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Bill Davidson – commonly known as “Davy” – was in the majors as an outfielder from the tail end of the 1909 season through 1911. His career was nothing spectacular, but there he was in “The Show,” in Cubs and Dodgers Blue (Superbas Blue, if you want to split hairs). His 1954 obituary in the […]

Right-handed reliever Don Newhauser joined the Boston Red Sox during the pennant drive in 1972. He contributed a 4-2 half-season, with a very good ERA, but appeared only briefly in the two subsequent years. “Newy” was born in Miami on November 7, 1947, the only child of Donald Louis Newhauser Sr. and Ann Sesso. “My […]

It was Boston’s eighth trade since the end of the 1965 season. In 1964 Billy Herman, about to become the Red Sox manager, had vowed, “If I am ever made manager of this team and we have a losing club, I promise you one thing: We’ll lose with new faces.”1 Herman lived up to his […]

The year 2008 was supposed to be the coming-out party for Nate McLouth, then an outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He made his first All-Star team, captured his first Gold Glove, and tied for the NL lead with 46 doubles. But the party was short-lived. Due to injuries, McLouth never achieved that level of success […]

On athletic fields – both baseball and football – John Clifford Happenny was eclipsed by Hall of Famers. Only after his retirement from sports did his light fully shine, as the former Chicago White Sox infielder (32 games in 1923) became a senior executive at utility companies in Oklahoma and Illinois, and a leader in […]

George Magerkurth was a National League umpire from 1929 to 1947, one of the best of the era. “He had bulldog features and disposition to match,” said sportswriter Arthur Daley. “He had many faults but he was a colorful man of unassailable integrity who made rich contribution to baseball lore and legend.”1 The New York […]

At the age of 39, Lester Willis got his first invitation to a major-league spring-training camp. In February 1947 in Tucson, Arizona, Willis, a left-handed pitcher who had spent 13 seasons in the minor leagues, caught the attention of Cleveland Indians manager Lou Boudreau immediately. According to one newspaper account, Boudreau, on the first day […]

On the back of his 1955 Bowman baseball card, Mel Clark urges youngsters to have a glove, bat and ball at hand so they can be ready to play when the opportunity presents itself. When that opportunity arose for the war veteran from the sandlots of West Virginia, he seized it with a vengeance. Melvin […]

His prep school coach almost kicked the youngster off the team, saying he was too hardheaded to ever make it as a ballplayer. The coach was wrong. Dutch Ruether had a long and successful career in professional baseball. He had a number of things in common with his future roommate, Babe Ruth, and outperformed the […]

A hard-throwing, spectacularly talented left-hander who posted the best single-season earned run average in American League history in 1914, Dutch Leonard was also one of the Deadball Era’s most controversial figures. At nearly every stop along his journey in professional baseball, Leonard feuded with management over his salary, and at one point was even suspended […]

Pitcher Roy Patterson is best remembered for throwing the first pitch (and recording the first win) in American League history. The 24-year-old right-hander, who would soon become known as the “Boy Wonder,” took the mound at Chicago’s South Side Park on April 24, 1901. Nearly 10,000 fans saw Patterson and the Chicago White Stockings defeat […]

Glenn Myatt spent 16 years in the majors, 13 with the Cleveland Indians. The Indians released him in 1935 when he was 37 years old. Thinking he still had some game left in him, Myatt sent out telegrams to other teams looking for a job. Bill Terry of the New York Giants signed him. His […]

A journeyman who spent parts of seven seasons in the American League, Wally Mayer joined the Red Sox in 1917 and spent two campaigns as a reserve catcher.   Although he did not appear in the 1918 World Series, “Kid” Mayer did help Boston get there by smacking a pair of 12th-inning game-winning hits against AL […]

The 1985 All-Star Game – a 6-1 National League win at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis – lacked drama. For the crowd of 54,960, that may have been disappointing. But for members of the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, which operated the stadium, it was a relief. In its fourth season as home of […]

In 1946, the Esquire’s All-American Boys’ Baseball Game, in its third year, was moved from New York to Chicago and was played at Wrigley Field on August 10. The game brought together 33 boys, aged 16-18, sponsored by 32 US newspapers. The players represented 25 states, and the East All-Stars played the West All-Stars. In […]

“Slaughter’s great gallop from first to score will rate with Paul Revere’s ride in the history of our country,” gushed sportswriter Whitney Martin about one of the most enduring plays in World Series lore.1 Enos “Country” Slaughter’s mad dash from first on Harry Walker’s eighth-inning smash to center field coupled with shortstop Johnny Pesky’s hesitation […]

In 1946, 11 years after the Cincinnati Reds had hosted the first night game in major-league history, the Boston Braves and New York Yankees installed lights in their home ballparks. Just three teams would continue to play all of their home games during the day that season: the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers, and Chicago […]

It was an inauspicious game. Both the Orioles and the Washington Senators were fighting to stay out of the cellar. The Orioles finished the season 57-97 in seventh place while the ever-struggling Senators finished 53-101. Orioles manager Paul Richards tried out rookies in quick succession during the last part of the season in an attempt […]

The New York Mets had good reason to be tired when they took the field at Shea Stadium at 1:10 on Thursday afternoon to wrap up their four-game series with the Chicago Cubs. About 12 hours earlier, manager Willie Randolph’s squad had left the diamond after an 8-1 victory that began more than three hours […]

Usually the opening game of a World Series generates a great deal of excitement. Hometown fans are thrilled that their club has reached the ultimate series to determine who will reign as the world champion. While that occurred in 1942, it played out against a different, more somber backdrop. World War II was well under […]

John “Beans” Reardon, left, wearing a flu mask underneath his umpire’s mask, prepares to call a pitch in a California Winter League game on January 26, 1919, in Pasadena, California. During a global influenza pandemic, all players and fans were required by city ordinance to wear facial coverings at all times while outdoors. The catcher […]

Earl Weaver did not go gently. Nearing the end of his disappointing final season in 1986, the Baltimore Orioles’ fiery manager continued to dispute umpires’ calls. On September 21, Weaver received an 11th-inning ejection from home-plate umpire Al Clark while arguing a catcher’s-interference call. It was the 97th and final ejection of the manager’s volatile […]

Already pacing the American League West less than two months into the 2017 season, the Houston Astros broke even further from the pack with 11 wins in a row. The streak’s most improbable chapter was on Memorial Day, May 29—at first a pitchers’ duel, then a rout in favor of the host Minnesota Twins and, […]

“You Called That a What . . . ?”The Newsletter of the Official Scoring Committee Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) June 2019, Volume 4, Number 2 Past newsletters   Editor: Stew Thornley From the Chair Conundrum of the Month (or Quarter or Whatever) What’s a Cincinnati Base Hit? Profile: Allan Spear Bloops and Bobbles […]