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Like other marginal 19th-century playing talents, catcher Tom Gillen owes his initial entry in the record book to the proliferation of major league baseball in 1884. From the National League to the American Association to the upstart Union Association, no fewer than 34 different ball clubs were accorded major league status that year.1 A product […]

Paul Hardy was a defensive-minded catcher who played in the Negro leagues for nearly three decades, from 1931 to 1959. He stood 5-feet-10 and weighed just 162 pounds — a slight build for a backstop — but he developed a reputation for durability and regularly caught both ends of doubleheaders during his career. Nicknamed “Piccolo,” […]

“What other player is there who bats like [Carl] East, fields like East, throws like East from right field and then can pitch the kind of a game that Carl did yesterday?” — Wichita Beacon, July 6, 19211   Carl East was a pitcher and an outfielder in the minor leagues. Like Babe Ruth, he […]

A turn-of-the-century minor-league standout, Joe Bean was among those auditioned at shortstop by the pre-McGraw New York Giants. Sadly, Bean failed to impress, his hitting and fielding being deemed below big-league caliber. After appearing in 50 games, Bean was released by New York in late June of 1902. Thus came to its close the brief […]

One of the best-hitting catchers in minor-league history, Everett “Yam” Yaryan batted .357 and slugged 41 home runs in 1920 for Wichita, Kansas, in the Western League. Only Perry Werden and Ernie Calbert had previously hit more homers in one minor-league season, and neither was a catcher.1 Yaryan’s banner year was his springboard to the […]

Signed by the Minnesota Twins in 1961, left-hander Jim Roland debuted as a 19-year-old in a September call-up the following season and tossed a three-hit shutout in his first big-league start, in 1963. “[He] has a blazing fast ball and is effectively wild,” wrote Twins beat reporter Arno Goethel.1 Battling injuries and control issues throughout […]

Although he pitched in only 58 major-league games in his tragically brief career, Mark Fidrych made an enduring impression on the history and culture of professional baseball. Fidrych had one stellar season, in 1976.That season, he first made an impression on baseball fans with his pitching prowess when he came out of nowhere to become […]

Right-handed pitcher Henry Ward “Hank” Johnson started his professional baseball career close to home with back-to-back seasons for the Bradenton Growers in the Class-C Florida State League in 1923 and 1924. , Johnson was 2-0 his first season and 10-8 in 1924. Johnson was born in Bradenton on May 21, 1906, the fifth child among […]

With a lineup featuring Nap Lajoie and Shoeless Joe Jackson, the Cleveland Naps were expected to contend for the 1912 American League pennant. The club, however, proved a disappointment. By early September, a 54-71-2 (.432) record placed the Naps closer to the AL bottom than the top, and cost first-year manager Harry Davis his job. […]

Jack (John Besson) Taylor, “Brewery Jack,” was a star pitcher in the National League during the last decade of the nineteenth century. Taylor made his major league debut, appearing in one game in 1891 with the New York Giants, pitching for Jim Mutrie‘s team on September 16th. He pitched his final game on September 12, […]

More than once, Aaron Rowand’s style of play has been described as hard-nosed. The world saw why on May 11, 2006. Rowand was in his first season with the Philadelphia Phillies after five years with the Chicago White Sox, and his team was hosting the New York Mets, who had loaded the bases with two […]

A seven-game major-league career rarely affords a player much chance to leave a lasting impression on the game. Still, the imprint left by turn-of-the-century left-hander Warren McLaughlin is fainter than that of most marginal big leaguers. The availability of box scores from the era permits baseball reference works to construct a statistical line for McLaughlin, […]

The Black Sox dealt with a gambler they knew only as “Brown,” “identified” soon after as New York City gambler “Rachie” Brown. In his article “A Black Sox Mystery: Who Was Rachael Brown,” author Bill Lamb makes a convincing case that this man was actually casino operator Nat Evans, a friend of Arnold Rothstein, who […]

Day after day at Salt Lake City, Utah in 1925, Bill Essick, a scout for the New York Yankees, watched a young infielder named Tony Lazzeri. Essick reported to Ed Barrow, the Yankees’ business manager (general manager) that Lazzeri was hitting the ball exceptionally well, batting .355 and hitting 60 home runs. “But the air […]

Although he went through the University of Minnesota on a hockey scholarship, Jim Rantz made his mark in baseball with the Gophers. He pitched the championship game of the 1960 College World Series, a 10-inning victory for Minnesota, and signed a professional contract a few weeks later. He has remained with the Minnesota Twins organization for more […]

Where the nickname Tony came from is unclear, other than a likely play on his last name. In all the research done for this biography, the nickname never came up once. When any nickname was employed, he was universally called Charley. We’ll call him Charles Tonneman here. He was a right-handed catcher. He had a […]

While a catcher for the Seton Hall University Pirates in 1987, Craig Biggio and two teammates – future MLB slugger Mo Vaughn and 1987 NCAA batting leader Marteese Robinson – were dubbed “The Hit Men.” After a brief time in the minor leagues through the first half of 1988, Biggio spent the next 20 years […]

With piercing blue eyes and brown hair that was thinning even early in his baseball career, Sam Leever was known as “The Goshen Schoolmaster,” as much for his appearance and serious disposition as for his off-season disposition. Leever relied on his exceptional curveball and control to compile a record of 194-100, for a .660 winning […]

Joe Cicero had everything going for him. The Atlantic City, New Jersey, native led his Holy Spirit High School football team in scoring in each of his first three years at the school (two of which saw the squad undefeated), led the basketball team in scoring in each of his first three years, and led […]

On the heels of Rick Rizzs’s first job in professional baseball, a journalist with the Blue Island (Illinois) Sun-Standard predicted that it was “the start of a long, successful, and happy career.”1 It was a bold claim to make about a 21-year-old kid who had graduated from college just three weeks before, but it was […]

During an eastern road trip in the middle of the 1912 season, Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey made two moves to strengthen his thin pitching staff. One was the purchase of Eddie Cicotte from the Boston Red Sox. The other was the acquisition of a hard-throwing youngster from the Burlington, Iowa club of the […]

There was no reason to expect St. Louis Cardinals catcher Glenn Brummer to play a significant role in the team’s Sunday afternoon game against the San Francisco Giants on August 22, 1982. Though manager Whitey Herzog called Brummer “the best third-string catcher I’ve ever seen,”1 that was more a reference to his willingness to work […]

George Foster experienced American League baseball for the first time in his 18-year career on August 15, 1986, a little over a week after his tumultuous relationship with the New York Mets ended after controversial remarks.1 With 347 career home runs, the 1977 National League Most Valuable Player joined a youthful Chicago White Sox roster […]

For three consecutive seasons in the late 1880s, the Brooklyn Grays/Bridegrooms of the major league American Association relocated their home games from their grounds at Washington Park to a newly opened venue: Ridgewood Park II, originally known as Wallace’s Ridgewood Park or Grounds. The reason was straightforward: Ridgewood was located in Queens, where state blue […]