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The city of Ellsworth, Maine, is the county seat of Hancock County and the self-proclaimed “heart of Downeast Maine,” named after Oliver Ellsworth, one of the delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention that led to the founding of the United States of America. He was later a United States senator and chief justice of the […]

Joseph J. Lannin owned the Boston Red Sox for less than four full years, but in that short span, the team won two world championships in the back-to-back years 1915 and 1916. A native of the Province of Quebec, he came to the United States at a very young age – the story says he […]

Tragedy and controversy characterized the career of pitcher Kurt “Casey” Hageman. In the closing days of the 1909 season, he killed an opposing player with a pitched ball, the tragedy changing the path of his minor-league career. During the 1912 season, Hageman challenged a minor-league assignment. The ensuing court case was essentially an early challenge […]

Called “too small for a pitcher” by his high-school coach, Billy Johnson switched to the outfield, and eventually to third base, where he played well enough to be given a “day” at Yankee Stadium. It took place before a crowd of 42,267 on July 25, 1948, between games of a doubleheader. The day was hot […]

George Edward Jeffcoat, the older of two brothers who played in the majors, spent two full seasons and parts of another two others pitching in the National League. He had a record of 7 wins and 11 losses in 70 appearances between 1936-43 with the Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves. After his playing days, he […]

As the 1929 season began, the Chicago Cubs were in trouble.  They were without the services of their starting catcher, 28-year-old Gabby Hartnett, whose arm had gone dead.  While Hartnett would eventually regain his throwing abilities, he played in only 25 games that year, just one as a catcher.1 Initially, 38-year-old Mike Gonzalez and Earl […]

When Dick Newsome joined the Boston Red Sox in 1941, it might have seemed as though he would pair with Skeeter Newsome for a Southern radio program, “The Dick and Skeeter Show.” Or perhaps the “Heber and Lamar Hour.” The two were both Southerners, but not related, and neither was related to Bobo Newsom, the […]

His name was John Edward Robinson, and his nickname was Jack. Jack E. Robinson? A Red Sox player? Jack Robinson was a right-handed pitcher from New Jersey, not the Jackie Robinson rejected by the Red Sox at an April 1945 Fenway Park tryout. He appeared in three games in eight days for the Red Sox […]

Statistics and anecdotes of early black player Charlie Grant are minimal and sketchy at best. The difficulty in seeking reliable evidence is compounded by the fact that many during his time and still today have consistently confused him with the great Frank Grant, who played in several white leagues during the nineteenth century and was […]

Ray Rippelmeyer pitched 39 1/3 innings in 18 games for the 1962 Washington Senators. Over 11 minor-league seasons, the right-hander compiled a .579 winning percentage with a record of 114 wins and 83 losses in 330 games. He also played winter ball in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. After his playing days, Rippelmeyer’s work […]

George Webb Yantz was a bricklayer, journeyman catcher, and tough negotiator who reached the major leagues for one game and retired with a 1.000 career batting average. Yantz was born on July 27, 1886, in Louisville, Kentucky, the second oldest of five children born to Josephine and Charles Yantz. Charles worked as a bricklayer and […]

Few 20th-century politicians had a more impressive résumé than Albert Chandler. During the course of his political career he served as Senator, Lieutenant Governor, and two terms as Governor of his home state of Kentucky. It can also be argued that few non-players had a greater impact on baseball. His support of Branch Rickey‘s signing […]

A 1 1/3-inning stint with the 1938 Boston Bees was the only major-league action that pitcher Mike Balas achieved during a professional baseball career that spanned a dozen years, from 1929 through 1940. His greater legacy to baseball, though, was his conscientious objector status during World War II. Unlike the majority of his ballplaying brethren […]

“You Called That a What . . . ?”The Newsletter of the Official Scoring Committee Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) October 2017, Volume 3, Number 1 Past newsletters   Editor: Stew Thornley Howdy Conundrum of the Month (or Quarter or Whatever) Non-Guest Column Q & A with Gary Mueller Official Scorers Confab at Winter […]

“You Called That a What . . . ?”The Newsletter of the Official Scoring Committee Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) November 2018, Volume 4, Number 1 Past newsletters   Editor: Stew Thornley From the Chair Conundrum of the Month (or Quarter or Whatever) Meet Sven Muencheberg Profile: Pat Thompson 9.17 From 1944 Conundrum Solution […]

“You Called That a What . . . ?”The Newsletter of the Official Scoring Committee Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) November 2018, Volume 4, Number 1 Past newsletters   Editor: Stew Thornley From the Chair Conundrum of the Month (or Quarter or Whatever) Meet Sven Muencheberg Profile: Pat Thompson 9.17 From 1944 Conundrum Solution […]

The 1935 edition of the Boston Braves weren’t just bad, they were historically bad. Many people credit the hapless 1962 New York Mets as being the worst team of the modern era with their 40-120 record, but the 1935 Braves actually finished with a slightly worse won-lost percentage than that Mets squad (.250 for the […]

The Boston Red Sox opened their 1916 season at home. They were world champions after winning 101 games in 1915 and taking the World Series in five games over the Philadelphia Phillies. The team was largely unchanged from the prior year, though they were without two of their biggest stars: center fielder Tris Speaker and […]

President Warren G. Harding, center, throws out the ceremonial first pitch before a Washington Senators game on April 13, 1921, at Griffith Stadium in Washington, DC. (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, NATIONAL PHOTO COMPANY)   In 1910 President William Howard Taft had begun a long-standing tradition of the president of the United States throwing out the ceremonial […]

Throughout human history, many cultures and religions have worshipped sun deities. The ancient Greeks had Apollo and Helios; the Aztecs had Tonatiuh. In Japan, Amaterasu is the Shintō sun goddess.1 Although it’s unlikely that Art Nehf did anything to anger any of these deities, the late-afternoon sun in Boston on September 4, 1915, still cost […]

Hopes were running high on this warm September night in 1944. In Western Europe, Allied forces crossed the Moselle River in northern France during the largest artillery exchange with the Nazis to date. For the first time, a redhead — 19-year-old Venus Ramey of Washington, D.C. — was crowned Miss America in Atlantic City.1 Even […]

As the Cincinnati Reds hosted the San Diego Padres in a Thursday afternoon matinee, the two teams’ seasons were heading in opposite directions. The Reds were entrenched in first place in the National League Central Division. The Reds had taken over first place on July 13 and won the division championship before losing in the […]

The Babe settled in the batter’s box on the port side of home plate, lifted a heavy bat over his left shoulder and waited for Red. The most popular baseball player in the world was standing on the grand stage of Opening Day in front of tens of thousands of fans. Yet, many eyes were […]

This article was published in the June 2015 issue of the SABR Black Sox Scandal Research Committee newsletter.   On September 28, 1920, Cook County Assistant State’s Attorney Hartley Replogle announced, “We are going after the gamblers now. There will be indictments in a few days against men in Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and other […]