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On October 23, 1945, it was announced that Branch Rickey had signed Jackie Robinson to play for the Montreal Royals, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ top farm team. The plan was for Robinson to play a season in Montreal to get the professional experience needed to determine if he was ready for the major leagues. In the […]
The final day of the 1892 baseball season in the nation’s capital featured two clubs on the opposite ends of the spectrum. One of four former American Association teams to join the consolidated 12-team National League in 1892 following the former’s economic collapse, the Washington club had changed its nickname from the Statesmen to the […]
“You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard” — Leviticus 19:27 1 The House of David touring baseball team let their beards and long hair grow, because of biblical stricture and just because it made them look more like the way many have imagined Jesus and […]
The Minnesota Twins occupied fifth place in the American League West Division when Labor Day weekend 1971 arrived in the Twin Cities. After spending most of June and early July in third place, the Twins dropped into fifth in a 13-15 August. Preseason prognostications placed Minnesota atop the AL West1 after winning both the 1969 […]
When the New York Yankees won the first two games of the 1947 World Series, many fans started calling it the “worst World Series in history.”1 After Brooklyn beat the Yankees 9-8 in Game Three, Dodgers fans showed up at Ebbets Field hoping to see their team even the Series. History-minded Brooklyn fans might have […]
Except for World Series appearances in 1973 and 1979, John Milner’s career was relatively quiet. However, he seemed to have a propensity for hitting grand slams, collecting a total of 10 during his 12-year career (tied for 64th on the all-time list). One of those slams occurred on June 26, 1976, when he helped the […]
The World Series headed into a seventh game for the third year in a row. Brooklyn’s come-from-behind victory in the sixth game gave Dodgers fans hope that this might be their year. The team had never won the championship in three previous appearances. The last time they appeared in the postseason classic, the Dodgers lost […]
The 1967 Boston Red Sox captured the attention of the baseball world by going from ninth place to the World Series in one season’s time. The so-called “Impossible Dream” season rejuvenated a franchise that hadn’t made the Series since 1946 and had come to be viewed as a going-nowhere “country club” team.1 Some of that […]
The Chicago Cubs “swished home run bats that belted big George Munger out of the box within three innings”1 and went on to crush the St. Louis Cardinals 15-3 at Wrigley Field, behind the hitting-for-the-cycle performance of Roy Smalley. The overcast skies “and a few drops of rain”2 before game time did not deter the […]
Buried midway down the front page in most of the country’s sports sections was the fact that Chicago right fielder Billy Williams hit for the cycle, propelling the Cubs to a 7-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals in the second game of a Sunday doubleheader. The bigger news of the day involved Jim Ryun, […]
The day after Jack Stivetts beat Brooklyn, 2-0, with a two-run homer in the 12th inning, he took the mound for Beaneaters manager Frank Selee and threw a no-hitter, the first in franchise history. Stivetts was primarily a pitcher, but he’d played left field on August 5 since Bobby Lowe was out with an injured […]
The Brooklyn Dodgers franchise had no more loyal foot soldier than Joseph Julius “Babe” Hamberger. The lifelong Brooklynite began working for the Dodgers in 1921 as a 14-year-old batboy. He held numerous other jobs with the club, ending up as superintendent of Ebbets Field in 1958 after the Dodgers left for Los Angeles. Hamberger’s heart […]
His baseball ability was once described as good mouth, no hit. Not known for his bat but a solid glove man, Jimmy Smith built an 8-year major league career with his wit and his mouth. Referred to as “Serpent Tongue,” Smith rode a great ability as a bench jockey to remain on rosters while compiling […]
In November 1970 Boston Red Sox slugger Carl Yastrzemski was in Florida working with the organization’s young hitters when a hard-throwing right-handed hurler commanded his attention. “[Lynn McGlothen] is going to be a winning pitcher in the major leagues,” predicted the future Hall of Fame outfielder. “I don’t just mean a pitcher. I mean a […]
Few major-league careers have begun as auspiciously as Bill Duggleby’s. On April 21, 1898, the rookie pitcher made his debut with the Philadelphia Phillies against the visiting New York Giants. At bat in the second inning, with the bases loaded, Duggleby caught a Cy Seymour fastball “right on the pickle, and it sailed out of […]
As the leadoff or number-two batter for some of the highest-scoring teams in baseball history, Woody English scored 400 runs from 1929 through 1931 while playing shortstop or third base for the Chicago Cubs. As noted by Bill James, “English in 1930 had 214 hits and 100 walks, which enabled him to score 152 runs, […]
From left, Sid Mercer of the New York Journal, Al Spink of The Sporting News, and G.W. Axelson of the Chicago Herald. (Photograph by Charles Martin Conlon of the Chicago Herald.) The irony is clear to anyone who gives it even the slightest thought. At the time that baseball was entering the public consciousness […]
A bright future appeared to lie ahead for Boston Braves outfielder Max West after he became a major-league regular in 1938 at the age of 21 and was the team’s top offensive performer a year later. Following a memorable appearance in the 1940 All-Star Game, when he hit a home run to win the contest, […]
Casey Stengel, an eccentric man himself, called Moe Berg “the strangest man ever to play baseball.” Dark, handsome, erudite, fluent in many languages, charming and shadowy-just who was this man who was a professional baseball player and a so-called master spy? Who is the real Moe Berg? He epitomizes frustration for any biographer. Moe Berg […]
Ed Connolly Sr. was a catcher for the Boston Red Sox; his son, Ed Jr., was a pitcher for the Red Sox. Edward Connolly Sr. had been born in Brooklyn in 1908. He played for the Red Sox 1929-1932, with a career batting mark of .178 (he garnered precisely 100 plate appearances in 1931 despite […]
Quietly dependable though seldom spectacular for most of his five full major-league seasons as an infielder, Steve Yerkes grasped immortality when he played a central role in one of baseball’s legendary episodes. In the bottom of the 10th inning of the deciding game of the epic 1912 World Series, Yerkes raced home with the winning […]
Outfielder George Leidy is “as fine a fielder as ever went after a ball, as well as a splendid hitter.” – Birmingham News, 19011 “I owe George Leidy more than any other man in baseball for training given me when I needed it most.” – Ty Cobb, 19212 A career minor-leaguer, George Leidy was […]
On July 27, 1917, Cliff Brady was involved in an automobile accident that could have ended his career. Two cars smashed into each other shortly after 11 PM at the intersection of Third and Cheyenne in Tulsa. Ticket seller Eddie Quigley’s leg was broken; Brady’s knee was hurt but not to the point he required […]
A tall, rangy, 6-feet-4 Don Demeter played major-league baseball for 11 seasons, mostly patrolling the outfield grass, while also spending time at the infield corners. A man of deep abiding faith, he was a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and a pastor in his hometown, Oklahoma City.1 A very highly regarded player during […]