Search Results

Well, what difference does it make what name you play under so long as you get your money? “Bell” is a good baseball name and an easy one for the sporting writers to remember. 1 — New York Highlanders manager Clark Griffith (1907)   Contract jumper, manager, umpire, scoreboard operator, and weekly fungo wielder baseball […]

The last-place Detroit Tigers went to New York to meet the reigning World Series champion Yankees in August 1952. After Detroit lost the first game of the series, Virgil Trucks started Game Two. The veteran right-hander came in with a 4-15 record, but he had pitched a no-hitter and a one-hitter for two of his […]

Bud Byerly grew up and pitched for his hometown St. Louis Cardinals during the World War II years of 1943-45. They were the first of 11 seasons in which he pitched major-league ball. He was undefeated in his first year of big-league pitching, and undefeated in his final two seasons as well, 1959 and 1960 […]

Matt “The Scat” Alexander holds an odd distinction: He is the foremost pinch-running specialist in major-league history. Over parts of nine seasons (1973-81), he played in 374 games — yet amassed only 195 plate appearances. A favorite of manager Chuck Tanner, Alexander won a World Series ring with the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates. Along with his […]

A star athlete in high school and at the University of Michigan, Elmer Gedeon played a handful of games for the Washington Senators in 1939. He died while flying a bombing mission over France in 1944, less than a week after his 27th birthday. James T. Taaffe, a fellow officer in the U.S. Army Air […]

Phil Morrison’s baseball career is indelibly connected to that of his older brother Johnny, known as Jughandle because of his quick-dropping curveball. Johnny’s glowing recommendation led directly to the professional baseball career of Phil, who was three years younger. Just as Johnny started out with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1920, Phil began pitching for his […]

While much mystery surrounds the life and career of the first Puerto Rican to play major-league baseball, there’s no question that Hiram “Hi” Bithorn’s entrance into the big leagues raised his island’s self-esteem as well as opened the door for future Puerto Rican baseball players to realize their dreams, too. With the passage of time, […]

He was accused of gambling on baseball early in his playing career. He was acknowledged to have a serious alcohol problem, one that may have contributed to his death at age 50. His professional pitching record, for six major-league seasons and four at the minor-league and independent levels, was 109-161. On first blush, and in […]

Skeeter Newsome was a “mighty handy young man.” That’s how a Boston Herald headline writer described him in 1941. He was a shortstop (appearing in 12 seasons at the position, for a total of 902 games), second baseman (9 seasons, 149 games), and third baseman (8 seasons, 49 games). He even played a game in […]

Any conversation about the greatest hitter in baseball history must include Rogers Hornsby in the opening gambit.1 His .358 lifetime batting average in 23 big-league seasons is second all-time to Ty Cobb’s .367 and well ahead of such all-time greats as Tris Speaker (.345), Ted Williams (.344), Babe Ruth (.342), Lou Gehrig (.340), and Stan […]

“In the morning he won a bride . . . and then proceeded to win the ball game, with a couple of home runs, much to the delight of the bride who sat in the stands and cheered his efforts.”1 On the morning of June 19, 1914, Vella Chloa Glasman, an accomplished 22-year-old singer living […]

Fielder Jones was an exceptionally talented ballplayer and manager. He played while professional baseball was still in its infancy, from 1896 to 1908 and briefly in 1914 and 1915. He won pennants with Brooklyn of the NL in 1899 and 1900 and with the Chicago White Sox in 1901 and 1906. As the White Sox […]

Ramón Hernández pitched in 337 big league contests, but he was born in the wrong age. His relatively short nine-season career in the majors (1967-68; 1971-1977) could have been extended had he started playing in the 1990s, when specialized bullpen roles had become more commonplace. Modern strategists would have likely found a way to maximize […]

In 1986, the New York Mets were the best team in baseball. The Pittsburgh Pirates were the worst. Yet after the Pirates finished their season series against the Mets, losing 17 out of 18 games, their feisty manager, Jim Leyland, issued a challenge. “If they were that good, how did they lose that one game […]

A latecomer to the game, Tony Boeckel was 19 years old before he first handled a baseball.1 But he rose to become one of the better third basemen in the early 1920s before his life was tragically cut short at the height of his career. Norman Doxie Boeckel was born in Los Angeles, California, on […]

When John Otten first stood behind the plate for the St. Louis Browns on July 5, 1895, he brought with him a reputation as a strong defensive catcher who, at age 24, was among baseball’s youngest catchers.1 The effects of a broken thumb four days later, however, brought an early end to Otten’s major-league career […]

Right-hander Paul Stuffel had a reputation as one of the hardest-throwing pitchers of his generation. As a Philadelphia Phillies prospect in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Stuffel overpowered batters in several low- and mid-level minor leagues, but also struggled controlling his heater. While pitching for the Schenectady (New York) Blue Jays in the Class-A […]

In a career that spanned from 1906 to 1940, Jack Lelivelt was one of the great hitters and managers of minor-league baseball. As a hitter, he had more than 3,000 hits and averaged .328 over 20 seasons, including six seasons in the American League. His major-league career was curtailed by leg injuries. As a manager, […]

By the time Carl Scheib pitched his final major-league game in 1954, the big righthander from Gratz, Pennsylvania, had risen from the youngest player in American League history in 1943 to a solid performer who won 45 times and fashioned a lifetime 4.88 ERA. During his 11 major league seasons, he played all but two […]

Handicapped by attitude and injury problems, Deadball Era outfielder Guy Zinn never achieved the success predicted for him. Nevertheless, his time in the game was not without modest distinction. On Opening Day 1912, New York Highlander Zinn became the first major-league player to enter the batter’s box; the first to reach base; and the first […]

The first major-league baseball game this writer ever saw was at the Polo Grounds in New York City on May 24, 1946. Since then he has visited major-league and minor-league parks from Boston to San Diego and many places in between. But he has never seen games anywhere that rival the pageantry of those at […]

Although the home grounds of the Baltimore Orioles of the nineteenth century occupied several locations, the team found a permanent setting at Union Park between 1891 and 1899. Baseball in Baltimore began around 1855. In 1882, as a charter member of the American Association, they were known as the Lord Baltimores. They won only 19 […]

The exterior of the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, is pictured in 2021. (Photo: Infrogmation of New Orleans, licensed under Creative Commons 4.0)   When most people think of the Louisiana Superdome,[1] they don’t associate it with baseball. More likely, they relate the domed stadium in downtown New Orleans with football: the New Orleans Saints […]

The 1969 Chicago White Sox didn’t fare well in other teams’ ballparks. En route to an American League-worst 27-54 road record, the team went 1-8 in Minnesota, 1-5 in Washington and New York, and 3-6 in Oakland, Seattle, and Kansas City.1 The White Sox did find one travel stop where they not only emerged undefeated […]