings as the Braves a 4-2 decision. In defeat, Crochet also lasts seven frames, conceding only a pair of solo homers in the second (to Matt Olson and Sean Murphy), also striking out eight.
Bryce Harper joins seven other active major league ballplayers in surpassing the 1,000-RBI mark when he singles home the game’s first run on a fifth-inning single against visiting cross-state rival Pittsburgh. Harper will add insurance with another RBI single in the eighth as the Phillies triumph, 8-4. At 32 years, six months and change, Harper is the youngest of the eight active players with over 1,000 RBIs.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Hitters Edition)
5-3-3-8—Wilmer Flores, San Francisco
It’s been quite the turnaround for the 33-year-old veteran, who faded so badly last year that some thought his playing days were numbered. Throw those rumors out the door; Flores is headed for an All-Star spot as his three homers and eight RBIs gives him the team lead in the former (10) and the MLB lead in the latter (41.
Congrats, Your Box Score Line Was the Best (Pitchers Edition)
8-5-1-1-2-4—Logan Webb, San Francisco
While Flores shined with the bat for the Giants, Webb did his thing on the mound—pitching at his best as he eased to his seventh quality start in 10 shots this season. Webb’s eight innings give him an MLB-high 63.1 this year, putting him on pace for a third straight year over 200. In this day and age, that’s pretty impressive.
It Was Whatever-Something Years Ago Today
1925: Tris Speaker collects three hits, including the 3,000th of his career, in Cleveland’s 2-1 loss to the Washington Senators. Speaker is the fourth player to reach the milestone.
1970: Hank Aaron joins Speaker as the ninth player in the 3,000-hit club in the second game of a doubleheader at Cincinnati, won by the Reds in 15 innings, 7-6.
1979: The trademark Chicago winds are gusting out toward Lake Michigan, transforming the Wrigley Field bandbox into a shoebox for salivating hitters. The final score shows it: Phillies 23, Cubs 22. Adding it all up, there are 50 hits—a major league-tying 11 home runs (since broken) among them—and 97 total bases. Dave Kingman hits three home runs for the Cubs while the Phillies’ Mike Schmidt, who homered four times in a similar 1976 shootout at Wrigley, connects twice, including a game-winning solo shot in the 10th. The Cubs trail 21-9 at one point before tying it up at 22-22.
1998: David Wells, who attended the same San Diego high school as Don Larsen, becomes the second Yankee, 42 years after Larsen, to throw a perfect game when he retires all 27 Minnesota Twins he faces at Yankee Stadium in a 4-0 win. Among Wells’ 27 outs are 11 strikeouts.
You Say It’s Your Birthday
Happy birthday to:
Red Sox pitcher Brayan Bello (26), promising pitcher granted a six-year, $55 million extension in 2024
Carlos Pena (47), first baseman who shined with Tampa Bay from 2007-10; hit franchise-record 46 home runs in 2007; AL co-leader with 39 homers in 2009; 286 dingers over 14-year career
Outfielder Jose Guillen (49), collector of 1,591 hits including 214 home runs over 14 years for 10 different teams
Outfielder/first baseman Carlos May (77), two-time All-Star with White Sox; wore his birthday (May 17) on the back of his jersey
Born on this date:
Cool Papa Bell (1903), one of the Negro League’s all-time greats; exceptionally fast baserunner and center fielder batted .325 over 21-year career; led his league seven times in stolen bases; once scored from first base on bunt laid down the third-base line
Hal Carlson (1892), winner of 114 games during difficult Live Ball Era times; led NL with four shutouts in 1925
Shameless Link of the Day
Wilmer Flores’ hat trick of homers adds to a fairly impressive list for the Giants. Check out our notable achievements sidebar section.
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!
