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Bill Doak is little remembered. Those who do know his name likely recall seeing it on the palm of a fielder’s glove, either in their youth, or more recently in a display of baseball memorabilia. Doak’s name graces those old gloves because in 1919, in collaboration with Rawlings Sporting Goods Company, he came up with […]

For the New York Giants and Christy Mathewson, things could not get much better than they were in 1905. Coming off a National League championship the year before, by mid-June the Giants were comfortably in first place with a winning percentage of .725 and a sizable lead over the second-place Philadelphia Phillies. Mathewson was the […]

The Kansas City Royals were on the rise when they came to Cleveland for a three-game set in August 1975. The previous month they had fired manager Jack McKeon, who’d been with the organization since the team first took the field in 1969. The change in field leadership seemed to have righted the ship; Kansas […]

It was the start of a dynasty. Or so thought Milwaukee’s baseball fans. On September 21, 1958, the Braves won the National League pennant for the second year in row. Hank Aaron propelled the reigning World Series champs with a 2-for-3 afternoon, sending four runs across Crosley Field’s home plate. Red Schoendienst knocked in a […]

Late in the 1987 season, Sam Horn took Boston by storm. After hitting .321 with 30 home runs and 84 RBIs in 94 games for Triple-A Pawtucket, he was called up when the Red Sox released veteran Bill Buckner on July 23. In his major-league debut, on July 25 against Seattle, the 6-foot-5 left-handed slugger […]

The eyes of the baseball world were focused on the National League pennant race as the 1959 regular season ended on Sunday, September 27. The Los Angeles Dodgers and Milwaukee Braves, tied for first place, each won their final game, forcing a best-of-three tiebreaker series.1 But there was also a down-to-the-wire contest in the American […]

The Toronto Maple Leafs’ magic number was one heading into the final day of the International League’s 1957 regular season. To clinch the pennant, they needed to beat the Rochester Red Wings or have the Buffalo Bisons lose to the Montreal Royals. Toronto manager Dixie Walker handed the ball to his top starting pitcher, 27-year-old […]

The 1952 baseball season had turned the page to May, and the season’s stories were just starting to bloom like ivy on the brick walls of Wrigley Field. The Chicago Cubs led the National League with nine wins (against four losses), yet were percentage points behind the first-place Brooklyn Dodgers, who had a record of […]

“They invented the All-Star Game for Willie Mays,” Ted Williams said,1 and Mays showed why in the 1963 All-Star Game. Wondrous Willie didn’t hit a home run, but the rest of his formidable tools were on display as he had a hit and a walk, stole two bases, scored two runs, knocked in two runs, […]

Seemingly bound for their fourth consecutive last-place finish in the National League East Division, the Pittsburgh Pirates dealt several veterans for younger players in July and August 1987. A trade of All-Star starting pitcher Rick Reuschel to the San Francisco Giants netted workhorse reliever Jeff Robinson. In one of his first appearances as a Pirate, […]

Despite successful stints pitching for town teams and Gettysburg College in, Pennsylvania, Eddie Plank never drew much attention from professional scouts and managers.1 There are various theories on how Connie Mack eventually discovered the future Hall of Famer at Gettysburg College.2 But no matter how the “Tall Tactician” received word about the blossoming pitcher, it is […]

Frank Bowerman’s major-league career spanned 15 seasons, from 1895 through 1909. It included stops with the Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Giants, and Boston Doves. Bowerman was a sturdy, robust player who stood 6-feet-2 and weighed approximately 190 pounds. Although known mainly as a catcher, the righty could play almost any position. Bowerman logged […]

Doug DeCinces spent the first part of his major-league career shaking off comparisons to a Baltimore Orioles legend. Then, before he could make his mark in Baltimore, he was traded to make room for another Oriole icon. DeCinces essentially bridged a path between two Hall of Fame infielders, Brooks Robinson and Cal Ripken Jr.   […]

Among potentially awkward encounters between semipro baseball teammates off the field, one player having to arrest another must rank very high. Carl “Sailor” Howard, who participated in spring training with the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1935 and pitched in a couple of midseason exhibition games for the team, was on the receiving end of such an […]

A gritty and hard-nosed middle infielder, Larry Brown debuted as a 23-year-old with the Cleveland Indians in 1963. Once described by The Sporting News as “one of the top shortstops in the league,” the 150-pound Brown proved that a rifle arm, sure hands, defensive versatility, and sheer determination could lead to 1,129 games in a […]

When Mike Sandlock signed his first professional baseball contract, in 1938, he could not have envisioned that he would become a major-league teammate of no fewer than six Hall of Famers – Warren Spahn, Paul Waner, Ernie Lombardi, Pee Wee Reese, Billy Herman, and Ralph Kiner. Nor could he have imagined that during his five […]

In baseball history, few major leaguers have turned to sports writing as a full-time profession after their playing days. Sam Crane and Tim Murnane were nineteenth-century players who then wrote for, respectively, the Boston Globe and the New York Evening Journal. Charley Walters twirled in a half-dozen games for the 1969 Twins before becoming a […]

Eddie Basinski always conceded that he never looked much like a baseball player. He sported a slender frame and bottle-thick steel-rimmed classes, prompting many fans to view him as a Mr. Peepers in flannels and Brooklyn Dodgers president and general manager Branch Rickey to describe him as “the escaped divinity student.”1 “Inside, I had the […]

“Just call me Hank,” said Henry “Prince” Oana. He didn’t really come from Hawaiian royalty, but there was still a certain mystique about this outfielder-turned-pitcher. In a time when mainstream baseball lacked diversity, Oana was something exotic. When this story was originally published in 2009, there weren’t many men alive who knew Hank Oana during […]

“One of the most durable and dependable catchers in the Negro Leagues era, Larry ‘Iron Man’ Brown was a master behind the plate, yielding a quick release and an arm to be envied.”1 Brown never pulled his mask off for a pop fly. Never staggered under foul balls like other catchers. Brown described the art […]

The rough and tumble world of early 20th century baseball demanded powerful men on the mound, and Edward Pfeffer possessed all of the necessary attributes. Strong, big, and durable, Big Jeff had every quality of the heavyweight champion who lent him a nickname. Over a professional career that spanned twenty seasons, Pfeffer took no quarter, […]

“I’m a damn good catcher, if I do have to say so myself,” Ed Bailey said.1 He wasn’t lying. Like other 1950s catchers, he was overshadowed by Yogi Berra and Roy Campanella, but Bailey was a five-time All-Star, a left-handed power hitter who threw out nearly half of would-be base stealers Besides his bat and […]

By his own account, Merv Rettenmund was a “scuffler” more than a ballplayer. He never found his niche as a regular starter with the Baltimore Orioles, but he starred as a super-sub and was a key cog for the Orioles as they won three consecutive American League pennants, from 1969 to 1971. He twice led […]

This article was originally published in SABR’s The National Pastime, Vol. 19, in 1999.   The whole history leading up to Jackie Robinson has usually been that an electric light went on in the head of the noble Branch Rickey one morning and he ended baseball discrimination.” As the lean, white-haired Lester Rodney speaks in […]