Search Results

The Boston Beaneaters made a remarkable run in September 1891 to overtake the Chicago Colts, and they ultimately clinched the National League pennant on October 1 amid Chicago’s protests that Boston had gained an unfair advantage with the help of other teams in the league. The Colts had held the league lead for most of […]

“They’ve called Ty Cobb the Georgia Peach for the last 15 years,” wrote Dean Snyder, nationally syndicated columnist and sporting editor of the Newspaper Enterprise Association, “but at this point in the drama enters Peachy George. It now remains for the world to start calling the Brown star the Great George Sisler.”1 With Cobb temporarily […]

In the American League’s first major-league season of 1901, the pennant was won by the Chicago White Sox (83-53), who finished four games ahead of the second-place Boston Americans. The first to homer twice in one AL game was Boston first baseman Buck Freeman, on June 1 against the White Sox. At the end of […]

With a Game Three win under their belts, the Brooklyn Robins were “bubbling over with enthusiasm” and insisted a second straight victory would give them so much “pep” going into Game Five that the Red Sox wouldn’t recognize them.1 Boston manager Bill Carrigan’s hunch to start left-hander Dutch Leonard under better conditions came to fruition […]

Heading into the 1921 season, St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Austin McHenry had shown promise in his two full seasons with the club. He hit. 286 in 1919 and .282 in 1920 with a combined 112 runs batted in.1 But no one would have predicted that his 1921 campaign would cause The Sporting News to proclaim […]

Tom Seaver maneuvered his way through National League lineups in 1971 with force that may have inspired people to ask whether he had Kryptonian blood. Nicknamed “Tom Terrific” and “The Franchise,” the righthander led the NL with 289 strikeouts and the major leagues with a 1.76 ERA. On May 29 Seaver’s performance exemplified his status […]

After sweeping a six-game road trip at Pittsburgh and St. Louis, the Houston Astros returned to the Astrodome on June 1, 1989, for an 11-game homestand that was full of drama and featured four walk-off wins in a six-game span. They took the first two of a four-game series against Los Angeles – the second […]

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. […]

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 […]

Rather little is known about the background of Fred Bratschi. He reported himself of Swiss nationality in the player questionnaire he mailed to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1961. He let the Hall know that he’d been born in Alliance, Ohio, on January 16, 1892, but he doesn’t turn up in any United […]

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 […]

Pitcher Ted Olson played in parts of three seasons for the Boston Red Sox, but recorded only a career record of 1-1 in the 57? innings he worked. Olson was the eldest child of Peter and Esther Olson, Swedish natives who both came to the United States in 1891 when he was about 15 and […]

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 […]

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.   […]

Outside MCU Park in Coney Island, there stands a statue of two baseball players. Both are famed Brooklyn Dodgers. Both are Hall of Famers whose legends transcend batting averages and fielding percentages. One is a white Kentuckian. The other is an African-American from California. They are Pee Wee Reese and Jackie Robinson. The statue depicts […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The Southern Tier Expressway does not lend itself to reflection or nostalgia. The six-lane divided highway breaks off from Interstate 81 in Binghamton, New York, and heads west, offering drivers — when construction allows — the fastest possible route to Elmira, Corning, the Finger Lakes, and other destinations in the Empire State’s southern and western […]