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Professional football or professional baseball? That was the choice for pitcher Steve Renko. At 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, Renko also starred as a basketball player at the University of Kansas. He was the school’s last three-sport letterman. The big right-hander ultimately chose baseball. Renko had an up-and-down career in the major leagues from 1969 to […]

Ewell Gross was tall for a shortstop in his day (6 feet even), a native and high-school graduate of Mesquite, Texas, who spent almost his entire career in Texas – even the 1924 spring-training season in San Antonio when he first worked out for the Boston Red Sox, the one major-league team for which he […]

Although the Purdue University Boilermakers football team ended the 1960 season with a mediocre 4-4-1 record (despite which they still finished the season ranked 19th in the Associated Press poll), they nevertheless snared two signature victories. On October 15 Purdue hosted then-unbeaten and third-ranked Ohio State University and upset the Buckeyes, 24-21. The following month […]

Ted Wills lived in 2009 at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in a planned community on the outskirts of Clovis, California, near Fresno in the central park of the state. His house overlooks seasonal wetlands protected by the Department of Reclamation, a setting that suggests a lifelong love of hunting and fishing. Wills’s cheerful greeting at […]

Before he ever threw a pitch in the major leagues, Marino Pieretti had already experienced more challenges than most big-leaguers face in their entire career. A high school team reject, minor-league afterthought, serious injury survivor, and a risky contract holdout—his journey was anything but ordinary. How did a 5-foot-7, Italian-born pitcher, overlooked at every turn […]

Channeled into baseball by an overbearing, perfectionist father, Eric Show became a decent, if controversial, pitcher for the San Diego Padres. Although generally not considered the top pitcher for the pitching-poor club, as of 2018 he held the Padres record for career wins (100). During his major-league career, he spent 10 years with the Padres […]

A three-year pitching mainstay for the University of Pennsylvania, right-hander Harry Imlay was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies in June 1913.1 Three months and nine ineffectual relief appearances later, he was jettisoned by the Phils, sold to a minor league club. But rather than report, Imlay abandoned Organized Baseball, opting to pursue the calling that […]

As of 2016, three major-league pitchers had triple-digit lifetime ERAs.[1] One was Frank “Socko” Wurm, a 20-year-old veteran of World War II who allowed four runs to score in one-third of an inning with the Brooklyn Dodgers in September 1944. After his rocky debut, the lefty never got a chance to lower his 108.00 mark. […]

If the Detroit Tigers had only won their final game of the 1967 season, Lee Stange would have started the most important game in nearly 20 years for the Boston Red Sox. After the Red Sox beat the Minnesota Twins on the last day of the magical season, manager Dick Williams told Stange to take […]

Rodney McCray is known as “Crash” for the time he made his mark and then some on an outfield wall in the minor leagues. But though his major-league time was brief and he totaled only three hits at the top level, McCray left a positive impression on the game and baseball did likewise to him. […]

The 1970 All-Star Game, at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati, was tied at 4-4 with two out in the bottom of the 12th inning. For the National League, Pete Rose was on second base and Billy Grabarkewitz on first. When Jim Hickman lined pitcher Clyde Wright’s offering to center field, hometown hero Rose broke from second […]

Tommie Agee was one of the key components to the 1969 Miracle Mets, solidifying the defense and serving as the club’s chief power source, albeit from the leadoff spot. His on-field heroics during the ’69 season—including socking the only home run to ever reach Shea Stadium’s upper deck—helped propel the Mets to their first postseason […]

Frank Verdi accumulated 1,832 hits across 18 seasons playing minor-league baseball (1946-63) — but appeared in just one major-league contest. He played a single inning at shortstop for the Yankees in 1953 and never got to bat. Verdi is perhaps most remembered for his 24 years of managing in the minor leagues and independent ball, […]

Glenn Edward Hoffman played nine seasons of major-league baseball (1980-1987, 1989). He spent the vast majority of his career with the Boston Red Sox (1980-1987) and much briefer stints with the Los Angeles Dodgers (1987) and California Angels (1989). He was a member of the Red Sox’ 1986 American League championship-winning team. The right-handed hitting […]

Southpaw Pat Caraway garnered national attention in his rookie season with the Chicago White Sox in 1930 for his unorthodox pitching motion. “[He has] one of the most elaborate, complete and amusing windups ever seen in the majors,” mused sportswriter Hardin Burnley. “The lanky human slingshot twists himself into an intricate knot before suddenly hurling […]

On Tuesday, June 16, 1914, the St. Louis Terriers welcomed the visiting Brooklyn Tip-Tops for the first of a four-game series. After 55 games, the Terriers sat in seventh place in the Federal League, a few percentage points ahead of cellar-dwelling Pittsburgh. The Tip-Tops occupied fifth place, three games under .500. The St. Louis nine […]

Home fans at Forbes Field booed Roberto Clemente on the first Sunday of the 1969 season, the 15th of his legendary career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, following inflammatory local press coverage of a spring-training injury, three comeback-stalling double plays in two games, and an error in right field. Clemente acknowledged the crowd graciously, tipping his […]

As of July 2024, only 28 players in American or National League history had hit home runs in each of their first two major-league games.1 The list includes Hall of Famers Earl Averill of the Cleveland Indians in 1929, Todd Helton of the Colorado Rockies in 1997, and home-run king Aaron Judge of the New […]

A major-league record eight batters hit for the cycle in 1933.1 Four of those occurred in the month of August, and every one of the August contests involved the Philadelphia Athletics. In the span of four games, Athletics teammates Mickey Cochrane (August 2 against the New York Yankees) and Pinky Higgins (August 6 against the […]

Almost 90 games into the 1890 season, the National League had a tight pennant race on its hands. On August 5, the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Beaneaters were both within two games of the leader, the Brooklyn Bridegrooms, and the Cincinnati Reds were in fourth place, six games back. At the other end of the […]

For all of his tremendous success in the batter’s box, Babe Ruth felt just as at home on the pitcher’s mound. “As soon as I got out there I felt a strange relationship with the pitcher’s mound,” Ruth said. “It was as if I’d been born out there. Pitching just felt like the most natural […]

Pressure was David Cone’s lifeblood. In 1996, with the Yankees, the right-hander threw seven no-hit innings on his return from a career-threatening aneurysm that had sidelined him most of the season. Only a strict pitch count prevented him from going all nine against a power-hitting Oakland club that Labor Day. “I’ll never wonder if this […]

As the 1963 National League season moved into its fourth month, the Milwaukee Braves visited San Francisco for the second time. On July 2 San Francisco sent 25-year-old Juan Marichal out against Warren Spahn, 17 years his senior, in the Tuesday night opener of a three-game set. The Giants starter was looking to avenge a […]

Few major-league ballparks of the modern era seem less celebrated than Houston’s Colt Stadium, a single-decked, roofless park that saw use for only three seasons.1 Colt Stadium was always meant to be temporary,2 just a stopgap to last until the completion of the Astrodome – the “Eighth Wonder of the World” – a ballpark whose […]