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Editor’s note: This article was published in SABR’s 1994 Baseball Research Journal (Vol. 23). As major league baseball continues to deliver self-inflicted wounds to itself in the form of a players strike, the issue of baseball’s long-standing exemption from federal antitrust laws has resurfaced. While today’s ballplayers and owners recently scrapped in conference rooms […]
Chuck Connors was a career minor-league ballplayer who played portions of two seasons in the major leagues, with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1949 and Chicago Cubs in 1951. Connors gained greater fame as one of the very few ballplayers who was a successful actor in his post-baseball career, best known for his role as Lucas […]
When the Baltimore Orioles won four American League pennants in six seasons (1966-1971), no Baltimore pitcher earned more saves or appeared in more games than right-hander Eddie Watt. A short, chunky Midwesterner, usually with a pronounced wad of Red Man chewing tobacco bulging in his left cheek, Watt held right-handed hitters to a .200 batting […]
Brandon McCarthy entered professional baseball with great promise. His minor-league performances fast-tracked him to the major leagues, but that promise was undermined by a series of injuries that often paused his career. In spite of injuries, McCarthy had a big-league career spanning 13 seasons in which he played a significant role on several contending teams […]
In the summer of 1904, the Zanesville, Ohio, baseball team had a game scheduled with a team in neighboring New Concord. “When the time arrived for the boys to take the bus, there was one player missing, so the bat boy had to be used in right field to complete the team. As luck would […]
It was the sixth inning of a 1913 exhibition game between the Brooklyn Superbas and Ty Cobb’s All Stars, and “there suddenly boomed from the first base coaching lines a chatter, the likes of which has not been heard from our side since the day of the Big Wind.”1 Benny Meyer was giving both teams […]
There have been three Gooches in major-league history, and at least another eight in the minors. The Gooch considered here is John Beverley Gooch, who played 805 games over the course of 11 seasons (1921-30; 1933), batting .280 with just seven homers while driving in 293 runs. His younger first cousin Charlie appeared in 39 […]
As is the case with so many Negro League ballplayers who were born before the twentieth century or just after it began, details of William Hoskins’ birth and early years are wanting. His draft registration card, issued in 1940, offers as much clarity as is available about his origins, including his reported birth on March […]
A baseball lifer, Wayne Terwilliger found himself with more notoriety at age 80 than he had garnered in his previous 56 seasons in Organized Baseball combined when he agreed to return for the 2005 season as manager of the Fort Worth Cats in the independent Central League.1 In doing so, he joined the legendary Connie […]
Becoming the third woman to own a major-league baseball club, Joan Whitney Payson marked history by heavily investing in the expansion New York Mets of 1962. The club’s first majority stockholder, she was also the first of her gender to purchase such an enterprise with her own funds. Born into considerable wealth, she used much […]
Johnny Morrison had one of the deadliest, most knee-locking curveballs baseball had ever experienced. “You simply couldn’t see it,” raved contemporary Pat Duncan. “The ball came in like a fast ball and it dropped so fast that it fell completely out of your vision unless you were looking for such a hook.”1 That pitch became […]
Dave Danforth (1890-1970) is one of the most fascinating and controversial figures in the history of the national pastime. He was “the icicle of the swirling vortex” for most of his career, and the mystery of what he threw and how he pitched has never been resolved.1 “Danforth, if you believe the boys in the […]
Beginning in 1888 and for the next five summers, right-hander Huyler Westervelt was a pitching standout on various amateur baseball teams in the greater New York City area. As a result, he attracted a number of offers from major league clubs but did not accept one until he signed with the New York Giants in […]
Fernando Tatis’s journey began with a childhood bedtime story. It was a journey on which family, faith, and baseball all intersected. Although it was filled with injuries and struggles, the journey contained moments of triumph – both professionally and personally. Early in the 1999 season, Tatis accomplished one of the most memorable feats in baseball […]
“Judy Johnson was the smartest baseball player I ever came across.” — Ted Page1 Despite his father’s aspirations for William “Judy” Johnson to become a boxer, Judy never entered the ring. Instead, Johnson took his game to the diamond. For that, baseball owes him a debt of gratitude. In the Negro Leagues, if Satchel […]
Heinz Becker, the only German-born big-leaguer who played during the years of World War II, had a modest four-year career and appeared in just 152 games for the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians. In 1945, his only full season in the majors, Becker became a fan favorite for the pennant-winning Cubs, and his feet were […]
Through 2024, over 23,000 players have played baseball in the major leagues; only 152 were born in Mexico. Fernando Valenzuela stands above them all. One of the game’s brightest and most beloved stars over the course of his 17-season MLB pitching career (1980-1991, 1993-1997), Valenzuela’s 173 victories, six All-Star selections, and 41.5 career WAR topped […]
The baseball career of Bartolo Colón might be impossible to believe if it wasn’t true. He overcame a humble upbringing in a foreign land, rebounded from a career-threatening injury, and survived scandals and controversies to become an almost mythical cult hero in his final seasons, beloved for his cheerful demeanor and a roly-poly physique that […]
When 20-year-old right-hander Lee Meadows took the mound on April 19, 1915, for the St. Louis Cardinals, he became the first big-league ballplayer to wear spectacles since pitcher Will White of the Cincinnati Red Stockings in the American Association retired in 1886. The thought of a professional baseball player with “cheaters” was preposterous to most […]
Lew Fonseca was a batting champion, a versatile fielder who played multiple positions, a manager, and a batting instructor. Off the field, he was an accomplished singer, radio announcer, and a film director and producer. But most of all, he was a promoter of and educator for the game of baseball, taking the technical resources […]
The name Luis Aparicio is closely linked with Venezuela. Both Luis Aparicio Ortega (Ortega) and his son, Luis Aparicio Montiel (Aparicio), had a significant impact on bringing the game of baseball to new heights in Latin America. For that reason, many say that when talking about one, you can’t help but think of the other. […]
“Whoosh … budap … snap … whoosh … budap … snap.” Vern Duncan’s earliest memory of baseball was of throwing a ball against the brick wall of a neighboring store in his back yard.1 His childhood efforts led him on a long baseball career highlighted by three seasons at the highest professional level, one in […]
Gene Woodburn, sometimes known as “Woody” or “Woodie,” spent two lackluster seasons (1911 and 1912) pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals under manager Roger Bresnahan. He had a curveball that consistently drew praise, but his wildness — which had plagued him in the minor leagues — kept him from having a long major-league career. In […]
Three Rivers Stadium; if it wasn’t the most picturesque coliseum in American sports history, it was perhaps one of the most perfectly named. In southwestern Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, the county seat of Allegheny County, lies partly in a hilly region known as the Golden Triangle, the location of the city’s business district. For those unfamiliar with […]