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Just five months before Cleveland’s Ray Chapman was hit on the head and killed by a pitch, Chick Fewster had his own brush with death. It was during spring training, in March of 1920. He was in his fourth season with the New York Yankees, still hoping to become a regular but coming off a […]

The career of Henry “Hunky” Hines spanned more than 20 years, from 1887 at the age of 19 through 1910 at the age of 42.1 His career took him from Minneapolis to St. Louis, and from Brooklyn to Oakland. When he was signed to play for the club in Davenport, Iowa, in 1903, the Davenport […]

Wealthy and able, Edwin A. McAlpin was a man of many interests: family, commerce, Republican Party politics, the New York State National Guard, the Presbyterian Church, and the American Boy Scouts (an early rival of the Boy Scouts of America). For a relatively brief period beginning in 1889, McAlpin also took an active part in […]

“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” […]

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, […]

Known as Piano Legs and Cheerful Charlie, the ponderous clubber Charlie Hickman possessed one of the Deadball Era’s most potent bats. In 1903 the 5’9″, 215-pound Hickman hit one ball 100 feet over the left field fence at Cleveland’s League Park, and another completely out of New York’s Hilltop Park. “If we had the lively […]

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 […]

“You can’t win ’em all.” It’s said with a shrug, a human acknowledgement that nobody goes undefeated, that nobody is perfect, that even if you do everything possible sometimes you will lose. The origin of this phrase could be Connie Mack after the 1916 Philadelphia A’s went 36-117. But it could also be from Cliff […]

It is largely forgotten that Larry Jansen was the winning pitcher when Bobby Thomson hit his “Shot Heard Round the World” to dramatically win the 1951 pennant in the Polo Grounds. Indeed, without Jansen, it is highly unlikely that the Giants would have even been in the playoff against the Brooklyn Dodgers. With 23 victories […]

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 […]

Infielder Owen Friend played in parts of five major-league seasons, appearing in 208 total games, with 119 of them for the 1950 St. Louis Browns. Scout Fred Hofmann signed him to the Browns in 1943, and he more or less began playing for his hometown team. Of course, the Cardinals would have qualified on that […]

Like many businessmen in the aftermath of the 1929 stock market crash, legendary Philadelphia Athletics manager Connie Mack took a beating financially and, as a result, he dealt his star outfielder Roger “Doc” Cramer to the Boston Red Sox. Cramer joined other Athletics stars such as Lefty Grove and Jimmie Foxx in the exodus to Boston, […]

On graduation day in 1954, San Diego High School star athlete Floyd Robinson was signed personally by Bill “Chick” Starr, the owner of the Pacific Coast League San Diego Padres, for a reported $500 bonus.1 He appeared in three games — two in the outfield. He was 3-for-6 at the plate, and handled all eight […]

Best known as the third baseman banned from Organized Baseball for his knowledge of the 1919 World Series fix in which he did not participate, Buck Weaver spent most of his nine-year major-league career as a shortstop, only converting full time to the third sack in 1917. Initially a right-handed batter, Weaver learned to switch-hit […]

Baseball card #186 in the 1967 Topps set seems in retrospect like a victory of hope over reality. The card shows New York Mets teammates Ed Kranepool and Ron Swoboda, hitters known more for their power potential than their actual production, kneeling with bats in a spring-training setting above the headline “METS MAULERS.” First baseman […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Dave “Boo” Ferriss, an ex-G. I. discharged from the Army Air Corps in February 1945, began his major league career with an astonishing eight consecutive wins in 1945. The start of his career was as unlikely as any player before him, since he had minimal time as a professional player prior to his debut.1 In […]

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 […]

“Bender’s control, his absolute mastery over the batters and his speed were almost ideal,” gushed the Philadelphia Inquirer about Charles Bender’s no-hitter, the first in the history of Shibe Park.1 Cleveland Naps batters were “Benderized and hypnotized” by the Athletics hurler, opined the Cleveland Plain Dealer, noting in the racially insensitive parlance of the era […]

On Monday, March 23, 2026, members of the Larry Dierker Chapter gathered at the Spaghetti Western restaurant in Houston for our monthly meeting. Our special guest speakers were Rob Sheinkopf and Mike Vance.   Click here to watch a replay of this meeting on YouTube: https://youtu.be/372eMXUXMpA Our main speaker for the evening was Rob Sheinkopf, who […]

As a founding franchise of the American League, at least in its major-league incarnation, the Boston club has had its share of colorful and fascinating owners. Though the club enjoyed considerable on-field success at the beginning of each century, it is perhaps most famous for its 86-year championship drought, a period dominated by its most […]