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In 1944, even the Browns were able to win an American League pennant, having previously come close only when the George Sisler-led 1922 assemblage barely lost out to Babe Ruth and the pre-Lou Gehrig Yankees. But it could have turned out quite differently. Missing from the action The 1944 Red Sox were missing three of […]

December 1933 in Philadelphia was a time of anxiety and anticipation. In the city, as in the rest of the country, there was a sense of hope as the measures of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal started to have an effect on the worst of the Great Depression. Money became a bit more available, jobs opened […]

In December 1959 I was studying for my master’s degree in history at Notre Dame. As a Phillies fan since 1946, I was starved for news about the team when one of my friends told me that they had traded Gene Freese to the Chicago White Sox for someone whose name he couldn’t remember. I […]

Rod Carew, Vida Blue, and Big Klu Connie Mack, Stan Hack, Max Flack Guy Bush, Emil Kush, Heinie Manush Joe Rudi, Lyle Judy, and Howdy Doody Ty Cobb, Scotty Robb, Rusty Staub Rip Sewell, Bob Buhl, Joe Kuhel Hank Bauer, Vic Power, Hank Sauer Tris Speaker, Roy Meeker, and a streaker Lyn Lary, Charlie Berry, […]

The 1964 Phillies enjoyed a six-and-a-half game lead in the National League with 12 games left in the season, proceeded to lose 10 in a row, and surrendered the pennant to the St. Louis Cardinals. The closing two weeks of the 1964 regular season inflicted psychic baseball wounds which began to heal after the Phillies’ […]

A note from the editor of the Fall 2015 BRJ.

Until the recent success of New York Met, Cleon Jones, there have been few instances of left-hand throwing, right-hand hitting non-pitchers making the grade in major league baseball. Scouts have stayed away from such players and the odds back their opinions. The I.C.I. Encyclopedia of Baseball lists but 30 such players. The most prominent of […]

Iis there anything about baseball that the erudite numbers-crunchers cannot systematically evaluate?

A MANAGER DOESN’T NEED A nickname to make the Hall, but it helps. Fully fourteen of the 16 Cooperstown skippers had calling cards. See if you can guess the people from their nicknames: The Old Roman. When his White Sox won their first pennant in 1901, journalist Hugh Keogh began referring to their owner, who […]

Before the 1947 season began, the Yankees hired Dodgers coach Charlie Dressen away from Brooklyn. The incident precipitated such public animosity between the two clubs that Commissioner Happy Chandler was forced to intervene. Among the accusations were several that smacked of gambling. In the end, Chandler suspended Dressen for thirty days and Brooklyn manager Leo […]