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Two and a half years after Ernie Banks integrated the Chicago Cubs in September 1953, Banks and four other Black players played key roles in the Cubs’ 12-1 victory over the Cincinnati Redlegs in Chicago’s 1956 home opener.1  At a time when only 1 of 15 major-league players was Black,2 Cubs shortstop Banks, left fielder […]

With a 100-54 won-lost record, the Montreal Royals finished the 1946 regular season in first place in the International League, 18½ games ahead of the second-place Syracuse Chiefs. The Royals were affiliated with the Brooklyn Dodgers and were managed by Clay Hopper. The most sensational player in the league was Jackie Robinson, the Royals second […]

“If you were anybody, you were at the East-West Game.” — Buck O’Neil “It was a great ball game,” wrote Wendell Smith of the Pittsburgh Courier. “One packed with thrills and surprises. One cast in a setting as colorful and picturesque as any movie saga. One that will go down in history in brilliant lettering […]

Baseball history buffs would love to hop on a time machine and head to Cincinnati’s Crosley Field for the Redlegs’ July 31, 1958, incredible comeback against the San Francisco Giants.1 If H.G. Wells’s imaginary invention were a reality, the lucky time travelers would have seen an exciting game that included several famous footnote players who […]

As Detroit Tigers first baseman Norm Cash prepared to dig in against California Angels right-hander Nolan Ryan, who was just one out away from a no-hitter, he looked at home-plate umpire Ron Luciano and asked with all seriousness, “Aren’t you going to check my bat?”1 Known for his unusual humor, Cash had sauntered to the […]

At 9:30 on the evening of September 30, 1951, the New York Giants, having clinched a tie for the National League pennant that afternoon in Boston by winning their seventh straight game, arrived at Grand Central Station to a welcoming crowd of approximately 2,500. Forty minutes earlier the Brooklyn Dodgers, who salvaged a tie for […]

Jeff Pfeffer was a rugged right-hander who anchored Uncle Robby’s pitching staff at the end of the Deadball Era. In parts of nine seasons (1913-1921) with Brooklyn, he went 113-80, including 25 wins in 1916 and 23 in 1914. (Photo: Library of Congress)   Brooklyn’s Jeff Pfeffer (not to be confused with his brother, Big […]

Heading into the 1961 season, the National League pennant race looked to be a five-team battle. Only three teams, the Cubs, Phillies and Reds, appeared to have no chance to challenge for first place.1 However, Cincinnati manager Fred Hutchinson was optimistic about the team’s prospects. “I don’t care about anyone’s pick,” he said on the […]

The Minnesota Twins returned home with their backs to the wall. They lost the first two games of the first American League Championship Series to the Baltimore Orioles. Both games had gone into extra innings. The Twins had the lead in the first game until the ninth when the Orioles tied the score. Baltimore eventually […]

On June 4, 1967, a Sunday afternoon at Baltimore’s Memorial Stadium, the Washington Senators and the Baltimore Orioles battled for 5 hours and 18 minutes before the Orioles scored two runs in the bottom of the 19th for a 7-5 victory. “Not only was it the longest game the Orioles ever played,” penned Bob Maisel […]

The San Francisco Giants’ backs were against the wall. Sixteen teams had lost the first three games of the World Series in its 89-year history and none of them won the championship. Just three even won the fourth game and all three eventually fell in the fifth. Giants manager Roger Craig, ever the optimist, said, […]

After 15 years of resounding success under the bright spotlights of New York City, the Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle Show played a less celebrated encore performance in July 1968, in Syracuse, New York, the baseball equivalent of off-Broadway.1 Ford, one year into retirement and serving on the New York Yankees’ coaching staff, returned to […]

The Yankees of the 1920s won six American League pennants and three World Series. After failing to win the pennant from 1929 through 1931, the Yankees won the World Series in 1932, and looked to repeat in 1933. As they took the field on Saturday afternoon, May 27, they were in first place by one […]

During World War II, the Kansas City Monarchs had two middle infielders who hit for average, exhibited extra-base power, and played defense with flair. Born in the winter of 1919, Jackie Robinson not only changed baseball history but altered US history as well. Born in the winter of 1920, Bonnie Serrell toiled in a far […]

More than anything, Ben Chapman is remembered these days for the vitriol he heaped on Jackie Robinson in April of Robinson’s first year in the majors. Chapman was the Phillies’ manager that day in 1947 and “decided to make Robinson’s color an issue and encouraged at least three of his men to do the same.”1 […]

During the years between the ownership of the New York Giants by club founder John B. Day (1883-1890) and the tumultuous stewardship of Andrew Freedman (1895-1902), the franchise was controlled by a group of business-minded men with varying degrees of interest in baseball. Although he never held the title of team president, the unquestioned leader […]

On December 6, 1960, the American League awarded Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., expansion franchises that would play in the league beginning in April 1961. With only four months to put a franchise together, Los Angeles owner Gene Autry first hired Bob Reynolds as team president and Fred Haney as general manager. When it came […]

Right-handed-hitting catcher Dewey Williams played in parts of five major-league seasons, including 59 games with the Chicago Cubs’ last World Series team, in 1945. He had a reputation as an outstanding defensive catcher. When he was signed by the Cubs in 1944, a newspaper reported, “Dewey Williams throws so swiftly and accurately from a squat […]

Perhaps no Virgin Islander made a greater lifetime contribution to baseball than Elrod Hendricks (1940-2005). The native of St. Thomas also embodied Baltimore Orioles tradition; only Brooks Robinson wore the orange and black for even half as many games. Ellie’s major-league career spanned 12 seasons from 1968 to 1979, but he also spent a remarkable […]

Any list of the greatest players ever to don a Milwaukee Brewers uniform has to include Don Money. He is a four-time All-Star and a Brewers’ Walk of Fame member who holds major-league records as a third baseman. Money was an infield specialist who amassed a .975 fielding percentage over 16 seasons from 1968 to […]

In the first years of Tommy Lasorda’s Hall of Fame career as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, he kept several large photographs on the walls of his office at the team’s spring-training complex in Vero Beach, Florida. There was one of himself and Walter Alston, his legendary predecessor, and another with Hall of Fame […]

The huge Brooklyn Dodgers farm system grew infield prospects like weeds after World War II. With Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, and Jim Gilliam impossible to dislodge, most of the prospects wound up on other teams: Chico Carrasquel, Bobby Morgan, Chico Fernandez, Bob Lillis, and Billy Hunter, among others. Charlie Neal was a keeper. But […]

We’ve all had job evaluations, those nerve-racking meetings with the boss where he tells you how well, or poorly, you have done and what to work on to reach the next level. Bobby Winkles found out where he stood one day in 1958 from Walker Cooper, his manager with the Indianapolis Indians of the Triple-A […]

Lane Field was the home of the Pacific Coast League’s San Diego Padres from 1936 to 1957. The Padres were formerly known as the Hollywood Stars, and were owned by Bill Lane, who had made his fortune in gold mining. The Stars played in Wrigley Field in Los Angeles, where they were tenants of the […]