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On August 15, 1943, Stan Musial was not yet The Man. That would come later. Even so, the 22-year-old already had established himself as one of the game’s bright stars. He was now in his second full big-league season. The Cardinals promoted him to the majors in mid-September 1941, and he hit .426 in 47 […]

Winning their fourth title, the New York Yankees crushed the Chicago Cubs 13-6 to sweep the 1932 World Series. Guy Bush started for Chicago and opposed Johnny Allen of New York. Both exited early. After averaging eight runs over the first three games of the Series, the Yankees got off to another good start offensively, […]

A major-league record eight batters hit for the cycle in 1933.1 Four of those occurred in the month of August, and every one of the August contests involved the Philadelphia Athletics. In the span of four games, Athletics teammates Mickey Cochrane (August 2 against the New York Yankees) and Pinky Higgins (August 6 against the […]

Of course they called him Babe. George Ernest Ruth had the fortune, for good or ill, to enter Organized Baseball when the legend of George Herman Ruth was still fresh in fans’ minds. He appeared in the lower reaches of the Cincinnati Redlegs’ farm system in 1957, less than a decade after the original Babe […]

Fans arriving for the second portion of the Boston Beaneaters’ morning-afternoon Memorial Day twin bill with Cincinnati on May 30, 1894, had reason to anticipate a pleasant afternoon. It was warm and sunny, with a breeze blowing from the south and southwest.1 Beyond the pleasant conditions, their three-time defending National League champions had won four […]

Sources agree that a mere 306 fans turned out for the game on Thursday afternoon, October 1, 1964, at Boston’s Fenway Park. It can stand as the lowest documented attendance of a game at the ballpark, though there was a game there in 1922 which the Chicago Tribune claimed drew only, precisely, 68.1 That number […]

On the morning of September 4, 1935, longtime Chicago Tribune sportswriter Irving Vaughan wrote an article examining the National League pennant race, specifically, how the Cubs’ prospects looked going into the final weeks of the season.1 From his perspective, the odds did not appear promising for the Wrigley Field squad. Chicago was in third place, […]

“Horner and Warner are a strong team… [Pitcher] Horner’s delivery is very quick, he controls good curves and he is a magnificent fielder… Warner, as catcher, is likewise good. He is as agile as a cat and throws with a precision that is not often seen.” — Fort Wayne (Indiana) Gazette, April 6, 1884 “Utica and Toronto both […]

Herm Winningham’s professional career lasted 13 seasons. Yet only after the third time that he was a first-round draft pick did the speedy outfielder sign and turn pro. He played in the majors with four teams from 1984 through 1992. A skillful defender and bunter, Winningham got into 868 games at the top level, starting […]

In his book The Boys of Summer, author Roger Kahn relates how even after leaving daily 1950s baseball coverage to write for magazines, his “journalistic identity, such as it was, lived with my [New York Herald] Tribune stories” on the then-Brooklyn Dodgers. Robert Frost consoled him, telling Kahn that “nearly everyone has to lead two […]

Across the decades, various New York Yankee, New York Giant, and Brooklyn Dodger baseball names have acted on-screen. Babe Ruth, for one, appeared in silent-era features; played himself in The Pride of the Yankees (1942), the Lou Gehrig biopic; and starred in various short subjects. Gehrig was toplined in Rawhide (1938), a B-Western. Jackie Robinson […]

Many baseball fans know about the 1894 Philadelphia Phillies team that featured four outfielders who each batted over .400. In fact, if you look at the Phillies’ lineup on Baseball-Reference, all of the starting eight batted over .300 and the team led the league, hitting .350. The lowest average for a position player with over 100 at […]

Lee Pfund pitched in 15 games for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1945, but his real claim to fame came after he retired from professional baseball and became a college baseball coach. Leroy Herbert  Pfund was born on October 18, 1919, in Oak Park, Illinois, a suburb adjacent to Chicago. His parents were Liebhart and Helen […]

Howie Fox was a right-handed pitcher who spent most of his career with the Reds during the club’s franchise-worst stretch of 11 consecutive losing seasons. By the time Cincinnati finished over .500 again, Fox had been traded, released and tragically murdered. Howard Francis Fox was born on March 1, 1921, in Coburg, Oregon — population […]

If you page through the annals of Black baseball, you will come across watershed moments – the “First Colored World Series,” Yankee Stadium’s first game between Black ball clubs, Satchel Paige’s first professional no-hitter – and you will find a single face peering across the ages. Historic moments seemed to cling to Clint “The Hawk” […]

The late 1940s Boston Red Sox consisted of larger-than-life, highly paid, talented baseball men who could accomplish just about anything “except win pennants,” according to Al Hirshberg in a 1951 Saturday Evening Post article on Billy Goodman. Goodman had made his major-league debut in the spring of 1947 and was “not a glamorous slugger, not […]

Eddie McGah’s first visit to Fenway Park was on June 22, 1939. He was there at the invitation of the Boston Red Sox, who gave him a number 15 jersey. He was just 17 at the time, but had made the three-day train trip across the country to join the team and get a feel […]

An intelligent player whom both teammates and opponents respected, 29-year-old first baseman Dick Hoblitzell opened the 1918 season as the Red Sox’ captain and cleanup hitter, but an early-season slump and his June induction into the Army Dental Corps marked an inglorious end to an otherwise distinguished 11-year career in the major leagues. Though he […]

Joe Foy came to the Red Sox organization with an abundance of promise. He showed flashes of brilliance in the minors and during the 1967 pennant-winning season, but Foy’s weaknesses, both on and off the field, kept him from being the player he was capable of becoming. Foy was eventually able to overcome some of […]

Born February 10, 1976, in Waco, Texas, William Lance Berkman is best known as one of the Houston Astros “Killer B’s.” From 1999 through 2005, Berkman teamed with Hall of Famers Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio to form one of the best offensive trios in the National League. Berkman was one of the greatest switch-hitters […]

From 1962 through 1968, right-hander Jack Lamabe pitched for seven different teams: the Pirates, Red Sox, Astros, White Sox, Mets, Cardinals, and Cubs. He won a world championship with the 1967 St. Louis Cardinals, helping them get through an August that was particularly challenging due to the loss of ace pitcher Bob Gibson to a […]

It was very difficult to win games for the 1964 Boston Red Sox. Not a single starting pitcher on the team had a winning record. The team finished in eighth place, with a record of 72-90. There were a few players fans could cheer for. There was 19-year-old Tony Conigliaro who hit 24 homers, and […]

Chris Von der Ahe, owner of the St. Louis Browns in 1892, was known for his irrational and confrontational behavior. Rookie Frank Genins had a puzzling run-in with Von der Ahe to start his career. According to a 1913 Baseball Magazine article by William A. Phelon, Genins was acquired from Omaha over the winter, but […]

Here are the SABR Defensive Index™ rankings through games of June 16, 2019. For the seventh consecutive season, the SDI will be used to help select the winners of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award and Rawlings Platinum Glove Award™, presented by SABR. The SABR Defensive Index accounts for approximately 25 percent of the Rawlings Gold […]