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A ballplayer can practice his swing, his curveball, or how he charges a bunt. Nobody practices an unassisted triple play. It’s a fluke, rarer than a perfect game. “That was one of the easiest plays I ever made,” Glenn Wright said. “I couldn’t help it.” Wright’s fluke came on May 7, 1925, when he was […]

Bob Locker threw 879 innings in the major leagues. His career earned-run average was 2.75. Pitching for the White Sox in the mid-1960s, he was an ace for a bullpen that led the league in ERA for four straight years. Oakland manager Dick Williams deployed him as his designated rally-killer in 1971, when the A’s […]

Like many businessmen in the aftermath of the 1929 stock market crash, legendary Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack took a beating financially and, as a result, he dealt his star outfielder Roger “Doc” Cramer to the Boston Red Sox. Cramer joined other Athletics stars such as Lefty Grove and Jimmie Foxx in the exodus to Boston, […]

Andrés Jose Padovani Galarraga was known as the Big Cat, or El Gran Gato, during his 19-year major-league baseball career, a career in which he became the Colorado Rockies’ first big star. He looked like a slugger but what made him so popular, and helped secure his nickname, was his quickness around the first-base bag. […]

Tony Muser turned down his first shot at professional baseball, but about a year later signed with the Boston Red Sox and embarked on a career that included nine years in the big leagues as a first baseman and outfielder, 14 years as a major-league coach, and six years as a major-league manager. Of Austrian/German […]

Chris Short won 135 games in his major-league career. He pitched 15 big-league seasons and was arguably the National League’s second-best left-hander in the 1960s after Sandy Koufax. From 1964 through 1968, an average season for Short consisted of 250-plus innings pitched, 190-plus strikeouts, and 17 wins. He was twice named to the All-Star team. […]

Lázaro Ramón Gonzalo Naranjo Couto – known in the U.S. as Cholly Naranjo – played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1956. He got called up right before the All-Star Game, aged just 21, and remained with the team until the season ended. Though his major-league experience was limited, he considers it “a dream come true.” […]

Charlie Eakle, meter reader, Was a part-time major-leaguer. When his two-game trial was done, ’Twas back to work where he’d begun.   According to a contemporary report, Charlie Eakle played two major-league games with the 1915 Baltimore Terrapins of the Federal League while simultaneously holding down a full-time job with Baltimore’s gas and electric company. […]

The first of three Grillis to play major-league baseball, Guido John Grilli had the briefest career of the three. In 1966 he was 0-1 for the Boston Red Sox and 0-1 for the Kansas City Athletics.    Grilli put in his time in the minor leagues. He was first signed by Red Sox scout George […]

“I’m on the bench with two out. My heart was breaking. Just a terrible feeling I had, as well as we played all game. You sit and try to comprehend what we just did. It’s hard to believe. It’s something you sit back and say, ‘Geez, how did we do it?’ I don’t (understand). I […]

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 […]

“Whenever he would pull off one of those grand, unexpected plays that were so dazzlingly surprising as to dumfound his opponents, his prominent teeth would gleam and glisten in an array of white molars that would put our own Teddy Roosevelt and his famed dentistry establishment far in the shadow.” — Sam Crane1 Who was […]

The baseball epitaph for Deadball Era right-hander Del Mason might well be the familiar: Minor League Star/Major League Bust. Twice the best pitcher of a minor-league circuit, Mason was a disappointment in ensuing trials with the Washington Senators (1904) and Cincinnati Reds (1906-1907). In retrospect, it appears that Mason lacked that extra level of pitching […]

Best known as the third baseman banned from Organized Baseball for his knowledge of the 1919 World Series fix in which he did not participate, Buck Weaver spent most of his nine-year major-league career as a shortstop, only converting full time to the third sack in 1917. Initially a right-handed batter, Weaver learned to switch-hit […]

Indians fans in Cleveland awoke the morning of May 23, 1957, to the musings of columnist James E. Doyle of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Doyle often wrote a small poem at the beginning of his column, and this spring day was no exception. Soxcess with Cal “That stuff served up by Cal McLish,” The Red […]

Jorge Comellas didn’t impress during his brief stint in the major leagues at the age of 28, as a right-handed pitcher with the pennant-winning Chicago Cubs in 1945.  He was demoted before June 1.  However, he pitched for six years in the minors before the war, and at the age of 20 was good enough […]

Ike Butler is a one-year major-league baseball anecdote – a player whose inclusion in a baseball encyclopedia was made possible by an opportunistic telegram sent during a franchise upheaval. However trivial his two-month major-league career was, Butler’s minor-league career, especially the decade spent on the West Coast, included more than 200 professional wins and at […]

Arm and wrist strength were Jesse Barfield’s calling cards. Over 12 major-league seasons (1981-1992) with the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees, the two-time Gold Glove right-fielder’s throwing arm was so powerful that he gunned down 162 baserunners. His swing produced a home run every 19.7 at-bats, including an American League-leading 40 in 1986, […]

St. Louis Browns owner Phil Ball, second from left, meets with American League owners Frank Navin (Detroit Tigers, far left), Clark Griffith (Washington Senators, middle), Ben Shibe (Philadelphia A’s, second from right), and American League president Ban Johnson, far right, in Chicago, circa 1920. (Chicago History Museum, Chicago Daily News collection, SDN-062283)   Phil Ball […]

Although Marty Castillo appeared in only 70 games for the 1984 Detroit Tigers, he is best remembered for his clutch postseason production. Not only did Castillo knock in the winning run to clinch the pennant in the third game of the American League Championship Series, but he also put the Tigers ahead to stay in […]

Mention the corner of Michigan and Trumbull to baseball fans in the Motor City, and they will immediately think of Tiger Stadium. While it is true that the Detroit Tigers played in that storied park, at that location, from 1912 to 1999, the history of professional baseball at “The Corner” actually dates back to 1896. […]

A crowd heads toward Braves Field. The ticket and administration building (shown at left) still stands and today serves as the headquarters for the Boston University police. Note the trolley tracks in the foreground, indicating the path of transit vehicles exiting from within the ballpark itself. (NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME LIBRARY)   Introduction Braves […]