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It would have been fitting if Rod Serling had gone to a baseball game in Geneva, New York, on August 22, 1961, and found himself trapped in some kind of twist ending – hit in the head by a foul ball, perhaps, to wake up alone in a deserted ballpark. After all, the danger of […]

Left-hander Don Rudolph stood out for two reasons in the early 1960s: He was married to a highly paid exotic dancer, and he worked faster on the mound than any of his contemporaries. Neither of those achievements, however, played a part in the performance of his career the evening of Wednesday, May 8, 1963, at […]

In 1794, the legislature of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania codified a portion of English common law governing observance of the Christian Sabbath, or day of rest. The laws, known as “blue laws,”1 criminalized “any worldly employment or business whatsoever on Sunday (works of necessity, charity, or wholesome recreation excepted.)”2 Those laws were still very much […]

President John F. Kennedy was said to have correctly answered a trivia question that had been floating around for years: Who is the only man to ever hit a home run off Sandy Koufax and catch a pass from Y.A. Tittle? The guess was always Alvin Dark. “It’s not quite accurate, however,” Dark always said. […]

Dennis Bennett, a member of the Phillies’ pitching rotation in 1964 and a fun-loving character on baseball’s stage for much of the 1960s, was blessed with a great left arm and a thirst for the good life. He also overcame several reckless brushes with danger, including a tragic accident, to forge a seven-year big-league career, […]

Lee Fohl managed 11 seasons in the major leagues in his own unobtrusive manner. “Fohl is unusually quiet. He never seeks the limelight and is inconspicuous in all his acts,” a sportswriter said of him.1 His greatest strength was developing talent. He took the job in Cleveland in 1915 and meticulously built a contending squad. […]

Paul Lindblad wasn’t one of the Oakland A’s most celebrated stars or eccentric personalities, but he was a valuable part of a formidable bullpen that contributed to the team’s string of five consecutive division championships and three consecutive World Series titles. Though somewhat overlooked in the annals of Athletics history, Lindblad was without question an […]

Whenever the subject of best baseball names comes up, Scipio Spinks is sure to be on the short list. A classic wild flamethrower, Spinks was breaking through to success in 1972. If he hadn’t torn up his knee in a collision with Johnny Bench, he would have more to show than a career record of […]

With a flattened nose and the grim jaw of a heavyweight boxer, Steve O’Neill looked like someone born to be a catcher, and for much of his 17-year major-league career he was arguably the best all-around backstop in the game. An extremely smart man, O’Neill did all the things a good catcher is supposed to […]

It was strawberry fields forever where Kenny Rogers grew up, on a 15-acre strawberry farm in Dover, Florida, in the heart of Hillsborough County, just a bit west of Plant City, home of the annual state Strawberry Festival. Plant City was also where the Cincinnati Reds held spring training for many years, so Rogers grew […]

Charles Ernest Brinkman spent parts of six seasons as a backup catcher in the major leagues, all but four games of the last season with the Chicago White Sox. Despite a .172 career average, he remained in the majors as long as he did on the strength of his stellar defense. As a collegian at […]

During the period from 1991 through 1997, Chuck Knoblauch was the best second baseman in the American League, accumulating 38 Wins Above Replacement1 (WAR), significantly more than Hall of Famer and runner-up Roberto Alomar (31). Moreover, from 1995 through 1997, he was one of the top players in the AL regardless of position, tying another […]

In the summer of 1904, the Zanesville, Ohio, baseball team had a game scheduled with a team in neighboring New Concord. “When the time arrived for the boys to take the bus, there was one player missing, so the bat boy had to be used in right field to complete the team. As luck would […]

More than 9,000 men played in the major leagues before Chuck Lindstrom, but he was the first to achieve an incredibly rare distinction. In fact, 15 more years passed before another player matched him. He is also among the few twentieth-century major leaguers whose fathers were Hall of Fame players, and though none of these […]

Most famous for his wildly successful tenure in the New York Yankees front office from 1920 through 1945, Ed Barrow left his mark on the Deadball Era as well. Though he never played a game of professional baseball, the ubiquitous Barrow was a key participant in the careers of countless players and a major actor […]

The 1969 Miracle New York Mets will always have a special place in baseball lore. Not only are the Amazin’ Mets remembered for their stunning upset over the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles, but also in the way in which they won, with some of most remarkable defense and pitching ever displayed in World Series history. […]

Harry “Socks” Seibold had a rather modest pitching career, compiling a record of 48 wins and 85 losses in 191 games over eight major league seasons. He was given the nickname “Socks” by his first manager, Connie Mack, who earlier had managed Philadelphia Athletics outfielder Ralph “Socks” Seybold. What was unusual about Harry Seibold’s career […]

In his book The Boys of Summer, author Roger Kahn relates how even after leaving daily 1950s baseball coverage to write for magazines, his “journalistic identity, such as it was, lived with my [New York Herald] Tribune stories” on the then-Brooklyn Dodgers. Robert Frost consoled him, telling Kahn that “nearly everyone has to lead two […]

One of the first things one notices about short-term Boston Red Sox leftfielder/pinch-hitter Gene Rye is that he used another surname while playing professional baseball, apparently Anglicized from Mercantelli. He was also sometimes known by the nickname “Half Pint” – he was 5-feet-6 and weighed 165 pounds. He batted left-handed, but threw right-handed. Rye, as […]

John (Jack) Burwell Reed played the outfield in the regular and post-season for the fabled 1961 New York Yankees, and contributed to their pennant-winning efforts in 1962 and 1963. He was Mickey Mantle’s defensive replacement for most of these three seasons.  Jack was a terrific high school/college athlete in Mississippi, winning the state quarter-mile run […]

“There was never a more graceful player than Bridwell.” — Sportswriter Sam Crane, 19101   Al Bridwell was a natural in the field, one of finest defensive shortstops of the Deadball Era. Hitting did not come naturally to him, but as a member of the New York Giants, he became a solid hitter under the […]

On April 12, 1955, the former Philadelphia Athletics, having moved that winter to Kansas City, opened their first season at Municipal Stadium: A’s 6, Tigers 2, before a standing-room crowd of 32,147. Flanked by franchise progenitor Connie Mack, former President Harry Truman tossed the team’s first ball in Missouri’s first American League (AL) opener since […]

By Andrew North Some 70 cranks from Canada and the United States gathered on November 3-4, 2018, in London, Ontario, for the third annual Canadian Baseball History Conference. The Conference featured 14 half-hour research presentations, in addition to these special events: A tour of Labatt Park, the world’s oldest continuous use baseball park. Named Tecumseh […]