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Paul Doyle toiled in the minor-leagues for a decade before making his major league debut for the Atlanta Braves on May 28, 1969. He helped Atlanta win the 1969 National League West Division. Doyle’s stellar relief pitching for the 1969-70 Ponce Lions was a factor in that team winning the Puerto Rico Winter League title. […]

He had just 11 big-league at-bats in 1990, but Brian Traxler was still a cult figure. Over 13 years as a pro, the first baseman delighted fans across the minors, the Caribbean winter leagues, Asia, and independent circuits. His immediate appeal was visual. “Trax” was rotund — leniently listed at 5-feet-10 and 200 pounds, he […]

When the 1952 season ended, Hank Sauer, the heavy-hitting left fielder of the Chicago Cubs, had enjoyed a career year. Even though he averaged just .213 with three homers and seven RBIs during the month of September (due to a neck injury), the 35-year-old right-handed batting slugger was tied with the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Ralph Kiner […]

John Edward Kennedy was born in Chicago on May 29, 1941, the 24th birthday of future President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. John Edward came to the major leagues with the Washington Senators during John Fitzgerald’s administration. A love letter to baseball’s Kennedy from his fiancée once was sent to the White House (where that type of […]

Kansas City designated hitter Mike Sweeney strode to the plate with two men on base and two outs in the bottom of the ninth on Father’s Day in 2003. Reliever Tim Worrell stood on the mound for San Francisco, on its way to a 100-win season and its third playoff appearance in four years. By […]

Pitcher Jim Hannan appeared in 276 major-league games as a starter and reliever from 1962 through 1971, winning 41 of his 89 decisions. During both his playing days and post-playing days, he participated in and had an impact on several historic baseball moments. On the field, he was a senior member of the Washington Senators […]

Second base was a revolving door for the Oakland A’s during their 1972-74 dynasty – the team used 17 players at that position. The closest thing to a regular was steady veteran Dick Green. Though he missed most of 1972 after surgery on a herniated disc in his back, he recovered in time for the […]

Early Black baseball figure Hurley McNair played professionally from 1910 through 1937. Yet despite being a key cog of the dominant Kansas City Monarchs lineups of the 1920s, the outfielder remains relatively unknown. Statistics can build a legacy. But when stats are hard to come by, legacies are built by stories. Nothing crafts a compelling […]

Jesse Orosco appeared in 1,252 regular-season games during his career, the most of any major-league pitcher. As of Opening Day 2015, the active hurler with the most appearances was LaTroy Hawkins with an even 1,000, so Orosco’s record endured for at least some time. The lefty spent most of his 24 seasons in the majors […]

Shingo “Mr. Zero” Takatsu: His nickname sounds like a superhero. He earned it by giving up zero runs while pitching in 11 Nippon Series championship games for a 0.00 ERA. His key pitch, “The Frisbee,” sounds like a superpower. It was a side-arm sinker averaging around 68 mph, so slow that Brooks Boyer, the White […]

Like Babe Ruth, he was a savior for the major leagues when the game was at risk of losing fans. Like Jackie Robinson, he was a courageous pioneer who blazed a trail and opened new doors of opportunity for others to follow. Like Fernando Valenzuela, he was the pride of a specific ethnic community, yet […]

He is, perhaps, the most exquisitely talented writer ever to focus sustained attention on the subject of baseball. Yet Roger Angell was never a “baseball writer” in the normal sense of the term. Instead, his work on baseball has been an extension of his keen observation and appreciation of the sport as a fan. Moreover, […]

Bobby Valentine played in the majors for 10 years. After his playing career, he became one of the most colorful managers in baseball during the last decade of the 20th century. Valentine was always candid and outspoken throughout his managerial career. Robert James Valentine was born on May 13, 1950, in Stamford, Connecticut. His parents […]

Butch Nieman had a short but productive major-league career. Considered a replacement player during World War II, Nieman patrolled the Boston Braves outfield on a regular basis from 1943 to 1945 and can best be described as a streak hitter with a penchant for delivering the big hit in the clutch. In his three-year stint […]

Roger Clemens’ last major-league start, on October 7, 2007 — for the New York Yankees against the Cleveland Indians, the very team against which he had made his major-league debut in May 1984 — ended with him limping off the mound after only 2⅓ innings with a hamstring injury. Clemens had already allowed the Indians […]

There is no great mystery about catching for the New York Yankees in wartime. That was the thought of Mike Garbark in the summer of 1944. His biggest fear was being able to catch two games back to back in a doubleheader during the humid summer heat.1 Nathaniel Michael “Mike” Garbark, II was born on […]

In nine years of professional baseball, Michael Bryant Maksudian played only parts of three seasons in the majors, but he managed to leave an impression with his teammates thanks to his offbeat personality – and a penchant for eating bugs that had an impact on the Toronto Blue Jays World Series campaign of 1992. Maksudian […]

Roger Craig and “split-finger fastball” will forever be linked in baseball history. It was Craig’s work teaching first Jack Morris and then Mike Scott how to throw the pitch that gave the former right-handed pitcher lasting fame. “People think I invented that,” Craig said. “I did not. Bruce Sutter did. I just found a way […]

Second baseman Newt Allen’s Kansas City Monarchs teammates gave him the nickname “Colt” in 1922 because he was the youngest member of the team.1 Over the course of a 23-plus-year career in the Negro Leagues that also included stints in other countries, Allen proved to be one of the best players ever to man the […]

Harry Coyle taught us how to watch baseball on television. As the director of 36 World Series telecasts, beginning with the first one in 1947, he invented many of the images that shape our view of the game. One of his innovations, the center field shot showing the pitcher, batter, catcher, and umpire, became the […]

In rural counties from the Ohio Valley to the Great Lakes basin, super-scout Gene Bennett became the face of the Cincinnati Reds organization during more than a half-century of evaluating talent for the franchise.  The team changed ownership seven times since he began scouting in 1958. Thus far 11 different general managers have deemed Gene […]

In late July 1978, comedian Bill Murray traveled to Grays Harbor County in Washington State to film a segment for a Saturday Night Live television special.1 The location was a world apart from the hustle and bustle of New York, where SNL was normally produced. Despite being only moderately successful at that point in his […]

With two aces taking the mound, it was a safe prediction that a pitcher would seize the spotlight. But despite the San Diego Padres’ Yu Darvish lasting only three innings and the Washington Nationals’ Max Scherzer getting the hook before the end of the fourth, that prediction still came true, thanks to a rookie reliever […]

Lexington Park served as the home of the St. Paul Saints from 1897 through 1956, opening one year later and closing one year after its counterpart in Minneapolis, Nicollet Park. It was built by Edward B. Smith, who operated a St. Paul real estate company (and had been a part-owner of a National League team […]