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Paul Bunyan has nothing on Rich Rowland. Bunyan was a mythical giant lumberjack and folk hero in American and Canadian folklore. He had a pet blue ox named Babe, but never played in the major leagues.1 Rowland – who was “strong like an ox”2 – worked as a lumberjack and heavy equipment operator in the […]
He delivered big hits on occasion but is still asked most often about a thrown ball that struck him in the wrist while he was running to first base in the 1969 World Series. “I kid around with the fans and show them how I swelled up. I just stick my arms out. I don’t […]
A tenacious, feisty catcher who played six years in the 1890s with the Chicago club of the National League, Tim Donahue appeared in 466 major league games and compiled a .236 lifetime batting average. He was an outspoken individual, having what one sportswriter termed “a tongue as nimble as a squirrel’s and as sharp as […]
“Frank Killen is certainly a natural born pitcher,” opined sportswriter John M. Roche in Sporting Life in 1892 as the burly 6-foot-1, 200-pound southpaw was preparing for his first full season in the big leagues. “He is well built, young and possessed of all the attributes which go to make up a winning pitcher.”1 That […]
Right-handed-hitting outfielder Ken Hunt and one-time major-league single-season home-run leader Roger Maris1 were boyhood friends while growing up in Grand Forks, North Dakota. After the Maris family moved to nearby Fargo, the two all-around athletes were high-school sports rivals. During Hunt’s senior year in football, his team lost one game, a 7-6 setback to Fargo […]
A powerful right-handed hitter with a legendary throwing arm, Tillie Walker spent the second decade of the Deadball Era shuffling around the American League, playing for four different teams in the span of eight seasons. After spending time with Washington, St. Louis and Boston, Walker finally came into his own with the Philadelphia Athletics in […]
The last position player who played with a major-league club for an entire season and hit .400 was not Ted Williams, but it was a fellow Red Soxer: Roger LaFrancois. Roger used to go to Red Sox games as a kid. He signed with the Red Sox and came up in their system, even receiving […]
On April 26, 1969, pitcher Al Raffo of the Triple-A Eugene Emeralds received the good news from his manager, Frank Lucchesi, that he was moving up to the parent Philadelphia Phillies. In his eighth season and eighth team in the Phillies organization, Raffo was asked shortly before he was called up if he thought he […]
Cincinnati has long prided itself as the cradle of America’s national pastime. The Reds were founded in 1866 and were the first openly professional team in 1869, and the city’s love affair with baseball in general and the Reds in particular is unmatched in the annals of the game. But that faith was being tested […]
It was relatively early in the 1986 season, but when the Boston Red Sox (29-14) faced the Cleveland Indians at Cleveland Stadium on the night of May 27, 1986, they led the American League East Division and held a seven-game lead over the sixth-place Indians – who nonetheless owned a winning record (22-21).1 The Indians […]
As the Cubs occupied themselves with preparations for Game Four of the World Series against the Cleveland Indians, their fans were busy trying to convince themselves that the home team could overcome the previous night’s 1-0 loss — the second Cleveland shutout of the Series — that had put Chicago into a 2-1 Series deficit. […]
The Chicago Cubs and their fans were flying high on the first Wednesday in October 1984 as “Work came to a standstill, crime came to a halt and joy was the most abundant emotion in town.”1 The Cubs crushed the San Diego Padres 13-0 in the opening game of the National League Championship Series. The […]
On April 8, 1960, the Los Angeles Dodgers traded infielder Don Zimmer to the Chicago Cubs for three minor leaguers and $25,000. Just four days later, on Opening Day, Zimmer hit a home run off Don Drysdale at the Los Angeles Coliseum in his first at-bat against his former team. After the home run, Zimmer […]
In 1987, his first season with the Chicago Cubs, Andre Dawson got his MVP season going with a 5-for-5 performance against the San Francisco Giants, including joining the ranks of those who have hit for the cycle. After 11 seasons in Montreal, he had signed with the Cubs as a free agent in March, taking […]
Hall of Famer André Dawson had his finest year in 1987 after joining the Chicago Cubs as a free agent. He became the National League’s Most Valuable Player, leading the NL in homers with 49 and RBIs with 137. Both were easily career highs for him.1 The peak moment in this peak season came at […]
Circa turn of the Twentieth Century’s industrial post-war boom. An immigrant tide augurs writer Eric Goldman’s Metro-American. “The more people moved to the cities,” Bill Veeck observed, “enclosed parks moved the game downtown.” Self-interest led it where the action was. Slums, lumber yards, and vacant lots fell to baseball’s craze for cash. By then, the […]
Ebbets Field has been gone for more than half a century, but the place still has a remarkable grip on our consciousness. At least three books have been devoted to the lovable old ballpark in Crown Heights.1 Yet even these in-depth works don’t shine much light on what happened after the Dodgers left Brooklyn. They […]