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Many believe that spitballer Frank Shellenback had his major-league career stolen from him when his key pitch was outlawed. In 1920 the National Commission did away with trick deliveries, including the spitball — and Shellenback’s team, the Chicago White Sox, for whom he had pitched in 1918 and 1919, didn’t list his name among those […]
Once described as “a stocky mild-mannered man who cut his teeth on a baseball bat,” John Holland spent 30 years in professional baseball as a front office executive for the Chicago Cubs at the minor- and major-league levels.1 He continued the legacy of his father Jack Holland, who had played minor-league baseball from 1896 to […]
Chicago Cubs fans who are old enough will remember Walt Moryn as the blond, 6-foot-2, 205-pound Minnesota native who roamed the Cubs outfield from 1956 to 1960. The burly, left-handed-hitting slugger, known affectionately as “Moose,” averaged 20 home runs a season for a team that never won as many games as it lost. For most […]
There is a picture of the 1882 St. Louis Browns, one of the inaugural teams in the American Association and the forerunner of today’s St. Louis Cardinals. On the absolute left of the group, a mature Jumbo McGinnis stands, arms crossed, one leg thrust forward, chest back, staring confidently at the camera. He is a […]
Catcher/first baseman Don Pavletich broke into the big leagues on April 20, 1957, but had to wait until April 29, 1962 — a little more than five years — before he got his first base hit. He was only 18 at the time of his debut with the Cincinnati Redlegs. Just a couple of months […]
Many players spend their entire playing careers hoping for the opportunity to play in a World Series. Some players get to play in one World Series, while even fewer get to play in two World Series. But Possum Whitted not only played in two World Series, he did it in consecutive years for different teams. […]
Bill Renna was a journeyman outfielder who played in 370 games over six seasons for four American League teams. He batted over .300 for the Yankees, served as a backup for Boston’s Ted Williams, and in 1954 led the league in turning double plays as a right-fielder. His career, Rich Marazzi once wrote, was “a […]
The Yankees grabbed all the headlines in 1961. Roger Maris set the new single-season home run record with 61. Mickey Mantle hit 54 home runs himself and was neck and neck with Maris for much of the year. Maris and Mantle finished first and second in the American League MVP voting, respectively, and the team […]
On February 4, 1921, Carl “Babe” Holling was arrested for burglary of a San Francisco apartment … while holding his first major-league contract in his pocket.1 After charges were eventually dropped, the pitcher parlayed his two years with the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League into being one of a bumper crop of California […]
At 15 Victor Rodriguez started playing competitive adult baseball against men twice his age. Before the season was over, he was a minor leaguer with the Baltimore Orioles. He spent parts of two seasons in the major leagues and played in Organized Baseball for 19 years. Victor Manuel Rodriguez was born on July 14, 1961, […]
Right-handed pitcher Bennett Flowers worked in 76 major-league games, starting 13 of them, for four different teams over four seasons. He compiled a record of 3-7 with a 4.49 earned run average, earning one win per season in the years 1953, 1955, and 1956. In a lengthy 13-year minor-league career, he was 121-118 (3.51). Flowers […]
His name was Nicholas Dominic Dallessandro, but his nickname is in our databases as “Dim Dom.” Was he mentally challenged? Kind of dim? Not at all. He was vertically challenged, standing 5-feet-5, and so many newspapers referred to him as “diminutive Dom Dallessandro” that he attracted the nickname “Dim Dom Dal.”1 He was one of […]
Known as “Gentleman Jim” and the “Ice Man,” Tennessee native Jim Hickman toiled for six years in the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization before the newly formed New York Mets selected him in the 1962 expansion draft. While the Mets compiled a 260-547 record under managers Casey Stengel and Wes Westrum, Hickman had his share of […]
At the Pirates’ minor-league pitching camp in 1970, Harding Peterson, the team’s minor-league director, told two pitching prospects to abandon their side-arm pitching delivery. Fortunately neither listened, as each would become a Pirate World Series hero, with Bruce Kison starring in 1971 and Kent Tekulve in 1979 with the “We Are Family” champs. During offseason […]
Arm and wrist strength were Jesse Barfield’s calling cards. Over 12 major-league seasons (1981-1992) with the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees, the two-time Gold Glove right-fielder’s throwing arm was so powerful that he gunned down 162 baserunners. His swing produced a home run every 19.7 at-bats, including an American League-leading 40 in 1986, […]
Rare is the player in major-league history who, after being part of a World Series winner, joins an equally great team in another profession in his post-baseball life. Pitcher Byron Houck provides such an example. He was part of the Philadelphia Athletics’ championship staff in 1913, but his major-league career soon faded away. A decade […]
Controversy and contrast defined Scott Perry’s brief major-league career. In 1918, his first full season, the Boston Braves and Philadelphia Athletics battled for his services, exposing the increasing inability of Organized Baseball to govern itself in the pre-commissioner era. Philadelphia retained Perry, and he produced a memorable rookie effort, becoming one of only seven pitchers […]
Through the 2021 season, 29 of the 30 major-league teams have started a shortstop from the Dominican Republic on Opening Day at least once.1 Fifty-two different Dominican-born shortstops have achieved the feat, including 15 who became All-Stars the same year, four Gold Glove winners, and one MVP.2 Only Rafael Robles of the 1969 San Diego […]
Shortstop Greg “Moe” Mulleavy played 78 games for the White Sox and one for the Red Sox – but enjoyed 20 years in the minor leagues. His father, Thomas, was a machinist in a Detroit automobile factory, having moved from Canada to the United States in 1903 with his wife, Bertha Freytag Mulleavy. Gregory was […]
Adrian Beltré may be the least well known of players to reach the 3,000-hit plateau this millenium. His 21-year career mostly stayed under the radar nationally because he played in only one World Series. But his relative anonymity masks a superlative career. As of 2022, he was one of just five players with 3,000 hits, […]
In 1964 Connie Mack Stadium was described as a “sprawling network of steel and concrete, hemmed in by a drab, dreary, fraying residential district”1 Nevertheless, 26,381 spectators jammed into the stadium on a Saturday afternoon for Knothole Day, a promotion where free tickets were given to kids 14 and under (the paid attendance was only […]
The Chicago White Sox entered a Memorial Day weekend series having just swept the California Angels in a three-game series at Comiskey Park. As a result, Chicago increased its lead in the American League West to 3½ games. There was a logjam of three teams in second place: the Angels, Minnesota, and Oakland. In the […]
On a hot and sweltering Sunday afternoon, the New York Giants played the St. Louis Cardinals in the second game of a doubleheader after blowing an 11-0 fourth-inning lead in the first game and losing 14-12 as the Cardinals orchestrated an improbable comeback. Would the Giants be able to rebound after such a defeat? That […]
Things weren’t looking that good for the Red Sox heading into the bottom of the ninth. It was the home opener of the 1952 season at Boston’s Fenway Park. Jimmy Dykes and his Philadelphia Athletics held a 4-1 lead. Right-hander Bob Hooper was dealing. He’d allowed seven scattered hits and walked three, but the Red […]