Search Results

No other player in baseball history has had a career quite like the iconic Bartolo “Big Sexy” Colón. Beginning as a fireballer with the 1997 Cleveland Indians and finishing as a wily, soft-tossing veteran with the 2018 Texas Rangers, the 285-pound righty pitched for 11 different franchises and amassed 247 career wins, the most 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 […]

As a child, Travis Hafner loved baseball and loathed farm work. He often strolled to the tractor on his family’s farm with baseball bat in tow. Once out in the field, he’d step out of the tractor cab and, in his mind, step into the batter’s box. Hafner tossed rock after rock into the air […]

Imposing, confident, complex, charismatic, and controversial, Dave Winfield ranks as the greatest multisport athlete to emerge from the state of Minnesota. Drafted by five teams in five leagues in three major sports, Winfield chose baseball and compiled a first-ballot Hall of Fame career. At 6-feet-6 and 220 pounds, the powerfully-built right-hander wielded a menacing black […]

Though a renowned power hitter in 12 seasons in the Pacific Coast League and a bit player in a handful of films at midcentury, Frankie Kelleher’s top billing as a slugger and a star is perhaps dubiously enshrined in a one-night performance he sparked on a hot Los Angeles Sunday afternoon in 1953, a scene […]

The Washington Senators were losing badly Tuesday afternoon, September 13, 1921, against the St. Louis Browns. The spitball delivery of Urban Shocker had restricted the Senators to one run on six hits through eight innings. With the score a lopsided 14-1 as the top of the ninth rolled around, the Washington fans had become aggravated, […]

In an issue published a few days after the grand opening of Forbes Field, Sporting Life extolled Pittsburgh team owner Barney Dreyfuss: “[he] had the mind to conceive and the courage to execute the plans which have given the world the grandest and most costly ball park in existence, deserves the greatest credit, highest praise, […]

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, […]

Editor’s note: During our Stay Home With SABR initiative, enjoy these light-hearted Dispatches From the Mudville Bureau by Joanne Hulbert of SABR’s Boston Chapter to stay engaged with baseball until the games return. Check out what’s new and keep up with all the news in the Boston Chapter on Facebook at BostonSABR or on Instagram […]

The Bluefield Orioles played their final minor-league game on August 31, 2010 at Bowen Field in Bluefield, Virginia. (Photo courtesy of Davebanner12 / Creative Commons 1.0)   In the early 1900s in the town of Bluefield, West Virginia, the colors blue and gray still stirred bitter memories of the Civil War. Along the ridges that […]

  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 […]