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Stanley Robison, owner of the Cleveland Spiders, pushed the issue of Sunday baseball in 1897. When Robison lost in court, he sabotaged the team. (NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME LIBRARY)   All Frank Robison and Stanley Robison wanted was for their Cleveland Spiders to make as much money as possible. That meant scheduling home games […]

“‘Why,’ said an American after the match, ‘your crowd applauded all the fly hits. In the States the crowds only let us know when we miss ’em.’” — Sydney Morning Herald, January 2, 1914   The steamship St. Albans roared into Brisbane, Australia, on January 1, 1914. This was “an American invasion” of Australia on […]

Sandy Koufax won eight games for the Dodgers in September-October of 1965. (SABR-Rucker Archive.   By October, exhaustion was a standard part of every game for Sandy Koufax. But one out from clinching a World Series berth, the Los Angeles Dodgers ace reached new depths of fatigue. “I don’t remember ever being so tired in […]

As the morning of August 6 dawned, the Boston Beaneaters, losers in the previous day’s contest, enjoyed a slender two-game lead over the Baltimore Orioles. Two strong pitchers, Boston’s Fred Klobedanz and Baltimore’s Arlie Pond, were facing each other. Each team had lost 27 games to this point in the season, but Boston had won […]

“Tonight we must say goodbye. So long old friend. We will miss you.”1 With his voice breaking, legendary radio announcer Ernie Harwell uttered those somber words to mark the end of a storied era on Monday, September 27, 1999, as the Detroit Tigers played their final game at Tiger Stadium, the venerable 87-year-old ballpark at […]

As the Houston Astros prepared to face the Colorado Rockies on June 29, 2007, they were still riding the high of their previous night’s victory over the same squad, which had been highlighted by Craig Biggio surpassing the 3,000-hit mark and Carlos Lee’s 11th-inning walk-off grand slam. Though the Astros were in the middle of […]

The Philadelphia Phillies have a long history of trading away future Hall of Famers for lesser players. In 1982 they swapped a young Ryne Sandberg and veteran Larry Bowa for Ivan DeJesus. In the 1960s they sent 23-year-old Fergie Jenkins to the Chicago Cubs for two pitchers with a combined age of 72. The very […]

Sam Jones was an intimidating pitcher. He was big (6 feet 4 and 200 pounds), threw hard, had a massive sweeping curveball, and could be quite wild. Three times he led the National League in both strikeouts and walks (1955, 1956, and 1958). He narrowly missed this feat a fourth time in his finest season, […]

The 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords are often considered to be the Negro Leagues’ equivalent of the 1927 New York Yankees. That Yankees team had six future Hall of Fame players: Lou Gehrig, Tony Lazzeri, Babe Ruth, Earle Combs, Waite Hoyt, and Herb Pennock, along with manager Miller Huggins, general manager Ed Barrow, and owner Jacob Ruppert. […]

The late-19th century pitcher identified by modern baseball reference authority as Will Calihan was the youngest of four ball-playing brothers from Rochester, New York. As a 22-year-old rookie in 1890, he won 18 games for the hometown entry in the major league American Association. The promise of that campaign, however, went unfulfilled, frustrated by control […]

Joe DiMaggio put his name on a book titled Lucky to Be a Yankee. His teammate Arndt Jorgens seconded the emotion. In 10 years as a backup catcher behind Hall of Famer Bill Dickey, Jorgens cashed five World Series checks totaling around $30,000 without appearing in a single Series game. As the Yankees’ second- or […]

Lew Simmons was a popular performer as a minstrel entertainer both before and after his time in baseball management. One of many persons who linked the theater with nineteenth-century baseball, Simmons was a noted banjoist, a professional comedian of great repute, and an end man with the tambourine in the minstrel show.1 There is considerable […]

Hannah and Ernie Wright (Courtesy of Hagen History Center)   In an era when many African Americans lived in poverty and were treated as second-class citizens, Ernest Pearle Wright managed to rise and persevere as a successful businessman.   Born on October 7, 1901, in Zanesville, Ohio, Ernest was the only child to mother Jessie (Forney) […]

But for a bucket kick, Bill Werber might reside in the Hall of Fame rather than be remembered as a good major-league ballplayer of the 1930s who helped lead the Cincinnati Reds to National League pennants in 1939 and 1940 and to the world’s championship in 1940. It happened in 1934, toward the end of […]

Bob Smith was a shortstop with a strong arm and a weak bat who made himself into a pitcher when he was 30 years old and lasted 15 seasons in the majors. He was stuck on losing teams for most of his career, so naturally the highlight was a defeat. In 1927 Smith pitched and […]

Ralph Kiner was baseball’s leading home-run hitter for a few years after World War II. As a broadcaster for the New York Mets, he became famous for his verbal strikeouts. Although best remembered for his long career behind the mike, he still ranks as one of the premier sluggers in baseball history. Ralph McPherran Kiner […]

The small mining community of Swoyersville, Pennsylvania, located near Wilkes-Barre, was home to only 5,000 or so inhabitants but gave five ballplayers to the major leagues: Adam Comorosky, Dick Mulligan, Packy Rogers, Steve Shemo, and Harry Dorish. The town also contributed professional athletes in other major-league sports as well. Dorish himself also played football and […]

A graduate of Colgate University, Walter Hammond excelled as a multi-sport athlete while earning his Bachelor of Sciences degree. His first professional sports action came when he joined the touring Oswego Indians basketball team as a forward. In addition to playing basketball, Hammond served as an instructor of athletics and head basketball coach at his […]

From his key contributions as a rookie on the pennant-winning Boston Red Sox of 1967 to his final games spent entangled in one of the most controversial incidents in World Series history, Mike Andrews packed plenty of memorable moments into seven-plus big-league seasons. And while his baseball career may not have lasted as long — […]

Dwain Anderson was a utility infielder who played in 149 major-league games over the course of four seasons between 1971 and 1974.  He threw and batted right-handed and was a versatile infielder, playing second base, third base, and shortstop over a ten-year career in professional baseball.  Frequently included in early 1970s trades, Anderson played for […]

Chicago White Sox relief pitcher Cliff Politte, practically floating on adrenaline, jogged off the mound after the eighth inning of Game Two in the 2005 World Series. He faced the Houston Astros’ top hitters – two-three-four in the lineup – and got each of them out, holding the White Sox’ slim lead. Nearing the dugout, […]

Walter Anton (“Wally”) Berger, whose hitting for power and average and steady center field play sparkled for 1930s Boston Braves clubs that had few other bright spots, set rookie home run and runs batted in standards that stood for decades. Until it was broken twice in the 2010s decade, Berger and Frank Robinson (1956) shared […]

Editor’s note: An excerpt of John Jakicic’s poem, “My Bums Holding My Dream,” was published in Volume 2 of Turnstyle: The SABR Journal of Baseball Arts (2020). The entire poem, truly epic in length, is here for all Baseball and the Arts Committee members to enjoy.   All my dreams as a kid are long […]

Here are the SABR Bookshelf listings for Spring 2017. To get your NEW book listed on The SABR Bookshelf, make sure a review copy is sent to: The SABR Bookshelf, Cronkite School at ASU, 555 N. Central Ave. #416, Phoenix, AZ 85004. An e-book file will also suffice; please send the e-book in PDF, EPUB […]