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Eddie Plank won 326 games in the major leagues – and a game in which he pitched 16 scoreless innings wasn’t one of them. That stretch of shutout pitching came in a game that went 19 innings and lasted more than four hours before the Athletics’ Hall of Fame lefty lost to another Hall of […]

The Chicago White Sox’s 1921 season was the beginning of the club’s Dark Ages. Between 1916 and 1920, the White Sox won a World Series championship and two American League pennants and finished second twice. But for the next 30 years they were perennial second-division finishers, getting no closer to the top than third-place finishes […]

The Milwaukee Braves posted the best record in the National League during the four years from 1956 through 1959. They won two pennants, including a World Series championship in 1957, and had two near-miss second-place finishes.1 Although the Braves finished second again in 1960, they came in seven games behind the Pittsburgh Pirates, never really […]

As the St. Louis Cardinals and the Milwaukee Braves began a three-game series on July 12, 1962, they found themselves smack dab in the middle of the National League standings. Both teams had a lot of ground to make up in the second half of the season, which might explain the meager turnout of 13,426 […]

Even in the nineteenth century, Opening Day was a much-anticipated event. When the Boston Beaneaters and New York Giants were rained out in their 1893 season opener, the New York Sun wrote: “The postponement of yesterday’s game as a consequence of bad weather was undoubtedly one of the severest disappointments ever suffered by New York […]

When the New York Yankees arrived in Boston in April 2007, the Boston Red Sox had not swept a series from the Yankees at Fenway Park for 17 years. The last time had been August 31-September 2, 1990, part of Boston’s only season home sweep of the Yankees in franchise history. The last time the […]

In April 1954, as Philadelphia Athletics third baseman Jim Finigan was launching his major-league career, The Sporting News contributor Art Morrow characterized him “as a fellow who could not miss major league stardom.”1 Earle Mack, a son of future Hall of Fame skipper Connie Mack, echoed the sentiment five months later: “[Finigan] played good, steady […]

“Pete Hill was the first great outfielder in black baseball history,” suggests baseball historian Lawrence Hogan.1 The left-handed Hill was a five-tool star with several famed independent African-American teams: the Philadelphia Giants (1904 to 1907), Leland Giants (1908 to 1910), and Chicago American Giants (1911 to 1918). He then slugged his way to Ruthian heights […]

“Berardino is one of those intense fellows who believe the greatest shame in the world is not doing your best every time. He hustles until the last out of every game, and he doesn’t sit around crying about his hard luck.” — Bill Veeck, 1948.1 Known to generations of television viewers as Dr. Steve Hardy […]

Carl Mays is best remembered for throwing the pitch that led to the death of Cleveland shortstop Ray Chapman in August of 1920. But he also had a career record of 207-126 and a 2.92 ERA over fifteen seasons, and remains one of the best pitchers not honored in the Hall of Fame. Throwing with […]

Dick Stuart was fun – as long as you didn’t have to be on the field with him. He ran the bases head down and looking anywhere except at the third-base coach or the outfield or a teammate who might be able to tell him something, often sending his team out of the inning. As […]

Sam Jones was an intimidating pitcher. He was big (6 feet 4 and 200 pounds), threw hard, had a massive sweeping curveball, and could be quite wild. Three times he led the National League in both strikeouts and walks (1955, 1956, and 1958). He narrowly missed this feat a fourth time in his finest season, […]

He was not as flashy as his predecessor, Buck Weaver. But he was as refined and polished as a third baseman as one could find. He had quick and sure hands and outstanding range, and threw perfect strikes across the diamond. Hall of Fame pitcher Charles “Chief” Bender said he was the best third sacker […]

Fans of two franchises that featured the ultimate in futility for so many years might find it interesting that right-hander Bill Fleming pitched for only two major-league teams: the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs. He didn’t have a winning record for either. Though born Leslie Fletcherd Fleming on July 31, 1913, in Rowland, California, […]

The Chicago White Sox’ historic 2005 season can be told in many ways, but few shared it as personally as one of the teams radio voices, Ed Farmer. Born in Evergreen Park, Illinois, and raised on the South Side of Chicago, Farmer – affectionately known as “Farmio” – grew up watching and rooting for the […]

Mid-1880s outfielder Ed Glenn had various skills needed for an extended stay at the major league level. In the field, he was an exceptional defender, a ground-covering, sure-handed flycatcher with an excellent throwing arm. On the base paths, he was a fleet-footed, intelligent runner. And in the clubhouse, he was a positive presence, a quiet […]

In 1957, Valmy Thomas became the first man from the U.S. Virgin Islands to play in what were then classified as the major leagues. Since Thomas was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, some gave Joe Christopher this honor, but it really belonged to Thomas — until December 2020, when the Negro Leagues were recognized as […]

Jim Dyck’s major-league career was relatively short and undistinguished. It spanned six years, four of which involved stints in the minors, only one season with more than 400 at-bats and a mediocre .246 average. In his brief stint with the 1954 Indians, Dyck had only two plate appearances. Yet during his career Dyck helped set […]

Buddy Kerr was one of the nice guys who finished last. Loyal to the New York Giants since he was in short pants, Kerr was the club’s regular shortstop during and after World War II until manager Leo Durocher, whose opinion of nice guys was well advertised, banished him. Kerr’s career outlasted Durocher by 20 […]

Sam Rice broke into the major leagues in August of 1915 as a 25-year-old pitcher with the Washington Nationals. After moving to the outfield midway through the following season, he became one of the leading hitters in the American League. Over the course of a 20-year career, most of which he spent in Washington, Rice […]

Harry O’Neill played in just one major-league baseball game, had no times at bat, and no putouts or assists. Still, he won a measure of immortality as one of only two major leaguers who lost their lives during World War II. He was killed in action on March 6, 1945, during the battle for the […]

Failed phenoms are commonplace in baseball, since it is the game of failure. Dick Wakefield, the first bonus baby, was the most expensive flop the game had ever seen. When he signed with the Tigers in 1941, he was hailed as another Ted Williams, even — blasphemy in Detroit — the second coming of Ty […]

One might think Ed Kenna was a genteel soul who overachieved in his baseball life by appearing in two games with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1902. After all, the “poet pitcher” was a well-educated son of a US senator who authored two volumes of verse.1 Yet for years after his Philadelphia stint, Kenna starred in […]

Bert Thiel pitched four games for the 1952 Boston Braves, the extent of his major-league career. He had a long minor-league pitching career with 145 wins. He pitched two seasons of winter ball with Caguas, in Puerto Rico; managed in the minors; and scouted. His baseball mentors were George Selkirk, his manager with the 1953-55 […]