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No one would seriously argue that the 1950 Philadelphia Phillies were one of the best teams in baseball history, but they certainly are one of the most memorable. Dubbed “the Whiz Kids” by sportswriter Harry Paxton because of their relative youth, they proved to be most resilient and able to overcome adversity. Although they threatened […]

The Chicago Cubs finished 1941 in sixth place in the National League with a 70-84 record. Their offensive attack was led by Stan Hack, who hit .317 with a .417 on-base percentage; Bill Nicholson, who contributed 26 homers and 98 runs batted in; and Babe Dahlgren, who added 16 homers in 99 games. The staff […]

Pete Gray, the one-armed outfielder with the St. Louis Browns in 1945, apparently wasn’t the only player since World War II to bat with one arm. Research in the Philadelphia newspapers uncovers the fact that Schoolboy Rowe of the Phillies batted with one arm early in the 1948 season. No, it wasn’t that he told […]

When I approached Robin Roberts in 1992 about writing a book on the famous Whiz Kids team that won the 1950 pennant on the last day of the season, he was immediately all in.  Since I’d never written a baseball book (although heaven knows I’d read enough of them), I felt a little like the […]

Scouts and managers extoll as a kernel of truth: “Experience will trump the value of youth”; That theory is touted at the most crucial times, When pressure is greatest, with so much on the line. One team turned that thought on its ear With a measure of fame that lasts to this year; In baseball’s […]

It started with a radio broadcast and a baseball glove. In late 1946 my father, my pregnant mother, and I lived in Chicago with my grandparents. World War II over and business picking up, my father decided to request – actually, I was told later, it was more a demand – a transfer to his […]

There is some irony in the fact that baseball recordkeepers have been compiling annual leaders of most strikeouts by a batter. This is a negative category; yet, for years these tabulations have been carried right along with the annual leaders in home runs, batting, etc. A much more positive and meaningful listing would be the […]

Many baseball fans of a certain age remember with some nostalgia the 1955 Bowman “TV set” of baseball cards, which featured a number of umpires. Television was new for many Americans at that time; it was maybe three years earlier that my family got the first set in the neighborhood I grew up in and […]

So much emphasis has been placed on home runs in recent years that few fans know or care who collects the most singles.   That may change because players who hit a lot of singles can also wind up with batting titles.   In 1973, for example, both Pete Rose and Rod Carew led their respective leagues […]

The National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, comprising 58 leagues, held its 47th annual Winter Meetings in Minneapolis December 7-11, 1948, to engage in, among other things, its yearly “carnival of buying and selling baseball talent.”1 More than 1,200 people in all, 1,100 of them officially registered delegates, attended.2 In advance, there was speculation that […]