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July 15, 1933, should have been the greatest day in Jim McCloskey’s sporting life – or, perhaps, the first in a string of great days. The 23-year-old lefty was in Buffalo, New York, where he’d grown up, pitching for the visiting Jersey City Skeeters of the International League. July 15 was Jim McCloskey Day at […]

Frank Sadecki, the son of Polish immigrant parents, spent his childhood working in the family grocery store rather than playing baseball. As a result, his greatest wish for his son Ray from the beginning was to be “left-handed, (to) like baseball, and become a major leaguer.”1 Frank’s wish was granted as his son, after just […]

A fiery, redheaded, energetic catcher, Ivey Wingo retired with the National League record for games caught in a career, 1,233. Wingo was a popular man with teammates and fans. His belief in civic duty was demonstrated in 1918 when it was noted in a Sporting News article that he had purchased $7,000 in Liberty Bonds […]

Every red-blooded American boy growing up during the Great Depression dreamed of playing in the World Series, preferably in Yankee Stadium. Philip Donald Haugstad came close twice, missing by one day in 1947 and by one pitch to Bobby Thomson in 1951. Phil entered the world on February 23, 1924, in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. […]

Scrap Iron: the punchy, evocative nickname fit Phil Garner well in the 1970s and ’80s — but it fit catcher Clint Courtney even better a generation before. The punchy part was one reason. Journalist Bob Addie wrote in 1959, “Clint put his aggressive temperament to work several times and was involved in some notable fisticuffs […]

Like many businessmen in the aftermath of the 1929 stock market crash, legendary Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack took a beating financially and, as a result, he dealt his star outfielder Roger “Doc” Cramer to the Boston Red Sox. Cramer joined other Athletics stars such as Lefty Grove and Jimmie Foxx in the exodus to Boston, […]

Mickey Haefner was a decent lefty pitcher for an up-and-down Washington team from 1943 into 1949. He won 10 or more games five seasons in a row, topping out at 16 in 1945. No taller than 5-foot-7 (not 5-foot-8, as he himself confirmed in 19431), his nickname was “Itsy-Bitsy.” Haefner featured a knuckleball, although he […]

Since World War I, six players have made their major-league debut before their 17th birthday. Alex George, the sixth-youngest when he debuted on September 16, 1955, at the age of 16 years, 11 months, 19 days, has the distinction of being the only one to make his first and last major-league appearance before his 17th […]

“I think I was put on this earth to be a coach.”1 “Have you ever had an itch you can’t scratch? Athletes have one for life, a ‘jock’s itch’ that a ton of Tinactin won’t cure.”2 So writes Tom House, former left-handed pitcher who, after he retired from baseball, went on to pursue graduate studies. […]

Pittsburgh’s historic Ammon Field was renamed Josh Gibson Field in 2008 to honor the Baseball Hall of Famer who started his semipro career there in 1928. Harold “Hooks” Tinker, the Ammon Field regular who signed Gibson while player-manager of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, once spoke very fondly of a mutual teammate, middle infielder Charlie Hughes: The […]

Dámaso Marté had good moments during his 11-year major league career, but two shone particularly brightly because they occurred on the big stage of the playoffs and World Series, and also because both were unexpected. The first was with the Chicago White Sox in 2005, as they won their first World Series in 88 years. […]

One of the most controversial figures of the Deadball Era, Charles W. Murphy owned the Chicago Cubs from 1906 to 1913, the period during which they reached their greatest heights. The Cubs won four National League pennants and two World’s Championships under his ownership, making Chicago the center of the baseball universe. But instead of […]

Edythe Perlick (later Keating), the star left fielder for the Racine, Wisconsin, Belles from 1943 through the 1950 season, exemplified the kind of women who played hardball in the All-American Girls Base Ball League, today called the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. A steady and productive hitter, a speedy defensive outfielder with a strong and […]

Rich Hacker worked in professional baseball for many years as a player, coach, manager, and scout. He had a brief stint in the majors as a shortstop for the Montreal Expos in 1971 but is best known as a coach for the St. Louis Cardinals and Toronto Blue Jays. Richard Warren Hacker was born in […]

His was an improbable glory. On October 2, 1978, baseball’s fates codified heroism for a hitter with four home runs in the season. He wore Yankee pinstripes, looked like a GQ model, and, quietly, on and off the field, projected likability balancing the controversy surrounding the Yankees of the late 1970s. Bucky Dent remains known […]

Billy Hamilton was the greatest base stealer and most prolific run scorer of nineteenth-century baseball, but few recognized his name when he gained admittance to the Hall of Fame long after his death. Bill James, who ranks Hamilton as the ninth-best center fielder of all time in his book, The New Historical Baseball Abstract (1999 ed.), remarked […]

For eight years after World War II, Doris Jane “Sammye” Sams, an excellent fast-pitch softball player from Knoxville, Tennessee, enjoyed an outstanding career in the pro All-American Girls Base Ball League (now known as the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League). By the time her final season ended in 1953, Sammye, as friends called the right-handed […]

Tommie Agee was one of the key components to the 1969 Miracle Mets, solidifying the defense and serving as the club’s chief power source, albeit from the leadoff spot. His on-field heroics during the ’69 season—including socking the only home run to ever reach Shea Stadium’s upper deck—helped propel the Mets to their first postseason […]

Larry Doby did not know what to expect as he arrived in Chicago on July 5, 1947. Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck had just purchased Doby from Newark of the Negro National League for $10,000. This transaction made Doby the first African-American to join the American League, the second in the major leagues in the […]

Baseball is a humbling game. On any given day, even one of the league’s best hitters can look lost at the plate and fail miserably in the clutch. That’s exactly what happened to New York Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez against the Philadelphia Phillies on August 14, 1985. Hernandez, the National League’s batting champion and […]

Scott Podsednik hits a walkoff home run off Astros closer Brad Lidge. (Courtesy of Ron Vesely / Chicago White Sox)   Stormy conditions in Chicago on October 23 threatened to wipe out Game Two of the World Series. With two of the league’s premier workhorses, Andy Pettitte and Mark Buehrle, on the mound, it had […]

Hall of Famer Ty Cobb said, “Baseball is a red-blooded sport for red-blooded men. It’s no pink tea, and mollycoddles had better stay out. It’s a struggle for supremacy, a survival of the fittest.”1 Observers could see that he meant it by the way he played. One fan of Cobb’s opined, “Few names have left […]

It was 77 degrees with an overcast sky and occasional rain in New York, on September 4, 1993, when the second-place Yankees hosted the sixth-place Cleveland Indians. The Yankees (76-60) were chasing down the Toronto Blue Jays (78-58) in the American League East. A series against the sub-.500 Indians (65-70) could be their chance to […]

The Sporting News is the oldest sporting publication in the United States. A weekly from its debut in 1886 until 2008, it was for decades known informally as “The Bible of Baseball” and was essential reading for players, officials, and fans. Beginning in the 1940s, it began to cover a wider array of sports and, […]