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It had been a few years; some New York Yankees fans might say it seemed like an eternity. But eight years after the Yankees participated in their last fall classic, they were back in the playoff hunt, as the calendar flipped to September 1972. They entered the final month of the season in third place, […]

Murray “Skeeter” Watkins was a baseball lifer. He was a Negro League all-star on the left side of the infield in the 1940s for the Cincinnati Clowns, Newark Eagles, and Philadelphia Stars, and when opportunities disappeared he played in the Canadian ManDak League in the early 1950s. He would continue to play baseball for local […]

The shortest pitcher in major-league history, Frank “Deacon” Morrissey threw right-handed for the 1901 Boston Americans (later the Red Sox) and the 1902 Chicago Orphans (also the Cubs). Aside from the one game with Boston and seven with Chicago, he spent 12 seasons in the minor leagues playing a wide variety of positions (every position […]

Team pictures of the New York Mets in the 1960s and ’70s showed a shorter, older gentleman wearing glasses and business attire. His face could also be spotted deep within the Mets’ yearbooks. Near the Yoo-Hoo chocolate drink ads featuring Yogi Berra were head shots of club officials and other employees. Devoted Mets fans who […]

“Pack a bag.” The speaker was Lloyd Larson, sports editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel. It was March 18, 1953. Larson was talking to Lou Chapman, one of the members of his staff. “What for?” came the obvious question.[1] The answer changed Chapman’s life. He was asked to catch a plane for Florida to begin a […]

San Francisco’s Mike Finn was a pioneer professional as a California baseball player and manager. A versatile performer, he was an adept infielder, outfielder, and catcher, but was, in the Oakland Tribune’s opinion, “a pitching star of magnitude.” His managerial legacy was five championships during the California League’s formative years (1886-1893), more than any other pilot. An established […]

(Copyright Mike Shuba)   George Shuba’s story is in many ways that of an average ballplayer. In seven years in the major leagues, his career batting average was .259, and he played in a total of just 355 games, never more than 94 in a season. Nearly a third of his at-bats were as a […]

Dorian “Doe” Boyland was a good prospect who never got a proper chance to show what he could do in the major leagues. The first baseman received three trials with the Pittsburgh Pirates — in 1978, 1979, and 1981. He got into a total of 21 games, but started none of them and played in […]

Frank Albert “Fay” Young was one of the most influential sportswriters in the Black press, during a career that spanned five decades. Modern scholars have praised him for his thorough coverage of Negro Leagues baseball,1 as well as for reporting on athletic events at historically Black colleges.2 Writing at a time when few Black newspapers […]

“His reputation is that of a driving, spirited leader who at all times has evidenced an interest in the boy’s future, rather than furthering any ambitions he might have had for himself.” With those words in The Sporting News, columnist John Steadman introduced George Staller as the latter joined the Baltimore Orioles’ coaching staff in […]

Bill White spent 51 years in a game he didn’t love. The eight-time All-Star became the first black play-by-play broadcaster for a major-league team and the first black president of a major sports league. He railed against racism in baseball, though he acknowledged that, even as National League president, he couldn’t do much about it. […]

Bill “Wee Willie” Sherdel was a durable, rubber-armed starter and reliever who frustrated batters with a mesmerizing slowball during his 15-year big-league career from 1918 through 1932, most notably with the St. Louis Cardinals. Described by a contemporary as “one of the great left-handers” in baseball, Sherdel’s career is defined by a seven-year stretch (1922-1928) […]

A crowd of 69,865 packed Yankee Stadium for the second game of the 1947 World Series. The New York Yankees had won Game One with five runs on only four hits. The Brooklyn Dodgers aimed to even the Series when the two teams took the field on a chilly October afternoon. Allie Reynolds was given […]

The Cleveland Buckeyes swept the venerated Homestead Grays in the 1945 Negro League World Series, clinching the series with a 5-0 win on September 20. The Grays came into the best-of-seven series as the two-time defending champions and winners of eight of the previous nine Negro National League pennants.1 But they were no match for […]

The New York Yankees, arriving in Cleveland for a two-game series against the Indians, had just lost two of three games in Baltimore but remained three games ahead of the Orioles. Only 3,895 fans showed up on a chilly night at Cleveland Stadium hoping to see their team gain ground on the division leader. The […]

Pittsburgh’s Roberto Clemente was no stranger to baseball’s big stage when he was selected for the National League’s starting lineup in the 1961 All-Star Game. He had previously participated as a substitute outfielder with one at-bat in the 1960 All-Star classic and was a key contributor to the Pirates’ dramatic win over the New York […]

The pitching matchup scheduled for Wednesday, April 18, 1962, certainly was appealing since two teams that had battled for the 1961 National League pennant were to square off at Crosley Field. The probable starters were a pair of “tried and tested” southpaws – Johnny Podres for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Jim O’Toole for the […]

Weather forecasts predicted rain but when the sun rose on New York, there were clear skies as the Brooklyn Dodgers prepared to face off against the Yankees for the second time since 1941. The wind “played tricks with the pennants high above the roof” of Yankee Stadium and “sweaters and topcoats formed standard equipment for […]

The 1977 Chicago White Sox – known ever after as the “Southside Hitmen” – may have been the most celebrated third-place club in major-league history. From Opening Day until season’s end, the Hitmen were never dull, either in victory or defeat. But Bill Veeck’s players really outdid themselves on the morning (and early afternoon) of […]

With 2½ weeks left in the 1988 season, the Boston Red Sox were in a good position to capture their second American League East crown in three years. Surging out of fourth place by winning 12 in a row and 18 of 19 after Joe Morgan replaced John McNamara as manager at the All-Star break, […]

A weak offense marked the Washington Nationals’ 2005 season, so an offseason trade for a bat seemed inevitable. On December 8, 2005, they obtained Alfonso Soriano from the Texas Rangers in exchange for outfielders Brad Wilkerson and Terrmel Sledge and minor-league pitcher Armando Galarraga. Soriano was a four-time All-Star and a Silver Slugger winner who […]

“We shall surprise a good many people this summer,” Rochester manager Pat Powers shared with Sporting Life reporter W.L. Harris on the eve of the American Association’s 1890 season.1 New to the Association, the team incorporated as the “Rochesters Limited” had already shocked the National League’s New York Giants, defeating the reigning World’s Series champions […]

The first baseball game in Ebbets Field was an exhibition between the Brooklyn Superbas and New York Yankees that drew a sellout crowd of 25,000 while an estimated 10,000 fans were turned away. (Photo: Library of Congress)   On September 20, 1912, Brooklyn team president Charles Ebbets gave up hope that his new stadium could […]

Fourteen seasons. That’s all it took for Scranton-Dunmore Stadium to go from a community’s shiny new plaything to, literally, a pile of parts waiting to be trucked out of town. Between 1940 and 1953, the people of Scranton, Pennsylvania – and of Dunmore, a small neighboring community – got to see Ted Williams, Satchel Paige, […]