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In February 1933 – when Jackie Robinson was 14 years old – Heywood Broun, a syndicated columnist at the New York World-Telegram, addressed the annual dinner of the all-White New York Baseball Writers Association. If Black athletes were good enough to represent the United States at the 1932 Olympic Games, Broun said, “it seems a […]

[He] could watch a player plow a field and tell whether there was baseball in his bones. — said of baseball coach Frank Anderson at Oglethorpe University    On May 11, 1963, the loyal alumni of Oglethorpe University gathered at historic Hermance Stadium on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia, for a joyful occasion. They dedicated […]

Appendix for Herm Krabbenhoft’s research on Babe Ruth’s RBI record.

One can statistically evaluate with some degree of accuracy the worth of a baseball player to his team. However, sometimes a player stands out because of characteristics that inspire his teammates and draws the admiration and respect of fans. Eddie “The Brat” Stanky was one of those. Stanky was a gritty, scrappy player, not gifted […]

Teammates remembered his hands — “bear claws for hands,” one said.1 Those powerful hands could pat you on the back or clamp you so hard your knees buckled. No formula can explain leadership, but Terry Moore knew the secret. As center fielder and captain of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1940s, Moore earned the […]

While December 7, 1941 was proclaimed by Franklin D. Roosevelt as a day that would live in infamy, April 20, 1945 was also a monumental day in American history. While Adolf Hitler celebrated his 56th birthday, Allied forces commenced with a bombing mission in Italy known as Operation Corncob, and U.S. troops captured the German […]

After his brain cramp in Game Two of the 1951 World Series, Eddie Stanky used guile to spark the New York Giants to a 6-2 triumph over the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds in Game Three and a 2-1 Series lead. Rarely does a stolen base matter more than a three-run homer, but […]

Despite his status as a budding star for the St. Louis Cardinals, a month into the 1955 season rookie pitcher Luis Arroyo longed to be home in Puerto Rico with his pregnant wife. As only the fifth pitcher in the formerly segregated major leagues to hail from Puerto Rico, he had no army of fellow […]

When his barrier-breaking tour of the National League reached Pittsburgh a month into the 1947 season, Jackie Robinson extended his double-digit hitting streak with a burst of speed and surprise, but three Pittsburgh Pirates home runs, all benefiting from Forbes Field’s newly shortened outfield, yielded a 7-3 win over Robinson’s Brooklyn Dodgers on May 15. […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers take batting practice in an empty Ebbets Field. The Dodgers led or co-led the NL in home runs in every season from 1949 through 1955. (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)   The Brooklyn Dodgers were as hot as the steamy weather that had ruled New York City boroughs for five days.1 The talented first-place […]

Heading into their August 12 “Kids’ Day” game against the New York Giants in Shibe Park, the Phillies were on a roll with four wins in their last five games. In fact, since July 21 the Whiz Kids had won 19 of 26 to extend their lead from a first-place tie to a five-game lead […]

As the 1951 National League season entered its final weekend, the New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers were tied for first place. That the Giants and Dodgers were tied was amazing, since the Giants trailed the Dodgers by 13½ games on August 11. The Dodgers had fallen into a tie by losing to the Philadelphia […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers had finished a tough late-season stretch to stay on the fringe of the 1945 pennant race. The stretch included a tough four-game series in Pittsburgh where the Dodgers were happy to emerge with a split, featuring two extra-inning games and a 17-5 blowout loss. In spite of the tough series, the Dodgers […]

  The first game played in a new ballpark is always noteworthy. Minneapolis Millers manager Eddie Stanky helped ensure that the Millers’ debut in their new home in suburban Bloomington was memorable. After playing the first six games of the 1956 American Association season on the road, the Millers returned home to christen the yet-to-be-named […]

In Game Two of the 1951 World Series, Eddie Lopat of the New York Yankees bested Larry Jansen of the New York Giants in a 3-1 complete-game triumph at Yankee Stadium, knotting the series after the Giants’ Game One win. But Mickey Mantle’s knee injury, which sidelined the talented rookie for the rest of the […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers, who had won 11 in a row between May 5 and May 16, 1945, had fallen on hard times. They went on a six-game losing streak, the last three of which were the first three games of the four-game set in St. Louis. The Dodgers’ futility at the Cardinals’ home field had […]

After outscoring the New York Yankees 12-6 to take two of the first three games of the 1951 World Series, the New York Giants’ offense dried up after a rainy Sunday led to Game Four’s postponement. As historian Frank Graham observed, “it rained and it was as if the rain cooled the Giants off, for […]

A Sunday crowd of 24,129, including 261 servicemen, “got a double thrill at Forbes Field”1 when the Pittsburgh Pirates swept the visiting Brooklyn Dodgers in a doubleheader on July 15, 1945. The Bucs won the opener, 9-1, and then took the nightcap by a score of 15-3, a game that the New York Daily News […]

“Jackie has been accepted in baseball, and we of the Philadelphia organization have no objection to his playing and wish him all the luck we can. Baseball is an American game, and there are no nationalities, creeds, nor races involved. Jackie Robinson is an American.”1 This quote, attributed to Philadelphia manager Ben Chapman, was made […]

The Dodgers were in a hole after losing the first two games of the World Series to their crosstown rivals the Yankees. But now the Series was headed to Ebbets Field and the Dodger faithful were confident that their team could bounce back. “Now that we’ve got the Yanks in our own backyard, they can’t […]

SABR Bibliography Committee Research Guide No. 1: Baseball Figures in Current Biography Editor’s note: This guide was first published by the SABR Bibliography Committee in 1986. To download the original in PDF form, click here. By Joseph Lawler June 1986 Current Biography is a reference service of the H. W. Wilson Company of New York, publishers […]