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John Perkins Luby was a right-handed pitcher and left-handed batter of the 19th century whose meteoric rise in 1890 was followed by a slow, steady decline until his death in 1899. [1] The second of three sons, Luby was born in Charleston, South Carolina, to James and Johanna Luby in either the last half of […]

During the 1890s southpaw Bert Inks pitched for six different major league clubs – but posted a winning record for only one of them. More than a century later, that performance prompted a 19 th century baseball scholar to declare, “Bert Inks exemplified the lengths to which teams often go to give a left-handed pitcher […]

“Joey is extremely smart. He’s great with figures and crossword puzzles. He could spell backwards when he was five. Did you know my Joey was an Eagle Scout? He took French in high school, finished sixth in his class of 266. I brought him up to excel in everything. He wants to be perfect.” — […]

“I’m always the 11th man on a 10-man pitching staff,” left-hander Rob Gardner told The Sporting News in 1972.1 Gardner signed as an 18-year-old with the Minnesota Twins in 1963 and debuted with the New York Mets as a September call-up in 1965. In just his fourth big-league start, he dueled Chris Short of the […]

In the world of 1880s baseball, where Baldwin made an often tumultuous career, newspaper writers occasionally referred to him as “Clarence G.” in jest, but no one ever really though of him by any name other than Kid Baldwin. “Kid” was a nickname given in the nineteenth century to scrappy, feisty little athletes, and Kid […]

Player, coach, manager, scout – such was the lot of a baseball lifer in the first half of the twentieth century. Dutch Zwilling, with more than 60 years in baseball, filled all of those roles and many more. From the early days of the nascent American League to the cusp of free agency, Zwilling was […]

There are few players in the history of professional baseball who have made as strong an impact in their debut season as did Pat Zachry. Through the 2012 campaign, Zachry remains one of only three pitchers to secure Rookie of the Year honors while helping lead his team to a World Championship. Establishing other remarkable […]

After the landmark Messersmith-McNally decision was handed down by arbitrator Peter Seitz in December 1975, the California Angels quickly engaged in what some pundits referred to as “checkbook baseball,” a process in which financially well-off teams like the Angels and the New York Yankees sought to bolster their rosters by bidding for the best free […]

“I always hated facing him,” Cliff Floyd said of Steve Trachsel. “He takes too damn long.”1 Over a 16-year career, Steve Trachsel gained a reputation for being one of the slowest-working pitchers in the majors, earning the nickname of Human Rain Delay. Regardless of how hitters (and his own fielders) felt about his pace, however, his true […]

On October 16, 1975, in the eighth inning of Game Five of the World Series, the Red Sox trailed the Reds 5-1. In the bottom of the eighth, Dick Pole walked Johnny Bench and Tony Perez. Diego Segui, one of Boston’s two Cuban pitchers, replaced Pole and inherited a tough situation: two men on, no […]

South Korean lefty Dae-Sung Koo was the 10th of his countrymen to play in the major leagues.1 He pitched part of one season with the New York Mets in 2005. Koo, who had previously played for 12 years in his homeland and Japan, was 35 years old when he signed with the Mets. In New […]

Gowell Claset’s greatest historical significance may be as proof that a pitcher’s won-lost record is not an accurate measure of his effectiveness. In 11⅓ innings with the 1933 Philadelphia Athletics, the lefthander surrendered 23 hits and 11 walks. Opposing batters hit for a .426 clip against him, and his ERA was 9.53. And yet, Claset […]

One of the more obscure players in Red Sox history, Eusebio Gonzalez was the first foreign-born Latino to play for the Bosox. Eusebio Miguel Gonzalez Lopez was born in Havana, Cuba on July 13, 1892. Batting right and throwing right, he was an infielder listed as 5’10” with a playing weight of 165 pounds. Gonzalez […]

A biography may be defined as a “remarkable odyssey through life and the lessons learned.”1 This description could have suited virtually anyone, but Bart Mindszenthy adapted it to introduce Ron Taylor before the Empire Club of Canada. Taylor’s odyssey ranged from the University of Toronto (the only alumnus to play major-league baseball), to the Ontario […]

“Running! turning! leaping! like little Al Gionfriddo — a baseball player, Doctor, who once did a very great thing.” The great thing novelist Philip Roth described took place on October 5, 1947. It was Game Six of the World Series. Outfielder Al Gionfriddo, a little-used reserve, made a racing, twisting catch in deep left-center at […]

Tucked in the northwest corner of Rhode Island, just 10 miles from both Massachusetts and Connecticut, is the village of Chepachet, where Phillips Steere Paine was born on June 8, 1930. When Paine was a teenager in the 1940s Chepachet didn’t have a high school, so each school day Paine traveled five miles north to […]

On July 4, 1939, between games of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium, nearly 42,000 baseball fans sat quietly in the stands waiting for their team’s first baseman to address the crowd. It was Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day, something that sounds like, and perhaps should have been, a happy occasion. But it wasn’t. A few weeks […]

In the foothills of the northernmost Green Mountains, just 16 miles from Vermont’s Canadian border, the village of Enosburg Falls proclaims itself “Dairy Center of the World.” Its annual Vermont Dairy Festival attracts thousands of visitors, but its population of slightly over 2,000 is roughly the same as it was more than a century ago. […]

Long-forgotten today, New York Giants right-hander Louis Drucke appeared on the verge of stardom at the close of the 1910 season. Although his 12-10 record was not particularly eye-catching, his pitching had been. The hard-throwing hurler had led National League pitchers in strikeouts per nine innings pitched, and placed in the league’s top ten in […]

Fans cheer on their favorite team on June 29, 2021, at Dodger Stadium. (Copyright: Steven Cukrov / dreamstime.com)   On October 8, 1957, the stockholders and directors of the Brooklyn Baseball Club announced that the franchise would move to Los Angeles for the 1958 season.1 A welcoming parade jammed downtown LA streets.2 On the steps […]

New York Giants manager John McGraw, left, and team owner Charles Stoneham in the early 1920s. (NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME LIBRARY)   INTRODUCTION The New York-San Francisco Giants baseball club is among the most storied franchises in the annals of professional sport. To fans, mention of the club’s name promptly evokes images of Willie […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2021 as part of the SABR Century 1921 Project. Federal judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was hired as baseball’s first commissioner in November 1920. He served in that role for nearly a quarter-century until his death in 1944. (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)   Only in the face of extreme […]