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Kenneth Jerry Adair was born to Kinnie and Ola Adair on December 17, 1936, at Lake Station, an unincorporated area named for a station on a trolley car line between the northeastern Oklahoma cities of Sand Springs and Tulsa. Jerry claimed Sand Springs as his hometown. He was a fair-skinned, blond-haired descendant of mixed-blood Cherokee […]
Baseball writers were intrigued by the unlikely story of a slightly built walk-on working his way up to play for the New York Yankees. As a result, Bernard Oliver Bengough was referred to as “the Peter Pan of baseball” during the early years of his professional career.1 The youngest child of James Bengough (1862-1930), a […]
When Dave Sisler initially toed the rubber at Fenway Park as a Red Sox pitcher in the spring of 1955, the occasion was far from ordinary. The date was May 23. The game — an exhibition featuring the reigning world champion New York Giants played for the benefit of local hospitalized army vets — featured […]
For one magnificent season, “Colby Jack” Coombs was the equal of any pitcher of the Deadball Era, Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson and Grover Cleveland Alexander included. Armed with an above average fastball and a devastating drop curve, Coombs had one of the most dominant pitching seasons in baseball history in 1910, rolling up a 31-9 […]
In an era filled with pitching stars, many of them working for the Baltimore Orioles, it took Jim Palmer a few years to rise to the top of the heap. Once he did, he became the greatest pitcher in his league for a number of seasons, and one of the best pitchers who ever lived. […]
David Wright, who possesses more team batting records than any New York Met,1 was arguably the team’s best position player ever. Wright finished in the top 10 in NL MVP voting four times, including 2007, when he finished fourth. He represented the Mets as a National League (NL) All-Star five consecutive years and seven times […]
In the early evening of February 28, 1894, former Baltimore Orioles pitcher Pete McNabb and his paramour, actress wannabe Louise Kellogg, retired to the room that they shared in a Pittsburgh hotel. Moments later, three gunshots rang out from inside. Then, a fourth. Those responding to the scene found McNabb lying on the floor, dead […]
Cuban outfielder Carlos Paula parlayed an all-star tour in the United States into a full-time minor-league role in the early 1950s. With his chiseled frame and stylish flair, he became the man who integrated the Washington Senators on September 6, 1954, making the Senators the 12th of the original 16 major-league teams to do so. […]
Arvell “Bill” Riggins, a shortstop-third baseman who played from 1920 to 1935, was an under-appreciated player whose professional career began at the same time as the first Negro National League.1 Riggins hit for a solid .292 average over the course of his career in Black baseball’s major leagues but has remained less well known than […]
Among the last generation of legendary ivory hunters who covered Southern California in the 1960s to 1980s, no name inspired more fear, trepidation, intimidation, antagonism, and grudging respect than that of Bob Zuk. The cigar-chomping son of Russian immigrants who fashioned a 46-year professional scouting career out of little more than energy, intellect, hustle, and […]
“The bonus rule will ruin baseball if it isn’t curtailed,” proclaimed Branch Rickey, Pittsburgh Pirates general manager, in August 1952.”1 A revised rule was adopted by the major leagues that winter. Clubs were required to carry any player receiving a signing bonus of more than $4,000 on their major-league roster for a minimum of two […]
Rasty Wright is in all probability the first player in the history of baseball to reach 2,000 career hits in the minor leagues.1 He spent 16 seasons (1884-1899) as a professional baseball player but only one in the major leagues. In 1890, he batted .305 as an outfielder for the Syracuse Stars of the American […]
There was baseball in Marlan Coughtry’s family. “My dad began throwing baseballs at me as soon as I could walk,” he said. “My uncle, Ray Coughtry, had played in the Cardinal chain; my dad wants me to rise even higher.”1 Perry Coughtry was Marlan’s father. A native Californian, Perry worked as a checker for a […]
“I was blessed,” said Fred McGriff, reflecting on a decorated career that landed him in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022.1 McGriff signed his first pro contract when he was 17. During his 19-year major-league career, McGriff was a five-time All-Star, won the Silver Slugger award three times, and hit 30 or more home […]
One of the more obscure players in Red Sox history, Eusebio Gonzalez was the first foreign-born Latino to play for the Bosox. Eusebio Miguel Gonzalez Lopez was born in Havana, Cuba on July 13, 1892. Batting right and throwing right, he was an infielder listed as 5’10” with a playing weight of 165 pounds. Gonzalez […]
Otis Nixon’s baseball career was a rollercoaster that looked destined to derail before a low-profile trade to Atlanta in 1991 changed his course. He had three magical seasons with the Braves as an instrumental piece of deep playoff runs. He continued to contribute for multiple teams throughout his 30s. While hindered by troubles off the […]
Jim Boyer was born and raised in Maryland. He died in Maryland and is buried there. And when he left the American League’s umpiring staff in 1950 after almost seven seasons, it was to take a job in the Old Line State. Unfortunately, Boyer never umpired a major-league game in Maryland, since the St. Louis […]
There is documented evidence that baseball in Cleveland goes back to the Civil War era. An 1867 article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer mentions 22 teams practicing on the ball ground. Two of the teams were composed of African American players.1 By 1918, the first professional Black team, the Tate Stars, formed. The Tate Stars […]
A career backup outfielder, Lynn Jones had nearly a 35-year career in professional baseball as a player and well-traveled coach and manager. Jones played eight seasons in the majors – five with the Detroit Tigers and three with the Kansas City Royals – before embarking on a coaching career that touched the lives of thousands […]
Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Tug McGraw celebrates after closing out Game Six of the 1980 World Series, clinching the first championship in franchise history. (Courtesy of the Philadelphia Phillies) In the Beginning The first National League game in Philadelphia was played in 1876 with the Boston Red Stockings facing the Philadelphia Athletics, one of several […]
Major League Baseball’s revenue generating power exploded during the 1950s and 1960s due in large part to franchise relocations and expansion, though in truth it had to be dragged into the lucrative expansion era. William Shea drummed up support, at least on paper, for a third major league to be called the Continental League in […]
For close to 70 years, the rich baseball history of Rochester, New York, centered around a lopsided ballpark at 500 Norton Street. The park known over the years as Red Wing Stadium and Silver Stadium hosted decades of minor-league baseball and a year of Negro National League play. Like all minor-league parks, its occupants were […]
Brian Giles emerged as one of the National League’s top hitters after a 1998 trade to the Pittsburgh Pirates freed him from the Cleveland Indians’ talent-heavy roster. An early-season game in 1999 demonstrated his immediate impact. Upstaging San Francisco Giants slugger Jeff Kent’s five-hit cycle and teammate Jason Kendall’s five hits and two runners caught […]
This article appears in SABR’s “Pride of Smoketown: The 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords” (2020), edited by Frederick C. Bush and Bill Nowlin. Introduction “Since the August Day in 1933, when ‘King’ Cole of Chicago, Gus Greenlee of Pittsburgh, and Tom Wilson of Nashville, saw a dream, which originated in the minds of Roy Sparrow and […]