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In addition to his seemingly unbreakable streak of 2,632 consecutive games played, the illustrious 21-year career of Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. included a Rookie of the Year Award, two Most Valuable Player Awards, 19 consecutive All-Star Game appearances, eight Silver Slugger Awards, and two Gold Glove Awards. In 1983 he led the major […]

The University of Texas Longhorns arrived at the 1972 College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, as an established force in college baseball with a chance to win the tournament. In contrast, the University of Connecticut Huskies’ arrival for their first Series berth since 1965 went largely unnoticed.1 But anything can happen in a single game. […]

Clark Griffith was prescient. At the end of the 1914 season, with the Philadelphia A’s advancing to represent the American League in the World Series, the Washington Senators manager told reporters, “The best ball club in the game today will not take part in the coming world’s series.”1 He gave that distinction to the Boston […]

Father and son managers Danny and Tim Murtaugh both had challenging seasons in 1976. But their difficulties faded for one night at the start of July, when the Murtaughs faced off in a two-generation manager matchup during an exhibition game. In what was reported to be their first head-to-head battle, Danny’s Pittsburgh Pirates took the […]

On August 22, 1886—a Sunday afternoon in Louisville, Kentucky—fans were treated to one of the most exciting games of the American Association season. What happened that day involving Abner Powell of the Cincinnati Reds and Jimmy “Chicken” Wolf of the Louisville Colonels is immortalized in baseball history on such twenty-first century sites as Baseball Almanac.1 […]

The headline writer for the front page of a daily newspaper is challenged to provide the reader with glimpses of tragedy and joy, victory and defeat, worry and elation, all appropriately befitting the day’s news. When Pittsburgh awoke on the morning of July 26, 1956, the headline spread across the front page of the Pittsburgh […]

Bob Friend’s place in baseball history is firmly linked to his 15 seasons as a Pittsburgh Pirate. Pitching in the Smoky City from 1951 through 1965, the right-hander won 191 games, made four All-Star Game appearances, won the 1955 National League ERA title, and was a workhorse starter for the Pirates team that won the […]

At 3 P.M. on Tuesday, August 9, 1977, and then again at 4,1 baseball fans living in the area of Sherbrooke, Quebec, heard a mysterious message interrupt the French-language broadcast of that afternoon’s San Diego Padres-Montreal Expos game on radio station CHLT.2 “This is a message of special public interest,” radio newsman Richard Desmarais cut […]

Rafael Palmeiro and Rich Becker were Baltimore Orioles teammates in 1998, but the similarities ended there. Palmeiro had signed as a free agent after the 1993 season and was finishing a five-year span in Baltimore in which he hit 182 home runs with 553 RBIs. Becker had been designated for assignment by the New York […]

Did outfielder Joe Riggert actually manage even before he began his 20 year career as a player? If nothing else, he seems to have managed in his first season. His career began started in 1909 with seven games for the Abilene Red Sox in the Central Kansas League; he hit .375 in the very small […]

Though Thomas Austin Brewer Jr. was a lifelong resident of Cheraw, South Carolina, he was born in North Carolina on September 3, 1931.1 Cheraw lies in the northern part of South Carolina and was a town of a few thousand inhabitants in 1931 so it happens that the nearest hospital was in Wadesboro, North Carolina, […]

Those Americans who grew up in the Great Depression, went to fight in World War II, returned home, and went to work bringing the country back to life are now called, thanks to Tom Brokaw, the “Greatest Generation.” Such a man was James Bartholomew Prendergast — who also happened to play professional baseball. He worked […]

After tossing a complete-game victory in a one-game tryout with the Chicago Cubs in 1913, Doc Watson’s ticket was stamped for the minors again in 1914. But instead of returning to the small stage, Watson violated his reserve clause and jumped to the “outlaw” Federal League, where he pitched for both the Chicago Chi-Feds/Whalers and […]

He’s been termed a “reluctant pioneer.” All Pumpsie Green wanted to do was play professional baseball. He didn’t even aspire to the major leagues at first, and would have been content playing for his hometown Oakland Oaks in the Pacific Coast League. That said, Pumpsie Green took pride in the fact that he helped accomplish […]

George Crowe was Indiana’s first Mr. Basketball and became a “Big Daddy” to early black players in major league baseball. “Crowe was the most articulate and far-sighted Negro then in the majors,” Jackie Robinson wrote. “Young Negroes turned to him for advice.”1 Yet this splendid athlete and respected leader chose to spend one-third of his […]

If ever there were a battery that was bound together in life and in death, it was probably pitcher Rube Waddell and catcher Osee Schrecongost. They were both born in small communities in western Pennsylvania, on opposite sides of the Allegheny National Forest, and a little less than 100 miles from each other. They both […]

Two months after Ulysses Brooks Lawrence’s major-league debut as a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1954, sportswriter Bob Broeg of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch described this newcomer to the team and his amazing accomplishments since arriving: “Ulysses Brooks Lawrence, an eager-beaver of the mound with the heart of a lion, the hide of […]

St. Louis Browns owner Phil Ball, second from left, meets with American League owners Frank Navin (Detroit Tigers, far left), Clark Griffith (Washington Senators, middle), Ben Shibe (Philadelphia A’s, second from right), and American League president Ban Johnson, far right, in Chicago, circa 1920. (Chicago History Museum, Chicago Daily News collection, SDN-062283)   Phil Ball […]

The Cincinnati general manager had seen enough. Sitting at home on April 24, 1960, Gabe Paul watched on TV as his club’s reliever coughed up a lead in the first game of a doubleheader in Philadelphia. Worse was the manner in which it was done: an eighth-inning grand slam to light-hitting Phillies catcher Jimmie Coker. […]

As one of the last surviving members from the 1951 National League champion New York Giants, former right-handed relief pitcher George Spencer could speak with candor about his playing career and the current state of baseball. “My playing days are long gone, but the memories are still there. It’s a great game, it seems like […]

Perhaps there is something quintessentially American about the son of Slovakian immigrants, a ballplayer nicknamed “Leaping Mike” Menosky, who started his baseball career with a team named the Pittsburg Filipinos and who became the man the Boston Red Sox played in left field the first couple of years after Babe Ruth was sold to the […]

Before Mike Lum came along in 1967, only three men born and raised in Hawaii had played in the majors, and none since 1945.1 Both before and after World War II, quite a few Hawaiian ballplayers had gone to Japan – but for mainland fans, Lum became a longstanding reminder of baseball in the Aloha […]

The small mining community of Swoyersville, Pennsylvania, located near Wilkes-Barre, was home to only 5,000 or so inhabitants but gave five ballplayers to the major leagues: Adam Comorosky, Dick Mulligan, Packy Rogers, Steve Shemo, and Harry Dorish. The town also contributed professional athletes in other major-league sports as well. Dorish himself also played football and […]

Although right-handed, side-armed pitcher Clayland Maffitt “Clay” Touchstone Jr. has a sparse major-league resume — no decisions in 12 games spread over parts of three seasons, including a 16-year gap between appearances at one point — he nonetheless had a long, often successful career in the minor leagues, winning 272 games, making multiple all-star teams, […]