Search Results

During the last week of June 1982, the Detroit Tigers slumped into Baltimore with a 10-game losing streak. They had been swept in consecutive series by the Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, and Boston Red Sox, and that dropped them from first place in the American League East Division to third.1 Their offense was struggling, averaging […]

“The Dodgers have found the man whose strong right arm may lead ’em out of their pitching wilderness.” – Harold Burr, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, May 23, 19491   Don Newcombe had an outstanding 1948 season for the Triple-A Montreal Royals, with a record of 17-6, a 3.14 ERA, 16 complete games, and three shutouts in 27 […]

The St. Louis Cardinals were in a disastrous midseason slump on July 6, 1929, when they finally found their way to break out of it against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Cardinals’ loss in the first game of the doubleheader that day was their 11th consecutive defeat. (One tied game was sandwiched among the losses.) Then […]

The Cardinals and Chicago Cubs staged a 10-inning pitchers’ duel on July 5, 1949, at Wrigley Field. Bob Rush threw all 10 innings for Chicago. Left-handers Harry “The Cat” Brecheen and Howard Pollet handled the pitching for St. Louis. In the Cardinals’ 2-1 victory, Stan Musial drove in both of the Cardinals’ runs and threw […]

The decision had come down barely a week before: baseball was closing up shop and going to war. Suddenly, in the middle of summer, the 1918 baseball season was drawing to a close. On May 23 General Enoch Crowder, provost marshal and director of the draft, decreed that by July 1 all eligible men aged […]

In his ninth game as the Chicago Cubs player-manager in 1951, Phil Cavarretta came off the bench on July 29 to smash a pinch-hit grand slam off the Philadelphia Phillies’ Robin Roberts and propel the Chicago Cubs to an 8-6 victory in the second game of a doubleheader at Wrigley Field. Cavarretta had a hand […]

Charles Lindbergh’s nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic in May of 1927 brought him overnight worldwide acclaim. No more than a thousand well-wishers saw the former stunt pilot take off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, but as many as 150,000 were on hand when his Spirit of St. Louis touched down in […]

A lot changed for the Texas Rangers going into the 1989 season. There were new owners.1 There were several new players.2 The payroll had shot up about $4.5 million – including the franchise’s first three $1 million-per-year players.3 So, naturally, there were heightened expectations for a club that never had won a division crown in […]

The Philadelphia Phillies had lost all six games they had played against the New York Giants in 1930, including an 11-4 drubbing on May 21, when the teams met again on May 22. Could the Phillies turn it around? They could certainly slug the ball. In 1929 left fielder Lefty O’Doul batted .398 with 32 […]

On the morning of September 8, 1972, Red Sox fans woke up to a reality unthinkable just a month and a half before – the Old Towne Team was in first place in the American League East. On that auspicious Friday morning, Boston Globe writer Ray Fitzgerald summed up the turn of events when he […]

“It was the best of times, It was the worst of times. It was the age of wisdom, It was the age of foolishness.”   Charles Dickens may have been writing about the French Revolution in his classic book A Tale of Two Cities. However, the oft-referenced literary phrase would also have described Hank Aaron’s […]

“The fascinating thing about baseball is that everyone knows that it is a business and you have to win and you have to draw fans to be successful, but you still have fun along the line doing all that,” Bill Rigney once said. “I don’t think I ever woke up one day in my life […]

Eddie Ainsmith punched above his weight – both in terms of the accolades he received during and after his playing days as a light-hitting backstop who never appeared in the postseason…and as a fierce fighter. His career raises the question of how much credit a player should get for partnering with a legend of the […]

Right-handed pitcher Ed Phillips appeared only briefly in the big leagues, working in 18 games for the 1970 Boston Red Sox. His record was 0-2, a win proving elusive. Phillips was both born and died on September 20. He was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma, on September 20, 1944, as Norman Edwin Phillips Jr., the son […]

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 […]

As the tall young right-hander strode to the mound that Tuesday night in September 1984 to make his first major-league start, he was not nervous. Excited, yes; determined, yes; but nervous, no. Even though it was an important game, one in which the Detroit Tigers could clinch the American League East championship, the young man […]

With its long winters and cold, rainy springs, New England has never been a hotbed for scouts hunting baseball talent. There have, however, been ballplayers through the years who have overcome these weather woes to shine brightly enough that they can’t be ignored. Ray Martin was one such prospect — a pitcher so strong he […]

In a 1968 interview, former pitcher Bob Logan said this of his friend and one-time teammate, Frank Sigafoos: “He was a swell guy, one of the best, quiet and unassuming . . . he never bragged about himself and he had great talent.”1 Indeed, Sigafoos had a standout career as a skilled infielder at the […]

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 […]

Eddie “Eppie” Miller, was, by the fielding metrics of his time, the finest fielding shortstop in the National League. He was seven times an All-Star during a career of 14 years.1 His contemporary, Marty Marion, stated that Miller was the best shortstop he ever saw.2 Eddie was always outspoken, managing to talk his way off […]

At approximately 3:15 P.M. on Monday, October 8, 1956, Babe Pinelli’s right arm shot upward, ending Game Five of the World Series. Pinelli did more than punch out Brooklyn Dodgers pinch-hitter Dale Mitchell to conclude a 2-0 New York Yankees victory; his called third strike completed Don Larsen‘s perfect game, the only one in World […]

Alabaman Leo “Lefty” Townsend is not the same Leo Townsend who was once a Hollywood screenwriter and alleged Communist sympathizer in the 1950s.1 Nor is he the same Townsend as Ira “Texas” Townsend, a right-hander who pitched for the Boston Braves in 1920 and 1921. This Leo Townsend pitched in seven games in September 1920 […]

After three years of college, Jake Flowers spent most of his life in Organized Baseball. He was a major-league infielder for seven full seasons and parts of three others; a minor-league player, manager, and executive; a coach with three major-league clubs; and a scout for three organizations. As a major-league player, Flowers was plagued by […]

Major League Baseball’’s revenue generating power exploded during the 1950s and 1960s due in large part to franchise relocations and expansion, though in truth it had to be dragged into the lucrative expansion era. William Shea drummed up support, at least on paper, for a third major league to be called the Continental League in […]