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It is rare for a single moment to pivot a career. Dick Stockton is an exception, not rule. Before 1975, Stockton moved from Syracuse University via KDKA Pittsburgh’s revolutionary news to pro basketball’s Boston Celtics. After 1975 he aired a Klondike of more national sports, including the Red Sox, A’s, and network baseball postseason and […]

Stan Williams worked in professional baseball for more than 50 years. The Dodgers signed the big, tall, right-handed fireballer after he completed high school in the 1950s, and he was still on a major-league payroll as a scout as late as 2010. Williams had a knack for contributing to winning teams. In just his second […]

As 2019 drew to a close, Don Hasenmayer was one of 23 surviving major-leaguers to have served in World War II. In May 1945, the 18-year-old infielder squeezed in five major-league games for the Philadelphia Phillies before joining the United States Navy. He collected a pair of base hits– both singles — in 18 at-bats […]

The highlights of Dick Gray’s big-league baseball career all came in its first week – the first home run in Los Angeles Dodgers’ history and, two days later, the first major league home run hit in Los Angeles. But the highlights faded, the momentum could not be maintained and Gray’s career ended shortly. Richard Benjamin […]

Right-hander Don Erickson pitched for 10 minor league seasons around two years of service in the U.S. Army. His major league career consisted of nine relief appearances for the Philadelphia Phillies in September 1958. Donald Lee Erickson was born on December 13, 1931, in Springfield, Illinois, the last of Charles “Todd” and Mary (Jacaway) Erickson’s […]

“Who the heck is Eddie Lake?” That is the title of a booklet written and published by Karen Elizabeth Bush in 2003. Bush is Executive Secretary of the Eddie Lake Society, an invitation-only society originally founded by Hall of Fame sportswriter Joe Falls. “We are made up of people who in some way or another […]

Left-hander Dean Stone spent parts of eight seasons in the major leagues, pitching for six different teams and compiling a career record of 29-39 with a 4.47 earned run average in 686 innings. His most celebrated moment was almost certainly his being the winning pitcher of the 1954 All-Star Game without officially facing even one […]

Arthur Soden was like many nineteenth century capitalists: He had a near single-mindedness when it came to the bottom line. He saw baseball as a business, pure and simple, though he did admit later in life that he had a fondness for the game. Controlling costs and expanding revenues were his priorities. The well-being and […]

There have been two Nick Cullops in major-league baseball; one a left-handed pitcher, the other primarily an outfielder. Despite a 13-year age difference, they faced each other in the American Association in 1926. Nick the outfielder had recently joined the St. Paul Saints from the New York Yankees. His first weekend series with the Saints […]

In March 1993 Rafael Ramirez was trying to secure a bench spot on the rebuilding Oakland Athletics. He was among the first cuts, nursing a sore arm and having been outplayed by another veteran, Dale Sveum.1 The 35-year-old shortstop’s career was effectively over. He spent 13 big-league seasons fielding grounders on two of the most […]

Ed Roebuck has a safe-deposit box with two World Series championship rings in it. One ring represents the Brooklyn Dodgers’ only title, won in 1955. The other was earned as a scout for the 2004 Boston Red Sox, the first Red Sox team to win it all in 86 years … a bounty that would […]

The winningest pitcher to ever come out of Maine did not, alas, reside in his native state for very long. “The Steamer” – Bob Stanley – was 2 years old when his family packed up and moved from East Kidder Street in Portland to Kearny, New Jersey, Stanley’s mother’s hometown. And it’s where job prospects […]

Right-handed knuckleballer Charlie Zink put in his time, rising through the Boston Red Sox organization. He pitched for seven-plus years in the minors before finally getting the call to the big leagues. He was with the Boston team for only one day and got into just one game, but he did accomplish something that tens […]

Drafted out of high school, Don Aase began his professional baseball career with what might have seemed like something of a nightmare season for a pitcher — he was 0-10. When he made it to the major leagues five years later, he was hailed as almost the Second Coming for his debut year with the […]

Baseball is no stranger to big personalities. The game has seen colorful characters ranging from Mark Fidrych and his strange mound antics in the 1970s to Adrian Beltre simply being his ridiculous self after the turn of the century. On the opposite end of the spectrum, players like Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens are better […]

The last position player who played with a major-league club for an entire season and hit .400 was not Ted Williams, but it was a fellow Red Soxer: Roger LaFrancois. Roger used to go to Red Sox games as a kid. He signed with the Red Sox and came up in their system, even receiving […]

When Cincinnati Reds pitcher Dr. Harley “Doc” Parker stepped onto the mound at Brooklyn’s Washington Park on June 21, 1901, it’d been five years since he last pitched in a National League game. Opportunities created by the American League’s transformation to major-league status paved the way for Parker’s return. Unfortunately for him, it was one […]

Anticipation grew with each home run. It was late summer 1998, and Roger Maris’s single-season record of 61 homers appeared in reach by not one but two players: the St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGwire and the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa. But throughout that two-man race to 62, few had acknowledged another milestone possibility: two perfect […]

The walk-off home run is the most dramatic and exhilarating of all baseball plays. As in any written account of such a conclusion, the writer need not worry about spoiling the ending. On this day, the Mets beat the Montreal Expos in 11 innings on Bernard Gilkey’s pinch-hit two-out home run. The New York Times reporter, […]

Walter Johnson was on a roll of historic proportions as he prepared for his final start of the season. Beginning with his three-hit shutout against the New York Yankees in the second game of a doubleheader on September 5 for his 30th victory of the season, the Washington Senators hurler had yielded only two earned […]

In the midst of a career year with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2008, 29-year-old Xavier Nady was hitting .330 with 13 home runs and 57 RBIs in 89 games when he was dealt to the New York Yankees, along with Damaso Marte, for four players1 on July 26. Nady’s arrival at his new home field […]

Thanks in part to a dancing forkball, Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Bill Travers had a fantastic start to the 1976 season. He made the only All-Star Game appearance of his career after reaching the All-Star break with a 10-6 record and a 1.91 earned-run average. But after falling ill and losing several pounds at those […]

The St. Louis Cardinals held a three games to one lead before what could be the last game of the 1967 World Series. “It’s as one-sided as a cat eating a canary,” wrote Jim Murray in the Los Angeles Times.1 The Cards had overpowered the Boston Red Sox. They out-hit, out-ran, and with the exception […]

National League hitting and scoring declined during the early 1890s, with pitchers like Cy Young of the Cleveland Spiders on the rise. To boost offense, the NL adjusted its rules in 1893, most prominently by increasing the distance between batter and pitcher to 60 feet 6 inches. In their first game at the new distance, […]