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Perhaps it is Brad Lidge’s fate to be best remembered for two sliders. The first, in 2005, hung over the plate and resulted in an Albert Pujols blast that decided an NLCS game. The second, in 2008, tailed away from Eric Hinske and clinched a world championship. Yet Lidge’s big-game résumé stretches well beyond these […]

A major-league pitcher for 18 years, Clarence Mitchell is best remembered not for a pitch he threw from the mound, but for one he hit while standing in the batter’s box. It was Sunday, October 10, 1920, the fifth game of the World Series between Cleveland and Brooklyn. The series was tied at two games […]

Versatility is the best word to describe Felix Mantilla’s 11-year career, in which he won a world championship with the 1957 Milwaukee Braves, appeared in the All-Star Game, and played every position other than pitcher and catcher.  Felix (Lamela) Mantilla was born on July 29, 1934, in Isabela, a town in the northwest corner of […]

Grant Johnson, baseball historian Gary Ashwill argues, “was the best everyday player in Black baseball from 1895 to 1909.”1 After slugging his way to a legend with a hometown Findlay, Ohio, club in 1894, “Home Run” Johnson’s career mapped the finest Black teams of the era. He starred at shortstop for the Page Fence Giants, […]

Joe Scott’s ancestors were probably kidnapped or purchased by slave traders in West Africa, survived the horrors of the Middle Passage, and were sold into slavery in North America. His great-grandmother Annie Scott, who was born a slave in South Carolina in January 1820, gained her freedom as a result of America’s Civil War. She […]

Throughout much of his major-league playing career, he appeared to be a polarizing fusion of skills. One was a rare talent for hitting baseballs. The other, at times, seemed like an unerring instinct for finding the midst of controversy, great or small. José Manuel Guillén, a right-handed-batting and -throwing outfielder who was capable enough with […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

When fog rolls in, anything can happen. Just imagine a film noir detective pursuing a suspect through a murky mist, or a Lovecraftian horror story in which thick clouds hide unspeakable terror. The Pittsfield (Massachusetts) Rangers and Trois-Rivieres (Quebec) Aigles1 of the Double-A Eastern League encountered their own kind of drama on June 26, 1972, […]

The San Francisco Giants entered 1986 coming off three straight losing seasons, including back-to-back last-place finishes in the National League West Division. In 1985 they had lost 100 games for the first time in franchise history. But when the Giants began a six-game road trip with a weekend series against the Cincinnati Reds in late […]

On July 13, 1962, more than halfway through the regular season, all but one of the 10 teams in the American League standings were separated by only 8½ games. Sitting in eighth and ninth places respectively were the Boston Red Sox and the Kansas City Athletics. The two teams were in the midst of a […]