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When he stepped to the plate as the leadoff hitter for the Kansas City Athletics on the final day of the 1958 season, 18-year-old second baseman Lou Klimchock was looking for his first major-league hit, not to make modern major-league history. Playing in just his second major-league game, Klimchock achieved both. On the mound that […]

In 1942, the Cleveland Indians chose their slow-footed, hard-hitting, slick-fielding 24-year-old shortstop Lou Boudreau to become player-manager of the ballclub. In his seventh season at the helm, he led the Indians to a World Series title. Perhaps the best shortstop of the 1940s and a great defensive player and batting champion, in that glorious season […]

Right-hander Lou Knerr (pronounced Nerr) debuted in 1945 when big-league rosters were ravaged by World War II. He posted a modest 5-11 slate with the cellar-dwelling Philadelphia A’s, but took umbrage with the label of wartime player. “Sure there were a lot of players who shouldn’t have been in the major leagues, . . .” […]

“I was a character in baseball. I saw it as an interim type of career,” Lou Skizas told Bill Gleason.1 Skizas, known as “The Nervous Greek” during his four-season major-league playing career, was perhaps best known for an unusual ritual that he followed before coming to bat. Before reaching the plate, the right-handed-batting Skizas dropped […]