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Three great passions shaped Gordon Richardson’s career in baseball: his family, his southwest Georgia farm, and his dream of becoming a big-league pitcher. Richardson (nicknamed Gordie) once characterized his fastball as “not overpowering.” Instead he was a control specialist with good breaking stuff and an excellent change-up.1 He acknowledged that he had to hit his […]
During the summer of 1913, a left-handed pitcher from the Philadelphia Phillies named Addison Brennan gained notoriety and a place in baseball lore when he was fined $100 and suspended for five days for punching New York Giants manager John McGraw after a game in Philadelphia. During the seventh inning of the contest between the […]
More than 9,000 men played in the major leagues before Chuck Lindstrom, but he was the first to achieve an incredibly rare distinction. In fact, 15 more years passed before another player matched him. He is also among the few twentieth-century major leaguers whose fathers were Hall of Fame players, and though none of these […]
Julio “Monchy” de Arcos (1922-1966) was a Cuban executive and scout. He was associated with the major leagues as early as 1941, when the Brooklyn Dodgers trained in Cuba’s capital, La Habana. Thanks to his friendship with Leo Durocher, then Brooklyn’s manager, he was the Dodgers’ interpreter and batboy. In the mid-1940s, de Arcos became […]
Bill Campbell could be excused for deeming life as unlucky as a crooked draw. His mother died giving birth to him on September 7, 1923, in Atlantic City. Dad kept the secret from him till Bill was 11. He lived with his father, a traveling paint salesman, then aunts, then Dad again, changing schools six […]
Soon after the 1967 World Series ended, Fleetwood Recording Co. released a long-playing phonograph record, The Impossible Dream, a reprise of the Boston Red Sox magical same-year pennant. Narrating, Sox announcer Ken Coleman hailed “an affair twixt a town and a team,” telling how the Boston American League Baseball Company used wonderwork to wave 1967’s […]
By most lights, Adolfo Phillips, a 22-year-old rookie who was a September call-up with the 1964 Phillies, owned the physical talents of a major-league star. It’s almost as apparent that Phillips was not temperamentally suited for long-term success in the major leagues. At least not in the 1960s, his prime years. Phillips was born and […]
Hard-throwing right-hander Dave Boswell debuted with the Minnesota Twins in 1964 at the age of 19, and was a valuable contributor to the Twins’ pennant-winning team the following season. Despite chronic blisters on his pitching hand, and arm, shoulder, and back miseries, Boswell averaged 14 wins and 210 innings over a four-year stretch with the […]
A talented African-American athlete and a fleet-footed outfielder who raced through the minor leagues with flattering comparisons to Willie Mays and Jackie Robinson, Ted Savage had the unique distinction of having to seek legal assistance in confronting one major-league team in order to stay with the franchise that ultimately promoted him to the big leagues […]
Frank Carswell was a right-handed pitcher whose career began in 1944 with the local Dan Montgomerys of Buffalo, New York; included stints in the Negro Leagues with the Cleveland Buckeyes, Harlem Colored Giants, Harlem Globetrotters, Chicago American Giants, and Indianapolis Clowns; and ended with a postseason barnstorming gig with Jackie Robinson’s New York All-Stars in […]
The Dodgers’ Sandy Koufax bested the Phillies’ Jim Bunning in the first-ever meeting between pitchers who had thrown perfect games. (SABR-Rucker Archive) The 2005 US House Government Reform Committee hearing that put Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, José Canseco, Rafael Palmeiro, and Curt Schilling on a witness panel to testify on steroid use is a […]
Tommy Davis. (SABR-Rucker Archive) In late September 1963, the pennant races were winding down and it seemed likely that the Los Angeles Dodgers would meet the New York Yankees in the World Series. Only some individual honors were yet to be determined on the final day of the season – including whether Tommy Davis […]
Rich Reese had a .322 batting average in 1969 for the Minnesota Twins. He was platooned at first base with Harmon Killebrew, who usually moved to third when a left-hander was pitching. With most of his plate appearances (nearly 80 percent) against right-handers that season, Reese figured he wouldn’t be in the lineup against Baltimore […]
“A Cub hits two home runs and drives in seven runs — but it isn’t Sammy Sosa. A starting pitcher takes a no-hitter into the eighth inning with nine strikeouts — but it isn’t Kerry Wood.”1 As Chicago Tribune sportswriter Bob Foltman observed, unlikely heroes do tend to emerge when September call-ups get a chance […]
On May 24, 1963, the Minnesota Twins used two dramatic home runs to extend their winning streak to five games. Harmon Killebrew’s grand slam put the Twins ahead in the fifth inning, and after the Chicago White Sox tied the score, Jimmie Hall ended the game with a two-run blast in the bottom of the […]
After committing three errors and losing a pop foul in the sun the previous day, veteran Chicago Cubs third baseman Ron Santo redeemed himself by hitting two home runs and driving in eight runs in the second game of a doubleheader against the Montreal Expos on July 6, 1970. “Big days in the major leagues […]
Entering Game Seven of the 2016 World Series at Cleveland’s Progressive Field, both the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians were trying to end long droughts without a championship. The Cubs had not won a World Series in 108 years and “The Curse” continued to surround them. Many Cubs fans blamed Steve Bartman for the team’s […]
In 1964 Connie Mack Stadium was described as a “sprawling network of steel and concrete, hemmed in by a drab, dreary, fraying residential district”1 Nevertheless, 26,381 spectators jammed into the stadium on a Saturday afternoon for Knothole Day, a promotion where free tickets were given to kids 14 and under (the paid attendance was only […]
Though the calendar had yet to turn to June, the Chicago Cubs and Milwaukee Braves were already having seasons to forget. Despite Glen Hobbie’s outdueling Warren Spahn in a 2-1 Cubs victory the day before on Memorial Day, Chicago was mired near the bottom of the league. The one club keeping the 15-29 Cubs out […]
The major-league season started 18 days late in 1995 because of the players strike, which had begun in August 1994 and forced cancellation of the 1994 postseason. Each team played a 144-game schedule in 1995. As the season progressed, one of the most compelling races took place in the American League West Division. The California […]
The names Ed Spiezio, Steve Huntz, Dave Ricketts, and Eddie Bressoud dotting manager Red Schoendienst’s lineup on September 20, 1967, at Connie Mack Stadium were not typical ones for the St. Louis Cardinals. Yet, the men whom the strange platoon was replacing – Brock, Javier, McCarver, Maxvill, and others – had already completed their work. […]
When the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers met on June 9, 1963, at Wrigley Field, the game provided a matchup of early-season league leaders. After winning the first two games of a three-game series, Los Angeles occupied the top spot in the NL standings, mere percentage points ahead of the Cardinals. Despite the first-place […]
A Rebel without a glove of glue allowed the Chicago Whales to eke out the second and final title in the truncated two-year history of the Federal League. By rebuffing the Pittsburgh Rebels 3-0 in the second game of a doubleheader halted by darkness after 6½ innings on the last day of the season, the […]
The New York Giants had defeated the New York Yankees in the 1921 and 1922 World Series. The Giants won nine games, lost three, and tied one in those two Series. When the teams met again in the 1923 World Series, the Yankees were expected to fare much better. Game One of the 1923 World […]