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Tommie Agee was one of the key components to the 1969 Miracle Mets, solidifying the defense and serving as the club’s chief power source, albeit from the leadoff spot. His on-field heroics during the ’69 season—including socking the only home run to ever reach Shea Stadium’s upper deck—helped propel the Mets to their first postseason […]

Called “too small for a pitcher” by his high-school coach, Billy Johnson switched to the outfield, and eventually to third base, where he played well enough to be given a “day” at Yankee Stadium. It took place before a crowd of 42,267 on July 25, 1948, between games of a doubleheader. The day was hot […]

“I was a character in baseball. I saw it as an interim type of career,” Lou Skizas told Bill Gleason.1 Skizas, known as “The Nervous Greek” during his four-season major-league playing career, was perhaps best known for an unusual ritual that he followed before coming to bat. Before reaching the plate, the right-handed-batting Skizas dropped […]

But for a bit of luck—if he’d been with a different organization, in which he wasn’t caught behind an all-star like Dick Groat or if he hadn’t suffered two broken bones in the seventh of what would turn out to be 10 minor-league seasons—shortstop Dick Barone might have had a longer stint in the major […]

“Oh, Puddin’ Head Jones was fat and funny Dumber than sticks and stones. Now that is just why the kids all called him, Wooden head, puddin’ head Jones.”   Rudy Vallee and his Connecticut Yankees sang these words in 1933. Legend has it that Willie Edward Jones’s nickname came from the song. Wherever it came […]

In the foreword to Chuck Hinton’s autobiography, My Time at Bat, Sam Lacy said of Hinton, “He is a family man – one who does his baseball thing as a sideline.”1 Hinton’s devotion to family grew from the large and close-knit one into which he was born, but his life and that of his brothers […]

“He’s either the poorest great third baseman or the greatest poor third baseman.”1 In perhaps one of the best non-Yogi-Berra quotes in baseball history, this was Branch Rickey’s assessment of Frenchy Bordagaray, a colorful outfielder/third baseman who played for several teams in the 1930s and 1940s. He was free-spirited enough to fit in with both […]

“If the talents of Christy Mathewson, John McGraw, Ban Johnson and Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis were combined in a single body, and that body was enveloped in a black skin, the result would have to be named Andrew ‘Rube’ Foster. As an outstanding pitcher, a colorful and shrewd field manager, and the founder and stern […]

Could a friendly poker game among minor-league teammates lead to a Hall of Fame career for a 29-year-old who had been pitching in professional baseball for nine years, never had won a major-league game, and seldom had put together two good years back to back in the minors? Perhaps. Arthur Vance had earned the nickname […]

Patrick Edward Dobson Jr. was born February 12, 1942, in Depew, New York, a small village ten miles east of Buffalo. In his youth, Pat often took the bus there to watch his heroes Joe Caffie and Luke Easter, stars of the Buffalo Bisons of the International League. Pat attended Lancaster Central High School, where […]

During Harry Grabiner’s four-decade-long tenure as a front-office official with the Chicago White Sox, he saw the team experience its highest highs and lowest lows. Beginning his career as a scorecard salesman in 1905 and serving for many years as the team’s secretary and vice president, Grabiner was involved with the White Sox’ first two […]

Baseball history is filled with all variety of wonderful-sounding names. But has there ever been a more perfect name for a baseball player than Champ Summers? “With a name like that, you gotta be halfway decent anyway,” Champ would say years later. “If my name had been George, nobody would have noticed me, but Champ?” […]

Pitching in a pennant race must have seemed tame to Skinny Brown; when he was 19 years old, he jumped out of a shot-up bomber into the cold waters of the English Channel. Brown took the game seriously, but not himself. He said, “It takes a lot of guts to walk out there with the […]

Struggling at third base during the first two months of the 1998 season, the Pittsburgh Pirates summoned their top-rated prospect, 19-year-old Aramis Ramírez, from Triple A. Ramírez, who had just 40 games of professional experience above Class A, went hitless in his first 24 big-league at-bats before breaking through with a game-clinching two-run double on […]

“He didn’t like to lose to anyone in anything,” catcher Tim McCarver wrote about pitcher Bob Gibson, his 1960s batterymate with the St. Louis Cardinals.1 One imagines that Gibson didn’t much like to tie anyone, either. But on May 1, 1971, the future Hall of Famer found himself on neither the long end nor the […]

For many baseball fans, 1901 marks the beginning of the “modern” era.1 That year saw the arrival of the eight-team American League to go with the recently realigned eight teams of the National League, and a stability that lasted for over 50 years.2 It also marked the emergence of one of the greatest pitchers in […]

When the New York Yankees arrived in Boston in April 2007, the Boston Red Sox had not swept a series from the Yankees at Fenway Park for 17 years. The last time had been August 31-September 2, 1990, part of Boston’s only season home sweep of the Yankees in franchise history. The last time the […]

George Brett entered the 1992 season as an accomplished veteran leading a rebuilding team. The 1991 Royals finished with an 82-80 record, 13 games behind the AL-West-leading Minnesota Twins and only one game removed from the basement. Kansas City hadn’t reached the postseason since winning the 1985 World Series, although the Royals won 92 games […]

Right fielder Joe Ferguson’s first career assist came on a key throw to home plate in the 1974 World Series. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   The first-ever all-California World Series pitted two contrasting teams. The two-time defending American League (and World Series) champion Oakland A’s featured a new manager and experienced teammates. The National League champion Los […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers and Boston Braves were two teams headed in opposite directions. Brooklyn, with 96 wins and the National League pennant already clinched, had a World Series date with the New York Yankees. On Saturday, September 27, 1952, Dodgers manager Charlie Dressen gave the ball to pitcher Joe Black as a final regular-season tune-up.1 […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers were all smiles after they swept the Yankees at Ebbets Field, leaving them just one game away from their elusive World Series championship. Duke Snider, the hero of the fifth game after hitting two home runs, was asked if it was his biggest day as a player. Snider responded, “No, that’ll be […]

“There is nothing to compare with it,” said Bobby Richardson after going 3-for-5 in Game Four of the 1961 World Series. “The World Series certainly is not another group of ballgames. I actually enjoy it. The excitement and the little tensions you feel before and after the games are beyond comparison.”1 The Cincinnati Reds were […]

The July 20, 1939, headline in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette read, “Pirates Smother Crippled Giants, 10-3,”1 alluding to the fact that “with most of his stars walking on crutches, [Giants manager] Bill Terry was forced to use patchwork in his batting array.”2 Burgess Whitehead was nursing a bruised leg, although he started the game at shortstop. […]

  THE FEDERAL LEAGUE OF PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL CLUBS vs. THE NATIONAL LEAGUE OF PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL CLUBS, et al. DIGITAL ARCHIVE Prepared by Tom Pardo, with generous assistance from Eve Mangurten, Kyle McCafferty, Glenn Longacre, and Scott Forsyth. SOURCE NOTE All of the files of the Federal League court case digital archive, with the exception of […]