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Vice and dissipation may have had their way. Meridian, Mississippi, was home to “The Father of Country Music,” Jimmie Rodgers, also known as “The Singing Brakeman.” It was also home to gas-station owner Danny Clark, and major-league pitchers Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd and Jay Powell. Clark’s claim to fame came from baseball as well. He […]

Bert Campaneris had a distinguished 20-year major-league career that included six All-Star selections, six American League stolen-base crowns, and a major role in the Oakland Athletics’ three world championships in the 1970s. Dagoberto Campaneris was born on March 9, 1942, in Pueblo Nuevo, Cuba. His father was a mechanic in a factory. Campaneris had three […]

Center field at Yankee Stadium is hallowed ground. Once upon a time, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle patrolled this section of the House That Ruth Built. Now, granted, Bernie Williams — whose 16-season New York Yankees career lasted from 1991 to 2006 — may at best be a borderline Cooperstown inductee, but he is a […]

With its long winters and cold, rainy springs, New England has never been a hotbed for scouts hunting baseball talent. There have, however, been ballplayers through the years who have overcome these weather woes to shine brightly enough that they can’t be ignored. Ray Martin was one such prospect — a pitcher so strong he […]

The slider. Mention it and batters’ knees buckle. The pitch helped make Cy Young Award winners out of Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, Randy Johnson and David Cone, as well as Steve Carlton, Ron Guidry, and Bob Gibson. There’s debate about who invented the slider. Chief Bender, the right-hander with the Philadelphia A’s, threw what […]

After hitting his dramatic walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game Seven of the 1960 World Series, Bill Mazeroski excitedly circled first and then second base, waving his arms with his cap in his hand. As he reached third base he was greeted by Pirates third-base coach Frank Oceak, who […]

Although no more than that of a journeyman, the six-year major-league playing career of Bert Niehoff was not without its highlights. In 1915 he combined with future Hall of Fame shortstop Dave Bancroft to form the middle infield of the pennant-winning Philadelphia Phillies. The following year, Niehoff led the National League in doubles and was […]

Popular wherever he played, Bud Sharpe showed great promise on the field and later as a manager, only to die in his prime. A tall and energetic man, the slender Sharpe stood 6′ 1″ and weighed 170 pounds. A right-hander, he was a minor figure in his 165-game major league career, posting a .222 average […]

He threw a ball as fast as Amos “The Hoosier Thunderbolt” Rusie, hit the ball as “hard as any man in the league,” and was versatile enough to play every position except catcher.1 His name was Jack Stivetts. In an 11-year major-league career that began with the St. Louis Browns of the American Association in […]

Jason Bay of the Pittsburgh Pirates had eight RBIs in a game twice in his career and both within a year of each other: September 19, 2003, and July 2, 2004. Bay may not have realized it, but he just missed the all-time Pirates single-game record of nine in a game set by Johnny Rizzo […]

Pittsburgh baseball fans were frustrated over their team’s slow start to the 1912 season. Their displeasure escalated with the team’s inability to scratch out a run in the first game of a series against Cincinnati. The Pirates managed just seven scattered singles while being shut out by Reds hurler George Suggs. Because of a rainout, […]

Folks by the Bay were still buzzing about the previous evening. A pitching matchup of two titans, Gaylord Perry of San Francisco and Bob Gibson of St. Louis, had gone toe-to-toe in a game that delivered what many had expected. Perry struck out nine and walked two as he hurled the only no-hitter of his […]

Anticipation of the 1931 World Series steadily peaked all summer in the St. Louis area as the Cardinals clinched their fourth National League pennant in mid-September. The Redbirds eventually finished 13 games better than the runner-up New York Giants, but their previous league flags, in 1926, 1928, and 1930, were all secured by meager two-game […]

One of just two Philadelphia Athletics to make the 1934 American League All-Star roster, third baseman Mike “Pinky” Higgins was the subject of gossip that offseason that he might be sold to the New York Yankees for as much as $50,000. Owner-manager Connie Mack was peppered with questions about the proposed deal in January 1935 […]

Baseball fans and former players love comparing great teams from different eras. So with the New York Yankees, baseball’s most storied franchise, in the midst of a historic 1998 season, comparisons to previous championship squads were inevitable when former Yankees greats gathered before a crowd of 55,638 at Yankee Stadium for the 52nd annual Old […]

On August 29, 1948, before a season record crowd of 33,826 at Sportsman’s Park, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the St. Louis Cardinals played in a “furiously fought doubleheader”1 that had postseason implications. In the first game, Brooklyn second baseman Jackie Robinson hit for the cycle,2 leading the Dodgers to a victory over the St. Louis […]

Weather forecasts predicted rain but when the sun rose on New York, there were clear skies as the Brooklyn Dodgers prepared to face off against the Yankees for the second time since 1941. The wind “played tricks with the pennants high above the roof” of Yankee Stadium and “sweaters and topcoats formed standard equipment for […]

Among MLB’s storied rivalries, none has been more heated than that of the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. The stakes do not have to be high – though they often have been – for bad blood to boil over between the two teams. One of the most vicious brawls between the two franchises […]

June 15, 1967, seemed like an unlikely day for the Houston Astros’ 25-year-old slugger Jimmy Wynn to make history. He wasn’t feeling very well, and consequently took only two turns in the batting cage in the mammoth Astrodome. “I’ve been feeling tired for three or four days,” he said.1 While his teammates finished BP and […]

As the Chicago White Sox took the field at Cleveland Stadium on the night of September 22, 1959, the city of Chicago was bracing for a celebration. A victory over the Cleveland Indians would clinch the American League pennant for the White Sox—the first AL crown for the Sox since 1919. That 1919 league championship […]

With nearly 35,000 fans on hand on the day set aside to honor him at Wrigley Field, veteran Chicago Cubs third baseman Ron Santo publicly confirmed that he was a diabetic. “I didn’t want anyone else to know about this originally. I’m a diabetic and had a full career in the major leagues and a […]

The weather at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia was cold and miserable with 40-mph winds for the Pirates-Phillies game on April 24, 1955. Unfortunately for the Pirates, the 1955 season had so far matched the weather. It was marred by rainouts and eight consecutive losses to start the season and the 14th consecutive loss going […]

On the heels of the British navy’s sinking of the German battleship Bismarck and President Franklin Roosevelt’s “unlimited emergency” speech defying the Germans, the Washington Senators inaugurated night baseball on May 28, 1941, on a sweltering evening in the nation’s capital. Senators owner Clark Griffith was following the lead of six other major-league teams and […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the December 2020 edition of the SABR Black Sox Scandal Committee Newsletter.   “Cook County what crimes are committed in thy name” — Ernest Hemingway, letter to a friend, August 1921 Things were looking good for aspiring author Ernest Hemingway in the summer of 1921. He had […]