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It is often the fate of those who are the second to complete a remarkable feat to be relegated to the dust bin of history. Any school child can tell you that Ferdinand Magellan was the first explorer to circumnavigate the world. But can you name the second? Most Americans know that Alan Shepard was […]

Considering how dreadful his first full professional season was, it’s a wonder Mike Cvengros made it to the major leagues at all. Yet make it he eventually did, and he went on to win 25 major-league games over parts of six seasons, plus 177 in the minors. Over the course of his career, two themes […]

As of 2023, the total number of men from the US Virgin Islands to reach the major leagues has reached 16 (factoring in a technicality). Yet none has had a better single season with the bat than Joe Christopher. In his finest year, 1964, he hit .300 with 16 homers and 76 RBIs for the […]

If Pants Rowland had gotten his way, big-league baseball would have reached California more than a decade before the Dodgers and Giants crossed the continent. As president of the Pacific Coast League, Rowland campaigned for recognition as a third major league as early as 1945. Personable and unfailingly optimistic, Rowland punched almost every ticket in […]

Dick Drott may not have been a Cubs icon like Ryne Sandberg or Ernie Banks, but he earned a place in the annals of Chicago greatness on May 26, 1957. Against the Milwaukee Braves, the right-handed rookie set a Cubs record of 15 strikeouts; Burt Hooton matched it in 1971 and Kerry Wood broke it […]

From the moment he started pitching, Steve Kealey wanted to be a starter instead of a reliever. However, once he reached professional baseball, his ability to loosen up quickly made him too valuable not to use him out of the bullpen. Despite not getting his first preference, the 6-foot, 185-pound Kealey crafted a brief yet […]

“Not getting booed at Ebbets Field was an amazing thing. Those fans knew their baseball, and Gil was the only player I can remember whom the fans never, I mean never, booed.”1 — Clem Labine “… epitomizes the courage, sportsmanship and integrity of America’s favorite pastime.” — back of a 1966 Topps baseball card “Gil […]

“There was no better teammate. … He’ll do anything to win.” – James “Cool Papa” Bell1   When legendary pitcher Satchel Paige became the first to be inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971 based on his Negro League accomplishments, he told Afro-American reporter Sam Lacy that he thought there were others […]

Cuban infielder Miguel de la Hoz – better known as “Miguelito” or its English translation, “Mike” – played in 494 games in the majors from 1960 through 1969. A good hitter with an “easy swing,”1 he put up some strong numbers in the minors and winter ball. Yet he never won a full-time starting job […]

Early in his career Lou Bierbauer’s surname appeared in box scores in abbreviated form as “Bauer,” as did that of his younger brother Charlie, a marginal minor league infielder in the early 1890s. In 1883 Lou began serving as the principal catcher for the top semipro team in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he was born on […]

Philip Knight Wrigley owned the Chicago Cubs from 1932 until his death in 1977. During that time, he brought baseball the infamous “college of coaches,” founded the revolutionary All-American Girls Baseball League, maintained Wrigley Field as one of the great stadiums in all of sports, and — to the despair of Cubs’ fans — presided […]

The third pitcher selected by the New York Mets in the 1961 National League expansion draft, French-Canadian Ray Daviault (pronounced dah-vee-yoh) debuted in New York’s inaugural home game, at the Polo Grounds versus the Pittsburgh Pirates. He walked the first batter he faced, then chased him home with a pair of wild pitches. After two eventful […]

When Susie Finney Narron, wife of Sam Narron, would say, “God picked Sam up and set him in baseball,” Sam would respond, “I would have played for nothing.”1 It did not hurt that Sam became a protégé of Branch Rickey, a “Rickey man.”2 Narron was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals during Rickey’s tenure and […]

Soft-spoken Richard Atley Donald once threw 95-mile-per-hour fastballs for the 1939 New York Yankees, the first major league team to win four straight World Series.  He won 12 straight games for them, to set an American League mark for rookies. Atley was a star pitcher for the 1937 Newark Bears, considered by many to be […]

When Ruthford Eduardo “Chico” Salmon stepped up as a pinch-hitter in the fifth inning of Game Two of the 1970 World Series, Baltimore was trailing Cincinnati, 4-1. Salmon was batting for Tom Phoebus, already the second pitcher used by Earl Weaver. “I got the greatest thrill of my life just walking up to the plate,” […]

After being stuck in the New York Yankees minor-league system for seven seasons, Lee Thomas spent 1961 through 1968 as a big-league player. The first baseman/outfielder was an All-Star in his best year, 1962 – but his finest day came in the final month of his rookie season. On September 5, 1961, Thomas (then with […]

Bill Bray played parts of six seasons (2006–08; 2010–12) as a lefty relief pitcher for the Washington Nationals and Cincinnati Reds. He pitched 197 1/3 innings in 258 major-league games. His big-league record was 13 wins and 12 losses with three saves. His earned run average was 3.74, and his wins above replacement (WAR) was […]

From the moment he was born in the back seat of a car in the parking lot of the East Orange (New Jersey) General Hospital, during a snowstorm on December 21, 1948,1 Elliott Maddox showed a knack for doing things on his terms. He was a premier defensive outfielder who had just begun to show […]

A hard-throwing right-hander, Fred Beebe began and ended his major-league career in fine style. As a rookie in 1906, he posted 15 wins and led the National League in strikeouts. Ten years later, he provided excellent spot starter-relief work as a midseason Cleveland Indians call-up. In between, Beebe suffered from bouts of wildness, arm problems, […]

The history of Rickwood Field is a story worth telling and retelling. Its origins are compelling as is the story of its evolution throughout its 77-year existence as a functional minor-league baseball park. Perhaps of greater interest is the story of how it has survived the past few decades as an obsolete old ballpark. Rickwood […]

“Terrapin Park, Federal League, Baltimore Md,” postcard published by The Chessler Company. (Courtesy of David B. Stinson.)   Terrapin Park, also known as Oriole Park (V), was the home of the Federal League Baltimore Terrapins in 1914 and 1915, the International League Orioles from 1916 to 1944, and parttime home field to the Negro National […]

Montreal mayor Jean Drepeau with (from left) John Bateman, Jim “Mudcat” Grant, and Maury Wills on Opening Day in New York, April 8, 1969 (COURTESY OF THE McCORD MUSEUM, MONTREAL)   It somehow seemed inevitable when it all came to an end in 2004. Fate didn’t really smile on the ’Spos (Les Expos de Montreal) […]

“It’s too hot for a sermon today. Go home, keep the commandments, and say a prayer for Gil Hodges. — Father Herbert Redmond1 Every baseball game has a story. This one has several. Sometimes the story just centers on the action and statistics generated inside the ballpark. This one stretches well beyond. And sometimes the […]

On April 11, 1985, about 4,200 baseball fans got to claim a rare distinction: They watched a Baltimore Orioles game played between May 30, 1982, and September 19, 1998, in which Cal Ripken Jr. did not appear. How was that possible? Even casual fans know that future Hall of Famer Ripken established the major leagues’ […]