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Taking on the writing of a biography of a man named John Smith seemed to be a daunting undertaking. It is perhaps still the prototypical generic male name in American society, though as the 2010 baseball season got underway the Boston Red Sox had two players named Ramon Ramirez on the 40-man roster and no […]
Right-hander John Samuel Wilson worked parts of the 1927 season and a few innings in two early 1928 games for the Boston Red Sox. His record was 0-2 –both decisions coming in 1927 – with a career earned run average of 4.45. He went on to play minor-league ball all the way into the 1945 […]
Andy Coakley is remembered most as “Lou Gehrig’s coach” in his 37 years as head of Columbia University’s baseball program. But this overlooks his extensive influence on the game. Once a promising right-hander with Connie Mack’s Athletics in the early 20th century, Coakley was also a labor pioneer, a forward-thinking league organizer, a team owner, […]
Tommy Moore was drafted as an outfielder but made it to the majors as a pitcher. He appeared with four teams in parts of four seasons from 1972 through 1977, posting a won-lost record of 2-4 and an ERA of 5.40 in 42 games, largely in relief. “He would have been a great candidate for […]
Wes Schulmerich, a much-loved sports figure in his native Oregon, had an eventful and colorful fourteen-year professional baseball career and a long life filled with sports and laughter. A large, boisterous man, as his baseball days wound down, the laughter often came first. Edward Wesley Schulmerich was born August 21, 1901, in Hillsboro, Oregon, about […]
With a weak heart that would eventually fail prematurely and a 4-F designation that allowed him to play wartime ball at the highest level, Ben Cardoni failed to record a win in 36 appearances for the Boston Braves from 1943 to 1945 but did manage a quartet of single milestones with exactly one career complete […]
Whispering Bill Barrett was a Cambridge, Massachusetts, man through and through: born in Cambridge (May 28, 1900), died in Cambridge (January 26, 1951), and buried in Cambridge (Cambridge Cemetery, 7113 Chapel section). He’s also one of four Cantabrigians who played major league ball for the Boston Red Sox; the other three are Fred Mitchell, Carl […]
On a cold September 7, 1911, a gathering of 5,523 Boston National League fans witnessed a pitching duel between two future Hall of Famers.1 Phillies rookie Grover Cleveland (“Pete”) Alexander allowed just one hit and beat 44-year old Cy Young, 1-0. A Boston Post headline caught the moment perfectly: “Old Cy Twirls Great Game, but […]
The Chicago Cubs defeated the Detroit Tigers in the 1907 and 1908 World Series, but lost to the Tigers in 1935. The teams met again in the 1945 World Series and were tied three games apiece heading into the deciding Game Seven on Wednesday, October 10, 1945, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. World War II […]
A modest crowd of 8,693 passed the turnstiles at Briggs Stadium to see a matchup between the first-place Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox, who entered the day 6½ games back. The fans were treated to a slugfest that also had made a bit of history, as Boston’s player-manager Joe Cronin hit for the […]
In the early part of 1927, the Midwest was bursting with anticipation as the baseball season segued from projections to facts delivered by daily sports accounts. By mid-April, pitching matchups, game summaries, and season standings would replace the “dreary box-scoreless winter” to provide “something in the newspapers.” Even an umpire might expect applause for one […]
They ended up being called Team Streak. For 13 games to start the 1987 season, the Milwaukee Brewers were unbeatable. The streak almost ended at 11 games, when the Brewers fell behind the Texas Rangers on Easter Sunday, April 19, by a 4-1 score. But behind clutch home runs by Rob Deer and Dale Sveum, […]
The second-place St. Louis Browns traveled to Beantown for a four-game midweek series against the seventh-place Red Sox. It was still relatively early in the 1944 season. (Boston had played 21 games but had lost nine of their last 12, while the Browns had played 24 and had lost eight of 12 recently.) The Browns […]
During his 10-year career in the National League, Jackie Robinson got 1,518 hits in 1,382 games. His first safety came on April 17, 1947, against the Boston Braves at Ebbets Field in the second game of his career. Baseball’s first African-American player in the twentieth century had made his debut two days earlier, on Opening […]
From 1929 through 1931, the Philadelphia Athletics claimed one of the most impressive streaks in major-league history, winning at least 100 games in all three seasons and becoming the first team to do so. They won the World Series in 1929 and 1930 before losing to the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games in the […]
A brief glance at the box score for the mid-August game between the Boston Braves and the St. Louis Cardinals makes it appear that the Braves’ 3-1 win was a standard affair. However, the August 18, 1915, contest between these two teams was anything but normal. While the game flowed in fairly typical fashion, with […]
On July 23, 1912, Boston Braves pitcher Otto Hess elected to pitch to Honus Wagner in the bottom of the ninth with a base open and the winning run in scoring position. Two pitches later, Wagner, the reigning (and eight-time overall) NL batting champion, singled home the game-winner for the Pittsburgh Pirates.1 Eight days later, […]
Future Hall of Famers Jimmie Foxx and Ted Williams both homered in the Boston Red Sox’ 18-7 win over the St. Louis Browns in the second game of a doubleheader at Sportsman’s Park on June 9, 1939. It was one of 111 losses that year for the inept Browns, who finished an American League-record 64½ […]
When Boston’s 1918 World Series championship season was over, Babe Ruth asked for more money through his new agent, Johnny Igoe, demanding a two-year contract at $15,000 a year. Red Sox owner Harry Frazee, in economic survival mode, responded with an emphatic no. Negotiations included Frazee’s offer of $8,500 after Igoe insisted on a three-year […]
“You might say I’ve seen some pretty good pitching. But I’ve never seen anything like Smoky Joe Wood in 1912. He won 34 games that year, 10 of them shutouts, and 16 of those wins were in a row. It so happened that that was the same year Walter Johnson also won 16 in a […]
Carl Yastrzemski was legendary in Boston — and throughout baseball. In his 23-season Hall of Fame career with the Red Sox, he made 18 All-Star teams, and won three batting titles, seven Gold Gloves, and the 1967 Triple Crown before retiring in October 1983. Two generations later, the Yastrzemski name returned to the majors.1 His […]
The attendance at Cleveland’s League Park for a Tuesday afternoon game was pretty small at 2,500 — which might be just as well, because of the loss that Indians fans endured that day. Manager Steve O’Neill’s Cleveland squad was hosting the Boston Red Sox, led by shortstop-manager Joe Cronin. One wouldn’t have known it at […]
Opening Day is always about new beginnings; the hope associated with a fresh start. But the 1935 New York Yankees were not merely launching a new season; they were embarking on a new era: Babe Ruth no longer was to be found at Yankee Stadium. In February 1935 the 40-year-old Ruth – his weight increasing, […]
“Cupcake,” a euphemism for a should-be-easy-to-beat opponent, entered the sports lexicon in the 1970s.1 Forty-some years earlier, the New York Yankees would’ve agreed it applied to their September 23, 1932, opponent: the cellar-dwelling, 63 games back2 Boston Red Sox. The hapless 1899 Cleveland Spiders were the last major-league team to face an opponent 60 or […]