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“Ah just fired fast ball after fast ball at ’em in the ninth,” declared Ewell Blackwell in his Western drawl after tossing a no-hitter. “Because ah will admit, ah was a trifle nervous when the last round started.”1 The Reds first-year skipper Johnny Neun was looking for a pick-me-up following the sixth-place (26-30) Reds’ humiliating […]

Pee Wee Reese and Pete Reiser made their major-league debuts at age 21 for the Dodgers in 1940, became All-Stars, then missed three full seasons (1943-1945) during World War II. While injuries derailed Reiser’s promising career, Reese became the emotional leader of the team and a Hall of Famer. (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)   Cincinnati’s Johnny […]

On Tuesday, June 21, 1927, at Sportsman’s Park, the reigning World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals hosted the Chicago Cubs in a doubleheader. The Cardinals trailed the Cubs by two games for second place and were four behind the first-place Pittsburgh Pirates. Chicago, recently off a recent 12-game winning streak, had lost three of its […]

These St. Louis Cardinals were a gang of swaggering roughnecks who deferred to no one, not even the defending world champions. Their preening and trash-talking started even before the World Series began and continued during and after their 5-2 loss in the opener. In Game Two Philadelphia turned to a tall, well-bred gentleman from the […]

Until the Negro Leagues were officially recognized as major leagues in December 2020, Dan Bankhead was on record as the first African American to pitch in the majors. After the Brooklyn Dodgers acquired him from the Memphis Red Sox of the Negro American League, the 27-year-old made his debut in the National League on August […]

Brooklyn fans could barely believe what they were seeing. After losing the first two games of the 1947 World Series, their team rebounded to win the next two games at Ebbets Field. The fifth game, the last one to be played in Flatbush for the Series, was packed with fans hoping to see the Dodgers […]

The 1951 National League season is usually remembered most for the legendary “Shot Heard ’Round the World” capping the New York Giants’ September pursuit that plucked the pennant from the Brooklyn Dodgers. But a May game in Boston matching the Braves, then in pennant contention, with the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates featured an odd pitching performance […]

With the start of the 1954 season, beer magnate August A. Busch Jr. finally had the full attention of baseball fans in St. Louis. Having purchased the National League’s Cardinals as well as its ballpark in the past year, Busch no longer had to deal with the previous landlords of Sportsman’s Park – the Browns […]

The day Robin Roberts, the pride of Philadelphia, was elected to the Hall of Fame in January 1976, sportswriter Bob Gross penned an article detailing Roberts’ collegiate feats at Michigan State University and memories from his major-league career.1 Gross recounted Roberts’ bittersweet memory of a conversation he had with his father after a game in […]

Still led by four pillars of their 1940s dynasty, the St. Louis Cardinals surged into first place in the National League in July 1950. But three losses in three days in Pittsburgh, punctuated by Jack Phillips’ game-winning ninth-inning pinch-hit grand slam on July 8, foreshadowed their subsequent fall from contention and final fadeout of the […]

In their final home game of the 1951 season, the Cincinnati Reds took advantage of bases on balls and long balls to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals in a 14-inning thriller. According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, “Big John Pramesa’s first major league grand slam enabled the Reds to ring down the curtain on the 1951 […]

It was 1946, and “the boys were back” from World War II. Baseball had continued in the interest of public morale through four seasons of diminished quality. Now, however, as spring-training camps opened, there was “joyful relief that the war was at last over and old teammates were together again under the sun.”1 Navy veteran Jack […]

Opening Day is for all intents and purposes a national holiday in America. Leaving behind a long, cold winter, thousands of Americans may today take the day off from school or work to witness the start of a new baseball season. On Opening Day, hope always springs eternal and, just maybe, this could be our […]

As Monte Irvin stepped into the batter’s box in the eighth inning of Game One of the 1951 World Series, a frustrated Yogi Berra said to him, “We don’t know how to get you out. We throw you high balls and you hit it, and we throw you low balls and you hit it. Can […]

The first game to be played at Navin Field was scheduled for Thursday, April 18, 1912, with the Detroit Tigers hosting the Cleveland Naps. To commemorate this special Opening Day of the season, many activities were scheduled, all to take place on the 18th. A parade featuring both teams was to work its way from […]

Some major league players are blessed with good fortune. Their talents are discovered early, they remain relatively healthy throughout their careers, and they always seem to be in the right place at the right time. Bob Ramazzotti was not one of those guys. His career began late, was interrupted by war, and was stifled by […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers had great teams in the immediate post-war years, teams that would win pennants or fight for them until the last day of the season (and sometimes beyond). No team can be successful, though, without a significant presence behind the plate. In the early part of the 1946 season, the Dodgers were struggling […]

Baseball and baseball players need people like Grover Resinger — those who dedicate their lives to the sport so that others may achieve the success they never had. “People say I do nothing but talk baseball,” said baseball lifer Resinger. “Is there anything else?”[fn]Tom Loomis, “Grover Resinger – Another Bit of Tigers Class,” Toledo (Ohio) […]

 The fourth man from the Bahamas to play in the major leagues, Ed Armbrister was a spare part in Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine. His career was modest (265 at-bats in 224 games), but he won World Series rings in 1975 and 1976. Yet for Boston Red Sox fans, Armbrister was in the wrong place at […]

1986 – a season that tugs at the heartstrings of every Boston Red Sox fan who watched and listened to the American League Championship Series and the World Series. The World Series was a classic seven-game affair. If the Red Sox had kept a two-run lead going with two outs in the bottom of the […]

Eddie McGah’s first visit to Fenway Park was on June 22, 1939. He was there at the invitation of the Boston Red Sox, who gave him a number 15 jersey. He was just 17 at the time, but had made the three-day train trip across the country to join the team and get a feel […]

Infielder Owen Friend played in parts of five major-league seasons, appearing in 208 total games, with 119 of them for the 1950 St. Louis Browns. Scout Fred Hofmann signed him to the Browns in 1943, and he more or less began playing for his hometown team. Of course, the Cardinals would have qualified on that […]

Nineteen members and guests of the Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter attended the March 25, 2014, monthly roundtable, held at its usual location, The Original Crusoe’s Restaurant in South St. Louis. Chapter president Brian Flaspohler called the meeting to order. Chapter secretary Jim Leefers gave a brief report on updating the e-mail list by use of the […]