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Wet, wild, and weird — with a dash of pine tar. So went the third game of the 1988 National League Championship Series at Shea Stadium on a damp, frigid Saturday afternoon in October. There were players stumbling and skidding all over the field — recorded in the official box score as “soaked.”1 In the […]

Despite watching Cy Young pitch effectively into his 40s in the preceding seasons, many baseball fans and journalists once again characterized 31-year-old Christy Mathewson as old and washed up in 1912, using every average or poor outing by the New York Giants ace as an excuse to wonder aloud if “Big Six” should change his […]

On the eve of the 1926 season, the venerated New York Giants were the consensus pick to win the National League pennant, while the Cincinnati Reds were expected to finish in fourth place.1 But when the two teams met on September 17, the underachieving Giants were mired in fifth place − 15½ games out − […]

“Well, back in 1871, my great-great-grandmother had a boardinghouse in Boston,” recounted a sparkling, white-haired lady speaking with appraiser Leila Dunbar on a PBS episode of Antiques Roadshow. “And she housed the Boston baseball team. Most of them had come from the Cincinnati Red Stockings and were among the first to be paid to play […]

Rudy Regalado is one of few players—perhaps the only player—to have participated in the College World Series, Caribbean World Series, the Junior World Series, and the Major League World Series.  He was successful on the diamond on every level from high school to the major leagues.  In his career, he was in the company of […]

Hugh High’s brother, Andy, himself a 13-year big leaguer, once succinctly summarized big brother Hughie’s career: “He played center field in place of Ty [Cobb] for about six weeks one year when Ty held out,” then “he went to New York to help the Yankees out, but the Yankees got to the point where they […]

How many major leaguers have started a full-fledged cult? Alfred W. Lawson did, with his “Direct Credits Society” and “University of Lawsonomy” – a bizarre belief system melding social welfare policy and quack physics. Along the way he also: Founded baseball teams and leagues; Invented jersey numbers and pioneered night baseball; Invented, built, and crashed […]

On June 23, 1931, sportswriter Walter W. Smith encountered George Watkins, the St. Louis Cardinals right fielder, in the lobby of Philadelphia’s Franklin Hotel, where the team was staying for a series against the Phillies. Both men were relatively new to their jobs; Smith had begun covering the team for the St. Louis Star the […]

Dustin Moseley didn’t possess a power arm. He did, however, have a 90-mph fastball thrown with precise control, a good curveball, cutter, and changeup, excellent mechanics, a strong work ethic, and a highly competitive nature. These attributes allowed the righty to get the most from his physical ability and spend parts of seven seasons in […]

Bill Rodgers played for three major-league teams in his first year in the leagues, but he only played in four games in his second – and last – year. He played for Cleveland and the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds in 1915, swiftly moving from one team to another, and then appeared in […]

“Funny thing, nobody asked me about my pitching,”1 said the hurler best remembered as the only pitcher to hit two grand slams in one game. Yet Tony Cloninger was much more than a great hitting pitcher. In the waning days of Warren Spahn’s great career, the Milwaukee Braves looked to Cloninger to step into the […]

“I felt I’d be happier trying to make a living from baseball than any other business I know,” Judge Emil Fuchs said.1 “Happy” would not describe the Judge in the baseball business world: he lost nearly everything he had as owner of the Boston Braves, unsuccessfully striving to make them into a contender from 1923 […]

In his debut as manager of the Atlanta Braves on August 9, 1966, Billy Hitchcock sent 27-year-old left-hander Denny Lemaster to the mound against one of the greatest pitchers of all time, future Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax. Before what then the largest crowd at Atlanta Stadium (52,270), Lemaster was every bit the equal of […]

“How does it feel to be the smallest player in the majors,” a Houston reporter asked Fred Patek in 1968. “A heck of a lot better than being the tallest player in the minors,” countered the rookie shortstop.1 Patek’s quip matched his quickness on the field and the basepaths for 14 years in the major […]

A scrappy outfielder, Nemo Leibold had a 13-year major-league career and played on four World Series teams, winning a championship with the Chicago White Sox in 1917 and another with the Washington Senators in 1924. Later a distinguished manager in the minor leagues from 1928 to 1948, Leibold is best known for passing through the […]

Debuting as a September call-up for the Chicago Cubs in 1939, 22-year-old southpaw Vern Olsen tossed four shutouts in a span of eight starts in 1940 en route to leading all NL rookies with 13 victories. A dependable starter and reliever on weak Cubs teams, Olsen averaged 10 wins and 166 innings per season (1940-1942) […]

During World War II, the Kansas City Monarchs had two middle infielders who hit for average, exhibited extra-base power, and played defense with flair. Born in the winter of 1919, Jackie Robinson not only changed baseball history but altered US history as well. Born in the winter of 1920, Bonnie Serrell toiled in a far […]

James Edward “Pete” Runnels occupies a place in Washington Senator and Boston Red Sox history as a stalwart, versatile infielder who learned how to hit from possibly the greatest hitter of all time. He parlayed his tutelage from none other than Ted Williams into two American League batting championships and lost a third title on […]

Venezuelan infielder Dámaso Blanco was 30 years old and in his 12th pro season when his dream finally came true with the San Francisco Giants. He told me the story in 2010. “The most important moment in my baseball career as an active player came on May 26, 1972. That day I played in my […]

Dick Bosman finished his 11-year major-league career three games under .500. He threw a no-hitter at the age of 30, but by the age of 33 his career was over. He was born Richard Allen Bosman on February 17, 1944, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the only son and oldest of four children born to George and […]

First baseman Gus Suhr is best known for playing in a then-record 822 consecutive National League games (1931-37). Yet he also achieved recognition for his extensive offensive and defensive contributions in a commendable big-league career of 11 years, 10 of which were spent with the Pittsburgh Pirates. August Richard Suhr was born on January 3, […]

The son of a successful Nebraska merchant, Henry Clarke was a well-educated young man who was athletic enough to play a little major-league baseball before the turn of the twentieth century. While on summer break from college and law school, he pitched six games and played three more in the outfield for the Cleveland Spiders […]

A late-inning home run by Willie Mays was the decisive blow in San Francisco’s dramatic 2-1 victory on the last day of the 1962 regular season, clinching a playoff berth for the Giants against their downstate rival Los Angeles Dodgers. Meanwhile, Dick “Turk” Farrell, the right-handed hurler for the Houston Colt .45s who surrendered the […]

Baseball pioneer Abraham Gilbert Mills is remembered-if at all-today for heading the “Mills Commission” which concluded that the game of baseball was invented in America by Civil War General Abner Doubleday. However, this actually represents a very small piece of Mills’ fascinating life. Born March 12, 1844, in New York City, Mills lived there until […]