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It simply should not have taken six years for Gary Carter to get into the Hall of Fame. He was one of the best catchers of his era, and many observers put him in the top ten in major-league history. He was an outstanding defender with a strong arm who did all the other things […]

“Beware of robbing a wretch or attacking a cripple. Do not laugh at a blind man, nor tease a dwarf, nor cause hardship for the lame. Don’t tease a man who is in the hand of the god (i.e. ill or insane)…” [Instruction of Amenemope, Ancient Egypt]1 Frank James Burke was born on March 19, […]

Reggie Smith was a rookie in 1967 when the Boston Red Sox came back from a ninth-place finish to craft an extraordinary pennant-winning season. The All-Star caliber major-league career he completed in 1982 was a great success that has been muddied by other people’s expectations (too high) and Smith’s media profile (too low). Smith batted […]

He arrived on the big-league scene like a bolt of lightning through the evening sky. Fred Lynn played in his first game on September 5, 1974, and proceeded to smash major-league pitching to the tune of a .419 batting average and a .698 slugging percentage over his first 15 games. He followed that up with […]

Determined to make the major leagues since he was a young boy, Jim Umbricht paid his way to a minor-league tryout camp and, after making the team, was converted from shortstop to pitcher. After he returned from serving two years in the military, Umbricht worked his way up to the majors and then spent three […]

With his trademark dark glasses and red socks, Bob Addie, the son of a New York City butcher, was a respected and popular fixture on the Washington sports and social scene for almost 40 years. A columnist and Senators beat writer for the Washington Times-Herald and the Washington Post, Addie served as president of the […]

Perhaps the greatest defensive shortstop of his generation, Bobby Wallace was a fair right-handed hitter whose spectacular glove work catapulted him to the Hall of Fame. Wallace began his major league career as a pitcher, where his dazzling fielding soon convinced management to find a position that better suited his unique combination of skills. After […]

Art Shires arrived on the major league scene in 1928 with much fanfare, almost all of it of his own making.  The Italy, Texas native nicknamed himself “Art The Great,” once boasted that, next to Babe Ruth, he was the biggest drawing card in the American League, and frequently stopped passersby on the sidewalk to […]

For years after his major-league debut in 1898, Bert Conn was known throughout the Philadelphia area as the “schoolboy twirler” despite having hurt his arm and moved from a pitcher in the major leagues to an everyday player in the minors. But Conn’s rapid rise from Philadelphia high-school pitcher to Philadelphia Phillies starter at the […]

President John F. Kennedy was said to have correctly answered a trivia question that had been floating around for years: Who is the only man to ever hit a home run off Sandy Koufax and catch a pass from Y.A. Tittle? The guess was always Alvin Dark. “It’s not quite accurate, however,” Dark always said. […]

In literature’s most famous soliloquy, Hamlet agonizes: To be, or not to be: that is the question:Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them? Hamlet chose to be. Willard Hershberger chose not to be. Why? The slings […]

Named after one president and toiling in the shadow of another pitcher named after the same president, Grover Cleveland “Slim” Lowdermilk had a career that spanned the second half of the Deadball Era. From 1909 to 1920 Lowdermilk was an adequate pitcher with occasional flashes of steadiness for six different teams. He closed out his […]

Ponchatoula, Louisiana, in the 1930s was a small town that had suffered a number of lumber mills closing in the previous decade. By the 1930s, it was known primarily as a strawberry farming region. It was into this area that on October 2, 1934, Earl Lawrence Wilson was born. He later changed his name to […]

Over the history of baseball, there have been myriad players who have been, deservedly or undeservedly, tagged with the moniker of “goat.” These competitors have been involved in circumstances that changed outcomes at critical instances in momentous games. Two of the most famous such persons, Ralph Branca and Bill Buckner, have direct ties to the […]

During his lifetime, Col. Frank Leslie Smith (1867-1950) adhered to a simple credo: the ends justified the means. The motto served him well as he built formidable business connections and amassed political clout on local, regional and national stages. By that same measure, it established the framework for his ultimate downfall. But during his youth, […]

Hitting mammoth home runs and striking out ten hitters a game look great in highlights or on the back of a baseball card, but those who excel at these feats are few and far between. The soul of the game is the baseball lifer. Lifers count their number of spring trainings in decades, not just […]

He began his baseball life as the mascot of his college team, but the diminutive Ed Burns grew into a World Series catcher for the Philadelphia Phillies. On October 31, 18871, in San Francisco, Edward Aloysius Burns and his wife Louisa (née Schaufele) welcomed their only child. Edward James Burns. into the world. The elder Edward […]

One of the main attractions of the Louisville Slugger Museum is its Signature Wall showing the names and signatures that have been branded on bats for hundreds of baseball players dating back to the beginning of the practice. Among the names of plaques featured from the 1920s is Baldonaro Acosto. The incorrectly spelled name on […]

Since the earliest days of professional baseball, the sport has offered aspiring players not only a chance to fulfill a dream, but also a shot to escape to a better life than what they could imagine in their small towns and urban centers across the country. Perhaps that’s what teenage Al Gerheauser thought. A high-school […]

On Saturday, August 26, 2017, the Bob Broeg St. Louis SABR Chapter hosted its third annual Research Conference at the Emerson Library on the campus of Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri. Six speakers presented a variety of subjects, hoping to capture the Jim Rygelski Research Award bestowed by the local chapter. The award is […]

After a fourth-place finish in the 2008 American League Rookie of the Year voting, Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Armando Galarraga suffered a sophomore slump in 2009 that saw his ERA balloon by nearly 2 points. And things were not looking any better heading into the 2010 campaign, after manager Jim Leyland sent the 28-year-old to […]

A full-page ad in the August 6, 1951, issue of the Corning (New York) Evening Leader promoted an event “Important to All Local Baseball Enthusiasts.”1 Hall of Famer Connie Mack, legendary president of the Philadelphia A’s and recently retired after 50 seasons as their manager,2 was coming to the small city in New York’s Southern […]

Down two games to one in the 1934 World Series, the Detroit Tigers evened the count in Game Four with a resounding 10-4 win in a lengthy 2 hours and 43 minutes before 37,492 disappointed Sportsman’s Park fans. It was a game full of misadventures, dominated by Dizzy Dean’s attempt to run the bases. After […]