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Considered a “Methuselah” because he played for the Brooklyn Superbas for an uninterrupted period of more than a decade, John Hummel was known as the “prince of utility players,” appearing in 548 games at second base, 293 in the outfield, 160 at first base, and 74 at shortstop. Hummel batted .254 and stole 119 bases […]

After playing regularly for the Pittsburgh Pirates at second base for three seasons and first base for two, Dots Miller became the quintessential utility man, spending time at every infield position for the Cardinals and Phillies during the last seven years of his 12-year career in the majors. In 1915 Ring Lardner picked Miller as […]

On July 30, 1968, Washington Senators shortstop Ron Hansen pulled off one of baseball’s rarest and most difficult feats when he turned an unassisted triple play against the Cleveland Indians. This diamond rarity took place at Municipal Stadium in Cleveland during the bottom of the first inning after leadoff hitter Dave Nelson singled and Russ […]

Some former major-league ballplayers are remembered for hitting an unforgettable home run, while others are remembered for a very successful business career after retiring from playing baseball. Charlie James, a St. Louis native who played for the Cardinals from 1960 to 1964, is remembered for both. Charles Wesley James was born on December 22, 1937, […]

Over a 50-year career in baseball, a man is likely to pick up a few nicknames, and for Jack Onslow this was no exception. He liked to call himself “The Travelling Man,” and the logic to that will become obvious. He also was referred to as “Happy Jack” and “Honest John,” names that could have […]

How you remember Dave Parker depends largely on what you remember him for. Do you remember him as one of the best players in the major leagues in the last half of the 1970s? The man who was the National League’s Most Valuable Player in 1978 and MVP of the All-Star Game in 1979? The […]

Approximately 200 diehard fans returned to a cold and cloudy Ebbets Field on February 23, 1960. Among those present were former players Ralph Branca, Roy Campanella, Carl Erskine, and Tommy Holmes, reminiscing about the glory days in the iconic ballpark — opened in 1913 and vacated following the close of the 1957 season. Attendees sadly […]

After four seasons of double-digit victories as a starter for the Dodgers (1946-1949), left-handed pitcher Joe Hatten started only twenty-eight games over the next three seasons. He then departed the Major Leagues for a long career in the minors.  When Hatten was asked what single thrill he remembered from his days as a major leaguer, […]

A ballplayer turned Hollywood actor and a car dealer who once sold a Corvette to Elvis Presley. Lou Stringer was all three. Louis Bernard Stringer was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on May 18, 1917. When Lou was three years old, his father moved the family to East Los Angeles. Robert Stringer had been a […]

William Barney McCosky, a Pennsylvania native who grew up in Detroit, was a talented and speedy all-around center fielder who broke into the major leagues with a bang in 1939, hitting .311 for the Detroit Tigers. Barney, who stood 6-feet-1 and weighed 185 pounds in his prime, threw right and batted left, and he did […]

The story of J.W. Porter is one of paradox. A talent of renown, he was praised by scouts as perhaps the greatest prospect they had ever seen. Before he was 18 years old, the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown hung a plaque bearing his name. He received a record signing bonus; but his rise […]

World War II ended when the Axis powers surrendered to the Allied powers in 1945. Men and women of the U.S. Armed Forces returned to an America deeply affected by years of war, and they sought to resume a simple, more pedestrian way of life. They looked to an America which embraced enterprise and entertainment, […]

Nate Colbert wasn’t supposed to play on August 1, 1972. The San Diego slugger had injured his knee in a collision at home plate the night before and was listed as doubtful against the Atlanta Braves. Looking forward to hitting in Atlanta Stadium, known as the Launching Pad, Colbert decided to tough out the pain. […]

Bert Griffith (1896-1973) had a brief major-league career, playing for the Brooklyn Robins in 1922-231 and Washington Senators in 1924, principally as an outfielder. Hitting and throwing right-handed, Griffith was a stocky man who stood an inch shy of 6 feet and weighed 187 pounds. He appeared in 191 big-league games and sported a .299 […]

“George Crable Batting .400 in the Harmony League.” — Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 24, 19111   Nebraskan left-hander George Crable parlayed two games with the Brooklyn Superbas in August 1910 into a nearly two-decade baseball-themed vaudeville stage career. Sadly, he lost all of his sports and theater memorabilia in a 1931 fire at his cigar […]

Longtime fans of the Indians know that the team did not appear in postseason play from 1954 to 1995. The 40 years in between were difficult for baseball in Cleveland. During that time, there were three waves of major-league baseball expansion into new cities with new teams finding success before the Indians returned to the […]

Stan Williams worked in professional baseball for more than 50 years. The Dodgers signed the big, tall, right-handed fireballer after he completed high school in the 1950s, and he was still on a major-league payroll as a scout as late as 2010. Williams had a knack for contributing to winning teams. In just his second […]

Jacob “Jake” Wood Jr., an African American from Elizabeth, New Jersey, starred at shortstop for the baseball team at Thomas Jefferson High, played one season at Delaware State University, and signed with the Detroit Tigers in 1957. Jake was a natural, one of two outstanding athletes in the family. Youngest brother Richard enjoyed a 10-year […]

For as long as he could, Fermín “Mike” Guerra kept playing baseball all year around, in his native Cuba and in the United States. The two lands obviously had quite different cultures, baseball and otherwise, and Guerra even told Roberto Gonzalez Echevarría that he had been initiated into santería, the particular syncretic Afro-Cuban religion.1 Fermín […]

Although he was a four-time All-Star with the Boston Braves and respected throughout baseball as an excellent defensive catcher and steady hitter, Phil Masi is best remembered for being part of one of the most controversial plays in World Series history. During the bottom of the eighth inning in Game One of the 1948 Series […]

If you never heard of Harry Lochhead, that is very understandable. The shortstop’s big-league career was brief and his statistics mostly unimpressive, though he led the hapless 1899 Cleveland Spiders with 148 games played and played briefly as the keystone partner of Nap Lajoie in 1901. Harry would have had some dazzling tales for his […]

Few names are as synonymous with the development of Negro League baseball as Abe and Effa Manley. The couple is most commonly associated with the Newark Eagles, which they owned from 1936 until they disbanded the club in 1948, one year after Jackie Robinson integrated the White major leagues, thus signaling the end of the […]

On September 15, 2022 – celebrated as Roberto Clemente Day across all of baseball’s major leagues – the Tampa Bay Rays, playing the Toronto Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, deployed a batting order of players native to Colombia, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Venezuela. The Rays won the game, 11-0, and […]

On a blustery afternoon at Three Rivers Stadium, the Pittsburgh Pirates and Montreal Expos launched the 1979 season toward its down-to-the-wire destiny. Foreshadowing the tightly contested division race ahead – if not its ultimate outcome – Montreal’s Steve Rogers frustrated Pirates batters and baserunners and dueled Bert Blyleven to a draw, and the Expos spun […]