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Frank Robinson stuck to his word. The Cleveland Indians manager was impressed with the pitching of his 20-year-old righty Dennis Eckersley. The Oakland native posted a remarkable record at San Antonio of the Double-A Texas League. Eck went 14-3 with a 3.40 ERA for the Brewers, totaling 163 strikeouts against 60 walks. But was he […]

In 1890 professional baseball was illegal on Sundays in many parts of the country. But in California, Sunday baseball was celebrated. The Oakland Colonels and San Francisco Metropolitans played two games on Sunday, October 12, 1890. The first began at 10:30 A.M. in Oakland and was won by the Mets, 4-2. The second game started […]

When baseball returned to Washington in 2005 after an absence of 33 seasons, RFK Stadium became the home of the transplanted Montreal Expos, now the Washington Nationals. Its cookie-cutter design was of its era — round and multipurpose.1 As this baseball finale approached, the state of RFK Stadium could best be described as leaky and […]

The underachieving Milwaukee Braves were on the verge of losing their eighth consecutive game and falling further behind in the pennant race. They trailed by a run in the bottom of the ninth of their July 22, 1959, contest against the Cincinnati Reds. Second baseman Roberto “Bobby” Ávila, acquired one day earlier and in the […]

Between May 5, 1969, and July 22, 1973, Freddie Velázquez went 0-for-4 as a major leaguer. Not hitless for four at-bats, but hitless for four years. A big-league debutant at 31, Velázquez collected two hits in six appearances for the Seattle Pilots in the early weeks of the 1969 season.1 He then returned to the […]

As their 1954 season staggered toward its conclusion, the Philadelphia Athletics would host the New York Yankees in the home finale at Connie Mack Stadium. The game, however, was bereft of suspense for either team. For the Yankees, winners of the previous five World Series, their dethroning by the Cleveland Indians was complete. The day […]

For Jim Kaat, the last of his 31 career shutouts undoubtedly was the most amazing of them all. It came June 4, 1980, a 10-inning blanking of the New York Mets at Shea Stadium – just over a month after the St. Louis Cardinals purchased the 41-year-old left-hander from the New York Yankees. Kaat had […]

Griffith Stadium played host to the 23rd All-Star Game on July 10, 1956. A sellout crowd of 28,843 saw the National League win its sixth decision in the past seven encounters, 7-3. The overflow crowd filled the seats behind the center-field wall, creating a bad background for the batters, and there were 17 strikeouts in […]

Baseball has yet to take firm hold in the island of Jamaica, even though it is surrounded by other nations with a strong tradition in the sport. As the 2018 season ended, four men of Jamaican birth have made it to the majors, all of whom learned the game in the United States. The first […]

Pete Knisely’s story is a familiar one: a player who excelled in the minors, could knock a ball over fences and walls in left field,1 but failed to make an impact in the majors over four seasons from 1912 through 1915. Knisley was known as “Pickleburg Pete”2 or “Pickle Bird.”3 (The origins of these nicknames […]

Statistically, a 13th-round draft pick is highly unlikely to see the majors at all; even fewer go on to make two All-Star Game appearances or win five Gold Gloves and a World Series championship. Very few four-year college outfielders who debut in the majors at age 24 go on to have 19-year careers in which […]

Curtis Le Roy Blefary is best remembered for winning the American League Rookie of the Year award in 1965. He had three productive seasons for the Orioles before his intertwined personal demons, alcohol and anger, overcame his terrific natural ability. Blefary was a key contributor to the Orioles’ pennant in 1966. The left-handed hitter was […]

Gene Kelly heard of Joe McCarthy’s death during a 1957 Phillies game at Connie Mack Stadium. On the air, he praised the man who never played in the big leagues, but played them like a cello. Some called McCarthy a pushbutton skipper, Kelly said over flagship WIP Radio. Others hailed perhaps the best manager of […]

He was born Harry I. Dalton on August 23, 1928, in West Springfield, Massachusetts, the same hometown as Leo Durocher. He graduated as an English major from Amherst College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Historically, Amherst faced Williams in the world’s first intercollegiate baseball game in 1859. He had been accepted to the Columbia University School of […]

He was a star pitcher, one who not only threw a no-hitter — against none other than Rube Foster’s 1915 Chicago American Giants1 — but also tossed a four-hit complete game against the 1911 Pittsburgh Pirates. He was, for parts of two decades, a manager who is credited with at least 196 career wins. He […]

From his early days as an amateur, pitcher Bill Hawke mowed down opposing batsmen with a lightning quick fastball and tantalizing off-speed pitches. When the distance between the batter and pitcher was expanded to 60 feet, 6 inches in 1893, Hawke changed his strategy and began to induce outs with grounders and pop flys. In […]

Though his major league career consisted of only five hitless at-bats for the 1980 Baltimore Orioles, Drungo Hazewood remains a legendary baseball cult figure, chiefly because of his unique moniker. Eyewitnesses to Hazewood’s feats of power and speed, however, wondered what might have been had the muscular outfielder learned to hit a curveball before leaving […]

If you were drafting players in a fantasy baseball league, you would probably rely heavily on statistics to make your decisions. But if you were choosing players for a real team for an actual 154-game season, your choices might be very different. The rigors of travel, game pressures, team chemistry and other intangibles might cause […]

The Boston Red Sox were clinging to the slimmest of leads in the American League East Division. They had just lost two of three games to the Milwaukee Brewers at County Stadium. A quick look at the standings on July 4, 1975, showed that the Red Sox were in a virtual tie with the Brew […]

While he may not have had major-league success as a player himself, Greg Pavlick has certainly had a long baseball career. Pavlick has been involved in professional baseball since 1971 and helped nurture the careers of countless young players within the Mets and Yankees organizations. Gregory Michael Pavlick was born on March 10, 1950, in […]

Since major-league baseball began, no player has ever enjoyed a debut to match Ted Cox’s. In every one of his first six at-bats, he got a base hit. Other players have made a hit in their first time at bat. Some of the greatest hitters of all time took a long time to get established. […]

SABR Bibliography Committee Research Guide No. 10: Baseball in History Journals (1980-88) Editor’s note: This guide was first published by the SABR Bibliography Committee in 1989. To download the original in PDF form, click here. By Jim SumnerApril 1989 This guide consists of all the articles I could find on baseball history published in history […]

Members and guests of the Buck O’Neil/North Florida Chapter gathered on October 4, 2023, at Casa Grande Margaritas & Cocina in Tallahassee, Florida, for their monthly meeting.  In attendance were: Matt Keelean, President Matt Hudson, Vice President Renee Watters, Communications Co-Director Brent Kallestad, Communications Co-Director Rick Swain, Treasurer Kent Putnam, Secretary Frank Alarcon Fred Dunphy […]

The Larry Dierker Chapter in Houston welcomed spring with its monthly Zoom meeting on Monday, March 15, 2021, with 29 members in attendance. Chair Bob Dorrill led off with several news items. Eddie Robinson recently celebrated his 100th birthday and is at spring training in Arizona. Monica White, widow of the late Tom White, a […]