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The New York Mets were 4-4 nine days into the 1977 season. All of those wins had come from two of their starters, Tom Seaver and Nino Espinosa. The Chicago Cubs had arrived in town two days earlier, beating the Mets in the first game of their three-game series at Shea Stadium on April 15. […]

Granted, it was only the first week of the 1951 season, but the Washington Senators, perennial denizens of the American League second division, were perched atop the standings as they hosted the defending world champion New York Yankees on Saturday, April 21. The Senators were 4-0 with a pair of road wins at Philadelphia to […]

In the early part of 1927, the Midwest was bursting with anticipation as the baseball season segued from projections to facts delivered by daily sports accounts. By mid-April, pitching matchups, game summaries, and season standings would replace the “dreary box-scoreless winter” to provide “something in the newspapers.” Even an umpire might expect applause for one […]

On the third Sunday of April 1902, Toledo sheriff Charley Pierce waited at the Neil House, a landmark hotel in downtown Columbus, Ohio,1 for a guest who never arrived. Pierce was there, at the hotel where the American League’s Cleveland Blues would be spending the night,2 to execute a warrant for the arrest of Adrian […]

“The baseball rule makers made sweeping changes in the playing code of the national game today, and heaped so much additional duty and authority on the shoulders of the umpires that next season the officials will all have to take a rest cure before the season is half over.” – New York Times, February 10, […]

Sources agree that a mere 306 fans turned out for the game on Thursday afternoon, October 1, 1964, at Boston’s Fenway Park. It can stand as the lowest documented attendance of a game at the ballpark, though there was a game there in 1922 which the Chicago Tribune claimed drew only, precisely, 68.1 That number […]

In their first home opener, before 24,606 fans at yet-to-be-completed Metropolitan Stadium, the Minnesota Twins played from behind the entire game before tying it, 3-3, in the bottom of the eighth inning and then losing it when the expansion Washington Senators scored two runs in the top of the ninth inning. Both starters, Joe McClain […]

Over their first 70 seasons, Chicago White Sox fans saw some historic moments. Early on, they won two World Series, in 1906 and 1917. Two years after the latter, they suffered the most infamous Series loss ever, in 1919, when eight of their players took money to throw the Series to Cincinnati. The team’s fans […]

Walter O. Briggs was definitely old school. As the owner of the Detroit Tigers, he had long believed that the national pastime was meant to be played in the daytime. “Baseball belongs to the sun and the sun to baseball,” he argued.1 But the national pastime was entering a new era. Ever since May 24, […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in the June 2018 edition of the SABR Black Sox Scandal Research Committee Newsletter.   The Black Sox trial jury included, front row from left: Paul Luebke, Stephen Shuben, Harry Willis, William Barry (foreman), Joseph Vesely, bailiff H. Poppie; back row: bailiff James Gaul, John Schoenhofer, Edward Linman, […]

Who hits the ball and makes it go? Dominic DiMaggio. Who runs the bases fast, not slow? Dominic DiMaggio. Who’s better than his brother Joe? Dominic DiMaggio. But when it comes to gettin’ dough, They give it all to brother Joe. — Parody of Les Brown song, Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio It is easy to overlook […]

Third baseman Andy Carey had a turbulent Yankee career as one of Casey Stengel’s chosen whipping boys and an equally turbulent personal life. The most famous story about Carey, repeated in many books on Stengel’s dynasty, involves his “called shot.” In his favorite place to hit, Fenway Park, the Yankees were trailing the Red Sox […]

Standing only 5 feet 11 inches tall, Billy Wagner did not look the part of an intimidating closer and yet he was often mentioned in the same circles as the Yankees all-time closer Mariano Rivera. In fact, both closers entered games to the same song, Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” letting home fans know the game was […]

Patriarch of a three-generation big-league family, hard-hitting Negro Leaguer Sam Hairston played, coached, and scouted in pro baseball for over half a century. As a scout, Sam brought in at least five men who played for the Chicago White Sox, for whom he appeared briefly in 1951. Two of Sam’s three sons signed pro contracts […]

Until his fateful involvement in the plot to fix a World Series, Fred McMullin was known as the Chicago White Sox’ “lucky man.”1 His addition to the starting lineup coincided with late-season surges to win the American League pennant in 1917 and 1919. Today he is mostly thought of as the “forgotten man” – in […]

At spring training in 1921, Branch Rickey, vice president of the St. Louis Cardinals as well as the club’s field manager, was looking over the rookies in camp at Orange, Texas. Turning to veteran shortstop Doc Lavan, he said, “Tell that bat boy to get out of the infield.” Advised that the “bat boy” was […]

A perennial International League All Star, this “firebrand…of the Eddie Stanky mold”1 made only five plate appearances in the major leagues. Blocked from advancement by notables such as Bill Mazeroski and Dick Groat, Jack Damaska spent 17 years toiling in the minor leagues earning accolades from both teammates and opponents alike while also mentoring other […]

For nearly eighty years, Hub Kittle loved and studied pitching. He first realized that this was his calling when he was eight years old. He could outthrow all the neighborhood kids. “Something clicked there, that I had something the good Lord must have gave me. I don’t know why, I couldn’t outfight ’em and I […]

There have been two major-leaguers named Dixie Howell. Both were born in Kentucky, just four months apart in 1920. Homer Elliott Howell was a catcher who made it to The Show for 340 games from 1947 through 1956. Millard Howell, the subject of this story, pitched in the majors as early as 1940. He did […]

In just his third season in the major leagues, Carlos Baerga was a leader on the field. The Cleveland Indians second baseman broke into the big leagues as a third baseman in 1990. But he was moved to second, where he found a home. There was never a question about Baerga’s ability to hit. He […]

Slow Joe Doyle’s name is one that has escaped the darkness of obscurity and is now familiar to many baseball memorabilia collectors. In 1910, he was a struggling major league pitcher at a time when the American Tobacco Company was mass-producing collector cards. One card design with his likeness in an American League uniform appeared […]

The man who hit the first home run at Fenway Park was a native of North Grafton, Massachusetts: Hugh Frederick Bradley. Bradley’s parents were Joseph A. Bradley and Sarah Nutting Bradley and they celebrated his birth on May 23, 1885. Hugh had one brother, John E. Bradley, 11 years his junior. The first time we […]

Victor Starffin’s life reads like a Hollywood novel and, in a way, so do his pitching statistics …” — Richard Puff   It is highly probable that no professional baseball player — from any era, country or league — ever lived a more erratic, dramatic, and in the end tragic life than did the pitcher […]

Trying to throw a baseball as hard as you can from 60 feet, six inches and hitting a target 17 inches wide by approximately 24 inches high is hard enough as it is – but when that target is shrunk down to a height of less than three inches, it’s nearly impossible. That’s the task […]