Search Results

Bobby Doerr was an exemplary batsman in his first major-league game, getting three hits on Opening Day for the 1937 Red Sox. But he wasn’t alone. With nearly 20 hits, Boston’s offense dominated the Shibe Park confrontation against the Philadelphia Athletics for an 11-5 result. It didn’t start auspiciously for the second baseman or his […]

Having beaten the New York Yankees in the 1957 World Series, holding a 3-games-to-2 edge in 1958, returning home, and lining up Warren Spahn (albeit on short rest) for Game Six and Lew Burdette (if necessary) to start Game Seven, the Milwaukee Braves seemed in prime position to take the 1958 title. New York had […]

“Of all the skills wrapped up in the complex game of big league baseball, none is practiced with more ingenuity and less publicity than the fine art of diamond larceny.” – Martin Abramson1 A wiring system sending signals to an in-ground junction box and a vibrating device or maybe a telescopic sight from a World […]

The Chicago Cubs opened 1982 with rookie Ryne Sandberg at third base, months after acquiring him in an offseason trade with the Philadelphia Phillies. Held to one hit in his first 32 at-bats, the 22-year-old Sandberg entered the Cubs’ April 23 game with the Pittsburgh Pirates batting just .140. On a windy day at Wrigley […]

It was the third doubleheader in as many days for the weary Boston Beaneaters. Shortstop Herman Long, nursing a badly bruised arm after being hit by a pitch in the opening game of the previous day’s twin bill, was relegated to the bench, and first baseman Tommy Tucker, who’d played every game so far this […]

When Duane Pillette took the mound for the woeful St. Louis Browns against the Chicago White Sox for the final game of the 1953 season there was little to cheer about for the home team’s fans. The Browns already had 99 losses and were reported to be leaving St. Louis for a new home in […]

The great jazz trumpet player Bill Dixon refused to do encores. He allegedly said, “When I have finished playing, I have nothing left; there has been no reserve.”1 The same cannot be said of Henry Aaron. On Tuesday night, September 24, 1957, Aaron performed what is perhaps the greatest encore of his storied career. The […]

Runs had historically been hard to come by in the Astrodome, but on May 11, 1999 — in the building’s last season — the Astros proved an exception to the rule, blasting the Pirates 19-8 in front of 18,450. The Dome had opened as the modernistic “eighth wonder of the world,”1 but its design made […]

Willie Stargell began 1975 with a new assignment. For the first time in 14 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Stargell was the club’s Opening Day first baseman.1 Already Pittsburgh’s all-time home-run leader, he celebrated by belting two more homers and going 4-for-4 as the Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-4, on April 10 at frigid […]

In the early part of 1927, the Midwest was bursting with anticipation as the baseball season segued from projections to facts delivered by daily sports accounts. By mid-April, pitching matchups, game summaries, and season standings would replace the “dreary box-scoreless winter” to provide “something in the newspapers.” Even an umpire might expect applause for one […]

“The [Pine Hill] grounds were in very poor shape … for when a man would go after a hard drive or a long fly his foot would, at the critical moment, drop into some slough and then the player would spend some few seconds in disentangling himself from the muss, and generally while this was […]

“I’m glad it’s all over with. Now I can go back to my regular swing,” a mentally exhausted Willie Mays groaned.1 “Every day, I’ve been trying to get it over with so I could go back to playing baseball.”2 The 10 days that passed in the spring of 1966 between Mays tying Mel Ott’s National […]

St. Louis held its collective breath when reports emerged at the beginning of 1943 season that pitcher Mort Cooper’s right elbow was aching. To call Cooper an integral part of the Redbirds was an understatement. In what was then arguably the best season ever by a Cardinals pitcher, Cooper won the NL MVP award in […]

“He’s a quality player who’s getting better all the time. A year ago, he played on talent alone. Now he’s doing it on talent and know-how. His potential is unlimited.”1 — Pittsburgh Pirates manager Jim Leyland   No word better describes Bobby Bonilla’s baseball career than “potential.” He was selected as an All-Star six times. […]

Of the eight major leaguers[fn]Gary Bedingfield, Behind the Wire: Baseball Players Who Were POWs in World War II. www.baseballinwartime.com/pow.htm.[/fn] who were prisoners of war in World War II, only one also played in a World Series. He was Mickey Grasso, who played in four September games for the 1954 Indians and was behind the plate […]

A tall left-handed pitcher, Henry Keupper pitched seven years in professional baseball, but just one year in the majors — 1914, when he was 8-20 for the last-place St. Louis Terriers of the short-lived Federal League. Henry John Keupper was born on June 24, 1887, in Staunton, Illinois. Staunton, the second largest city in Macoupin […]

Nothing succeeds like success. So goes the familiar aphorism. Mel Deutsch turned that on its head, said Louisville sportswriter Tommy Fitzgerald. The “big, slow-moving, easy-going” right-handed pitcher was called up from the Colonels for spring 1946 delivery to the Boston Red Sox, and Fitzgerald marveled at how he’d built some of his reputation on pitching well in […]

A star in basketball and track, he never played high school baseball. He played one year in college and had a losing record in four years in the minor leagues before being promoted to the majors. Yet Bill Henry had a 16-year career in the big leagues, played in a National League All-Star Game, and […]

Jackie Collum was a 5-foot-7 ambidextrous pitcher. Despite his lack of size, the Iowa farm boy played in nine major league seasons (1951-1958; 1962) with six teams. He appeared in 171 games, compiling a 32-28 won-lost record with a 4.15 ERA. He could also hit – his lifetime batting average was .246. Though Collum pitched […]

Many players played for National and American League teams in Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia or St. Louis. Just a dozen men played for Washington teams in both leagues. Some of the best known are John Anderson, Jack Doyle, Win Mercer and Kip Selbach. Most of the rest are recognizable to fans of Deadball Era […]

In the summer of 1904, the Zanesville, Ohio, baseball team had a game scheduled with a team in neighboring New Concord. “When the time arrived for the boys to take the bus, there was one player missing, so the bat boy had to be used in right field to complete the team. As luck would […]

Strong quick wrists, an open, positive demeanor, and unwavering confidence made young Ed Spiezio an outstanding baseball prospect. Cardinals Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst once told The Sporting News that Spiezio was the “the finest looking young hitter” he had ever seen.1 In five seasons with the Cardinals (1964-1968), Spiezio played on three National League […]

In 1971 The Sporting News reported “Joe Moeller, the sometime starter, sometime relief pitcher of the [Los Angeles] Dodgers [was] a ‘situation’ pitcher.’ ‘The problem,’ Moeller [joked] ‘is that they haven’t found the right situation.’”1 Dubbed the hardest thrower in the Dodger stable of flamethrowers in 1962—a remarkable claim considering the presence of future Hall […]

Heinz Becker, the only German-born big-leaguer who played during the years of World War II, had a modest four-year career and appeared in just 152 games for the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians. In 1945, his only full season in the majors, Becker became a fan favorite for the pennant-winning Cubs, and his feet were […]