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He grew up in a small Nebraska town with a high school that did not field a baseball team. He signed professionally with an organization that notoriously signed hundreds of prospects with the expectation that such quantity would yield quality. Yet Johnny Hopp diligently overcame these obstacles to carve out a successful 14-year career in […]

Tenacity and zeal were hallmarks of Gail Henley’s game, which along with stellar baseball skills fueled a rapid rise to the major leagues and engendered high regard from renowned talent evaluators. That tenacity and zeal also played a part in making his big-league career much shorter than expected. The native of Wichita, Kansas, developed a […]

Left-handed pitcher George Zackert was one of a trio of 1911 St. Louis Cardinals who made their major-league debuts on the same day. He was also released by the same Cardinals organization three times in eight months, and had one trade that was negotiated by unauthorized personnel director Roger Bresnahan get “busted up.” He surrendered […]

In the early years, baseball had its share of Buck Weavers, but the most famous among them was not the “original.”  That distinction, according to sportswriter Fred Lieb, goes not to the White Sox infielder, but to William Clinton Bond Weaver, known more commonly today by his other nickname, “Farmer.”1 This Buck Weaver started his […]

David Earl Nelson was born on June 20, 1944, in Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He loved sports and played in the Little League, the Babe Ruth League and Connie Mack ball. Basketball was also a favorite sport. Nelson’s idols growing up were Oscar Robertson and Jackie Robinson. Nelson graduated from Junipero Serra High in Gardena, California, […]

On October 1, 1983, at Fenway Park, in the seventh inning Red Sox center fielder Lee Graham drove in Boston’s only run of a game against the Cleveland Indians. It was to be the only RBI of his brief five-game major league career. The Indians had scored one run in the top of the fourth […]

In four seasons, right-hander Al Schroll pitched for four major-league ball clubs – the Red Sox and Twins in the American League and the Phillies and Cubs in the National League. He won a total of six games and lost nine. Schroll was lucky to be alive, not to mention making the major leagues; a […]

Name the catcher who caught both pitcher Babe Ruth and pitcher Ted Williams in regulation major-league ballgames. That’s a decent trivia question. The two sluggers are best known for their batting, but Williams did pitch in one game, on August 24, 1940. “My greatest claim to fame was striking out Rudy York with two men […]

Russ Hall spent 45 years in baseball, starting with semipro ball in his hometown of Shelbyville, Kentucky. During his playing days, he was a baseball rarity. He threw left-handed yet played shortstop and third base. He went on to be a manager, umpire, scout, and owner. His final job was as secretary of the Association […]

In his April 27, 2014, major-league debut, righty Scott Carroll tied the Chicago White Sox record for the longest initial outing by one of its pitchers: 7⅓ innings, last established by Gerry Janeski in 1970. After a dubious start to his major-league career – four hits and a hit-by-pitch to his first six batters – […]

In the late 1940s, Dick Fowler was one of the American League’s top pitchers. He tossed 61 complete games between 1946 and 1949 — only three AL pitchers threw more ­— and posted back-to-back 15-win seasons despite an aching shoulder.1 He played in an era when sore-armed hurlers were expected to keep throwing.2 That’s exactly […]

Hard-throwing right-hander Bill Dietrich battled wildness, struggled with his temper, and endured chronic elbow pain that resulted in two operations to fashion a 108-128 record and log in excess of 2,000 innings in parts of 16 injury-plagued big-league seasons (1933-1948) while playing for primarily second-division clubs. Twice waived out the American League in 1936, Dietrich […]

Dick Siebert seemed destined for a life as a Lutheran minister but instead devoted more than 50 years of his life to the game of baseball. Stuck in the minor leagues as a player, he finally got a chance at the big leagues when Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and Philadelphia Athletics owner/manager Connie Mack […]

It is one of those records that may never be equaled, much less broken. For 75 years a handful of pitchers have come close to tying Johnny Vander Meer’s record of pitching two consecutive no-hitters. But it has proven elusive for even the most elite hurlers throughout major-league history. His first no-hitter came on June […]

He was a sports broadcaster and former college football player from the Midwest. Tall and grey haired, he sported a crooked nose as a football injury badge. Answering to the name Harmon, he called gridiron action working for ABC telecasts. It would be understandable to many if he were often mistaken for the great Tom […]

From 1975 through 1982, Dennis Lewallyn pitched in parts of eight seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers, Texas Rangers, and Cleveland Indians. The 6-foot-4 righty totaled a year and a half of major league service time, going 4-4 in 34 games. “I threw a sinker, slider, change-up; did not throw a lot of pitches in […]

A quick glance at John Neuer’s line in the baseball encyclopedias suggests that he was just another cup-of-coffee major league pitcher who had a brief trial and failed to impress. But then a number jumps off the page and demands an explanation: in six major league starts and one relief appearance, Neuer hurled three shutouts. How […]

From 1907 to 1912, “Big Ed” Walsh tested the limits of a pitcher’s endurance like no pitcher has since. During that stretch the spitballing right-hander led the American League in innings pitched four times, often by staggeringly large margins. He hurled a total of 2,248 innings, 300 more than any other pitcher in baseball. He […]

Many minor leagues folded after Pearl Harbor. Most of the rest went under during or after the 1942 season. By 1943, the American Association, the Eastern, International and Pacific Coast leagues and the Southern Association were still operating, providing a reserve source of talent for the major leagues. Below those levels there was a problem. […]

Editor’s note: This article continues from Part 1, on the New York Giants team ownership from 1883 to 1957.   Stoneham the Younger The narrative of Giants ownership had changed abruptly and dramatically on January 6, 1936, when Charles A. Stoneham died of symptoms associated with Bright’s disease. The franchise immediately passed into the hands […]

To former Los Angeles Dodgers great Tommy Davis, the American League’s adoption of the designated hitter in 1973 was a godsend. “If it wasn’t for the designated-hitter rule … I probably would be [home] in Los Angeles right now, working eight hours a day,” he told The Sporting News three months into the season.1 The […]

The Indianapolis Hoosiers’ road trip to Baltimore got off to an inauspicious start when a train wreck east of Pittsburgh caused them to miss their connection in Harrisburg. However, both the team and the railroad remained undaunted as “a special was made up of the Hoofed sleeper and a baggage car and it rattled down […]

Darryl Kile was no stranger to quashing claims that his best days were behind him. After a 12-21 record in his first two major-league seasons, he made the All-Star team and pitched a no-hitter in 1993. After three straight years of earned-run averages above 4.00, he rebounded in ’97, landing a 19-7 record and a […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the SABR Black Sox Scandal Research Committee’s June 2019 newsletter. By Kevin P. Braig Like many other aspects of the 1919 World Series, reports relating to odds-making and betting on the outcome of the Series are contradictory. On one hand, some accounts claimed the action was hot […]