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Righty reliever Kenny Greer’s 10-year career in pro ball featured two stints in the majors, in 1993 and 1995. In his big-league debut, he pitched a perfect 17th inning and got the win as the New York Mets scored the game’s lone run in the bottom half. His only other big-league decisions were both losses, […]

A fine major league pitcher for several years, Jim Brosnan wrote the first honest portrayal of the life of a baseball player. The Long Season and subsequent works have earned him continued praise ever since. His writings paved the way for many other players’ “autobiographies,” usually written with considerable help, and filled with more tawdriness […]

Bob Locker threw 879 innings in the major leagues. His career earned-run average was 2.75. Pitching for the White Sox in the mid-1960s, he was an ace for a bullpen that led the league in ERA for four straight years. Oakland manager Dick Williams deployed him as his designated rally-killer in 1971, when the A’s […]

Dominican infielder Luis Ortiz forged a life in baseball. He began his career in pro ball in 1991 with the Boston Red Sox organization and made it to the top level with Boston in 1993. He got into 60 big-league games for the Red Sox and Texas Rangers from 1993 through 1996. Then after a […]

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 […]

Bill McKinley was a steady, dependable American League umpire whose 20-season career, from 1946 to 1965, was marked by numerous highlights and one well-publicized low point. The highlights included four World Series assignments, three All-Star Games, five no-hitters—one behind the plate—and other historic moments. McKinley was working home plate in 1947 when Larry Doby of […]

For a man who spent much of his life on the road as a baseball scout, Patrick Francis “Pat” Colgan was well grounded in his adopted community, Carbondale, Pennsylvania. He served as vice president of Carbondale’s Columbia Hose Company No. 5 for more than a decade. He was also active in many other community organizations. […]

The son of a Chicago policeman, Golden Gloves boxer, and “bonus baby,” Jim O’Toole would become a confident, competitive and highly consistent member of the Reds starting rotation throughout the early 1960s. The lefty made significant contributions to his team’s success in two of the most dramatic seasons in Cincinnati’s long major-league history: 1961 – the […]

“Baseball is our way of life in the Amaro family,” said Rubén Amaro Sr. Four generations of Amaros have played professionally. Amaro’s father, Santos, had a long and distinguished career in Cuba and Mexico. His son, Rubén Amaro Jr., became a player, executive, and coach in the major leagues. Rubén Sr. was in the majors […]

Rising from the Chicago sandlots, Johnny Mostil joined the White Sox during the club’s darkest hour. It was no easy feat replacing the highly regarded Happy Felsch in center field, but Mostil was up to the task—establishing a reputation as one of the premier fly chasers in the majors. There is no telling what he […]

Bobby Roth, sometimes called Braggo, was an often insufferable self-promoter who bounced around among six American League teams in the years surrounding World War I, and was on the wrong side of two of the most lopsided trades of the Deadball Era. A player with diverse skills, Roth won a home run title and also […]

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 […]

Left-hander Ted Bowsfield spent seven seasons in the big leagues, initially signing with the Red Sox but later becoming arguably the best pitcher in the first year of Los Angeles Angels baseball. He later became director of stadium operations and team travel for the Angels, then head of the Kingdome in Seattle. Bowsfield was born […]

In a time before Super Bowls, when the Final Four was merely an afterthought in the sporting landscape, the World Series was truly the sporting event that the majority of Americans looked forward to each year. The ’48 series was no exception, as a nation checked in by radio, newspaper, and even on television (a […]

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 […]

With champion teams, history often remembers the stars and forgets the supporting cast. Joe Ostrowski was one of those overlooked contributors. As the New York Yankees won three straight World Series in 1950, 1951, and 1952, the bespectacled lefty control pitcher provided bullpen depth; he was the club’s primary reliever in 1951. Yet within a […]

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 […]

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 […]

In 1992 the Houston Astros finished fourth in the National League Western Division, with an 81-81 record. Determined to upgrade its starting pitching, the team made two major free-agent signings within a three-day span in December. First, on December 1, the Astros landed a former Cy Young award winner, right-hander Doug Drabek, for $4.25 million; […]

As the 1978 Los Angeles Dodgers prepared to host the Atlanta Braves in the third game of a four-game series on July 5, the Dodgers were on their way to a third National League pennant in the decade while the Braves were struggling to avoid the fate of another 100-loss season as had befallen them […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]