Search Results

The Oakland A’s had a pair of young speedsters in their farm system in the late 1970s. Rickey Henderson went on to a 25-year career in the big leagues, becoming the all-time leader in stolen bases and runs scored en route to the Hall of Fame. By contrast, Darrell Woodard, Henderson’s minor-league teammate in 1977 […]

It was raining on October 11, a day that Luther Taylor had awaited since he began playing in the major leagues, a chance to start a World Series game. So the game was cancelled. The next day Christy Mathewson would take the mound, to pitch the second of his three shutouts in the 1905 Series. […]

With a career in pro ball spanning 60 years, Vedie Himsl, “the Pride of Plevna,” rose from a Montana border town to become a major league manager. A member of the “College of Coaches” dugout experiment with the 1961 Chicago Cubs, Himsl eventually became the Cubs’ director of scouting for over a decade. Avitus Bernard […]

One could make a strong case for Joe McGinnity being the most durable pitcher in baseball history. In just 10 seasons in the major leagues, “Iron Man” McGinnity worked 3,441 innings and won 246 games. During the month of August in 1903, he pitched and won both ends of a doubleheader three times; he accomplished […]

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 […]

Doug DeCinces spent the first part of his major-league career shaking off comparisons to a Baltimore Orioles legend. Then, before he could make his mark in Baltimore, he was traded to make room for another Oriole icon. DeCinces essentially bridged a path between two Hall of Fame infielders, Brooks Robinson and Cal Ripken Jr.   […]

Adonis Terry debuted in the first major- league game played by the franchise that became the Dodgers and saw the start of his last game delayed by an electrical fire in a doomed grandstand. During the 13 years in between, the tall, mustachioed right-hander threw two no-hitters, earned two pennant-clinching victories, won three World Series […]

Hard-throwing left-hander Herb Hippauf’s major-league career was confined to three brief, ineffective relief appearances within a six-game span during the Braves’ 1966 inaugural season in Atlanta. Forced out of baseball the following season by chronic elbow pain, Hippauf parlayed his passion for the game, a keen eye for talent, and an exemplary work ethic into […]

George Crowe was Indiana’s first Mr. Basketball and became a “Big Daddy” to early black players in major league baseball. “Crowe was the most articulate and far-sighted Negro then in the majors,” Jackie Robinson wrote. “Young Negroes turned to him for advice.”1 Yet this splendid athlete and respected leader chose to spend one-third of his […]

One night at Toots Shor’s restaurant, Edward Bennett Williams was asked what he wanted to do when he grew up — an odd question for a man in his mid-30s who’d already gained a reputation as a distinguished trial lawyer. “I want to own a ball club and be president,” said Williams,1 who as a […]

The school system in Jackson, Michigan, discontinued the baseball program about the time Benny Frey reached high school. Undaunted, Benny learned to pitch on the sandlots and from his brothers. He played summer ball for a variety of teams in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio before being signed by the Toledo Mud Hens of the Double-A […]

When Johnny Wittig was two years old, his father, Karl, renounced his allegiance to German emperor Wilhelm II. A native of Munich, he had come to the United States, arriving in Baltimore on December 21, 1912, with his wife, Francesca “Fannie” (Wimmer). Their first-born was John Carl Wittig, born in Baltimore on June 16, 1914. […]

Major-league right-hander Bob Chakales was one of five sons born to Edward Peter and Blanche Wiggs Chakales – (sons in order: Robert, Charles, Dwight, and twins John and James). Bob was born on August 10, 1927, in Asheville, North Carolina. His mother worked in retail, selling women’s clothing, and his father – known as Eddie […]

Charles Francis “Charlie” Berry had one of the most extraordinary sports careers of the 20th century. He was a two-sport athlete who plied his craft as a player and official for more than 40 years. He was a National Football League end, a major-league baseball catcher, a college football coach, a minor-league baseball manager, an […]

Less than three weeks earlier, on June 17 at Denver’s Coors Field, the Boston Red Sox had shut out the Colorado Rockies 11-0.1 On July 6, they again posted an 11-0 win, this time at Fenway Park against the Oakland A’s. Both starting pitchers for this Tuesday evening game entered with identical records of 4-5. […]

Due to a Texas Rangers promotional giveaway, there were 20,000 souvenir wooden baseball bats in the stands at Arlington Stadium on May 18, 1991, but it was the lumber in the Rangers’ batter’s box that did the damage, as Texas pounded local hero Roger Clemens and the Boston Red Sox. In front of a Saturday-night […]

Perhaps distracted by a heavy swarm of moths, a perennial Gold Glove winner committed a fielding blooper that gave Shawon Dunston an unlikely three-run home run against the San Francisco Giants in June 2000. The bizarre play – which gave Dunston a two-homer, six-RBI night – helped the St. Louis Cardinals rally from seven runs […]

There was no shortage of outstanding performances in Gary Carter’s Hall of Fame career. Twice he blasted three home runs in a game, and he drove in seven runs in another regular-season matchup.1 In the 1981 All-Star Game, Carter hit two round-trippers to lead the National League to a 5-4 win. Some of his greatest […]

In 1997 Todd Helton was one of baseball’s most prominent prospects – and a subject of controversy in the Colorado Rockies’ struggle to sustain their early-expansion success. Mundane matters triggered his big-league debut that summer: one player’s looming disciplinary action, another’s batting slump, and a calf injury to a third. But Helton’s takeover of the […]

Jose Alberto Pujols took the big leagues by storm when he debuted for the St. Louis Cardinals at age 21 in 2001. Born in the Dominican Republic, Pujols had moved to the United States as a teenager, graduated from high school early, earned junior-college All-America honors, and reached the majors less than two years after […]

Following their “Miracle” National League pennant and World Series championship in 1914,1 the Boston Braves had slipped to seventh place by 1920. Skipper George Stallings was still at the helm, but that changed in 1921. When Stallings resigned in November 1920 to purchase a part-interest in the Rochester Colts of the International League,2 the Braves […]

Those fans among the 20,413 at the Angels-Blue Jays game on April 15, 1994, who left after the seventh inning must have been shocked when they eventually heard the final score. Through seven innings, California led Toronto, 6-3, in what could be describe as a typical major-league game, but over the next two innings the […]

The 1991 Atlanta Braves (94-68) were the surprise of the National League, putting to rest a dreadful six-year stretch of losing at least 89 games each season. Fighting their way back from a 9½-game deficit to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the All-Star break, the Braves clinched the West Division crown on the next-to-last day of […]

It was a chilly spring evening at Coors Field. The Pirates were hoping to rebound from their 6-1 loss on the previous evening when their team leader, Andrew McCutchen, returned to the lineup. McCutchen had struggled on the Pirates’ Western road trip, getting only three hits in 23 at-bats before the team’s arrival in Denver. […]