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Catcher Johnny Riddle had one of the more unusual careers in major-league history. His big-league career spanned 19 years, from his debut with the Chicago White Sox in 1930 until his final game with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1948. He played for five major-league teams, but he also spent long stretches of time in the minors, the […]

Right after the Shibe Park public address system announced, “Now batting for the Philadelphia Phillies, number 14, Del Ennis, left field,” either Gene Kelly or later Byrum Saam — both of whom did radio play-by-play for the Phillies — would say, “It’s Ding Dong Del” or “Here comes Ennis the Menace.” The radio listener could […]

“Big Bill” Brennan was a large man, weighing 235 pounds and standing 6-foot-2½. He had a loud voice and could be heard all over the ball field. Brennan’s voice served him well not only as an umpire, but also as a football coach at the University of Tennessee Medical College. Brennan was born on October […]

Brooklyn-born Mike Fiore was signed by the New York Mets on July 2, 1962, while he was still a 17-year-old student at Lafayette High School. He’d been the unanimous choice for all-city first baseman in the 1962 season, batting .476 with nine home runs. In three years of high school baseball, he had struck out […]

The casual fan of the game might know Ron Swoboda for “The Catch“ in the 1969 World Series, or for his home run heroics in a game against Hall of Famer Steve Carlton, or for Casey Stengel’s early summation: “He will be great, super, even wonderful. Now if he can only learn to catch a […]

How much can one person cram onto his resume? Lloyd Russell was born in rural Oklahoma. He exemplified the “American Dream,” going from humble beginnings to earn a doctorate from the University of Texas and became head of Baylor University’s Department of Health, Physical Education and Recreation. Along the way he was a stellar four-sport […]

Infielder Billy DeMars broke into professional baseball at age 17, had his career interrupted by service in the Navy during World War II, then came back and played parts of three seasons in the majors (80 games with the Athletics and Browns), and extended his minor-league career by turning to managing through 1968. He assigned […]

Two Long Islanders joined the Boston Red Sox in 1961: Carl Yastrzemski and Chuck Schilling. It was Schilling, a second baseman, who won the team’s MVP award that year. Of course, Yastrzemski went on to become a Hall of Famer and one of the most celebrated Red Sox ever, whereas Schilling’s big-league career ended after […]

The Charleroi, Pennsylvania Cemetery isn’t easy to find. The only access point is a steep, deteriorating road which transitions from asphalt to dirt ruts before its terminus. During inclement weather or even days after, the cemetery is inaccessible. However, if conditions are right and the road is clear, one will find the final resting places […]

Almost every scout considered him too short (5-feet-6½) to be a major-league pitching prospect. One scout was not deterred, however, and dared to sign the left-hander, setting off Bobby Shantz on a 16-year odyssey in the major leagues. Shantz reached the heights of success early in his career by winning the American League’s Most Valuable […]

Brooklyn–born Gennaro Joseph Casale, better known as Jerry, played 11 seasons in professional baseball beginning in 1952 and concluding in 1963. During a five-year stretch, from 1958-1962, he pitched for three major-league teams, a hard-throwing right-hander and recorded his best season in 1959 as a 13-8 rookie with the Boston Red Sox. Casale was a […]

Nellie Fox was the heart of the 1959 Go-Go White Sox, the team that brought Chicago’s South Side its first pennant since the tarnished Black Sox season 40 years earlier. The image of Little Nel in his batting stance has become iconic — a choked-up grip on his bottle bat with a wad of chewing […]

Seated at a table in a lower box seat among 33,535 fans at Ebbets Field,1 Red Barber was ready to make history. Television was one of the exhibits at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City, so NBC wanted the opportunity to broadcast a baseball game. A reader might wonder why the Brooklyn Dodgers? […]

In the waning days of December 1873, a small group of National Association executives known as the Championship Committee voted to award that season’s pennant to the Boston Red Stockings in a contentious 2-to-1 decision.1 The deciding vote was cast by Elias Hicks Hayhurst, a representative of the Philadelphia Athletics. In siding with fellow committeeman […]

On August 1, the 2000 trade deadline had come and gone, but in the final days of July, the Baltimore Orioles had dealt many starting players to other teams, including Mike Bordick, Harold Baines, Charles Johnson, B.J. Surhoff, and Will Clark, as well as relief pitcher Mike Timlin. Baltimore was sitting in fourth place in […]

On May 8, 1966, Sportsman’s Park hosted its last major-league baseball game. The venerable facility stood on grounds that had been in use for baseball since 1866. St. Louis’s first professional team played there in 1875. Over the years the Cardinals and their late intracity rival Browns shared the ballpark. It was the site of […]

Despite the loss to the Boston Red Sox in the 1946 World Series opener, Cardinals fans approached Game Two with enthusiasm. Thousands of unreserved seats were sold the morning of the game. Pregame entertainment — comprised Frank Miller’s 25-piece jazz band and a 77-year-old bricklayer from Ohio dancing behind home plate in a white linen […]

Many fathers refer to the birth of a child as one of their most memorable days. That was the case for shortstop Lennie Merullo on September 13, 1942, when his son Lennie Jr. was born. But it was also a day Merullo would just as soon forget, after he committed four errors in one inning […]

The Cincinnati Reds, trailing the Chicago Cubs 9-0 after eight innings in the first game of a September 26, 1912, doubleheader at Chicago’s West Side Park, scored 10 runs in the top of ninth. It would have been the greatest ninth-inning come-from-behind victory in major-league history – except that the Cubs scored two runs of […]

The Boston Red Sox and Colorado Rockies took wildly different paths to the 2007 World Series. From April 18 on, the Red Sox held first place in the AL East, never to be dislodged. The New York Yankees pressed them in September but finished two games back. Under manager Terry Francona, Boston’s 96-66 record tied […]

The 1967 baseball season was winding down, with less than 25 games to go. On Wednesday, September 6, half of the 10 American League teams were in the thick of a tight pennant race. The dark-horse California Angels (72-66) were in fifth place, trailing the league-leading Minnesota Twins (78-60) by six games. Sandwiched between those […]

The Polo Grounds had been an important part of the New York sports scene since its original use in the nineteenth century as a field for polo players and then, in several different incarnations, as a home for professional baseball. The park “opened for baseball use September 29, 1880”1 and over the years a number […]

This Sunday-afternoon game in Chicago has a Shakespearean plot. Its twists and turns began 75 years prior and they continue today as a trivial footnote. It reads like a game from the Deadball Era: “Player/manager goes 2-for-5 — game suspended due to darkness.” It’s something young fans would be puzzled by today, along with myriad […]

When the hot and humid morning of Tuesday, July 11, 1972, dawned in Detroit, the Tigers found themselves hanging onto a slim one-game division lead over the reigning World Series champion Baltimore Orioles, who were in the midst of a five-game losing streak that had coughed up their hold on first place just a couple […]