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After winning the World Series in 1946, the St. Louis Cardinals had two straight second-place finishes and in 1949 were trying to capture the National League pennant once again.1 With five games to play in the season, the first-place Cardinals held a 1½-game lead over the second-place Brooklyn Dodgers. The Cardinals had just swept a […]

When the San Francisco Giants took the field at Candlestick Park on Friday, October 1, 1965, their season was hanging in the balance, and precariously so. The Giants trailed the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers by two games with only three games left in the season. Just a week and a half before, on September 20, the Giants had enjoyed […]

The 1945 East-West Game at Comiskey Park in Chicago was the 15th installment of the popular matchup between the best players of the Negro American League and Negro National League. For the first half of the season, however, the possibility of the game was in doubt. World War II was still raging, and even though […]

In a distinguished career as a player, coach, and scout – a career that began during the presidency of Herbert Hoover and ended under Gerald Ford – Wally Moses probably saw just about everything that can happen on a baseball diamond at least once. One of the rarest events he ever witnessed – and a […]

Despite five straight World Series titles, Casey Stengel had yet to manage the American League to an All-Star Game victory when he set his lineup at Cleveland Municipal Stadium on July 13, 1954. Stengel ended his midseason drought this hot afternoon as the AL stopped a four-game NL winning streak in a record-setting slugfest. “They’ll […]

The 31,278 fans who came through the turnstiles at Ebbets Field on July 30, 1948, saw something to always remember from the unlikeliest of hitters. Pittsburgh’s Wally Westlake hit for the cycle against the Brooklyn Dodgers.1 Westlake had gone 2-for-24 (two singles) in his previous seven games, a stretch that had seen his batting average […]

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 […]

One of the first tragic figures in major-league baseball, Charles Ferguson might have become one of the greatest players of all time had it not been for his untimely death at the age of 25. An all-around natural athlete who starred for the Philadelphia Quakers of the National League from 1884 through 1887, Ferguson had a […]

Major-league pitcher and umpire J. Harry Colliflower was born on March 11, 1869, in Petersville, Maryland. His first name was the same as his father’s: James, a carpenter. His mother was Catherine Cramer Colliflower. The family was reasonably well-off; they had a domestic living with them at the time of the 1870 U.S. census. There […]

He terrorized teammates with snakes. He tossed firecrackers under benches and into bullpens. He was a master of the fine art of the hotfoot. Often forgotten is that Moe Drabowsky could pitch a little, too. In a 17-year major-league career with eight teams, it was his two stints with the Orioles that brought him lasting […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]