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Nearly 1,700 ballplayers have appeared in but a single major league game. Ray Kennedy, a catcher by trade, was one of those one-game wonders. At age 21, on September 8, 1916, he pinch-hit for the St. Louis Browns at Detroit’s Navin Field. Yet despite only three minutes on that hallowed diamond, Kennedy gave his heart […]

Second baseman Newt Allen’s Kansas City Monarchs teammates gave him the nickname “Colt” in 1922 because he was the youngest member of the team.1 Over the course of a 23-plus-year career in the Negro Leagues that also included stints in other countries, Allen proved to be one of the best players ever to man the […]

What was Yankees manager Bucky Harris thinking? With his team leading the Brooklyn Dodgers, 3–2, with two outs in the sixth inning of Game Seven of the 1947 World Series, he sent rookie Allie Clark up to pinch-hit for rookie Yogi Berra. Out of context, given Berra’s Hall of Fame career, the move might seem […]

Throwing sinkerballs with his right-handed, three-quarters delivery, John Flinn pitched a dozen seasons of professional baseball, but only 42 games in the majors. As a big-leaguer, Flinn won five, lost two, posted a respectable 4.17 ERA and held Hall of Fame members to only two hits in 23 at-bats (Carlton Fisk notched both). But it […]

“Nature formed but one such batsman as [Dan] Brouthers and then destroyed the die.”1 — Boston Globe, June 3, 1889 Brouthers “is the best batter that ever faced a pitcher—bar nobody. He is the daddy of all hitters.”2 — Cincinnati Enquirer, October 15, 1893   One of the greatest hitters in baseball history, first baseman […]

Contemporary observers considered Mike Mowrey one of the best third basemen in baseball. A lifetime .256 hitter with a reputation for being particularly dangerous in the pinches, Mowrey was best known for his unorthodox fielding style—instead of catching a hard smash in his glove, he would knock the ball to the ground and then pick […]

For decades, Emil Verban was remembered as an obscure minor-league infielder who made the majors because of depleted wartime rosters, then played for losing teams and hit one home run in 2,911 times at bat. But more than 20 years after his retirement, Verban won a measure of fame as the namesake of the Emil […]

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 […]

Cleveland pitcher Dennis Eckersley was pitching pretty well. His last outing was a 12-inning game against Seattle, in which he held the Mariners without a hit from the sixth inning on, covering the last 7 2/3 innings. He was rewarded with a complete-game win, when the Tribe pushed a run across in the last of […]

A mediocre fielder at third base, Red Smith was a good enough hitter to hold down third base for the Brooklyn Dodgers, until he clashed with his new manager, Wilbert Robinson. Robbie regarded Smith as a troublemaker, and Smith was summarily shipped to the Boston Braves – in time to make an important contribution as […]

“The great Jackie Robinson once said, ‘A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.’ This afternoon, as the Mariners acknowledge Tuesday’s league-wide celebration of the life of Jackie Robinson, the Mariners are pleased to welcome a special guest who personifies Jackie’s spirit and has dedicated his life to serving […]

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 […]

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 […]

The morning of Sunday, June 2, 1957, was a great day to be a Cincinnati Redlegs fan. This wasn’t something that could be said often since World War II. In fact, the Redlegs’ third-place finish in 1944 was not to be attained again for 12 years, when the inspired 1956 team won 91 games and […]

The baseball world changed in 1947. This statement cannot be disputed. But changes almost always allow the Law of Unintended Consequences to be activated as well. The addition of Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers of the National League, and later Larry Doby to the Cleveland Indians of the American League, would start the demise […]

The Kansas City Royals had developed from an expansion franchise in 1969 to a division contender in the American League Western Division by the mid-1970s. The Royals had had given the powerful Oakland Athletics a challenge for the division crown in 1975 but despite 91 wins, they came up seven games short of the A’s.1 […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers take batting practice in an empty Ebbets Field. The Dodgers led or co-led the NL in home runs in every season from 1949 through 1955. (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)   The Brooklyn Dodgers were as hot as the steamy weather that had ruled New York City boroughs for five days.1 The talented first-place […]

It was already a month into spring, but the April cold probably kept fans at home. Only 6,869 customers showed up in the 40-degree weather to watch the Cincinnati Reds play the Milwaukee Braves on April 21, 1959, at Milwaukee’s County Stadium, making it the smallest home crowd in three seasons.1 Those that did brave […]

On a sultry Wednesday afternoon at Ebbets Field, the Robins and Pirates played for 4 hours and 15 minutes in the first game of a doubleheader.1 A “paltry 1,500 ‘bushers’ were on hand to appreciate” the longest game in the 41-year history of the National League.2 A Brooklyn newspaper account noted that “forty-seven safeties, one […]

On July 4, 1976, the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, the bases were loaded for Philadelphia Phillies catcher Tim McCarver in the first game of a doubleheader at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium. McCarver drove Pittsburgh Pirates starter Larry Demery’s pitch over the fence for an apparent grand slam—but passed teammate […]

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 […]

The first major-league baseball game this writer ever saw was at the Polo Grounds in New York City on May 24, 1946. Since then he has visited major-league and minor-league parks from Boston to San Diego and many places in between. But he has never seen games anywhere that rival the pageantry of those at […]

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 […]

Sixteen members and guests of the Bob Broeg St. Louis Chapter gathered at The Original Crusoe’s Restaurant in South St. Louis on Tuesday, March 24, 2015. Chapter president Brian Flaspohler called the meeting to order. The original date, for the Jim Rygelski Research Conference, of Saturday, July 11 has become tentative and may be changed due to […]