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Tom Alston tried to hit big-league pitching while hearing voices, battling chronic fatigue, and carrying the weight of being a racial pioneer in a Jim Crow city. Alston, the first African-American player for the St. Louis Cardinals, spent most of his life in torment and poverty. He never escaped the grip of mental illness that […]

Ramón Avilés was frequently written off as a good-field, no-hit infielder with little chance of making it in the major leagues. Not only did he reach the majors with the Boston Red Sox (1977) and Philadelphia Phillies (1979-81), he became a valuable backup for the Phillies as they won the 1980 World Series. He contributed […]

In 1915, the Baltimore Sun said Bill Kay is “unquestionably the greatest hitter of his time in minor league baseball.”1 A “line-drive slasher”2 in the Deadball Era, he averaged .335 in his minor-league career.3 He won four batting titles in the New York State League and peaked at .378 with Binghamton in 1915. Considered a […]

“Honolulu Johnny” Williams was the first man from Hawaii to play in the majors — he was born in 1889, when the islands were still a kingdom. The righty pitched in four games with the Detroit Tigers in 1914. Williams was also one-quarter Hawaiian on his mother’s side, making him the first big-leaguer with Asian […]

Through one lens, John Upham’s baseball career was brief and injury-riddled. Through another, he was a super athlete who excelled in three sports in school and was a rare talent who could hit, run, field, and pitch at the major-league level. He came to the plate 13 times over 21 games and batted .308 for […]

Tom Hayes is a footnote in baseball history. To the extent that he is remembered at all, it is for selling 19-year-old Willie Mays to the New York Giants and setting him on his path to immortality. However, in his time, this shrewd, gruff man was a towering figure, a pioneer whose impact in the […]

It was Ted Williams who dubbed Bobby Doerr “the silent captain of the Red Sox” and a more down-to-earth Hall of Famer might be hard to find. A career Red Sox player, Doerr’s fame enjoyed a resurgence in 2004 with the publication of David Halberstam’s book about him and his famous teammates.1  Born in the city of […]

He terrorized teammates with snakes. He tossed firecrackers under benches and into bullpens. He was a master of the fine art of the hotfoot. Often forgotten is that Moe Drabowsky could pitch a little, too. In a 17-year major-league career with eight teams, it was his two stints with the Orioles that brought him lasting […]

“I’m sure God never meant me to be a ball player,” Taft Wright said. “If he had, I wouldn’t be built so close to the ground and always worrying about my weight and being muscle bound.”1 Sportswriters called him “Fat Wright” and “Round Man.”2 Wright was a born designated hitter — born decades too soon. […]

Paul Sorrento was with the Cleveland Indians for four seasons, during which they rose from fourth place (76-86) in 1992 at dingy old Cleveland Stadium (nicknamed “the Mistake by the Lake”) to first place (100-44) in 1995 at their new ballpark, Jacobs Field. Paul Anthony Sorrento was born on November 17, 1965, in Somerville, Massachusetts, […]

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 […]

Until Rickey Henderson donned New York Yankee pinstripes in 1985, Fritz Maisel’s 74 stolen bases had been the franchise’s single-season record for 71 years. The diminutive Maisel, nicknamed “The Catonsville Flash” for his Maryland hometown, spent all or parts of six seasons (1913-1918) with the Yankees and St. Louis Browns. For 57 years he was […]

“Joey is extremely smart. He’s great with figures and crossword puzzles. He could spell backwards when he was five. Did you know my Joey was an Eagle Scout? He took French in high school, finished sixth in his class of 266. I brought him up to excel in everything. He wants to be perfect.” — […]

On July 4, 1939, between games of a doubleheader at Yankee Stadium, nearly 42,000 baseball fans sat quietly in the stands waiting for their team’s first baseman to address the crowd. It was Lou Gehrig Appreciation Day, something that sounds like, and perhaps should have been, a happy occasion. But it wasn’t. A few weeks […]

By any reasonable standard, Cardell Camper was a successful athlete. Although his major league career consisted of only three appearances for the 1977 Cleveland Indians, the right-handed pitcher posted a winning record over 10 seasons in professional baseball after lettering in four sports during high school. Later in life, Camper found what he called “true […]

A baseball lifer, Wayne Terwilliger found himself with more notoriety at age 80 than he had garnered in his previous 56 seasons in Organized Baseball combined when he agreed to return for the 2005 season as manager of the Fort Worth Cats in the independent Central League.1 In doing so, he joined the legendary Connie […]

“I got traded for him and now he’s my insurance broker,” said Bill Buckner in 2011.1 Buckner was recalling a January 1977 trade when the Los Angeles Dodgers sent both him and Ivan de Jesus to the Chicago Cubs for Mike Garman, Rick Monday, and a minor-leaguer. Buckner settled in Boise after his baseball career; […]

Walter Johnson was on a roll of historic proportions as he prepared for his final start of the season. Beginning with his three-hit shutout against the New York Yankees in the second game of a doubleheader on September 5 for his 30th victory of the season, the Washington Senators hurler had yielded only two earned […]

The story of General Abner Doubleday inventing baseball as a young man in Cooperstown, New York, has long been recognized as apocryphal, a creation myth fashioned as proof that baseball is wholly American. Baseball historians agree that the sport was being played long before Doubleday purportedly came on the scene in 1839. Another Union general […]

It’s not so much what Ernie Banks did on Thursday, September 17, 1953. Rather, it’s what the game meant to the Chicago Cubs’ franchise and major league baseball in general. The 22-year-old Dallas, Texas, native went hitless in three at-bats, scored one run, and made an error at shortstop in his major league debut. The […]

When the Florida Marlins and Chicago Cubs met for the second game of a late June three-game series, both teams were far off the pace in their respective divisions. Each had come into the season projected to finish fifth, the Marlins in the five-team NL East, the Cubs in the six-team NL Central. Approaching the […]

Shea Stadium was packed for Game Two of the 2006 National League Division Series. The Mets had won the first game behind two “rookies.” John Maine was in his first season with the Mets. He stepped up and pitched 4 1/3 solid innings in the Mets victory. The other “rookie” was Carlos Delgado. The 34-year old finally played in […]

Ten weeks into his rookie season, Sandy Koufax finally made his long-awaited debut. Brooklyn’s $20,000 bonus baby1 had missed most of March with a sore back,2 and then the 19-year-old left-hander had a disastrous outing in an exhibition game against Brooklyn’s Double-A affiliate, the Fort Worth Cats, on April 3.3 Two weeks later, before Brooklyn’s […]

This article was published in the SABR Black Sox Scandal Research Committee’s December 2025 newsletter.   A 1919 Chicago White Sox team photo includes three young boys without baseball uniforms: two batboys at the far left and a clubhouse boy called “Sharkey” sitting on the ground with Eddie Collins’s hands on his shoulders. The two […]