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When the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Mets met in Game Four of the 1969 World Series, the sports world was watching closely. The Mets had taken the lead in the Series after winning Game Three, 5-0, behind the pitching of Gary Gentry and Nolan Ryan. When the teams took the field on the […]

The second game of a Sunday doubleheader on June 3, 1951, at Ebbets Field, began shortly after Brooklyn Dodgers starter Don Newcombe beat the Chicago Cubs 8-3 in the opener. Gil Hodges and Billy Cox, helped out by hitting home runs, while Duke Snider drove in three.1 Amid a career year, Preacher Roe, of spitball […]

The 1961 Cincinnati Reds1 were a pre-season pick to finish sixth in the National League.2 Having finished 28 games of the pace in 19603, baseball pundits viewed them as only better than the Cubs and Phillies. While a club with undeniable batting prowess—think Frank Robinson, Vada Pinson, Gordy Coleman, Gene Freese, and pinch-hitter extraordinaire Jerry […]

The warmth of early summer welcomed the Ladies Day crowd of 13,643 who gathered at Ebbets Field to watch the Redlegs play the Dodgers, each trying to gain ground on the league-leading Braves.1 Bonus baby Sandy Koufax took the ball for the defending World Champions, and faced off against Cincinnati’s Hal Jeffcoat. A dramatic comeback […]

The 1968 season is remembered as “the Year of the Pitcher,” and for good reason. For the first time since the Deadball Era, both the American and National Leagues posted ERAs under 3.1 Only one AL hitter, Carl Yastrzemski, finished with an average of .300 or greater, and major-league batters as a whole averaged just […]

The San Francisco Giants exuded a sunny disposition for the 1985 season. They hired popular former All-Star third baseman Jim Davenport as manager – his easygoing personality a vast contrast to his predecessor, intensely competitive Frank Robinson1 – and they traded slugging outfielder Jack Clark, who had a habit of clashing with managers and netted […]

The Boston Beaneaters came to Cleveland, Ohio, for a two-game series, July 8-9, 1891, against the Cleveland Spiders. Boston’s John Clarkson pitched a gem in the first game, allowing only five hits in a 4-1 victory, which extended Boston’s winning streak to six games. Boston was in third place and Cleveland was in fifth place […]

National League hitting and scoring declined during the early 1890s, with pitchers like Cy Young of the Cleveland Spiders on the rise. To boost offense, the NL adjusted its rules in 1893, most prominently by increasing the distance between batter and pitcher to 60 feet 6 inches. In their first game at the new distance, […]

As areas of urban and suburban Baltimore simmered without electricity on the steamy afternoon and evening of Tuesday, September 22, 1970, the lights at Memorial Stadium shone brightly – and so did Earl Weaver’s Baltimore Orioles. Sweltering end-of-summer heat and a shortage of electrical capacity forced Baltimore Gas and Electric, along with other East Coast […]

Hank Thompson, a New York Giants mainstay from 1949 to 1956, is the answer to a host of trivia questions about black players. He was the first acknowledged black player to play for the Giants. He was also the first acknowledged black player to take the field for the St. Louis Browns, having received a […]

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 […]

Matt Young’s place in baseball history is secure. On April 12, 1992, the 33-year-old left-hander became only the third pitcher to throw a complete-game no-hitter and lose the game. Pitching in the first game of a doubleheader for the visiting Boston Red Sox against the Indians in Cleveland, Young lost 2-1. Since his complete game […]

  Roy Campanella was the sixth acknowledged Black player to appear in the major leagues in the twentieth century, debuting with the Brooklyn Dodgers a year after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Campanella went on to become the second Black player, after Robinson, to win a major-league Most Valuable Player award, and eventually became […]

On October 27, 1900, the steamship Havana carried 20 American baseball players to Cuba for a series of eight games against the island’s best. Among the players were two from the Pittsburgh Pirates, Jesse Tannehill and Tom O’Brien.1 En route to the island, all but two players suffered from seasickness. Kid Gleason of the New […]

John Wright was the “owner of a blazing fast ball and a sharp-breaking curve and plenty of control”1 and his sinker brought “despair (to) opposing batsmen.”2 To many who saw him, “He dominated batters.”3 Wright will forever be linked in history with Jackie Robinson as the first two players to break the color line in […]

Gustave “Gus” Getz was perhaps the personification of the “good field, no hit” player. Typical of the Deadball Era, Getz relied on his glove, his ability to make contact with the bat, and his speed on the base paths to make it in professional baseball. Though he never achieved outstanding baseball success, he possessed a […]

Super Scout: Thirty-five Years of Scouting was the name of Jim Russo’s 1992 memoir. The title was simple and apt. Russo worked full-time for the Baltimore Orioles franchise from 1951, when it was still the St. Louis Browns, until 1986. As the club rose to prominence in the ’60s, he gained acclaim as one of […]

His big brother in college was Martin Luther King Jr. Somehow, it’s appropriate to begin with that fact when discussing Donn Clendenon. During his college years at Morehouse College, one of the most pivotal players in Mets history was mentored by the greatest and most pivotal African American of the 20th century. The big brother […]

Few people have the talent and good fortune to have successful careers in two such diverse fields as professional sports and the film industry. Ernie Orsatti was one of those lucky few. In his nine-year career with the Cardinals (1927-1935), Orsatti hit .300 or better in six seasons, twice hit over .330, and finished with […]

On November 29, 1971, the Cleveland Indians dealt pitcher Sam McDowell to the San Francisco Giants. Sudden Sam had struck out more than 2,000 batters in his 11 years with the Indians, but his career spiraled downward in 1971, when he posted a 13-17 record with a 3.40 ERA. His 192 strikeouts were his fewest […]

California native Red Worthington was a hard-hitting outfielder with a powerful throwing arm. A top prospect in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, Red, who threw and batted right-handed, appeared to be on the fast track to major-league stardom. Before his ascent to the major leagues, a sportswriter wrote of Worthington, “This young man from the […]

Sam Jethroe was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1950, playing for the Boston Braves, and the first African American to play major-league baseball in Boston. Five years earlier, he’d tried out for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, along with Jackie Robinson and Marvin Williams, but the Red Sox pursued none […]

During a stellar career at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, Charlie Moran1 was “considered the crack college shortstop in the country”2 and had several major league clubs bidding for his services. Once he entered the professional ranks he soon developed a reputation as a trouble-maker and malingerer, wearing out his welcome with such celebrated managers […]

Once a gem, its luster long since faded along with its utility, Hinchliffe Stadium stands as a relic of a working-class city proud of its baseball heritage and teeters on the precipice of revival. Paterson, New Jersey, lays claim to this storied facility, once the renowned site of Negro League games, but it is hardly […]