Search Results

The risk to the credibility of baseball’s new World Series was substantial when Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey threatened to keep his team from playing in the postseason — one year after New York Giants manager John McGraw had done the same.

There are two main objectives for the hitter.  The first is to not make an out and the second is to hit for distance. Long-ball hitting is normally measured by slugging average. Not making an out can be expressed in terms of on base average (OBA), where:       OBA    =  Hits + Walks […]

When a major league player closes out his active play around the ages of 35 to 40, where does he turn if he wants to continue his direct contact with the diamond activity? He becomes a coach, a manager, or an umpire. A former player could also become a club executive, a scout, broadcaster, etc., […]

Ever since the Society for American Baseball Research was formed in 1971, it has noted on an annual basis the baseball personality born 100 years before who made the greatest contribution to the “national game.” In 1971 it was Joe McGinnity, born March 19, 1871 In 1972 it was Willie Keeler, born March 13, 1872 […]

John McGraw was the outstanding baseball personage born in 1873; Honus Wagner in 1874; and Nap Lajoie in 1875. But what about 1876? As there was no clear-cut choice, Society members were asked to vote for three in a list of ten provided for the balloting. It was a two-way race with Mordecai Brown edging […]

John McGraw, seen with Philadelphia Phillies manager Pat Moran, led the New York Giants to a record-setting 26-game winning streak in 1916. (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, BAIN COLLECTION)   On a dreary Friday afternoon, September 29, 1916, 43-year-old John McGraw, manager of the New York Giants, stood in the third base coaching box at the Polo […]

From an article on Christy Mathewson in the 1963 Turkin-Thompson Baseball Encyclopedia, we read that “Matty was anathema to most hitters in the league but to the weak hitting Joe Tinker he was just another pitcher.”  And Samuel Weller, a sportswriter of the early 1900’s, had this to say in the Chicago Tribune of September […]

As the last National League player to bat .400 in a season, Bill Terry is best remembered for racking up hits for the New York Giants. But in 1915 in the Georgia-Alabama League, he showed he could also be good at preventing them, too.As the last National League player to bat .400 in a season, […]

Jack Pfiester was known as “Jack the Giant Killer” for his successful pitching against John McGraw’s team in the great days of its rivalry with the Cubs. But just how successful was he? How frequently, in fact, were the Giants slain? The answer is not easy to come by. Although Jack and his presumably apt […]

The cold, pallid stone in Columbia, Pa., denotes his final resting place like an old, grey, weather-beaten scorecard. There are no crossed bats; no baseballs engraved on the damp, neglected slab. Nary a whisper of his forgotten fame. Just the stark sentinel and its silent speech: JAMES T. SHECKARD 1878-1947 The memories have been pushed […]