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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 […]

San Francisco Bay Area native Tim Cullen signed with the A’s during spring training in 1972, returning to the region where he had been a two-sport star in high school and helped Santa Clara University become the nation’s top-ranked college baseball team. He did not play in the 1972 World Series and retired after the […]

Team captain Sal Bando was the glue that held the volatile Oakland A’s together during their three-year run as World Series champions (1972-1974). Respected by teammates, peers, and his managers, Bando was Oakland’s unequivocal leader, a durable, rough-and-tumble third baseman who averaged 23 home runs and 90 runs batted in over an eight-year span in […]

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 […]

Before the Wizard of Oz, the St. Louis Cardinals had Mr. Shortstop. Marty Marion never turned a backflip, but he was the National League’s premier defensive shortstop in the 1940s and is the only man to win a Most Valuable Player award with his glove. No Scooter or Rabbit or Pee Wee, he was a […]

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 […]

“Giants Slain By Mere Boy,” was the headline of the October 10, 1913 edition of the Boston Globe, reporting on 20-year old Joe Bush’s defeat of John McGraw’s New York Giants and their 22-game winner, Jeff Tesreau, that paved the way for the Philadelphia Athletics’ World Championship that year. Bush, known as “Bullet Joe,” became […]

John Kennedy listed two goals when he completed a questionnaire for statistician William J. Weiss in 1951: “To become a major leaguer & one of the greatest.” Kennedy completed his first goal. He earned a roster spot as a shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1957, becoming the first African American member of the team. […]

Outfielder George Leidy is “as fine a fielder as ever went after a ball, as well as a splendid hitter.” – Birmingham News, 19011 “I owe George Leidy more than any other man in baseball for training given me when I needed it most.” – Ty Cobb, 19212   A career minor-leaguer, George Leidy was […]

A journeyman in the best sense of the word, Kent Mercker made his name over the course of an 18-season career as a young, hard-throwing left-hander in the Atlanta Braves’ bullpen before moving to the back end of the Braves’ dream rotation in the mid-1990s that featured future Hall of Famers Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, […]

Bob Peterson moved from one stage to another, with a life working in theatrical staging and one on the stage of baseball. His father likely led the way in the theater. In Philadelphia, George W. Peterson worked in theater in 1900 and was listed as a stage manager in 1910. By the time of the […]

“I think I was put on this earth to be a coach.”1 “Have you ever had an itch you can’t scratch? Athletes have one for life, a ‘jock’s itch’ that a ton of Tinactin won’t cure.”2 So writes Tom House, former left-handed pitcher who, after he retired from baseball, went on to pursue graduate studies. […]

In 1964 Robert Carpenter, the Philadelphia Phillies president and owner, declared, “Granny Hamner was the best clutch hitter we ever had.”1 During professional baseball’s 1969 centennial celebration, fans honored Hamner as the Phillies’ all-time greatest shortstop. These combined tributes seemingly describe a blissful, long-term relationship between player and team, but that was not to be. Gran […]

Babe Martin was born Boris Michael Martinovich, the son of a professional wrestler, Iron Mike Martin (a/k/a Bryan Martinovich). Both of Boris’ parents — Mitar and Vidosava Martinovich — were born in parts of the former Yugoslavia, his father in Montenegro and his mother in Serbia. They each emigrated to the United States and settled […]

When even the most casual baseball fan envisions a first baseman, they conjure an image that looks a lot like Ryan Howard. In other words, a surprisingly athletic, imposing 6-foot-4, 250-pound frame that looks more natural at defensive tackle than on the baseball diamond. For a time, Howard’s production was the pinnacle of that prototypical […]

Right-handed knuckleball pitcher Al Papai earned many more accolades serving four years in the United States Army during World War II than he did in four years of appearances in major-league baseball. He was one of the 11 children of Illinois coal miner Victor Papai and his wife, Mary, the former Marie Pongracz. Both were […]

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, […]

The surprising Senators, riding a three-game losing streak, entered the May 12 game tied for fourth place in the American League with a 14-14 record, four games behind the front-running Cleveland Indians. The Tigers, winners of four straight and seven of their last eight under new manager Jimmy Dykes, were 9-16, 6½ games off the […]

For Atlanta Braves ace Greg Maddux, his long-awaited World Series debut was a chance to shake off a reputation of playoff futility for himself and his team. For the Cleveland Indians, it was a chance to shake off the rust from a 41-year postseason drought. For major-league baseball, it was a welcome respite from the […]

Don Black reached the end of the line in Philadelphia. A’s manager Connie Mack was a patient man. But the Tall Tactician had his limits. For Don Black was an alcoholic. It was a disease that Black could not control, and like all diseases, there were residual effects that were equally damaging. Black showed promise […]

For a few days in May 1983, news outlets in Rochester, New York, buzzed about the possibility that Hollywood star Robert Redford might film his adaptation of Bernard Malamud’s The Natural at Rochester’s venerable ballpark, Silver Stadium.1 The movie is widely remembered for a scene in which fictional slugger Roy Hobbs knocks out the lights […]

Before Jackie Robinson had been in the National League a month, some observers were ready to write him off and declare baseball’s “great experiment”1 a failure. “There is no assurance that Jackie Robinson will continue as [the Brooklyn Dodgers’] first baseman,” sportswriter Lou Smith informed readers of the Cincinnati Enquirer hours before Robinson’s first appearance […]