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“Sal Maglie sat in the Dodger clubhouse and performed the ritual of anointing his pitching hand. First he applied a base of liquid rosin. Then he sprinkled the fingers with powdered rosin. And when he was done he was ready to pitch.”1 September is the time when pennant races are decided. Just months earlier, could […]

In 1926 the St. Louis Cardinals began their 35th season as a member of the National League. The franchise, known as the Browns from 1892 to ’98 and as the Perfectos in 1899, had not finished better than third place in the league standings. Second baseman-manager Rogers Hornsby, who had recorded his second career Triple […]

\ Babe Ruth made a public appearance at Fenway Park on July 12, 1943, where he met with Red Sox star Ted Williams. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   There once was a day – at Fenway Park in Boston – when Babe Ruth and Ted Williams played on the same baseball team and batted in the same […]

“Dependable Al is Brooklyn’s second line of defense behind the plate. He’s as smart a backstop as you’ll find in baseball and handles pitchers expertly.” – 1957 Topps Al “Rube” Walker card (#147)1   As their battle with the Phillies for the 1950 National League pennant came down to the last day of the season, […]

No ballpark was more suited to the Deadball Era in which it was built than cavernous Braves Field. Modern-day estimates of the former ballpark’s outfield distances vary, but they were all huge. In the 12-plus seasons from August 8, 1915, the day Braves Field was opened, through the end of the 1927 campaign, when the […]

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times in 1972 for Atlanta Braves superstar Henry Aaron. After signing a record-breaking contract before the season to become the first player ever to make $200,000 a year, he struggled after moving from his comfortable right-field position to a “disliked” full-time slot at first […]

Winners of four straight National League pennants, the New York Giants began 1925 with their hottest season-opening pace yet. Another victory seemed imminent on May 22, when they erased an early five-run deficit at the Polo Grounds and pushed the Pittsburgh Pirates to extra innings behind Wayland Dean’s marathon relief effort. But Vic Aldridge stymied […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs began 1949 with an unprecedented matchup: the National or American League’s first-ever Opening Day clash of starting pitchers who had reached their 40th birthdays.1 In a game scoreless until a ninth-inning unearned run, with both Pittsburgh’s Rip Sewell and Chicago’s Dutch Leonard going the distance on fewer than 100 […]

On the surface, it’s difficult to imagine a major-league ballplayer with more disappointing statistics — a pitcher with a career winning percentage of .000, a batting average of .000, and a fielding percentage of .500. But Pete Magrini had six very good seasons in minor-league baseball and, after all, attained a goal that most professional […]

Having lost no fewer than nine pitchers to the armed forces during World War II, the St. Louis Cardinals invited 28-year-old rookie Ken Burkhart to spring training in 1945. Owning a 91-64 record in seven minor-league seasons, Burkhart became one of the season’s big surprises, winning 18 games, third best in the senior circuit. But […]

Every young boy imagines coming up to bat when defeat seems certain and delivering the big hit. However, William Richard Mueller, in his St. Louis suburban yard, could not have imagined a scenario or set of circumstances quite as improbable. Bill Mueller was born the only child of William Romeo and Barbara Ann (Poleweski) Mueller […]

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. He remains best known for that fact, as well as another: he and four brothers all played in the Negro Leagues. However, Bankhead’s big-league career was brief […]

On October 14, 1976, the Kansas City Royals and the New York Yankees were locked in the winner-take-all fifth game of the American League Championship Series at Yankee Stadium, going into the bottom of the ninth inning. The Royals had won Game Four the night before to force the deciding game. This evening, Royals third […]

The National Baseball Hall of Fame has an extensive library, packed with research materials. Most players have a file at the Hall, whose contents are made available to researchers. Some files are fairly thick. Most contain some basic information about the player, including a certificate of death for a deceased player, and newspaper clippings that […]

George “Bo” Strickland was the starting shortstop on the 1954 Cleveland Indians team that won the American League pennant and compiled one of baseball’s finest records ever, 111-43. He went hitless (0-for-9) in that season’s World Series, the only one he ever played in, as the Indians were swept by the New York Giants. Strickland […]

Vaughan Pallmore “Bing” Devine, a soft-spoken, modest man, spent more than a quarter-century as a baseball executive and played a major role in building four National League champions and three World Series winners. Devine left his biggest mark as the general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, whose owner fired him in 1964 just as […]

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 […]

On the back of his 1955 Bowman baseball card, Mel Clark urges youngsters to have a glove, bat and ball at hand so they can be ready to play when the opportunity presents itself. When that opportunity arose for the war veteran from the sandlots of West Virginia, he seized it with a vengeance. Melvin […]

“The taxi driver, the bartender, the waitress, the man in the street, those are my people,”1 Harry Caray once said. Caray was a larger-than-life figure who loved the game and broadcast it with enthusiasm. He was respected by colleagues for his play-by-play ability but unlike many sportscasters, he never hesitated to editorialize. A typical moment […]

How do you throw a spitball? “The idea is to get part of your grip wet, and the other dry. When the ball leaves your hand, it slips off your wet fingers and clings, just tiny-like, to the dry part on your thumb. The ball jumps on account of it. If it’s a good ’un, […]

Frank Gabler talked a better game than he pitched. The right-hander’s playing career spanned 23 years from 1930 through 1952, including four seasons in the majors, and his gift of gab helped him to keep working as a scout for the rest of his life. A jokester, storyteller, and tireless party animal, he was nicknamed […]

This righty pitcher’s big-league career consisted of just one game with the 1968 Chicago Cubs. His baseball days ended after the following season because of a rotator cuff injury – but the Grambling alumnus then turned to an exciting new life as one of Hollywood’s top stuntmen. Jophery Clifford Brown was born on January 22, […]

Bob Broeg (rhymes with “egg”) was a titan of sports writing and knowledge in St. Louis for six decades. He was a local boy through and through, growing up in south city, attending the University of Missouri, and working in St. Louis (aside from a very brief time early in his career in Boston), from […]

“Only 56 more and I’ll catch Babe Ruth,”1 quipped Chuck Hiller after accomplishing what the Sultan of Swat never could. On October 8, 1962, this singles hitter made history by striking the seventh World Series grand slam – and the first by a National Leaguer – in leading the San Francisco Giants to a 7-3 […]