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It was an epic pitchers’ duel between the Philadelphia Athletics’ Jack Coombs and the Chicago White Sox’ Big Ed Walsh. “Sixteen scoreless innings of desperate pastiming with dusk the winner,”1 declared the Philadelphia Inquirer, while the Chicago Tribune opined, “[N]either side had the shadow of a right to win against such pitching.”2 Windy City sportswriter […]

They lined up. In the small hours after the New York Yankees won Game Three of the 1949 World Series with a three-run outburst in the top of the ninth that broke a 1-1 tie, the Brooklyn faithful lined up. Solo shots by Luis Olmo and Roy Campanella in the Dodgers half of the ninth […]

Having beaten the New York Yankees in the 1957 World Series, holding a 3-games-to-2 edge in 1958, returning home, and lining up Warren Spahn (albeit on short rest) for Game Six and Lew Burdette (if necessary) to start Game Seven, the Milwaukee Braves seemed in prime position to take the 1958 title. New York had […]

On a late-April Sunday afternoon at Crosley Field, the Cincinnati Redlegs hosted the Milwaukee Braves in a slugfest. Cincinnati battled from behind three times to defeat the defending National League pennant winners. A wild and loud crowd of 14,925 braved a chance of rain to cheer the Redlegs to victory. The seesaw game ended on […]

“One swing of Del Crandall’s bat,” wrote Bob Wolf of the Milwaukee Journal, “transformed a gloomy occasion into a triumphant one.”1 Affectionately called Ned by his teammates for his all-American image, the 25-year-old Crandall stepped to the plate with the Milwaukee Braves trailing 4-1 against the Philadelphia Phillies in the first game of a doubleheader […]

The Milwaukee Braves opened the 1953 season on April 13 with a 2-0 victory in Cincinnati at a time when the first game in the Queen City was a season-opening tradition for the major leagues. The founding of the first fully professional baseball team in Cincinnati during the 1869 season paved the way for baseball’s […]

After his brain cramp in Game Two of the 1951 World Series, Eddie Stanky used guile to spark the New York Giants to a 6-2 triumph over the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds in Game Three and a 2-1 Series lead. Rarely does a stolen base matter more than a three-run homer, but […]

Howard Ehmke “devastated the Mackmen like a lanky cyclone,” gushed the Philadelphia Inquirer after the Red Sox hurler’s no-hitter against the Athletics, adding “[He was] unquestionably in the fettle in which heroic deeds are born.”1 The Boston Globe described the submariner Ehmke’s gem as a “classy curving performance,” but noted that it was a “tainted […]

The Chicago Cubs defeated the Detroit Tigers in the 1907 and 1908 World Series, but lost to the Tigers in 1935. The teams met again in the 1945 World Series and were tied three games apiece heading into the deciding Game Seven on Wednesday, October 10, 1945, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. World War II […]

Joaquín Andújar was running out of time. Bruce Sutter was, too. When the St. Louis Cardinals opened a season-ending three-game series against the National League East Division champion Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field on September 28, 1984, Andújar was making his fourth attempt to win his 20th game. Sutter, meanwhile, needed one save to tie […]

Trailing the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League standings in July 1921, the New York Giants bolstered their lineup by trading for star outfielder Irish Meusel. In his second game after the controversial deal, Meusel sparked New York to an early lead over the Pirates, but the Giants also needed Phil Douglas’s shutdown relief pitching […]

Somewhere, back in the swirling mists of time, there existed a magical and wondrous age when aspiring athletes did not commit their lives to the fanatical and single-minded pursuit of one sport by the time they were five years old. Take, for instance, the 1968 Detroit Tigers, who were notable for having a number of […]

Edmund Hearne enjoyed two cups of coffee in 1910, one on June 9 and one on June 10. That was the sum total of shortstop Hearne’s experience in the major leagues. Two games, two at-bats. “Hearn, a California recruit, played shortstop for Boston, and performed well in the field.” So read the wire-service note in […]

Was it nature or nurture? Plenty of both figured in the life of Milton Joseph Bolling III, a former Red Sox shortstop who spent 43 years with the organization. He was born on August 9, 1930, in Mississippi City, Mississippi, while his parents were on vacation; but he grew up in a baseball town – […]

On September 27, 1920, suspicions about the integrity of the previous year’s World Series between the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds were given substance by a self-admitted fix insider named Billy Maharg. In an interview first published in the Philadelphia North American and syndicated nationwide immediately thereafter, Maharg maintained that a number of Chicago […]

It took quite an odyssey for right-hander Rex Cecil to get into his first major-league game. It was August 11, 1944, and he was in San Diego. It was a Friday. Cecil had been playing professional baseball since 1937, when he was 20 and pitching for the Vancouver Maple Leafs. He’d never played for a […]

Connie Mack’s approach to late-season lineup construction didn’t always put the best team on the field, but it gave Press Cruthers a major-league career. During the Philadelphia Athletics’ dynastic era of 1910–1914, owner and manager Mack sometimes rested his regulars once the American League pennant had been won, handing over the last few games of […]

Her first words on the phone to the police were, “My name is Mary, and I’ve shot a man.”1 It was March 9, 1967. Left-hander Ted Davidson, just 11 days into spring training and with his big break in the Cincinnati Reds bullpen imminent, lay bleeding behind a Tampa bar. His blonde assailant had fired […]

Michael Riley “Doc” Powers was far more than a dependable catcher for Connie Mack’s early Philadelphia Athletics. He was a gifted athlete whose amateur career was repeatedly shadowed by accusations of professionalism, a respected team leader at Holy Cross and Notre Dame, a medical doctor who balanced baseball with rigorous studies, and a compassionate teammate […]

Major-league right-hander Bob Chakales was one of five sons born to Edward Peter and Blanche Wiggs Chakales – (sons in order: Robert, Charles, Dwight, and twins John and James). Bob was born on August 10, 1927, in Asheville, North Carolina. His mother worked in retail, selling women’s clothing, and his father – known as Eddie […]

In 1942 St. Louis Cardinals’ farm director Branch Rickey singled out a particular right-handed hurler among a small army of top-flight pitching prospects: Max Surkont “can become another [Bob] Feller for us,”1 declared the future HOF executive. But by the end of spring training the Cardinals, blessed with the major leagues’ best pitching, assigned Surkont […]

Asked by a sportswriter in January 1912 which pitcher was giving him the most trouble in the American League, Ty Cobb did not mince words. “I believe I have never in my life faced a pitcher who bothered me so much as that man O’Brien,” he growled. “O’Brien has everything. He has a ‘spitter’ the […]

Known as one of the feistiest players in baseball history, Edd Roush channeled that energy into a Hall of Fame career. An old-timer was quoted in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1919 saying that Roush was more like the fiery old Baltimore Orioles of the 1890’s than any other player in the National League. The […]

From 1950 to 1955, Robin Roberts was the top right-hander in the National League while pitching for the Philadelphia Phillies. For most of the remainder of his 18-year career, he was a crafty veteran who had a remarkable resurgence with the Baltimore Orioles. Either way, he would go out, take his turn on the mound […]