Search Results

It would be hard to spend time studying the American League’s first decade without running into the brawny and brawling figure of left fielder Patsy Dougherty. A powerfully built (6’2″, 190 pounds, large for his day) second-generation Irish-American with a moon face and cleft chin, Dougherty was a major contributor to the first two AL […]

Clad in the uniform of his hometown team, Paul Molitor stood on third base after he collected the 3,000th hit of his major-league career. The first player ever to reach the milestone with a triple, Molitor enjoyed a number of memorable moments in a Minnesota Twins uniform through the final three seasons of his 21-year […]

In 1954 Gus Triandos, a powerfully built catcher who hit a lot of home runs, was languishing in the New York Yankees’ farm system. To the one-year-old Baltimore Orioles, a team that had a severe shortage of talent, Triandos seemed plenty good enough. And he was: After being sent to the Orioles in a blockbuster […]

In the 21st century, it’s become rare for whole teams to post 10 complete games in a single season – let alone a single pitcher. Only two men since the year 2000 have done so: C.C. Sabathia (2008) and James Shields (2011). Seasons with double-digit shutouts are an even more compelling feat. Over the half […]

In the late 1930s, Monty Stratton of the Chicago White Sox was one of the best and most praised pitchers in major-league baseball and was about to enter the prime of his career. “Monty Stratton looks as if he is going to furnish many a page in baseball history before he gives up,” Philadelphia sportswriter […]

Possessing “a determination as unyielding as his name,”1 outfielder Ron Stone arrived in Philadelphia at a time when one of the many needs for the lowly Phillies was a batter capable of reaching the seats with one swing. The left-handed hitter brought many assets to the game, especially speed, defense and a remarkably strong arm, […]

In the late 1980s the story of DeWayne Buice was one of success through rare determination and perseverance. He spent nine seasons in the minor leagues before he finally reached the majors. Twice the righty suffered a broken bone in his arm while pitching. After recovering, no team would give him a chance – but […]

On the evening of September 21, 1964, the Philadelphia Phillies’ Art Mahaffey was pitching a gem of a baseball game. In the top of the sixth inning it was a scoreless duel in between Mahaffey and the Cincinnati Reds’ John Tsitouris at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. With two outs, 25-year-old Reds rookie Chico Ruiz […]

Tod Sloan batted left-handed and earned the reputation in the minors of being able to handle lefty pitchers better than righties. He only played 143 major-league games, but his statistics bear out those beliefs. According to Baseball-Reference he batted .257 in games with a left-handed starter and .227 when a righty started.1 He was also […]

“I’ll be part of that team for the rest of their life. Even though I wasn’t a big part of the team, I’m still connected with it.” – Jamie Brown, on his time with the 2004 Red Sox1 Jamie Brown pitched four games in the major leagues, all with the 2004 World Series champion Boston […]

In September 1976 Hall of Fame inductees Yogi Berra and Warren Spahn were only the two most prominent names among a large field of managerial candidates available to the expansion Toronto Blue Jays. But the Jays startled the baseball world by selecting the hardly-household-name Roy Hartsfield as the franchise’s first skipper. But the surprise may […]

It’s an old story. A player comes on the scene, dazzles in his rookie year, and is gone seemingly as fast as he came. Then there’s Jimmie Hall. Hall burst on the scene with a bang with the Minnesota Twins in 1963. Actually, he had 33 of them, which broke Ted Williams’s AL record for […]

He was as natural a ballplayer as you would ever want to see. His swing was as beautiful as a Michelangelo sculpture and his throws from right field were so powerful and accurate that a cartoonist for the Montreal Gazette drew a caricature of Ellis Valentine that had a cannon where his right arm should […]

With all due respect to the vernal equinox, nothing says “spring is in the air” like Opening Day of the baseball season, and Chicago’s Wrigley Field is a magnet for the annual ritual. The classic ballyard, nestled in a neighborhood on the north side of the city, rises invitingly above the intersection of Clark and Addison Streets. […]

They called it the Chicago showdown. The Minnesota Twins, in first place in the American League since May 30, held a five-game lead over the Chicago White Sox, winners of 26 of 39 games leading up to a crucial two-game series between the two Midwestern contenders on September 8 and 9 at venerable Comiskey Park. […]

Returning home for the third game of the 2015 World Series after suffering two disappointing losses in Kansas City, the New York Mets hoped to turn things around on their home turf. The Royals were feeling confident after taking a 2-0 lead in the Series. They had shown they were not intimidated by the young […]

The Chicago Cubs swept all seven games against the New York Mets during the 2015 season but were swept by the Mets, four wins to none, in the National League Championship series. A season later, on June 30, 2016, the Cubs and Mets began their first series of the season, a four-game set at Citi […]

On May 5, 1943, the Chicago Tribune was chock-full of news. For a cost of 3 cents, one could absorb 48 pages from the Trib, self-described as the “World’s Greatest Newspaper.” With the United States nearing its 17th month as a combatant in World War II, the bulk of the front page centered on military […]

This article appears in SABR’s “Wrigley Field: The Friendly Confines at Clark and Addison” (2019), edited by Gregory H. Wolf.   William Sianis planned to spend the afternoon at Wrigley Field with his pet goat, Murphy. Sianis, a Chicago businessman and first-class attention-getter, had purchased two box-seat tickets for $7.20 apiece. It was Saturday, October […]