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Ozzie Guillén understood Chicago’s baseball rivalry. “And so that the Venezuelans understand what this series means,” he wrote in his weekly column in El Universal, “imagine a Caracas-Magallanes game, and multiply the emotion by three.”1 Guillén knew, for decades, that fan bragging rights hung in the balance. Both Chicago baseball fan bases’ heightened emotions regarding […]

The Cincinnati Reds had endured a rough winter. Confessions of game-fixing tarnished their long-coveted championship. Three key players were holdouts. A beloved team executive passed away. But the slings and arrows of baseball’s fortune could not diminish Cincinnati’s celebration of Opening Day. As a record crowd overflowed Redland Field, the Reds opened 1921 by surging […]

The Pittsburgh Federal League club (known in many newspapers as the Rebels or Pittfeds) was mired in last place as the calendar neared the waning days of July 1914. The promise exhibited by 20,000 fans showing up for the season opener back in April1 led to very little but a subpar record and a 15-game […]

When Ron Hunt, the rawboned 22-year-old Mets second baseman, strode to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning on April 19, 1963, much was riding on the outcome. The Mets had once again opened the season with eight straight losses and were now within two outs of tying their record for season-opening futility, […]

On May 5, 1943, the Chicago Tribune was chock-full of news. For a cost of 3 cents, one could absorb 48 pages from the Trib, self-described as the “World’s Greatest Newspaper.” With the United States nearing its 17th month as a combatant in World War II, the bulk of the front page centered on military […]

“You pitch a little bit to the score in a tight game, but in a game like this, you try to keep trudging along with what you’re doing and not let anything affect you. If you can perfect that craft, it pays dividends for you as the season goes along.” – Gerrit Cole1   The […]

“The Buccaneers turned impending defeat into a glorious victory snatched from the very jaws of disaster” gushed the Pittsburgh Press about the Pirates’ six-run ninth inning to beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-7, in the Windy City.1 The Pittsburgh Post called the Deadball Era offensive explosion a “sensational slugfest,”2 while sportswriter J.J. Alcock of Chicago Tribune […]

In many ways, it was a typical Coors Field contest. On September 20, 2000, the San Diego Padres jumped out to a 14-3 lead after 4½ innings in the Colorado Rockies’ hitter-friendly ballpark.1 In classic Coors Field fashion, the 11-run lead nearly disappeared, and the Padres were forced to use their closer in the bottom […]

A Sunday crowd of 30,000 fans1 came to the Polo Grounds2 on September 24, 1922, hoping to see their defending World Series champion New York Giants clinch another National League pennant. They might have been disappointed with that expectation, as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Giants 10-6, but they were still witnesses to history: […]

Early in the fall of 1887, Brooklyn Grays pitcher Will Terry married, breaking the heart of many a female admirer.1 Recently dubbed “Adonis” by the New York Tribune,2 the tall, slender 23-year-old was popular among men and women alike for his handsome looks, temperate manner and “gentlemanly … conduct on and off the field.”3 On […]

John McGraw’s men were sopping wet and mad as hell standing beneath bursting clouds at Redland Field.1 Mad as one Cincinnati player after another slipped and slid across home plate in the bottom of the sixth. Mad that umpire Bill Klem, perhaps gripping tight to a long grudge against the Giants manager, seemed unconcerned about […]

A scorecard from the 1967 season of the Toronto Maple Leafs, the team’s last of 72 successive years in the International League and its predecessor. (Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum)   Monday September 4, 1967, the annual Labor Day holiday in Toronto, was a day of many endings. For schoolchildren it was the […]

The life of a ballplayer is a life on the road. Half of your season is spent traveling around the league, and even your “home” can be temporary, uprooted by a trade at any moment. Some players are lucky enough to stay in one place for more than a season or two, and it is […]

John Hollison was a left-handed pitcher whose career in the major leagues lasted for only one game. On a warm August afternoon in 1892, the 22-year-old Hollison threw four innings in relief for the Chicago Colts (the team now known as the Cubs), allowing one hit and one run while striking out two. Despite this […]

From 1950 to 2008, the Philadelphia Phillies won five National League pennants and two World Series. Only one man was a part of the Phillies organization during each of those five pennant years — Maje McDonnell. McDonnell joined the team in 1947 as a batting-practice pitcher and, except for the period 1966-1973, was with the […]

Chicago Cubs fans who are old enough will remember Walt Moryn as the blond, 6-foot-2, 205­-pound Minnesota native who roamed the Cubs outfield from 1956 to 1960. The burly, left-handed-hitting slugger, known affectionately as “Moose,” averaged 20 home runs a season for a team that never won as many games as it lost. For most […]

Right-handed pitcher Sam Dodge (0-0 in his career) appeared for the Boston Red Sox in 1921 and 1922, but never took part in anything but losing efforts. The Red Sox themselves didn’t do too well in those years, finishing fifth in 1921 (23½ games out of first) and dead last in 1922.  The “crack pitcher” […]

Eddie Yost was a slick-fielding, high-on-base-percentage third baseman, an athlete who continued to make his name at the hot corner after his playing days were over, as the third base coach for the Washington Senators, New York Mets, and Boston Red Sox. Known as “The Walking Man” for his propensity at getting bases on balls, […]

Youth, imposing size, and a blazing fastball garnered right-handed pitcher Big Mike Sullivan1 engagements with no fewer than nine different major league clubs in the late 19th century. Yet his time with these teams rarely lasted more than a single season, undone by inconsistency and poor command of the strike zone. And in certain venues, […]

The Cleveland Indians’ pitching staff for the 1957 season reads like a Who’s Who: Early Wynn, Mike Garcia, Don Mossi, Bob Lemon, Ray Narleski, Cal McLish and Herb Score. Then there was Stan Pitula, one of the Indians’ top pitching prospects, who spent the 1957 season with Cleveland. He made 5 starts and 18 relief […]

Silvio García was a shortstop and pitcher who played in Mexico, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Canada, and his native Cuba, as well as the American Negro League and organized minor leagues, from 1931 to 1954. Known for his powerful right-handed line-drive swing and rifle arm, he won two batting championships in the Cuban […]

Like a multitude of others, right-handed pitcher John Fitzgerald owed his ascension to the major leagues to the turmoil of the 1890 season. Among the consequences of the arrival on scene of the upstart Players League was the enlistment of previously minor league clubs into the major league American Association. Among those so elevated was […]

Editor’s note: On September 23, 2008, SABR’s Deadball Era Committee commemorated the 100th anniversary of the “Merkle Game” by publishing a special centennial edition of “The Inside Game” newsletter focused entirely on the infamous incident that changed the fortunes of the 1908 National League pennant race. Click here to download the Deadball Era Committee’s Merkle […]

Editor’s note: During our Stay Home With SABR initiative, enjoy these light-hearted Dispatches From the Mudville Bureau by Joanne Hulbert of SABR’s Boston Chapter to stay engaged with baseball until the games return. Check out what’s new and keep up with all the news in the Boston Chapter on Facebook at BostonSABR or on Instagram […]