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In a meaningless end-of-the-season contest before fewer than 2,000 spectators at Wrigley Field in Chicago, Boston Braves manager Casey Stengel sent his starting pitcher back to the mound for the home half of inning 12. The Chicago Cubs scored the decisive run, delivering a league-leading 20th loss to Nate Andrews, a dubious distinction that the […]

Andy Seminick was a rock-solid catcher who had a career year in 1950 and had a lot to do with the Phillies winning their first pennant in 35 years. He was the antithesis of bonus babies like Curt Simmons, Robin Roberts, Richie Ashburn, and Stan Lopata because he was anything but highly sought after. He […]

The careers of Jerry Stephenson and his father Joe embrace over 100 years of major-league experience. Jerry broke into the big leagues in 1963 and has been involved with the game ever since. Joe broke in with the New York Giants during World War II and scouted for the Red Sox from 1948 until nearly […]

Once labeled the “lightest player in the major leagues,”1 Eddie “The Midget” Mensor (5-feet-6, 125 pounds) had over 2,600 professional career at-bats, yet he never hit a home run that landed over a fence. Nonetheless, the utility player drew the affection of Pittsburgh Pirates manager Fred Clarke and owner Barney Dreyfuss during the 1912-1914 National […]

Dick Sisler, who hit the most famous home run in Phillies history, came from a baseball family. His older brother, George, played in the minors, later forging a distinguished career as a minor-league executive. Dick’s younger brother, Dave, pitched in the majors. Their father, George Harold Sisler, was a Hall of Famer whose playing accomplishments […]

As fast as he was on the bases and in the outfield, at times it seemed Ken Henderson couldn’t outrun an expectation first pinned on him at age 17. While it came with a big name, Henderson said the expectation was never one he sought. Instead, he often considered it unfair and unrealistic. But it […]

Although twice a 20-game winner in the Federal League, lefthander Gene Packard lingers in baseball’s consciousness only because of a phrase once purportedly inscribed next to his name: 1918 Series fixer. The accusation, attributed to a diary maintained by Chicago White Sox club secretary Harry Grabiner, did not surface during Packard’s lifetime. Rather, it appeared […]

Juan Bell’s big league career began under daunting circumstances. The younger brother of an MVP, he was traded for one future Hall of Famer and expected to dislodge another from his position. Bell battled those expectations — and more than one teammate — over seven seasons (1989-1995) with five teams in the majors, but the […]

Rumor in Town is a very persuasive book. Subtitled “A Grandson’s Promise to Right A Wrong,” Matt Dahlgren’s 2007 book tells the story of the life of first-baseman Babe Dahlgren and how his life in baseball (1934-48) was tarnished by rumors of drug use.1 Murray Chass of the New York Times wrote of grandson Matt’s […]

In 1942, the Cleveland Indians chose their slow-footed, hard-hitting, slick-fielding 24-year-old shortstop Lou Boudreau to become player-manager of the ballclub. In his seventh season at the helm, he led the Indians to a World Series title. Perhaps the best shortstop of the 1940s and a great defensive player and batting champion, in that glorious season […]

When Orioles’ first baseman Eddie Murray went on the disabled list for the first time in his Hall of Fame career in July 1986, Baltimore turned to a player who had grown up just a 30-minute drive from Memorial Stadium. In Jim Traber’s first 17 games, the brash, left-handed-swinging rookie whacked eight homers, drove in […]

A two-month stretch during the summer of 1955 elevated Billy Klaus from a cup-of-coffee nobody to a Boston civic hero before he settled into a journeyman role. He played four seasons with the Red Sox and seven more with four other teams before retiring as a major-league player in 1963. At 5-feet-9 and 165 pounds, […]

Mike Palm is one of the relatively few Red Sox players to have been born in the city of Boston. Richard Paul Palm’s date of birth was February 13, 1925. After moving to a suburb, he picked up his nickname in high school, where Belmont High’s baseball coach was Myron “Mike” Palm, a former Penn […]

A promotional poster advertising the September 4, 1916 matchup between Mordecai Brown and Christy Mathewson. This game would be the last of 24 times in which the two future Hall of Famer pitchers would face each other. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)   “Great Masters Are Through.”1 On September 4, 1916, famed pitching foes […]

With the Milwaukee Braves having won the opening game of the 1958 World Series the day before, the narrative was simple for both teams. If the Braves were to win again, they would take a 2-0 lead in the series and start to feel really confident about capturing their second straight title. If the New […]

In 1957, the fans, with some help from Commissioner Ford Frick, selected the starters for the All-Star Game. The folks of Cincinnati exercised their franchise by stuffing the ballot box and selecting Reds players at all but one position. Five Reds started the game, as Frick named outfielders Willie Mays and Henry Aaron to start […]

At the opening of the 1963 major-league season, the Cincinnati Reds projected pitcher Jim Maloney as the team’s number-four starter, behind Bob Purkey, Joey Jay, and Jim O’Toole.1 Purkey and Jay were 20-plus-game winners the previous year, while O’Toole won 16.2 For his part, the 22-year-old Maloney, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound right-hander, had gone 9-7 after […]

From the time he arrived in Milwaukee with the rest of his Braves teammates from Boston in the spring of 1953, Joe Adcock quickly became a fan favorite in the nation’s newest major-league city. The impressive power numbers of the mighty 6-foot-4, 220-pounder were often overshadowed by the likes of Eddie Mathews and Henry Aaron. […]

The Braves’ move from Boston to Milwaukee in 1953, the major-leagues’ first franchise relocation in 50 years, installed a rival just 90 miles north of Wrigley Field. The timing was terrible for the Cubs; their new neighbor ascended to dominance in the National League while the Cubs were stranded near the cellar. By 1957, the […]

After the All-Star break in 1949, the Cleveland Indians opened the second half of the season with a 13-game homestand against the American League’s Eastern clubs: the Philadelphia Athletics, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, and Washington Senators. The Indians, who had won eight of their last nine games going into the break, were 44-32 […]

The 1984 Cubs drove to National League East glory after years of mediocrity and nearly four decades without a postseason appearance. Three Cubs integral to the upswing – second baseman Ryne Sandberg, left fielder Gary Matthews, and pitcher Rick Sutcliffe – placed capstones on their respective outstanding seasons in Chicago’s 4-1 division-clinching win in Pittsburgh […]

“Major leaguers were our gods. We weren’t worshipful. We knew they were merely men like our brothers and fathers. Yet with a difference. When a father or brother died, he left no record of himself for remembrance. But a major leaguer, even though up for only a season and most of that spent on the […]

 Boston’s Tris Speaker, described in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as “the greatest center fielder playing the game today,”1 led the Red Sox in a 9-2 romp over the St. Louis Browns, as he hit for the cycle, collecting a single, double, triple and home run in the same game. The 1912 American League Bostonians were […]

Could a “blowout game” make a difference, or the difference, in a baseball pennant race? As much as a 1-0 “nail-biter?” Or a late-inning comeback win? Or the schedule’s final game? The 1948 American League pennant race was very close, ending in a regular-season tie and a playoff game. On August 6 four teams were […]