The Baseball Buffet for 10/23/2025

Issue #433

The goal with The Baseball Buffet series is to provide the best daily dose of relevant baseball info in a smart-brevity format (mostly short bullets, getting to the point, with quick analysis/insights.) Think of it like what baseball fans of a certain age would look forward to in their morning newspaper’s sports section each day!

⚾ Welcome! ⚾

The 211th day of the season was another day of rest and preparation before the World Series gets underway in Toronto, when the visiting Dodgers will face the Blue Jays.

Reader Survey

As the 2025 season winds down, I am conducting a reader survey! I am interested in feedback so I can plan for both the offseason and for the 2026 season too. After mentioning this in the past four days’ newsletters I’ve already gotten over 375 responses, which is a great start. But if you’ve not participated yet, I’d love to hear from you… it only takes two minutes, so thanks in advance for your feedback!

Today’s Trivia Question

The Blue Jays are in the World Series for the first time since winning the championship back-to-back in 1992-1993. How well do you know their all-time hitting leaders? In early September I did a trivia question about the Blue Jays’ all-time HR leaders (Carlos Delgado is the leader, with José Bautista in second place.) But who are the all-time Blue Jays’ leaders in Hits, SB, pitcher strikeouts, and saves?

On this day in baseball history…

Here is what stands out to me for this day in baseball history. Unless otherwise noted, the descriptions are from baseball-reference.com.

📅 On October 23…

• 1910: Pitcher Jack Coombs leads the Athletics to the World Series championship. “Philadelphia Athletics pitcher Jack Coombs wins his third game of the World Series, beating the Chicago Cubs, 7-2, as the Athletics take the championship in five games. Eddie Collins helps Coombs with three hits, including two doubles.”

• 1945: Branch Rickey announces the signing of Jackie Robinson. “Branch Rickey announces the signing of Jackie Robinson and John Wright by the Brooklyn Dodgers organization to a contract with Triple-A Montreal of the International League for 1946. The two will be the first black players to play in Organized Baseball this century (with a couple of brief exceptions) and Robinson will be the first in the National League or American League since 1884, paving the way for integration.”

• 1974: The Cubs trade long-time star Billy Williams. “The Cubs trade sweet-swinging Billy Williams, a fixture at Wrigley Field for 16 years, to the Oakland Athletics for second baseman Manny Trillo and pitchers Darold Knowles and Bob Locker.”

• 1993: Joe Carter hits a dramatic 3-run HR to win the World Series for the Blue Jays. “In one of the most dramatic endings in World Series history, Joe Carter hits a three-run, 9th-inning home run off Mitch Williams for an 8-6 win and Toronto's second straight World Championship. Paul Molitor, who hits .500 (12 for 24), is named Series MVP while Lenny Dykstra of the Phillies, who hit .348 with four home runs, did everything except pitch. Following the 2010 season, a panel of experts at the MLB Network will vote this game the 14th greatest of the past fifty years.”

🎂 Today’s Birthday Boys 🎉

Jim Bunning (1931)

• Hall of Famer

• 17-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1955-1971, mostly with the Tigers and Phillies

• All-Star in seven seasons, including his first full season in 1957 when he led the AL in wins with a 20-8 record

• Led his league in strikeouts three times, and had 200+ K in six seasons

• Overall had a 224-184 (.549) record, 2,855 strikeouts, a 3.27 ERA, and a 115 ERA+

Vern Stephens (1920)

• 15-year major league career, spanning from 1941-1955, mostly with the Browns and Red Sox

• Seven-time All-Star

• Played SS for most of his career, switching to 3B in his 30s

• Hit 20+ HR six times, with a high of 39 in 1949 when he also led the AL with 159 RBI. Led the league with 144 RBI the following season too.

• Overall had 247 HR, 1,001 runs, 1,174 RBI, a .286/.355/.460 slash line, and a 119 OPS+

Al Leiter (1965)

• Drafted in the second round by the New York Yankees in 1984

• 19-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1987-2005, mostly with the Mets and Blue Jays. Pitched significantly more in the minors than the majors until 1993.

• Two-time All-Star

• Posted 200 strikeouts in both 1996 for the Marlins and in 2000 for the Mets, and had 15+ wins four times

• Overall had a 162-132 (.551) record, a 3.80 ERA, and a 112 ERA+

John Lackey (1978)

• Drafted in the second round by the Angels in 1999

• 15-year major league pitching career, spanning from 2002-2017

• Best season came in 2007, his one All-Star campaign, when he went 19-9 and led the AL with a 3.01 ERA

• Generally consistent performer with 10+ wins in 14 seasons

• Overall had a 188-147 (.561) record, a 3.92 ERA, and a 110 ERA+

Ewell Blackwell (1922)

• 10-year major league pitching career, spanning from 1942-1955, mostly with the Reds

• Had a strong AA minor-league season in 1942, but then spent three years in the military from 1943-1945

• Returned and was an All-Star in six consecutive seasons, including in 1947 when he posted a 2.47 ERA and led the NL with 193 strikeouts and in wins with a 22-8 record in 1947

• Overall had a 82-78 record, a 3.30 ERA, and a 120 ERA+

Currently active players who were born on October 23 include BAL Dylan Carlson, FA Kyle Gibson, and MIL Craig Yoho.

Today’s Matchups

No game today, as we continue to await the start of the World Series, between the Dodgers and Blue Jays, which will begin on Friday in Toronto. As noted yesterday, the Dodgers have announced their starter for Game 1 will be Blake Snell, while as of the time of this writing the Blue Jays haven’t made a starter choice yet.

⚾ I hope you enjoyed the newsletter today!⚾
 

Today’s Trivia Answer

The all-time leaders for the Blue Jays in hits, SB, pitcher strikeouts, and saves are as follows:

• Hits - Tony Fernandez, 1,583 (Carlos Delgado had 1,423)

• SB - Lloyd Moseby, 255 (Roberto Alomar had 206)

• Pitcher strikeouts - Dave Stieb, 1,658 (Roy Halladay had 1,495)

• Saves - Tom Henke, 217 (Duane Ward had 121)

Good Reads

Here I am providing one or more links to baseball articles I’ve enjoyed recently, whether by writers at MLB.com or elsewhere.

• Dodgers-Blue Jays position-by-position breakdown, by Anthony Castrovince at MLB, 10/21/2025

• Ranking the 10 best hitters in this World Series, by Andrew Simon at MLB, 10/21/2025

• Kiké Hernández won’t make it into Cooperstown but won’t be forgotten either, by Mark Kolier at Almost Cooperstown, 10/22/2025

See recent issues of The Baseball Buffet for more recent good reads!

Did you know? I wrote a 600+ page book with the same title as this newsletter/blog? Now Taking the Field: Baseball’s All-Time Dream Teams for All 30 Franchises was published in early 2019, by ACTA Sports. It is available at Amazon and most other major booksellers.

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