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Kirby Higbe, a good old boy from South Carolina was a hell-raiser all his life. He was a hard thrower who developed his fastball in childhood by tossing rocks and later saw it compared to Bob Feller’s. Higbe had a taste for alcohol and a lust for living that landed him in trouble a few […]

After a standout season in Class B ball, outfielder Jules Kustus got the attention of various major league clubs and landed an extended tryout with the 1909 Brooklyn Superbas. Regrettably, he flunked the audition, batting an anemic .145 in 53 games. Remanded to the minors, Kustus played well in spots but found efforts to secure […]

Over his 16 major league seasons, Stan Bahnsen was a regular rotation starter, a workhorse in a three-man rotation, a closer for a while, and finally an all-purpose reliever and spot starter. Fans at the University of Nebraska named him “The Bahnsen Burner” for his blazing fastball; later in his career he would be “Stanley […]

Jim “Zipper” Zapp played a big role in getting the Birmingham Black Barons to the 1948 World Series against the Homestead Grays. It was a season that had seen a young rookie named Willie Mays spell him in the second game of a doubleheader. Zapp was a big right-handed outfielder, standing 6-feet-2 or -3 and […]

Over a major-league career that lasted 10 seasons, Elden Auker played for Hall of Fame managers Bucky Harris, Mickey Cochrane (who called him “Mule Ears”), and Joe Cronin (who severely limited Auker’s effectiveness by calling, from his shortstop position, each pitch Auker was to throw). Auker was a teammate of Hall of Famers Hank Greenberg, Charlie […]

It may have seemed like an eternity. As in many cases when a player is on the verge of breaking a record or accomplishing a milestone, the waiting can be interminable. Such was the case with Minnesota Twins slugger Harmon Killebrew, who had set his sights on 500 home runs. But the epic homer was […]

Josefa Antonia Nepomucena Pascuala Estrada’s grandson played for six major-league teams from 1907 through 1917. Her son Manuel Adolfo Wolter was a stable keeper in Monterey, California. He married Lucretia “Lucy” Little and the two had seven children – Charles, Mary Mamie, Lucy Eleanor, Manuel, Milton John, Grace, and Harry. Their youngest, Harry Meiggs Wolter, […]

Rube Foster was the star of the 1915 World Series, pitching two complete-game wins for the Boston Red Sox in a five-game series against the Philadelphia Phillies and going 4-for-8 at the plate. His ninth-inning single won Game Two. Foster played pro ball for just one team in the big leagues, the Red Sox, with […]

“There was no better teammate. … He’ll do anything to win.” – James “Cool Papa” Bell1   When legendary pitcher Satchel Paige became the first to be inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971 based on his Negro League accomplishments, he told Afro-American reporter Sam Lacy that he thought there were others […]

Outside MCU Park in Coney Island, there stands a statue of two baseball players. Both are famed Brooklyn Dodgers. Both are Hall of Famers whose legends transcend batting averages and fielding percentages. One is a white Kentuckian. The other is an African-American from California. They are Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson. The statue depicts […]

Like a host of others, the name of John T. Powers was likely as familiar to baseball fans of a century ago as it is unknown to followers of the game today. Throughout the Deadball Era, Powers promoted baseball as a sportswriter, publicist, and organizer of amateur, semipro, and professional nines. His primary contribution to […]

After his retirement, Fritz Peterson recalled, “When I signed with the Yankees, the scout told me, ‘Heck, you’re a lefthander working in Yankee Stadium, you can count on a World Series check at least every other year.’”1 The Yankees hadn’t finished in last place since 1912, when they were still the New York Highlanders. However, […]

Kory DeHaan played professional baseball for seven years, including 2000 with the San Diego Padres as a Rule 5 draftee, and has coached in minor-league baseball since 2010. Korwin Jay (Kory) DeHaan was born on July 16, 1976, in Pella, Iowa and has two younger sisters, Kara and Kami. His father, Guy, taught German at […]

For over four decades, Stan Kasten has been a highly respected sports figure who developed a reputation for creating winning franchises by relying on three pillars – scouting and player development, enhancing the fan experience, and community outreach – to establish franchises built for long-term success on and off the field.1   This strategy has apparently […]

Baseball history is filled with stories of Irish American players, particularly in the 19th century, whose promising careers were derailed by alcohol abuse. Few stories are more tragic than that of Dan Lally. Called “Handsome Dan,” Dapper Dan,” and “the Adonis of the diamond” during his playing days, Lally was a consistent .300 hitter during […]

For two years, 5-foot, 9-inch Bob Saverine teamed with 6-foot, 7-inch Frank Howard on the Washington Senators. But, that’s not all. The talented pair, along with several other Senators players, formed a basketball team.1 Prior to the 1968 season, newly named manager Jim Lemon watched as they played an exhibition game and defeated a team […]

This rare left-handed catcher had a cup of coffee in the major leagues in the fall of 1888. In his two games, though, he managed to get a hit off a Hall of Famer, Hank O’Day (later inducted as an umpire). As an outfielder, he threw another one, Connie Mack, out at the plate. In the minors, he […]

In 1902 Cleveland manager Bill Armour raved about his pitcher Bill Bernhard: “Critics may choose [Rube] Waddell or Cy Young and be welcome, but neither of these two men has anything on ‘Berny.’”1 From 1899 to 1907, Bernhard compiled an impressive 116-81 major league record. The fury of his fastball contrasted with his calm demeanor. […]

In 1915, America’s leading syndicated sportswriter, Hugh Fullerton, published a forgettable baseball novel in which a star left-handed pitcher named Williams is bribed and threatened by gamblers to lose the pennant for his team.1 Fullerton, who dedicated the novel to his friend and mentor, Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey, had been writing about the […]

After college Bill Essick had to choose between life as a musician and one in baseball.  He chose baseball and left his native Illinois to begin his minor-league pitching career in Salt Lake City.  After a brief promotion to the major leagues and roughly a dozen years as a successful minor-league manager, Essick joined the […]

Before the Wizard of Oz, the St. Louis Cardinals had Mr. Shortstop. Marty Marion never turned a backflip, but he was the National League’s premier defensive shortstop in the 1940s and is the only man to win a Most Valuable Player award with his glove. No Scooter or Rabbit or Pee Wee, he was a […]

When Jeremy Hermida stepped up to the plate for his first at-bat in the major leagues on August 31, 2005, he wasn’t thinking about accomplishing something no one in baseball had done for more than a century. With the bases loaded and the game out of reach for the Florida Marlins, the 21-year-old rookie was […]

Mexican League president Jorge Pasquel, right, sits with the son of catcher Mickey Owen on his lap and outfielder Danny Gardella, left, during a 1946 game in Veracruz, Mexico. (SABR/The Rucker Archive)   Cardinals owner Sam Breadon called him likeable and said he was “the most dynamic fellow I’ve ever met.”1 Branch Rickey said he […]

Over its first five decades, the Kansas City Royals have had only three ownership regimes. Pharmaceutical entrepreneur Ewing Kauffman landed the Royals expansion franchise for the 1969 season and believed that the team could and should be competitive in a previously unprecedented time frame. He was willing to innovate and spend to boost the Royals […]