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Longtime Chicago Tribune writer Irving Vaughan left no doubt in his readers’ minds as to who won the May 5, 1938, rubber-match contest between the Cubs and Phillies: “Albert Paul Epperly, the Iowa farm boy, was introduced yesterday in his maiden start as a big leaguer and his Cub mates turned the event into a […]

“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” So said the reporter at the end of the 1962 movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.1 Upon hearing a popular politician confess that he was not the real shooter, the journalist ignored the fact to preserve the lawmaker’s legend. Thirty years earlier, baseball writers at the […]

It had been over two decades since the Dodgers won the 1920 National League pennant. Most of those years were spent in the second division. By 1937 the Dodgers were in dire straits financially. They were $700,000 in debt to their bank, the Brooklyn Trust Company, “$470,000 on a refinanced mortgage for Ebbets Field. (The […]

Kiki Cuyler finished in the National League top 10 six times in triples, five times in doubles, but only twice in homers. Cuyler’s Cubs had won 11 consecutive games, including four in a row over the Giants, going into the finale of a five-game Wrigley set. With ace Lon Warneke on the mound, Chicago could […]

Almost 90 games into the 1890 season, the National League had a tight pennant race on its hands. On August 5, the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Beaneaters were both within two games of the leader, the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, and the Cincinnati Reds were in fourth place, six games back. At the other end of the […]

Acquired in an offseason trade with the Philadelphia Phillies, hard-throwing Kirby Higbe tied teammate Whit Wyatt for the NL lead in wins (22) to help lead the Dodgers to the NL pennant in 1941. (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)   The 1941 Brooklyn Dodgers got their season started on the wrong foot – and to add insult, […]

Cal Ripken Jr. homers on September 6, 1995, during his record-breaking 2,131st consecutive game. (Courtesy of the Baltimore Orioles)   The outcome of this game was of little importance to the fans of two cities separated by less than 200 miles. The New York Yankees’ record was mediocre, a pedestrian 60-61, only slightly better than […]

Vida Blue set the baseball world ablaze during the first half of the 1971 season. The 21-year-old Oakland Athletics left-hander from Louisiana was playing in his third big-league season. Blue debuted in 1969 but pitched less than 50 innings in the 1969 and 1970 campaigns. After a 1971 Opening Day loss to the Washington Senators, […]

The 1934 All-Star Game is remembered for the performance of New York Giants southpaw Carl Hubbell, who struck out five players in a row who are now in the Hall of Fame. Less remembered is the outstanding outing of Cleveland’s Mel Harder, who entered a mess in the fifth inning and went the rest of […]

Johnny Vander Meer was enjoying a summer to remember. A spot starter for the last-place Reds in 1937, Vander Meer played a significant role as Cincinnati emerged into a first-division club in 1938. Achieving fame from pitching consecutive no-hitters in June, the 23-year-old Vander Meer sported a 10-3 record and 2.28 ERA as Crosley Field […]

As August 1933 began, the race for the American League pennant was down to two teams, the Washington Senators (61-35) and the New York Yankees (60-36). The Philadelphia Athletics (47-49) were holding down third place in the standings, but, as they were 14 games behind the top spot, the task of winning the title seemed […]

On a warm Saturday afternoon in early May 1932,1 the day Burgoo King captured the 58th running of the Kentucky Derby, young Reds catcher Ernie Lombardi proved he was “king” of Redland Field when his screaming line-drive triple in the 12th inning completed an improbable 9-8 comeback victory for the hometown club over the Boston […]

A small, mild-mannered, prematurely bald man with a prominent mustache, Frank Selee looked more like an insurance underwriter than a baseball manager, especially in team photos next to his strapping young athletes. Nevertheless, he was one of the most successful field leaders of his era, directing the Boston Beaneaters to five National League pennants between […]

Like classmate Jim Thorpe, Frank Jude was one of many outstanding all-around athletes at the Carlisle (Pennsylvania) Indian Industrial School in the early 1900s. He was rushed to the major leagues before he was ready because teams hoped to uncover another American Indian star like the Philadelphia Athletics’ Chief Bender. News features at the time […]

Michael James Ryan was born on November 25, 1941 in Haverhill, Massachusetts, to parents John and Lorraine Ryan. He was born into athletic stock, his father John a tackle who nearly made the Boston Yanks of the National Football League. His grandfather’s cousin Jack Ryan had been a major-league ballplayer, breaking in with Louisville of […]

In a major-league playing career that lasted only seven seasons, Bill Lange made an indelible impression on those who saw him in action. A star outfielder on the also-ran Chicago Colts of the 1890s, Lange could do it all: run, throw, field, hit for average, and hit for power by the standards of his time. […]

Bill Harman was a shy country boy who became a leader. He was a star basketball and baseball player at the University of Virginia. As the basketball team’s captain, he led the Cavaliers into the 1941 National Invitational Tournament. And then he played one summer for the Philadelphia Phillies, collecting exactly one base hit. He […]

Curt Flood was a vital cog in the 1964 Cardinals’ world championship run, but that achievement may have been all but forgotten in light of Flood’s subsequent role in the arrival of free agency for baseball players. Curtis Charles Flood was born in Houston, Texas, on January 18, 1938. His parents, Herman and Laura Flood, […]

The Dodgers had another chance to stop the Yankees’ World Series winning streak at nine games.  Brooklyn had blown a golden opportunity to at least tie New York in the top of the seventh but Pee Wee Reese ran into an out and Dixie Walker’s subsequent groundout ended the threat.  Dodgers manager Leo Durocher was […]

A pitcher can be labeled a “.500 pitcher” if he is considered to be of average ability, or his number of wins equals, or nearly equals, his losses Right-handed pitcher Red Hardy, whose major-league career consisted of just two games with the 1951 New York Giants, was literally a .500 pitcher during his minor-league career. […]

Philadelphia A’s star left-hander and future Hall of Famer Eddie Plank had scattered five hits and had not allowed a run as the Boston Braves batted in the top of the ninth in Game Two of the 1914 World Series. Unfortunately for Plank and his mates, Braves starter Bill James was pitching just as well. […]

Born on Washington’s Birthday in 1874 in Rochester, New York, William Joseph “Bill” Klem became one of the greatest umpires to ever take the field. “I was born of German parents in the Irish section near ‘Dutchtown’ in Rochester, New York,” Klem later said.1 Both father Michael Klimm and mother Elizabeth were from Bavaria. Bill was […]

As far as we know he never played baseball. He certainly was a fan, but America’s pastime was never his greatest passion. Even when he owned a club that won two National League pennants, Francis Dale had more irons in the fire, serving simultaneously in several unrelated enterprises. His name is omitted from most of […]

On February 4, 1921, Carl “Babe” Holling was arrested for burglary of a San Francisco apartment … while holding his first major-league contract in his pocket.1 After charges were eventually dropped, the pitcher parlayed his two years with the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League into being one of a bumper crop of California […]