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Hershell Freeman was a right-handed pitcher who started his career with the Boston Red Sox in 1952, but had his best years with the Cincinnati Reds, in particular 1956, when he led the majors in closing games and posted a record remarkable for a relief pitcher: 14-5. He was later named a member of the […]

Right-handed pitcher David Weathers played professionally in small towns and large cities across the United States and Canada but his origins and present life are firmly rooted in southern Tennessee. He was an integral relief pitcher on the 1996 World Series champion New York Yankees and after playing for nine teams in 19 major-league seasons, […]

Hancock, New York, has made numerous contributions to baseball history. A mill operated there by the Hillerich & Bradsby Co. for more than eight decades provided Louisville Slugger bats to Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and other hitting stars.1 Hancock was also the hometown of John “Honest Eddie” Murphy. Murphy was a […]

Hooty Phillips, father of Lefty Phillips. (Courtesy of the Nashville Metro Archives)   The John William “Lefty” Phillips story begins with another ballplayer, his father, John “Hooty” Phillips.1 Father and son played for their hometown Nashville Elite Giants, among other teams. Neither Hooty nor Lefty Phillips is especially well-known, although Hooty Phillips had a longer […]

“Who the heck is Eddie Lake?” That is the title of a booklet written and published by Karen Elizabeth Bush in 2003. Bush is Executive Secretary of the Eddie Lake Society, an invitation-only society originally founded by Hall of Fame sportswriter Joe Falls. “We are made up of people who in some way or another […]

Though he played ten years in the majors, when people look back at Ossie Vitt’s career, they tend to remember the player mutiny against him by the team called the “Cleveland Crybabies” when he was manager of the Indians in 1940. He managed the Indians from 1938 through 1940, and 18 seasons in the minor […]

Bob Quinn was a baseball man for more than 60 years. He started as a player in the 1880s, although he never made the majors, and then became a business manager/general manager. At various points from 1917 through 1945, he held this role at the big-league level with the St. Louis Browns, the Brooklyn Dodgers […]

Aloysius “Wish” Egan was one of the top scouts in the Detroit Tigers system. Among the players he signed in his 40 years of scouting were Jim Bunning, Hal Newhouser, and Dizzy Trout. Egan even scouted the Lakeland, Florida, site the Tigers have used for spring training since 1934. All scouts have regrets; one of […]

Teammates remembered his hands — “bear claws for hands,” one said.1 Those powerful hands could pat you on the back or clamp you so hard your knees buckled. No formula can explain leadership, but Terry Moore knew the secret. As center fielder and captain of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1940s, Moore earned the […]

During the first half of Hoyt Wilhelm’s major-league career, the attention he received usually focused on his freak pitch — a knuckleball — which he likely threw better than any man in history. In the latter half of his career, he was equally renowned for his advanced age — he had become an “old” knuckleballer. […]

Three scoreless innings in his first two major-league games followed by one bad inning in his third outing would seem to indicate that a promising 24-year-old right-handed pitcher might get another shot at the big leagues. That chance never came for Willie Ludolph. Later in his career, Ludolph explained his failure to stick longer with […]

Alva Williams hit .239 in his first year in the majors. He hit .239 his last year in the majors. In between, he played five years for the Washington Senators hitting well above that mark in each of the five seasons for a combined .276 average for Washington. That first year in the majors was […]

John Michael “Red” Corriden, the first-base coach for the 1947 New York Yankees, was a baseball lifer. From 1908 until he retired from baseball after the 1958 season, a span of fifty-one years, Corriden served as a player, coach, manager, and scout. The 1947 season was Corriden’s first as a Yankees coach. He was brought […]

“As wild as Ishi”1 Trilingual gold and gravel miner Luke Glavenich’s major-league pitching career lasted but one erratic inning on April 12, 1913. It started with eight straight balls and got much worse from there. Small wonder that he’d drawn prior comparisons to a minor celebrity of the day: the “wild Indian” Ishi, the last […]

“What is one to say about June — the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade?” — Gertrude Jekyll1   On the afternoon of June 23, 1984, at Wrigley Field, the hometown Chicago […]

Art McGovern, the carpenter’s son. He came to America and made good in New England, only once in his baseball career briefly returning to the land of his birth, Canada. Art was a right-handed catcher who was born in St. John, New Brunswick, on February 27, 1882. His father, John, was a native New Brunswicker […]

He was a left-handed hitter who batted .285 over the course of 16 seasons, and Clark Griffith called him Washington’s greatest centerfielder, claiming that he played the position more shallow than any man in baseball. Yet Clyde “Deerfoot” Milan achieved his greatest fame as a base stealer. After Milan supplanted Ty Cobb as the American […]

Bullet Jack Thoney was once called “the unluckiest player in the history of baseball.”i Boston Red Sox owner John I. Taylor had paid what was thought to be the most money ever paid for a player at the time, but it seemed as though every time Thoney made a major-league team, he broke a limb. […]

The last game of the 1950 season found the Philadelphia Phillies clinging to a one-game lead over the Brooklyn Dodgers, who were closing fast. If the Phillies lost, a three-game playoff for the pennant would be needed and that did not bode well for the Whiz Kids, whose starting pitching was razor-thin due to injuries […]

On April 11, 1985, about 4,200 baseball fans got to claim a rare distinction: They watched a Baltimore Orioles game played between May 30, 1982, and September 19, 1998, in which Cal Ripken Jr. did not appear. How was that possible? Even casual fans know that future Hall of Famer Ripken established the major leagues’ […]

It had been a long wait. The last time County Stadium hosted a major-league game for a hometown team was September 22, 1965, when the Milwaukee Braves lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-6, but on Tuesday, April 7, 1970, the Milwaukee Brewers inaugurated a new era by hosting the California Angels. Milwaukee once again […]

This article was originally published in the June 2023 edition of the SABR Black Sox Scandal Committee Newsletter.   First baseman Hal Chase was implicated in the Black Sox Scandal and the subject of many accusations of game-fixing during his major-league career. But how crucial was his role in the fixing of the 1919 World […]

Thirty-five members and guests of the Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter gathered at Cardinals Nation Restaurant at Ballpark Village in downtown St. Louis on Monday, September 18, 2017. Everyone enjoyed an excellent meal prior to a trip upstairs to take an after hours tour of the St. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame & Museum hosted by Brian […]

Nineteen members and guests of the Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter gathered at The Original Crusoe’s Restaurant in South St. Louis on Tuesday, November 18, 2014. Chapter president Brian Flaspohler called the meeting to order. Flaspohler announced the establishment of an annual chapter Rygelski Research Award in honor of the late Jim Rygelski, as decided during the […]