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Richard Jackson,1 nicknamed “Workie,” began playing baseball in the black textile leagues in South Carolina, and had a ten-year career as an infielder in the Negro Leagues. During his professional career he played in Atlantic City; New York; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Baltimore; and Darby, Pennsylvania. Primarily known as a hitter, he was also known for his […]

Robert Lee “Bob” Oliver played baseball with the Kansas City Royals in 1969, their inaugural season, getting his first real opportunity to show off his baseball skills at the age of 26. He toiled in the minor-league systems of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Minnesota from 1963 to 1968, receiving a cup of coffee with the […]

Wes Westrum was a superb defensive catcher for the New York Giants in New York City’s post-World War II golden years (1946-1957), when the Yankees, Dodgers, and Giants won 17 of 24 pennants and nine of 12 World Series. Westrum was selected to the National League All-Star team in 1952 and 1953 and caught all […]

One of the more obscure players in Red Sox history, Eusebio Gonzalez was the first foreign-born Latino to play for the Bosox. Eusebio Miguel Gonzalez Lopez was born in Havana, Cuba on July 13, 1892. Batting right and throwing right, he was an infielder listed as 5’10” with a playing weight of 165 pounds. Gonzalez […]

George Scott’s professional baseball career spanned 41 years beginning in Class-D ball at Olean of the New York-Penn League in 1962. His travels were highlighted by his 14 seasons in the majors, starting with the Boston Red Sox in 1966. Scott also played for Milwaukee 1972-1976, Boston 1977-1978, and split his final year between Boston, […]

During the Deadball Era, it wasn’t all that unusual for a local sandlot player to get a shot at playing in the major leagues with his hometown team. So it was with Bert Yeabsley, a two-sport standout on the fields of Philadelphia, who found himself on the 1919 Philadelphia Phillies Opening Day roster. His major […]

Versatility can be both a blessing and a curse. Larry Kimbrough came to the Negro Leagues with the reputation of being both a switch-hitter and a switch-pitcher. Early in his career he faced the Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Stars in an exhibition game and held them to two hits until the fourth inning, when they exploded for […]

Certainly there were easier scenarios than facing Bob Gibson for one’s first major-league appearance, but the Milwaukee Braves’ Mack Jones made his debut on July 13, 1961, in St. Louis look like child’s play. His four consecutive hits, including a run-scoring double in his second at-bat, tied a National League record and reinforced the can’t-miss […]

In October 1919 Joe Jenkins found himself embroiled in the Black Sox Scandal, the fixing of that year’s World Series by eight of his Chicago White Sox teammates. It was the biggest black eye in baseball’s history. Yet Jenkins, who didn’t make an appearance in the World Series, couldn’t even claim bragging rights within his […]

Morrie Rath’s life could have been a Hollywood movie – the type of movie where the lead character keeps getting back up after getting knocked down. And for Rath’s movie, the final scene would have played out on October 1, 1919, during the first game of the infamous 1919 World Series. On the biggest stage […]

Catcher Russell “Hack” Ennis played in one major-league baseball game. Though he did not get to bat, he was behind the plate when Ty Cobb got his last hit in a Detroit Tigers uniform. On September 19, 1926, with his Washington Senators ahead, 7-6, Ennis entered in the bottom of the ninth inning of the […]

In sports, college or professional, individual or team, nothing captures a fan’s interest quite like a streak. This is especially true with baseball. Whether it is a team’s winning or losing streak or a player’s performance within the chalked lines, the fanfare and pressure may build each day. The fervent fan or even the uninformed […]

There was never an Alex Grammas question on Family Feud. However, if Richard Dawson, the late and long-time host of the popular game show, were to have asked a hundred of his contemporaries how they remembered Grammas, the survey would invariably point to three answers: flawless fielding, excellence as a third-base coach, and his Hellenic […]

Right-handed-hitting outfielder Ken Hunt and one-time major-league single-season home-run leader Roger Maris1 were boyhood friends while growing up in Grand Forks, North Dakota. After the Maris family moved to nearby Fargo, the two all-around athletes were high-school sports rivals. During Hunt’s senior year in football, his team lost one game, a 7-6 setback to Fargo […]

Jimmy Piersall played 20 years of professional baseball, including parts of 17 in the major leagues. He is best known for his nervous breakdown and hospitalization during his rookie season of 1952, an ordeal that led to a best-selling autobiography and two movies. Few could have imagined in 1952 that Piersall would have 15 years […]

Gary Kroll, a hard-throwing right-hander who once pitched 20 consecutive hitless innings in the minors, made his big-league debut for the Philadelphia Phillies on July 26, 1964. Less than two weeks later, the 22-year-old pitcher was gone, traded to the New York Mets for 35-year-old slugger Frank Thomas. Kroll had been regarded as a tremendous […]

Opening Day, at least as far as the Washington Senators were concerned, was Walter Johnson’s private domain. Johnson made his first Opening Day start for the Senators in 1910, shutting out the Philadelphia Athletics, 3-0. In the next 15 years, Johnson missed only three Opening Day nods, and won five straight openers between 1913 and […]

Henry Aaron retired with an NL-record 16 grand slams. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   In late June of 1967, Grady Hatton’s Houston Astros rolled into Fulton County prepared to square off against Billy Hitchcock’s Atlanta Braves in a two-game set. As the series opened Atlanta was tied with the San Francisco Giants for fifth place in the […]

By most measures, the game wasn’t important. It was the last of the season, played on a sunny Sunday afternoon before 5,779 fans at Arlington Stadium. No matter the outcome, the Texas Rangers were assured of their best record in franchise history and second place in the American League West. The visiting Oakland A’s, three […]

Luis Tiant had led the majors with a 1.91 ERA in 1972 but his 1973 season got off to a rocky start. The Yankees were in town and they went to town, scoring three runs in the top of the first inning. A single, followed by a strike ’em out, throw ’em out double play, sore-armed […]

The fireworks arrived a few days before the Fourth of July. On Wednesday, July 2, 1947, the Brooklyn Dodgers blasted the New York Giants, 11-3, in the first of a four-game series at Ebbets Field to gain sole possession of first place in the National League. The next day, the Giants exploded with five home […]

Seven times before 1953, Ted Williams had hit home runs on August 19. The one he hit this Wednesday afternoon at Boston’s Fenway Park was his 327th career home run. He had previously hit homers number 18, 49, 78, 79, 80, 117, and 319 on August 19. This home run provided the run that won […]

The team that was the last to integrate had been – 26 years earlier – the first to field a native of Mexico in the major leagues. The team was the Boston Red Sox, who took until 1959 to field a Black ballplayer – Pumpsie Green. In 1933, however, when Baldomero Melo “Mel” Almada took […]

Time was running out for the Detroit Tigers to keep the Chicago White Sox from running away with the 1919 pennant. Ten years after manager Hughie Jennings took his Tigers to their last World Series, their third straight appearance and third straight loss in the fall classic, he knew his team had a narrow margin […]