Shohei Is on Pace for 50/50 Season #2

Plus, an all-time great gets forgotten, Castellanos plays catch with the bleachers, and more.

May 08, 2025

Pine Tar Letter
A sepia-toned 19th-century portrait photograph of a man with a neatly groomed mustache and parted dark hair, dressed in a formal suit with a bow tie. The photograph is mounted on a card with beveled top corners and the name “Warren” and the address “289 Washington St. Boston” printed at the bottom. The image is set against a pale gray background with a modern "PTL" logo in the lower right corner.

Today is the birthday of Ross Barnes, born in Mount Morris, New York, 1850.

In 1876, he was the best hitter in baseball for the third time in his career. That year, he led the National league in nearly every offensive category, batting .429 — sixty points better than the runner-up.

Barnes had already dominated the earlier National Association, where he and pitcher Al Spalding led Boston to four championships. Their manager, Harry Wright, discovered the pair in 1869, when Barnes was playing for Rockford. He took a train to Chicago just to sign them.

Barnes was clever at the plate, especially under the old “fair-foul” rule. If fielders played in, he’d hit it to the gap. If they hung back, he’d drop a bunt just fair, then watch it bounce foul and — under the old rules — stay live.

Despite his utility, he was not beloved on the Boston team. He was handsome, vain, and aloof. Spalding later said, “there was a time when the whole infield wouldn’t speak to Barnes”.

After 1876, he caught a mysterious malaria-like illness and never returned to form. Around the same time, baseball banned the fair-foul ball. His edge was gone.

He played just nine full seasons — one short of Hall of Fame eligibility.

Decades later, W.A. Phelon wrote, “Ross Barnes, forty years ago, was as great as Cobb or Wagner ever dared to be…but the years go by, and men forget.”

A modern baseball-style stat card for Ross Barnes featuring a clean, white background framed in red and blue with the "PTL" logo on the left. The card lists Barnes as a second baseman who batted and threw right-handed, stood 5'8", weighed 145 pounds, and was born on May 6, 1850, in Mount Morris, New York. His career statistics are displayed in a bold blue bar at the bottom, including a .360 batting average, 6 home runs, 346 RBIs, 860 hits, 698 runs, 103 stolen bases, a .389 on-base percentage, a .468 slugging percentage, and an .857 OPS.

MLB News

Tatis Got Ejected, Catch in the Outfield, and Judge — All Time Great?

  • You’re Out of Here – Tatis Jr. & Manager Mike Shildt got ejected on Tuesday. Jomboy Media breaks down what happened on the field.

  • PCA! – “…everything is just the coolest when you’re 23 years old, hitting bombs, stealing bags, playing Gold Glove center field and the Cubs are winning.” writes John Greenberg of Pete Crow-Armstrong, the Cubs new star. Read through the full profile here.

  • Speaking of Outfielders – Nick Castellanos played a little catch with some fans in the bleachers this week.

  • Back-to-Back 50/50? – Ohtani has more home runs and stolen bases than he did this time last year. Can he run back the 50/50 season?

  • The Other All-Timer – “Do we understand what we’re watching?” writes Jayson Stark of Aaron Judge. He starts out his argument by highlighting his slash line over the first 34 games of this season: .423/.510/.777/1.287. Read the full take here.

League Standings

5/8/2025

On This Day

The Longest Game Ever Played

  • 1984 — The Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers played a game that began on May 8 and was suspended after 17 innings tied at 3–3. When resumed the next day, both teams scored three runs in the 21st inning, and the game concluded in the 25th inning with a home run by Harold Baines. The game lasted 8 hours and 6 minutes, making it the longest game by time in Major League history