Search Results

It was a chilly spring evening at Coors Field. The Pirates were hoping to rebound from their 6-1 loss on the previous evening when their team leader, Andrew McCutchen, returned to the lineup. McCutchen had struggled on the Pirates’ Western road trip, getting only three hits in 23 at-bats before the team’s arrival in Denver. […]

In 1913 future Hall of Fame right-hander Walter Johnson earned wins that stopped 18 losing streaks by his Washington Senators. He did it again 10 times in 1914 and 17 times in 1915. By the end of May 1916, he had stopped two more Washington losing streaks; on June 1 he was on the mound […]

Probably the greatest rivalry in the history of baseball was the Brooklyn Dodgers versus the New York Giants, especially in the late 1940s and 1950s.1 During this period the rivalry escalated as a result of Jackie Robinson becoming a major leaguer in 1947 and Leo Durocher joining the Giants as manager. Durocher had been manager […]

Henry Aaron reached the 100-RBI milestone in 11 seasons and retired with the all-time mark of 2,297. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   It was fitting that Henry Aaron played a leading role in what would prove to be the Milwaukee Braves’ final win in Wisconsin. On September 17, 1965, the Braves welcomed the San Francisco Giants to […]

Fans at Ebbets Field cheered when Babe Ruth — decked out in Dodger blue — trotted to the third-base coach’s box on Sunday, June 19, 1938, in the first game of a doubleheader. Baseball’s home-run king had agreed the previous day to join the Brooklyn staff. Dodgers general manager Larry MacPhail signed him to a […]

The stars of Massachusetts came out to the South End Grounds as the Boston Nationals opened their 1893 home schedule. It was Monday, May 15, 1893, and around 8,000 fans braved the ominous clouds to see the defending champions face the New York Giants. The grandstand was awash in local dignitaries including mayors, state senators, […]

Superstitious? Not me. Although there was a time in my life when I thought I could alter fate merely by avoiding black cats, knocking on wood, or even by talking to baseball bats. The latter practice occurred in the spring of 1968, when I was 12 years old and batboy for the Minnesota Gophers baseball team. Saturday, […]

Though Mose YellowHorse toed the rubber for two underachieving Pittsburgh Pirates teams in 1921 and 1922, he left an indelible mark on the club and its fanbase. Because of his off-the-field antics and on-the-field accomplishments, YellowHorse was a longtime fan favorite. Those in executive and administrative positions with the Pirates were not so quick to […]

Among all the ballplayers who served in World War II, Earl Johnson was the real military hero. Unlike some, he had his better years after the long layoff for the war, peaking in 1947, but began to lose his edge just as the Red Sox entered two seasons (1948 and 1949) when one more win […]

llReal Cubs fans never called him Swish. To them he was Big Bill, or Nick. The Swish nickname originated in Brooklyn. The big left-handed hitter always leveled his bat across the plate several times when stepping in to face an opposing pitcher. Dodgers fans would yell, “Swish, swish, swish,” in unison with his practice swings. […]

In addition to being a pretty good pitcher and the first German-born player in the major leagues, Charles Getzien had one of the better nicknames in nineteenth-century baseball: Pretzels or Pretzel Twirler. Before becoming a Boston Beaneater, Getzien gained prominence as a star for the Detroit Wolverines of the National League, winning a championship with […]

It was one week into the 1977 season. Jim Kaplan of Sports Illustrated alluded to 34-year-old Bill Robinson’s frustrations in his 10th major-league season: “No matter where he is playing — be it Cincinnati or New York or Los Angeles — he is sure to hear it. ‘Weaser,’ someone will call to him from the […]

Russ Kemmerer pitched a one-hit shutout in his first major-league start, on July 18, 1954, at Fenway Park, leading the Boston Red Sox to a 4-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles. Deprived of a no-hitter in the seventh inning when Sam Mele’s fly ball to left field eluded the outstretched glove of Ted Williams, the […]

Bill Monbouquette grew up just a few miles from Fenway Park and was signed by his hometown Boston Red Sox, but his first day with the team, the cops threw both him and his father into a holding cell at the ballpark. “I remember sitting out in the right-field stands at Fenway watching a game […]

When Bowie Kuhn was named the fifth Commissioner of Baseball in early 1969, he was touted by owners as the man needed to modernize and strengthen the game of baseball, which was declining in popularity as pro football’s increased. It was a time, Daniel Okrent noted, when professional baseball was fighting for survival.1 Kuhn, a […]

What Tommy Davis accomplished as a major leaguer on one good leg, most players would be proud to do on two. Not that this sums up his athletic career, but it is an important backdrop to his improbable baseball odyssey. Davis seemed ready to have his ticket punched for Cooperstown as he entered his ball-playing […]

Law enforcement has provided post-baseball employment for any number of former ballplayers, but right-handed pitcher Epp Sell followed a different career trajectory. Some ballplayers become police officers; Sell was more like an officer with a sideline in pitching. Sell joined the Reading, Pennsylvania, police department before he reached the majors, and was given leave during […]

George Turbeville pitched with the Philadelphia Athletics from 1935 to 1937. His best game performance came against the Cleveland Indians. He held them scoreless for 14 innings before losing on Earl Averill’s home run. Surrendering home runs is what Turbeville is best known for. He gave up Joe DiMaggio’s first major-league blast on May 10, […]

“Baseball had always been in my blood,” said versatile infielder Frankie Gustine, who signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates as a 16-year-old athletic prodigy in 1936. One of the most popular Pirates of his era, Gustine debuted as a September call-up in 1939 and was named to three consecutive NL All-Star teams (1946-1948) as a second […]

Tall, powerful, and fleet-footed, Burnis “Wild Bill” Wright was one of the Negro Leagues’ brightest stars for nearly a decade before embarking on a lengthy and successful Hall of Fame career in the Mexican Leagues. A towering 6-foot-4, 220-pound switch-hitter who slashed for average and slugged with power, he bunted effectively, ran like the wind, […]

In 1972 Hank Morgenweck achieved a long-held dream—a full-time umpiring job in the major leagues. Four seasons later, in bitter and disputed circumstances, he lost it. An experienced minor-league ump with a National League playoff game on his résumé, Morgenweck was named to the American League’s umpiring staff in spring 1972. But his contract was […]

George Kaiserling was born to a German immigrant couple, Frederick and Johanna (Becker) Kaiserling, on May 12, 1893, in Steubenville, Ohio. He was the sixth born of eight, six sons and two daughters. His father worked as a millhand in the basic steelmaking industry and his mother was a homemaker.1   There is only data […]

One could pull up Dickey Pearce’s statistics at the reference sites and be completely unimpressed. His numbers in the National Association and the National League are unremarkable. This is only part of the story; he was 35 years old when the National Association started and 40 when the National League began. Pearce’s reputation and contributions […]

For the afternoon of July 29, 1914, baseball had two different John McGraws. In North Manhattan, the original John McGraw, the already renowned manager of the New York Giants, was orchestrating a 1-0 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates at the Polo Grounds. For the time being, the win kept his three-times defending National League champion […]