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For 34 years TV broadcaster Jerry Remy was a familiar presence in the living rooms of Red Sox Nation. Genial and relaxed, Remy (rhymes with “hemi”) conveyed his professional expertise without arrogance – the ideal companion for watching baseball. As team chairman Tom Werner described him, “He’s the guy you’d like to have a beer […]

“Baseball is a bum’s game, and so is football,” Ferdinand Maguolo would tell his son Lou.1 Lou Maguolo, however, defied his father to become a highly successful scout for the St. Louis Browns and the New York Yankees from 1936 through 1975. Though Maguolo was only 5-feet-5 and topped out at 135 pounds, he was […]

On September 23, 1913, the Boston Globe reported that Edward Kelly was one of 37 ballplayers placed on the reserved list by the Boston Red Sox. Kelly was a right-hander, born in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, on December 10, 1888, and standing an even 6 feet tall, with a reported weight of 173 pounds. His father, […]

History has not been kind to Don McMahon. Now largely forgotten, McMahon had a very long –often excellent – career, pitched in the postseason four times, helped win two world championships, and was clearly one of baseball’s best relief pitchers in a number of seasons. Playing in the days before the closer became such a […]

It was a damp night at Shea Stadium in early August 1977. The last-place Mets, toiling through extra innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers, looked done for after the would-be National League champions took a 7-6 lead in the top of the 11th. But they managed to put runners at first and second with one […]

John Arthur “Long John” Johnson played briefly with the 1939 Baltimore Elite Giants. He had a professional baseball career, in the second Negro National League, that spanned nine seasons from 1938 to 1946. A pitcher – starting and relief – he threw right-handed and batted left-handed; he stood 6-feet-3 and weighed 182 pounds. Johnson’s career […]

When New York Giants announcer Russ Hodges uttered the immortal words “The Giants win the pennant!” the legacy of Bobby Thomson was indelibly etched into baseball history. Despite modest career stats, Thomson’s October 3, 1951, home run off Ralph Branca was, in 1999, ranked number one on The Sporting News’ Greatest Baseball Moments.1 The “Shot […]

Labeled “a right-handed Eddie Lopat … [George Susce] was regarded as a junkman, just like the great [New York] Yankee lefthander.”1 The son, brother and uncle of professional baseball players who made their mark collectively over seven decades, Susce dreamed of reaching the big leagues ever since his days as a child selling scorecards and […]

Few jobs can match the excitement, adulation, and income that come with a spot on a major-league roster.  Some old ballplayers inevitably seal themselves in amber, forever living vicariously through the men they used to be.  The New York Giants’ Al Corwin was different.  For him the game was “more paycheck than passion,” as one […]

Although the vaunted starting duo of John Sain and Warren Spahn is usually credited with leading the Braves to the 1948 National League pennant, stellar relief pitching from several sources also helped Boston to the World Series that fall. One of the men providing this spark was rookie right-hander Bobby Hogue, who baffled NL batters […]

Exactly 90 minutes after Chicago White Sox left-hander Dickey1 Kerr fired a strike past Cincinnati’s Morrie Rath to start Game Three of the 1919 World Series, he coaxed the dangerous Heinie Groh to tap an 0-1 pitch harmlessly to third base. Buck Weaver, the White Sox third baseman, fielded the ball effortlessly and threw over […]

Dave Magadan was an artist with the bat. He lacked power. He lacked speed. He wasn’t known for his glove at either first or third base. But his deft spray hitting and patience at the plate — .390 lifetime on-base percentage — kept him in the majors from September 1986 through 2001. This skill also […]

“Hit in the air . . . Yount . . . makes a GREAT CATCH! Juan Nieves has thrown the first no-hitter in Milwaukee Brewer history!” That was broadcaster Jim Paschke’s call on April 15, 1987. More than 30 years later, the masterpiece by Nieves remained the only no-hitter in franchise history, and only one […]

Mayo Smith was a baseball lifer who served the game in many ways in his 38-year career. Except for being the manager of the 1968 World Series champion Detroit Tigers, he was not well-known by the public. However, within the game, he was a very well-known and well-liked figure who had the nickname “America’s Guest” […]

Who was the greatest pitcher in Massachusetts history? Some fans would nominate standout hurlers from Boston’s professional teams, like Cy Young, Warren Spahn, or Pedro Martinez. Others might offer the names of Tim Keefe, John Clarkson, and Tom Glavine, Bay State natives who earned Hall of Fame honors by winning more than 300 games apiece.1 […]

The last home game of the 1952 season at Braves Field was played before 8,882 fans and nearly 32,000 empty seats on a Sunday afternoon in late September. Under the circumstances, this wasn’t much of a surprise. There are plenty of numbers one can use to describe the ’52 Braves, most of them bad. Boston’s […]

Still led by four pillars of their 1940s dynasty, the St. Louis Cardinals surged into first place in the National League in July 1950. But three losses in three days in Pittsburgh, punctuated by Jack Phillips’ game-winning ninth-inning pinch-hit grand slam on July 8, foreshadowed their subsequent fall from contention and final fadeout of the […]

New York’s reception of Roberto Alomar was the major storyline before the 1996 American League Championship Series. Despite spitting on an umpire on September 27, the Orioles’ second baseman was permitted to compete. New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani recommended silent protests to his upset constituents, while vowing that spectators caught heaving projectiles would be […]

After a successful inaugural season in 1943, the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) expanded into Milwaukee and Minneapolis.1 It soon became obvious that the move into larger metropolitan areas was a mistake, as both teams struggled to draw fans.2 The Minneapolis entry, which had been previously known as the Millerettes and Lakers, picked up […]

June 15, 1967, seemed like an unlikely day for the Houston Astros’ 25-year-old slugger Jimmy Wynn to make history. He wasn’t feeling very well, and consequently took only two turns in the batting cage in the mammoth Astrodome. “I’ve been feeling tired for three or four days,” he said.1 While his teammates finished BP and […]

The All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) had a grueling schedule.1 In its inaugural campaign, in 1943, teams shoehorned 108 regular-season games into a three-month period by playing seven days a week, with a Sunday doubleheader thrown in for good measure.2 Since each team carried only four or five hurlers on its 16-woman roster,3 top […]

This article appears in SABR’s “Puerto Rico and Baseball: 60 Biographies” (2017), edited by Bill Nowlin and Edwin Fernández.   Major-League Spring Training in Puerto Rico The 1936 Cincinnati Reds “The Cincinnati Reds put on the first major league baseball game in Puerto Rican history yesterday” was lead of an AP wire story on February […]

The Black Sox Scandal Research Committee aims to do, encourage, organize, and make accessible research that will increase our understanding of “baseball’s darkest hour” — the events surrounding the fixing of the 1919 World Series. 2019 Centennial Symposium: Listen to highlights from the SABR Black Sox Scandal Centennial Symposium, held on September 28, 2019, at […]

Circa turn of the Twentieth Century’s industrial post-war boom. An immigrant tide augurs writer Eric Goldman’s Metro-American. “The more people moved to the cities,” Bill Veeck observed, “enclosed parks moved the game downtown.” Self-interest led it where the action was. Slums, lumber yards, and vacant lots fell to baseball’s craze for cash.    By then, the […]