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John Clapp was a part of so many beginnings in baseball history that his middle name should have been Genesis. He was the second batter that the Cincinnati Red Stockings faced in their Eastern tour of 1869; in the opener of Al Spalding’s groundbreaking tour of the British Isles in 1874, he delivered the game-winning […]

Baseball pioneer Abraham Gilbert Mills is remembered-if at all-today for heading the “Mills Commission” which concluded that the game of baseball was invented in America by Civil War General Abner Doubleday. However, this actually represents a very small piece of Mills’ fascinating life. Born March 12, 1844, in New York City, Mills lived there until […]

President John F. Kennedy was said to have correctly answered a trivia question that had been floating around for years: Who is the only man to ever hit a home run off Sandy Koufax and catch a pass from Y.A. Tittle? The guess was always Alvin Dark. “It’s not quite accurate, however,” Dark always said. […]

First baseman Gus Suhr is best known for playing in a then-record 822 consecutive National League games (1931-37). Yet he also achieved recognition for his extensive offensive and defensive contributions in a commendable big-league career of 11 years, 10 of which were spent with the Pittsburgh Pirates. August Richard Suhr was born on January 3, […]

Charles Radbourn’s pitching achievements were hailed by contemporaries and sportswriters for decades as some of the greatest feats of nineteenth century baseball. Little known today, many considered an 18-inning game in 1882 as the finest athletic contest ever seen on a baseball diamond. That game was won, not by the pitcher Radbourn, but by the […]

Dick Kelley was a major-league pitcher for the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves from 1964 to 1968, and the San Diego Padres in 1969 and 1971. A nearly 6-foot-tall left-hander, Kelley pitched 520 innings in the major leagues, finishing with a record of 18-30 and an ERA of 3.39 that was just above league average. He […]

  High and Inside The Newsletter of the BioProject Committee Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) May 2019 Past newsletters Editor: Andrea Long From the Directors Guest Columnist: Bill Nowlin From the Editor Update on BioProject Submissions Project Poobahs   From Co-Directors Rory Costello and Gregory H. Wolf Change to BioProject Workflow As part of […]

Florida Marlins closer Ugueth Urbina, right, and catcher Ivan Rodriguez celebrate winning the National League pennant on October 15, 2003, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. (MLB.COM)   The Chicago Cubs had not won a World Series since 1908 and their last appearance was 1945. They upset the Atlanta Braves in the division series, their first postseason-series […]

In most seasons in the first decade of the 21st century, a September game between the arch-rival Houston Astros and St. Louis Cardinals had playoff implications, but on September 20, 2007 both teams had sub-.500 records and were not headed for the postseason. Still, the Astros’ 18-1 obliteration of the Cardinals on this date was […]

Picking sixth overall in the June 2012 amateur draft, the Chicago Cubs passed over left-handed pitcher Max Fried in favor of outfielder Albert Almora. With the next pick, the San Diego Padres selected Fried out of Harvard-Westlake High School in Los Angeles. As a rookie in 2016, Almora made his mark in Cubs’ lore by […]

Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Tug McGraw celebrates after closing out Game Six of the 1980 World Series, clinching the first championship in franchise history. (Courtesy of the Philadelphia Phillies)   In the Beginning The first National League game in Philadelphia was played in 1876 with the Boston Red Stockings facing the Philadelphia Athletics, one of several […]