Search Results

For many years, “Hartford” Jack Farrell’s baseball record showed him making three appearances as an 18-year-old for his hometown club in the National Association in 1874. Eventually it emerged that the remainder of his big-league career consisted of two games in 1882. And when one looks under the surface, one finds that Farrell enjoyed 15-plus […]

When you gaze at the career of wartime Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Frankie Zak, you see the statistics of an unimpressive backup who played during an era when the game was filled with minor leaguers and 4-F players, those who were physically unable to serve in the military.  He had only 240 plate appearances in his […]

The New Bedford, Massachusetts, area is home to one of the largest Portuguese-American communities in the United States. Known as the Whaling City due to its pre-eminence as a whaling port during the nineteenth century, New Bedford attracted many immigrants from Portugal and its dependent territories to work in the whaling industry and later to […]

Catcher Jack Zalusky’s major-league career was brief; seven games for the New York Highlanders during a September trial in 1903. His defensive skills were in demand for more than a decade, but constant squabbles with team management over his salary eventually soured each team he played for. If nothing else, he played on teams with […]

In March of 1935 Mickey Rocco boarded a train in his hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota, headed for Hot Springs, Arkansas, to start his career in professional baseball. The St. Paul Saints of the American Association had offered him a tryout and the opportunity to make the team as a 19-year-old rookie.  Sixteen years later, […]

A late-season addition by the Detroit Tigers in 1905, right-hander George Disch posted a 2.64 ERA in eight games. Initial reports were positive, and a bright future was predicted. However, he could not crack a Tiger rotation of George Mullin, Ed Killian, Bill Donovan, and Frank Kitson (116 complete games in 137 starts in 1905) […]

Called “too small for a pitcher” by his high-school coach, Billy Johnson switched to the outfield, and eventually to third base, where he played well enough to be given a “day” at Yankee Stadium. It took place before a crowd of 42,267 on July 25, 1948, between games of a doubleheader. The day was hot […]

Red Thisted never saw a professional baseball game until he was 20 years old. He made up for lost time, though. Over the course of four decades, he attended every home game played my Milwaukee’s ballclub, plus all of the away games when not prevented by wartime travel restrictions. From the start of the 1926 […]

Hub Walker and his younger brother Gee debuted for the Detroit Tigers in 1931. While Gee became a standout hitter and one of the most popular Tigers in the 1930s, Hub, a scrappy, hard-nosed journeyman center fielder, played in just 297 big-league games in parts of five seasons with the Tigers and Cincinnati Reds. A […]

Overshadowed by his more famous big brother Gene DeMontreville during most of his career, Leon was thought by many to have as much talent as his sibling. Early in his career, Chicago Cub manager Frank Selee predicted that, with more experience, Leon would turn out to be a better player than Gene.1 However, Gene played […]

Dick Drott may not have been a Cubs icon like Ryne Sandberg or Ernie Banks, but he earned a place in the annals of Chicago greatness on May 26, 1957. Against the Milwaukee Braves, the right-handed rookie set a Cubs record of 15 strikeouts; Burt Hooton matched it in 1971 and Kerry Wood broke it […]

Right fielder Hank Bauer was a mainstay of the Casey Stengel–Yogi Berra Yankee dynasty who sparkled in the World Series spotlight. In the final game of the 1951 Series his bases-loaded triple broke a tie and gave the Yankees a 4-1 lead. After the Giants narrowed the margin to 4-3 in the ninth, with the […]

Joe Cambria was one of the most prolific scouts in major-league history, signing hundreds of men to professional contracts as a scout for Clark Griffith and the Washington Senators. He also inked countless others as a promoter of semipro and Negro Leagues baseball in Baltimore and minor-league teams throughout the country. He was one of […]

Benjamin Ambrosio (Palmer) Oglivie was born in Colòn, Panama, on Friday, February 11, 1949. He was born into a Panama which offered certain privilege and opportunity, fed by the construction, completion, and use of the Panama Canal. Additionally, the post-World War II era affirmed a sense of optimism. Prior to 1949, the founders of the […]

With the clarity of hindsight it seems appropriate that an action photograph of Robert Gaston by noted African-American photographer Charles “Teenie” Harris shows what looks like Gaston launching a home run. As the backup to Josh Gibson and teammate of Buck Leonard, Gaston certainly saw his share of home runs. Gibson abandoned the Homestead Grays […]

Ed Gharrity was a player, manager, umpire, scout, and coach during his professional career. Invited to spring training with the Washington Senators in 1916, he made an immediate positive impression. Catching for the rookies in an intrasquad game against the regulars in Charlottesville, Virginia, he threw out four would-be basestealers in the 1-1 tie. That […]

“Yes, I knew him. He had huge hands with crooked fingers. He was a catcher, you know.” “Hell Yes, Babe was here. When? I don’t know, maybe on Ben Egan day? No! I don’t recall ever seeing him. No! I don’t know of anyone who did.” “Yes, I knew Ben. A great guy, everyone liked him. He […]

Always hustling and full of pep, Russell “Lena” Blackburne was a superb defensive infielder from 1908 to 1926. Though a solid hitter in the minors, he struggled to hit major-league pitching. After his playing career ended, he served for three decades as a coach, manager, and scout. He is perhaps best known for a unique […]

Until the Negro Leagues were officially recognized as major leagues in December 2020, Dan Bankhead was on record as the first African American to pitch in the majors. He remains best known for that fact, as well as another: he and four brothers all played in the Negro Leagues. However, Bankhead’s big-league career was brief […]

“We drive on to Minneapolis. We are all relaxed at the game, cheering the Twins to an easy win, chanting ‘Bombo! Bombo! Bombo!’ each time the Twins’ right fielder Bombo Rivera is announced. He is a good young player, but not great. It is his name that intoxicates the crowd.”   W.P. Kinsella’s Shoeless Joe […]

“He was everything a ballplayer should be: dark, handsome eyes, and a raw-boned build – and he hit home runs at a remarkable rate.” — Terry Pluto1 If you were to stroll by a Little League field in greater Cleveland in the late 1950s, you might have seen a trend among the players. You might […]

After Ted Williams belted three home runs in a game for the first time, in the opening game of a doubleheader against the Cleveland Indians on July 14, 1946, Tribe manager Lou Boudreau instituted his famous infield shift in the second game to defend against the left-handed hitter. The second and last time the Splendid […]

As the Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Orioles prepared to meet in the winner-take-all Game Seven of the 76th World Series, there arose a commotion over a column written by Baltimore Sun sports editor John Steadman. The Pittsburgh media provided the Pirates and their fans with the gist of Steadman’s opinion, which was that the Bucs […]

Mark Worrell enjoyed a memorable few days in Washington, DC, in early June of 2008. Recalled by the St. Louis Cardinals from Triple-A Memphis on June 2, the right-handed relief pitcher with the funky side-arm delivery1 made his major-league debut the next night against the Washington Nationals. He worked a scoreless ninth inning, allowing a […]