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Some people called him Smiler. His daughter said he was known as the Clark Gable of Dallas. Because he came from North Carolina, some called him Tarheel.i George King Murray was a right-handed pitcher from Charlotte and his father, William, was a railwayman. The Murrays – William and Mary Lee – lived in Charlotte, and […]

At the turn of the 20th century, Emmet Heidrick was one of the best players in baseball. A .300 hitter, he could drop a “tantalizing bunt” or drive the ball to the fence.1 As a baserunner and basestealer, he was speedy and aggressive. And as an outfielder, “Snags” was considered “the best fly catcher in […]

Vivian Sheriffs Anderson played third base for her hometown Milwaukee Chicks in 1944, the city’s only year in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). The spirited infielder suffered a season-ending injury in June of that remarkable season and missed out on the Chicks’ championship. Even though Anderson’s time in the AAGPBL was brief, the league provided […]

“We wouldn’t have won the World Series without him.” – Kevin Millar1 Mark Bellhorn is quite possibly the most underrated player on the 2004 Red Sox team. While other players like David Ortiz, Curt Schilling, or Dave Roberts rightfully garner much praise for the success of the Red Sox’ 2004 championship run, Bellhorn and his […]

Sam Crawford sprung from fertile Midwestern farm soil, and like a storm blowing across his native Nebraska’s prairie swept over the major league baseball landscape for nearly two decades. One of the Deadball Era’s most consistent performers, the powerful Crawford never led his league in slugging percentage, but finished in the top ten in that […]

In 1939, the ESSO Gas Company issued a fifty-page booklet to commemorate the supposed centennial of baseball and handed it out at gas stations. Among the nuggets in the booklet was a list of every major leaguer who had hit at least 100 career home runs. Fatefully, one of the youngsters who picked up a […]

Lore Verne “King” Bader was a lesser member of the 1918 Boston Red Sox. A right-handed hurler, he pitched in just five games, starting four and compiling an unexceptional 1-3 record. All told, Bader appeared in a modest 22 games over three major league campaigns, in 1912 (with the New York Giants) and 1917-18 (with […]

On June 23, 1931, sportswriter Walter W. Smith encountered George Watkins, the St. Louis Cardinals right fielder, in the lobby of Philadelphia’s Franklin Hotel, where the team was staying for a series against the Phillies. Both men were relatively new to their jobs; Smith had begun covering the team for the St. Louis Star the […]

Once described as “a stocky mild-mannered man who cut his teeth on a baseball bat,” John Holland spent 30 years in professional baseball as a front office executive for the Chicago Cubs at the minor- and major-league levels.1 He continued the legacy of his father Jack Holland, who had played minor-league baseball from 1896 to […]

Rico Brogna’s high school athletic career was almost too good to be true. On the football field, where he led Watertown (Connecticut) High School to a 31-0 victory in the 1986 state championship game, Brogna was the first quarterback in state history to throw for over 6,000 yards, and his 59 touchdown passes were the […]

In the early spring of 1912, it seemed possible that Ralph Capron’s future would take him to Chicago for the United States Olympic Trials, then maybe to Stockholm, Sweden for the Summer Games as a member of the sprint team. However, rumors of professionalism cast a shadow over those aspirations. After three years without making […]

Cuban outfielder Carlos Paula parlayed an all-star tour in the United States into a full-time minor-league role in the early 1950s. With his chiseled frame and stylish flair, he became the man who integrated the Washington Senators on September 6, 1954, making the Senators the 12th of the original 16 major-league teams to do so. […]

Reliever Brad Lesley was big — 6-feet-6 and 230 pounds — and hyper-intense on the field. His good-natured screaming and stomping got him nicknamed “The Animal.” Lesley’s self-motivational antics, size, and power pitching drew many comparisons, namely with Mark Fidrych, Al “The Mad Hungarian” Hrabosky, Goose Gossage, and Dick “The Monster” Radatz. Yet as Lesley […]

Mark Langston, Mike Campbell, John Halama, Carlos Guillén, Freddy García, Brad Halsey, Dioner Navarro, Javier Vázquez, Alberto González, Steven Jackson, Ross Ohlendorf, Luis Vizcaíno. These dozen men were traded, in different transactions, for Hall of Famer Randy Johnson. While they share a bond, their major-league careers took different paths. Several would play in the World […]

Quietly dependable though seldom spectacular for most of his five full major-league seasons as an infielder, Steve Yerkes grasped immortality when he played a central role in one of baseball’s legendary episodes. In the bottom of the 10th inning of the deciding game of the epic 1912 World Series, Yerkes raced home with the winning […]

“There’s no hidden agenda to Fay Vincent. … What you see is what you get.” — Peter O’Malley1 “A man of deep moral conviction.” — Guy McElwaine, motion picture executive2   Francis T. Vincent Jr. was the eighth Commissioner of Major League Baseball. After serving as Deputy Commissioner under his dear friend Bart Giamatti, he […]

In 2019, Tim Hudson enrolled at Auburn University, his baseball alma mater, as an interdisciplinary studies major. More than 20 years before, he had led Auburn’s Tigers to the College World Series as the SEC’s Player of the Year. Then he played 17 seasons in the major leagues, appearing in All-Star Games, playoffs, and a […]

On a chilly October night, Marquis Grissom gracefully glided to his right from his position in center field at Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium and gloved the final out of the 1995 World Series. After three tries, the Atlanta Braves were the champions of professional baseball. The man who gloved that final out was the only […]

Hector Headley Lopez, the Panamanian-born third baseman for the Kansas City Athletics, saw his solid career shift to a better team when the A’s traded him to the New York Yankees on May 26, 1959. After more than four seasons in Kansas City as a regular infielder, mostly at third base, Lopez continued to play […]

In 1956, the fall of my freshman year at Ohio State, I went out for the frosh basketball team. (Freshmen then were still not eligible for varsity sports at major colleges.) I had no great expectations considering my modest portfolio of high school hoops exploits. My primary motivation was to meet the head freshman coach, […]

From calling baserunners safe to keeping schoolchildren safe, Luther Derr Sahm had a long and eventful life – much of it spent under a professional alias. He called himself Doll Derr,1 and it is under that distinctive name that he appears in major-league records as an umpire in the National League for 28 games in […]

Of the 22 men who played for the Boston Red Stockings over the five years from 1871 through 1875, 17 were American-born and the other five were born in other countries. There was one Canadian, one Irishman, and three from England. George Hall (Stepney) and Harry Wright (Sheffield) were both English natives. So was Samuel […]

The first American to win both a World Series ring and an Olympic gold medal, Pat Borders played parts of 17 major league seasons (1988-2005) for nine different teams.1 When the Blue Jays won consecutive championships in 1992 and 1993, he caught more innings than any American Leaguer both years and earned 1992 World Series […]

The 2002 World Series was the first between two wild-card teams.1 This Series had no Cy Young Award winners, 2 and as of 2024, none of the participants had been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. One team, the Anaheim Angels, had never reached the World Series in their 42-year history.3 The other, […]