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Frank Carswell was a right-handed pitcher whose career began in 1944 with the local Dan Montgomerys of Buffalo, New York; included stints in the Negro Leagues with the Cleveland Buckeyes, Harlem Colored Giants, Harlem Globetrotters, Chicago American Giants, and Indianapolis Clowns; and ended with a postseason barnstorming gig with Jackie Robinson’s New York All-Stars in […]
Shortstop Craig Robinson retired with 755 fewer career homers than his Braves teammate Hank Aaron. But only six men can say they joined Aaron in the starting lineup on the nights Hammerin’ Hank tied and broke Babe Ruth’s career home run record. Robinson is one of those special six.1 Craig George Robinson was born on […]
Kenny Washington, known to many as the Jackie Robinson of the National Football League and one of the greatest players in football history, was also a standout on the diamond. Various people who saw him play baseball thought his talent surpassed Robinson’s. On three separate occasions Washington figured in efforts to integrate professional baseball. Kenneth […]
On a crisp, sunny autumn afternoon, the 1970 World Series began in Cincinnati’s brand-new Riverfront Stadium. The Reds and the Baltimore Orioles had breezed through their respective League Championship Series to meet at the apex of the baseball season. For the visiting Orioles, the taste of bitter disappointment lingered like castor oil on their tongues […]
Vada Edward Pinson, Jr., star center fielder for the Cincinnati Reds in the 1960s, was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on August 11, 1938. When he was seven, his family moved to Oakland, California. His father found work as a stevedore at the Bay Area docks, while his mother did domestic work. In 1952, Pinson enrolled […]
Dave Robinson was the first player signed by the San Diego Padres in 1968. The National League expansion team’s press conference on July 31 featured Hall of Famer Duke Snider, a fellow Southern Californian who had inadvertently discovered Robinson at San Diego State College.1 “He told me he went out to see [outfielder] Jim Nettles […]
Frank Cashen was one of the most successful front-office executives of his time, taking part in the winning of five pennants and three World Series, and one of the more educated and erudite. “Frank is very bright man, a man for all seasons,” remembered a former New York Mets vice president. “You hear about people […]
If you’ve seen Frank Zupo’s 1958 Topps baseball card, you probably remember him. The lefty-hitting catcher appeared in only 16 major-league games for Baltimore between 1957 and 1961 — but Zupo’s pronounced unibrow and “Noodles” nickname have gained him longer-lasting fame than his on-field accomplishments. Nonetheless, at 17 years, 11 months, and 13 days, he […]
For a brief period in the early 1890s, Al Johnson was an influential, if not overly trustworthy, actor on the major league baseball scene. A wealthy young industrialist, he was the first and the most important of the money men attracted to the Players League cause. In the league’s formative days, Johnson recruited other capitalists […]
On September 15, 1922, at the Baker Bowl in Philadelphia, the Phillies’ Butch Henline became the first catcher in major-league history to homer three times in one game. Each blow was critical as the Phillies came from behind to defeat the St. Louis Cardinals, 10-9. Twenty-six years later, Henline became the first umpire to eject […]
A temperate Pacific Coast climate and rich baseball tradition have made San Diego a longtime spawning ground for major-league talent. As of 2019, the city has sent some 115 of her sons to the bigs. The second, and by far the greatest, of these San Diegans was Ted Williams, whose march to Cooperstown began with […]
Statistics and anecdotes of early black player Charlie Grant are minimal and sketchy at best. The difficulty in seeking reliable evidence is compounded by the fact that many during his time and still today have consistently confused him with the great Frank Grant, who played in several white leagues during the nineteenth century and was […]
Unlike Leo Durocher, the man he replaced as Brooklyn Dodgers manager for the 1947 season, Burt Shotton was no gruff, umpire-baiting field general. He was instead a calm, serious baseball lifer who, like the more illustrious Connie Mack, wore his street clothes in the dugout during his tenure in Brooklyn. His quiet demeanor did not […]
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 […]
Right fielder Hank Bauer was a mainstay of the Casey Stengel–Yogi Berra Yankee dynasty who sparkled in the World Series spotlight. In the final game of the 1951 Series his bases-loaded triple broke a tie and gave the Yankees a 4-1 lead. After the Giants narrowed the margin to 4-3 in the ninth, with the […]
“There’s more of a feeling on this club that we’re going to win than there was even in ’59,” said veteran Jim Landis. “That ’59 club had plenty of confidence, don’t get me wrong, but this club has better pitching.”1 Landis, the last member of the 1959 pennant-winning White Sox still with the team, was […]
Eight-time Gold Glove winner Mark Belanger was celebrated for his wondrous defense at shortstop but jeered for his weak offense. A lifetime .228 hitter, Belanger was pinch-hit for 333 times in his 18-season career, retiring as the American League’s all-time leader in that category.1 Belanger’s Baltimore manager Earl Weaver even devised a strategy to limit […]
Montreal’s 24-year-old right-hander Charlie Lea was an unlikely candidate to toss the first no-hitter in the history of Olympic Stadium. Pounded in his first two starts in 1981 (nine runs in 6⅔ innings), Lea held the San Francisco Giants hitless on Mother’s Day. “I’m not the type of person who jumps up and down,” he […]
The 1970 Cincinnati Reds [102-60] ran away with the National League East by 14½ games before taking three straight from the Pittsburgh Pirates in the playoffs. Their opponents in the upcoming fall classic were the Baltimore Orioles who were attempting to rebound from a demoralizing World Series loss to the New York Mets the previous […]
The Orioles’ most one-sided Opening Day victory in Baltimore came in 1973. Aging stars Brooks Robinson and Dave McNally had a lot to do with it, but the brightest star of the day was 23-year-old left fielder Don Baylor. On the day the American League ushered in the designated-hitter era, Baylor — a future outstanding DH — notched […]
The Pittsburgh Pirates’ 3-2 win over the Cincinnati Redlegs in 11 innings on June 21, 1957, at Crosley Field was a good game, its outcome in doubt until the final pitch, but one of its most notable events took place after the final out. “Temple’s ‘Hit’ Costs Him $100,” the Cincinnati Post’s page one story […]
Coming out of the 1951 All-Star break the White Sox were in first, percentage points ahead of the Boston Red Sox. This was heady stuff for a team that had not held the lead this late in the season since 1920 when the soon-to-be-labeled Black Sox were in a three-way race for the pennant. That […]
After the Pirates lost the first two games of the 1971 World Series to the Orioles in Baltimore, the Series moved to Pittsburgh, and the Pirates rode a complete-game three-hitter by Steve Blass to their first victory. It may have been too much for the Steel City nine to expect Game Four starter Luke Walker […]
On Wednesday evening, September 25, 1974, Ralph Houk was managing an aging Tigers squad trapped in last place in the AL East at 71-83, 12½ games behind the first-place Orioles. The season’s high point had come the previous night. Al Kaline reached “his promised land,” becoming the 12th player to get 3,000 hits.1 Earl Weaver’s […]