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When one examines the Miracle Braves’ performance it is obvious that the bulk of the pitching effort rested with just three men: Dick Rudolph, Bill James, and George Tyler. Starting 107 of the 158 games the team played, they won 68 of the Braves’ 94 victories. Yet, when Boston clinched the pennant against the Chicago […]

The legend of Slim Jones has loomed large over the history of the Negro Leagues due to his death at the youthful age of 25 in 1938. In truth, by the time of his passing, Jones already had entered the pantheon of baseball’s “could have beens” as injury and alcoholism had depleted his pitching ability. […]

Ninety miles. To most baseball fans, the term refers to fastball speed, a pitch whose “standard” for major-league success hinges on such baseline velocity. A ball thrown at such speed can cross home plate in little more than a second. By contrast, it takes much longer to travel the 90 miles that separate Cuba and […]

One of the most unlikely pitchers in baseball history among the “One-Win Wonders” must be Clayton King Fauver of the National League Louisville Colonels. On September 7, 1899, at Pittsburgh’s Exposition Park, Fauver, appearing in his only game as a major leaguer, flustered the Pirates by giving up 11 hits and 4 runs (none of […]

Tall, trim Oklahoma native Ralph Terry won 107 major-league games over 11-plus seasons, from 1956 into 1967. His most stellar and productive campaign was 1962, when he led the American League in wins, with 23, and compiled a 4.0 WAR for pitchers. Yet, he is most notably recalled for being on the mound in crucial, […]

Big right-hander Sig Jakucki was once described as having a “$100,000 arm and a million-dollar thirst.”1 Converted to a pitcher while a minor leaguer, Jakucki had a cup of coffee as a 27-year-old with the St. Louis Browns in 1936. Out of Organized Baseball for almost six years, Jakucki returned to the Browns in 1944, […]

Although right-handed, side-armed pitcher Clayland Maffitt “Clay” Touchstone Jr. has a sparse major-league resume — no decisions in 12 games spread over parts of three seasons, including a 16-year gap between appearances at one point — he nonetheless had a long, often successful career in the minor leagues, winning 272 games, making multiple all-star teams, […]

Don Richard “Richie” Ashburn, a Hall of Fame outfielder, who made the most putouts of any outfielder in major-league baseball during the 1950s, started out as a catcher, which should not be surprising because throughout his long career in baseball, Richie Ashburn had always been his own man. His independent quality even emerged during his […]

Chuck Connors was a career minor-league ballplayer who played portions of two seasons in the major leagues, with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1949 and Chicago Cubs in 1951. Connors gained greater fame as one of the very few ballplayers who was a successful actor in his post-baseball career, best known for his role as Lucas […]

“Yes, I knew him. He had huge hands with crooked fingers. He was a catcher, you know.” “Hell Yes, Babe was here. When? I don’t know, maybe on Ben Egan day? No! I don’t recall ever seeing him. No! I don’t know of anyone who did.” “Yes, I knew Ben. A great guy, everyone liked him. He […]

Of the players officially expelled from Organized Baseball in the early 1920s, Gene Dale was among the least notorious. A lanky right-handed pitcher, Dale had won 18 games for the Cincinnati Reds in 1915 but was no longer a major leaguer at the time of his banishment. Rather, his disgrace emanated from suspected involvement in […]

Hank O’Day is one of the few men to have played, umpired, and managed at the major-league level. He was a World Series pitching hero. He had one of the greatest starts of any rookie manager in history. He was the home-plate umpire for 23 World Series games, as well as for four no-hitters in […]

As a rookie with the 1947 Chicago American Giants, Johnny Ritchey won the Negro American League batting title. The following year he broke the Pacific Coast League color barrier playing for his hometown San Diego Padres. In 1951, he became the first Black professional baseball player in Vancouver, British Columbia, and won the Western International […]

It was to be Harvey Bluhm’s big day, his first major league start. Regular Red Sox first baseman John “Stuffy” McInnis had been suffering from a bad case of boils on his neck and was going to miss at least one game. Boston manager Ed Barrow called on the recently-acquired Bluhm to start at first. […]

When baseball fans first encountered Ed “Peanuts” Davis, also known as “Peanuts Nyasses,” they knew right away that he was not the typical athlete. He wore his baseball cap sideways, and when he was pitching, his windup sometimes featured “flapping of the arms and jerking of the legs.”1 In addition, he was a member of […]

John Young carried an impressive 6-foot-3, 210-pound frame during his baseball playing days. Even more impressive than his physical stature on the field, however, was the stature he later gained as a baseball ambassador for the underprivileged. In founding the Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program, Young left an indelible mark on the game that […]

At age 22, crafty left-hander Jerry Nops was a budding star, a 20-game winner for the 1897 Temple Cup champion Baltimore Orioles. By age 26, his major league career was behind him, a sterling .637 winning percentage notwithstanding. Undone by alcohol abuse and behavioral issues, Nops – whom Cooperstown-bound manager Ned Hanlon once described as […]

Bill Shettsline was the most identifiable face of the Philadelphia Phillies during their first half-century. After joining the team in 1884 as a ticket salesman, he soon became team secretary, before being suddenly thrust into a managerial role in 1898. Reckoning with cheap ownership, unruly players, and a baseball war, Shettsline nonetheless achieved a .548 […]

In 1916 Tony Faeth, then a pitcher with Milwaukee of the American Association, faced Dave “Beauty” Bancroft, a shortstop with the Philadelphia Phillies. No, the confrontation wasn’t on a baseball field – it was in a pool hall at the Palace Theater in Superior, Wisconsin. Faeth, the Minnesota state champion, was to play Bancroft, the […]

John William “Windy” McCall grew up about three blocks from Holly Park in San Francisco. He’d bring a bat and a glove and hop in a neighborhood game. “If you didn’t get chosen, then you hung around until someone went home for lunch.” McCall played a year in American Legion ball and a year in […]

“President Harding’s interest in Baseball and his many kind acts toward individual players was [sic] deeply appreciated by all of us.”1 None other than Babe Ruth expressed this sentiment in his handwritten condolences to the widow of Warren G. Harding, the 29th President of the United States. Harding died while in office on August 2, […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2021 as part of the SABR Century 1921 Project. Eddie Collins, left, and manager Kid Gleason were left to pick up the pieces after the Chicago White Sox lost most of their championship core following the Black Sox Scandal. (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)   The 1921 Chicago White […]

“We just got slaughtered,” muttered St. Louis Cardinals skipper Johnny Keane following his team’s 19-0 drubbing by the Pittsburgh Pirates.1 Not only did the Bucs hand the Redbirds their worst whitewashing in franchise history, they tied a 55-year-old NL record (since broken) for the most lopsided shutout in league history. The Pirates and Cardinals were […]

In all of major-league history, only one no-hitter has been pitched on Opening Day. Perhaps not surprisingly, it was thrown by the 21-year-old prodigy Bob Feller on April 16, 1940, against the Chicago White Sox on a blustery 40-degree day in Comiskey Park. The masterpiece was the first of three no-hitters Feller threw in his […]