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The elevator speech for Johnny Barney Wyrostek (pronounced Wy-ROSS-tek) would summarize his career as: outfielder, batted left, threw right, two All-Star Game appearances, three teams, seven seasons in the minors, 11 seasons in the majors, 58 homers, and 1,149 hits. But he was also a father of five, a deputy sheriff, a union carpenter, and […]

Baseball fans who watched Chet Lemon during his 16-year major-league career likely recall the speedy outfielder racing across the field at Comiskey Park or Tiger Stadium to track down a line drive headed for the gap. Just as likely, they can still see him diving headlong into first base or getting hit by a pitch. […]

A diminutive Italian from Astoria, New York, on Long Island, who was introduced to baseball on the local sandlots, Tony Cuccinello was involved in what remains the closest batting race in major league history, when, as a member of the Chicago White Sox, he lost the 1945 American League batting title to George “Snuffy” Stirnweiss […]

Any conversation about the greatest hitter in baseball history must include Rogers Hornsby in the opening gambit.1 His .358 lifetime batting average in 23 big-league seasons is second all-time to Ty Cobb’s .367 and well ahead of such all-time greats as Tris Speaker (.345), Ted Williams (.344), Babe Ruth (.342), Lou Gehrig (.340), and Stan […]

Serving as the pitching coach for the Big Red Machine is a bit like being the drummer in Billy Joel’s band. Even if you’re an integral part of an exceptional team, only the most devoted and hard-core observers will ever know your name as opposed to the headline-grabbing main attraction. While the Reds’ offense and […]

Gabby Street may not have been much of a batsman in his career. His high mark for batting average was .238 in 1905, a season he split between Cincinnati and the Boston Beaneaters. Perhaps he was aided by only 105 at-bats, the second lowest total of his career. There may have been a slight decrease […]

Outfielder Lou Jackson, once described as a “wrist hitter with extraordinary pull ability,” appeared in 34 games for the Chicago Cubs and Baltimore Orioles between 1958 and 1964.1 In his dozen years in professional ball, the lefty swinger went deep as many as 31 times in a single Triple-A season, and twice ranked among the […]

From 1955 to 1965 Bill Virdon established his reputation as one of the finest and fastest center fielders of his generation, and was known for his accurate throws from the deep center-field power alleys in spacious Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Ironically, one of his throws that inadvertently hit his manager may have led to his […]

Heinz Becker, the only German-born big-leaguer who played during the years of World War II, had a modest four-year career and appeared in just 152 games for the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians. In 1945, his only full season in the majors, Becker became a fan favorite for the pennant-winning Cubs, and his feet were […]

A speedy, talented and versatile infielder, Sandy Alomar Sr. spent half a century in professional baseball as a player, coach, and manager. That time included 11 full seasons plus parts of four others in the majors from 1964 through 1978. Alomar made the American League All-Star team in 1970 and was a member of the […]

Cy Block was never shy about speaking up for himself. When he thought he had been wronged, which was often, he went straight to the top. At different times he confronted Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, National League President Ford Frick, and Dodgers President Larry MacPhail over his disputes with baseball management. His voice carried as […]

With the possible exception of Sandy Koufax, no Dodger pitcher ever threw harder than Rex Barney. Throughout the late 1940s, Barney’s fastball was the talk of baseball. In 1947, at the age of twenty-two, he struck out Joe DiMaggio with the bases loaded in a World Series game. On a rainy night at the Polo […]

Paul Bunyan has nothing on Rich Rowland. Bunyan was a mythical giant lumberjack and folk hero in American and Canadian folklore. He had a pet blue ox named Babe, but never played in the major leagues.1 Rowland – who was “strong like an ox”2 – worked as a lumberjack and heavy equipment operator in the […]

The neighborhood surrounding 11th and Wharton Streets in South Philadelphia is known for producing entertainers Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, Fabian Forte, and Chubby Checker. John Marzano wasn’t a teen idol. He didn’t star in Beach Blanket Bingo and he didn’t invent “The Twist.” However, at one point in his baseball career, Marzano was considered the […]

“Of all the skills wrapped up in the complex game of big league baseball, none is practiced with more ingenuity and less publicity than the fine art of diamond larceny.” – Martin Abramson1 A wiring system sending signals to an in-ground junction box and a vibrating device or maybe a telescopic sight from a World […]

“Don’t say I am predicting a pennant,” said Philadelphia Phillies skipper Eddie Sawyer after his club blanked the Chicago Cubs in both games of a doubleheader on July 25, 1950 to reclaim first place. “Just say my dreams come true.”1 Sawyer might not have been a fortune teller, but his dreams did come true as […]

On Wednesday, August 24, 1921, the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Giants began a five-game series at the Polo Grounds with a doubleheader. The Pirates were in first place with a 7½-game lead over the second-place Giants, and nine games ahead in the lost column. The Pirates were a confident group, evidenced by having their […]

On July 4, 1939, the Boston Red Sox engaged the Philadelphia Athletics in a holiday doubleheader at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. A “punch-drunk Independence Day throng of 22,030”1 witnessed a slugfest between the two American League teams. In the first game, Boston jumped out to a quick lead and had a 10-0 advantage going into […]

More than one major-league regular season has ended with a memorable contest between teams representing the Big Apple and the City of Brotherly Love. The New York Mets’ David Cone struck out 19 Philadelphia Phillies on the last day of the 1991 season; Philadelphia Athletics rookie Art Ditmar notched his first major-league win over the […]

June 1940 ended with the reigning National League champion Cincinnati Reds in first place, 1½ games ahead of the second-place Brooklyn Dodgers. The Reds fell from the top spot by losing their first two games in July, but recaptured first place with a seven-game winning streak, and led the NL the rest of the way. […]

By the time Johnny Vander Meer came to the Cleveland Indians a few weeks before the 1951 season kicked off, he was far from the dominating starter who threw back-to-back no-hitters in 1938. After he was released by the Chicago Cubs on March 30 for loafing,1 Vander Meer made a call to an old friend […]

12, 15, 25, 33, 37. Don’t worry. This isn’t a brainteaser where you have to guess the next number in the sequence. These figures are statistics from a wild and wacky major-league game played on August 9, 1923, between the reigning world champion New York Giants and the hometown St. Louis Cardinals. It included 12 […]

Joe DiMaggio was just getting started on “this streak business”1 and was one of the hottest hitters in baseball when his New York Yankees were slugging their way toward a three-game sweep of the first-place Cleveland Indians in mid-June of 1941. DiMaggio had hit safely in 28 consecutive games, one shy of the Yankees’ club […]

The New York Giants fell short of the National League pennant for the third straight year in 1920, finishing seven games behind their crosstown rival Brooklyn Robins. After losing three straight World Series from 1911 to 1913, John McGraw’s team finished second in the NL in 1914. They returned to the fall classic in 1917, […]