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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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The Los Angeles Dodgers had a pair of antique dueling pistols in the late ’70s. Yet despite their age, Vic Davalillo and Manny Mota were in great condition – and the fire of these small arms was often deadly. Davalillo’s big-league career had seemingly ended in 1974, but after more than three years in the […]

“He has a brain in his arm.” – Syd Thrift1 That high baseball IQ was a critical part of Rick Reuschel’s success. It led him to trust a pitch-to-contact approach that was not flashy but required supreme control and unwavering confidence. He defied the stereotypes of a star pitcher. “Big Daddy” was unathletic-looking, with an […]

In 1977 the original Star Wars hit theaters; Jimmy Carter was sworn in as president; the first Apple II computers went on sale; and New York City lost power and was blacked out for 25 hours. But what most Oakland A’s fans of a certain age remember about that year — an otherwise dismal time […]

Outfielder Román Mejías played in 627 big-league games from 1955 to 1964. Alas, just three of those came with the 1960 Pirates, his one US team that won a pennant. He was not on the roster when Pittsburgh won the World Series that year. Mejías was “an affable, good-natured player …  whose demeanor, humility and […]

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 New York Yankees, arriving in Cleveland for a two-game series against the Indians, had just lost two of three games in Baltimore but remained three games ahead of the Orioles. Only 3,895 fans showed up on a chilly night at Cleveland Stadium hoping to see their team gain ground on the division leader. The […]

On September 26, the Washington Nationals travelled to Miami to finish the 2011 season with a three-game series against the Florida Marlins. These were the final games to be played in Sun Life Stadium, described by Dan Le Batard as a “kind of a sad dump for baseball now, truth to be told, too empty […]

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, […]

Los Angeles’s Wrigley Field in was built and opened in 1925 as the finest minor-league park in the country. Some called it the best park in the country — majors or minors. From its earliest years Wrigley Field was home to multiple baseball teams, many other sports and community events. The history of Wrigley Field […]