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Jake Dunn was a versatile middle infielder and outfielder who played in the Negro leagues for parts of 11 seasons, from 1930 to 1943. He was a right-handed-hitting contact hitter who stood 5-feet-11 and weighed a solid 190 pounds.1 He also served as a player-manager late in his career. Joseph Phillip Dunn Jr. was born […]

Tetelo Vargas was a player with exceptional skills in nearly all aspects of the game. He hit for average, had good power for his physique, and was a superb defender. He possessed a strong throwing arm and superior speed – which won him the nickname El Gamo Dominicano, or “The Dominican Deer.” He was an […]

Although he spent just two full seasons in the major leagues, Dave Pope played in one of the most memorable games in baseball history. It was the game that featured “the catch,” Willie Mays’s spectacular play on a ball hit by the Cleveland Indians’ Vic Wertz in the eighth inning of Game One of the […]

“That McKinnis is one of the best pitchers I have ever seen,” said future Hall of Famer Alex Pompez, owner of the New York Cubans, in mid-1943. Pompez had experience dating back to 1916, and the Hall of Fame describes him as an “adroit talent evaluator.”1 Therefore, his was high praise indeed for 29-year-old lefty […]

Author’s note: Many a night, when I should’ve been doing my homework, I spent valuable time “studying” the encyclopedia of baseball. I especially became fascinated with obscure players having brief careers. I didn’t get far into the alphabet before coming across Buzz Arlett; how could someone with seemingly good numbers play only one season in […]

There have been two Ed Spragues in major-league baseball, father and son. The Ed Sprague we focus on here is the son, a two-time World Series champion with the 1992 and 1993 Toronto Blue Jays. Primarily a third baseman, he played in more than 1,000 games – 888 of them for Toronto – over an […]

During a late season call-up in 1986, Kevin Seitzer burst upon the American League looking like the next Kansas City Royals star, the heir-apparent to future Hall of Famer George Brett at third. He arrived with his trademark hunched-over batting stance that produced sensational batting averages in the minor leagues and a brash attitude that […]

“They set all the records and we won the game.” That was Gino Cimoli’s comment after Game Seven of the 1960 World Series, won in dramatic fashion by the Pittsburgh Pirates when Bill Mazeroski’s home run fell over the ivy in left field, as outfielder Yogi Berra of the New York Yankees could only watch. […]

Ameal Brooks played for semipro and Negro League teams from the late 1920s to 1950. He was known primarily for his work as a versatile catcher and outfielder, his clouting abilities at the plate, and an affinity for alcohol, which may explain his habit of jumping from team to team, sometimes in midseason. For more […]

At first glance, Adrian Beltré’s path seems predictable. Sought after at a young age, he instantly became a highly touted prospect who plowed through the minor leagues and reached the majors before he turned 20. Over the course of 21 seasons (1998-2018), he earned more than $200 million through multiple multi-year contracts. In 2018, The […]

The numbers look as gloomy as an April rainout. Sunny Jim Pastorius compiled a career won-loss mark of just 31-55 in four seasons with the Brooklyn Superbas. That equated to a modest .360 winning percentage. He endured 20 losses in 1908. During one awful streak, Pastorius lost a team-record 15 straight games. The left-hander posted […]

Two Long Islanders joined the Boston Red Sox in 1961: Carl Yastrzemski and Chuck Schilling. It was Schilling, a second baseman, who won the team’s MVP award that year. Of course, Yastrzemski went on to become a Hall of Famer and one of the most celebrated Red Sox ever, whereas Schilling’s big-league career ended after […]

Imagine being stationed in center field when your team records the final out of the World Series. To experience that twice is less likely than pitching a perfect game or hitting 500 career homers.1 Even rarer – being in center field for clubs from both the American and National Leagues when they became champions, something […]

Across the decades, baseball players from the celebrated to the obscure have traded in their spikes for movie or TV scripts. Some — Chuck Connors, Bob Uecker, and Greg Goossen come to mind — enjoyed careers in the entertainment industry as, respectively, the star of TV’s The Rifleman, a sometime film and TV actor and […]

“Baseball isn’t statistics; it’s Joe DiMaggio rounding second.” — attributed to Jimmy Breslin by Herb Caen, San Francisco Chronicle, June 3, 1975.   Joe DiMaggio was one of the most recognizable and popular men in mid-twentieth century America. He was celebrated in song and literature as an iconic hero, and he was married, briefly, to […]

Jimmy Sebring was one of those players who surface ever year or so that are identified as “can’t miss” candidates for major league baseball stardom. Big for his time at 6 feet, 180 pounds, Jim had it all when it came to baseball: instincts, a strong and accurate throwing arm, speed, and a natural hitting […]

Mike Hart was so determined to play in the major leagues that he turned down two lucrative offers to play in Japan. A chance to play outfield for the Yankees was denied when the baseball commissioner nullified his trade to New York. Hart hit over .300 for five teams in Triple-A,1 yet his MLB career […]

Chances are if one were to poll SABR members about the greatest left-hander in the history of the Dodgers franchise, the most frequent response would be, “Sandy Koufax.” But they would be incorrect. Without a doubt, the honor of greatest southpaw in organizational history belongs to Vincent E. Scully. Since the emergence of baseball broadcasts, […]

Dave Baldwin didn’t talk to the baseball or scream at the hitters. Offering no self-styled Mark Fidrych or Al Hrabosky theatrics on the mound, the relief pitcher was a quiet guy to the point of being shy, almost unnoticeable. Yet in 176 games over six seasons with the Washington Senators, Milwaukee Brewers and Chicago White […]

By his second year in the majors in 1958, sweet-swinging Harry (The Horse) Anderson of the Philadelphia Phillies was one of the premier left-handed power hitters in the game. But after his fourth year, he was back in the minor leagues, struggling to regain the batting stroke that had abandoned him as quickly as it […]

Righty Elías Sosa was a useful reliever for eight different big-league teams. He appeared in 601 games at the top level from 1972 through 1983. He posted 83 saves, with a high of 18 in both 1973 and 1979. Though Sosa was never a big strikeout pitcher, “he’s got a good fastball and excellent slider,” […]

Few jobs can match the excitement, adulation, and income that come with a spot on a major-league roster.  Some old ballplayers inevitably seal themselves in amber, forever living vicariously through the men they used to be.  The New York Giants’ Al Corwin was different.  For him the game was “more paycheck than passion,” as one […]

Like so many ballplayers of his generation, Jack Hallett gave what may have been the best years of his career to the service of his country. Yet, after Navy duty called him from the Pittsburgh Pirates’ pitching staff in 1943, he had enough talent to return as a major leaguer in 1946 against postwar competition […]

The cover photo on the Sunday magazine insert of the June 29, 1958, edition of the Columbus (Ohio) Citizen was of a young boy wearing a Little League baseball uniform gazing admiringly at an older, bespectacled gentleman who was squatting, a baseball bat in hand. As the accompanying article explained, the man in the photo […]