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The Watergate investigation took a mammoth leap forward in March 1973, with burglar James W. McCord Jr.’s disclosure that Attorney General John Mitchell masterminded the break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters the year before. A couple of weeks after McCord’s bombshell, however, you wouldn’t recognize the increased pressure on the 37th president of the […]

The World Series headed into a seventh game for the third year in a row. Brooklyn’s come-from-behind victory in the sixth game gave Dodgers fans hope that this might be their year. The team had never won the championship in three previous appearances. The last time they appeared in the postseason classic, the Dodgers lost […]

The 1969 expansion of the major leagues and the splitting of leagues into two divisions worked well for the Minnesota Twins, even though the front office was concerned about the impact on attendance by getting fewer games against popular teams like Detroit, Baltimore, New York, and Boston. However, the Twins were being placed in a […]

On Thursday, May 9, 1963, the cellar-dwelling Houston Colt .45’s faced the sixth-place Reds at Crosley Field in Cincinnati before a sparse ladies night crowd of 7,008 (5,870 paid). Though the game had little meaning in the standings at this early stage of the season, it would be a career day for future Triple Crown […]

“I didn’t even slide. I’m very proud of that.”1 This was Boog Powell’s description of his first-ever inside-the-park home run, nine seasons and nearly 200 homers into a career better known for clearing fences than dashing around basepaths. Yet it was his running that put an exclamation point on the Baltimore Orioles’ 15-run shellacking of […]

“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 […]

At the start of the 2026 season, Johnny Vander Meer remained the only major-league pitcher to throw back-to-back no-hitters. On June 11, 1938, the Cincinnati Reds’ left-handed fireballer no-hit the Boston Braves, and in his next start on June 15—the first night game at Ebbets Field—Vander Meer no-hit the Brooklyn Dodgers. From Vander Meer’s double […]

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 […]

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 […]

Wendell Smith built a media career that would eventually be recognized in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He’s best known for his campaign to integrate major league baseball, which resulted in Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Wendell Smith, however, was more than an activist. During his 35-year career, he evolved […]

“[Jack] Harper’s career in baseball has been rather sensational,” noted a sportswriter in 1908.1 At the major league level, the pitcher began with the worst of all teams, the 1899 20-134 Cleveland Spiders, and finished with one of the greatest, the 1906 116-36 Chicago Cubs. In between lay betrayal, court rulings, moments of near greatness, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]