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Mel Roach was more a spectator than a player for the 1957 world champion Milwaukee Braves. He played the first part of the season in the minor leagues before the Braves called him up in July. He spent the rest of the campaign as an occasional pinch-hitter and pinch-runner, batting only seven times and stroking […]
Outfielder Chaney White had a 17-year career in the Negro major leagues from 1920 through 1936. During that time, he was a member of numerous championship teams that included squads in various Negro Leagues, the Cuban Winter League, the Florida Hotel League, and the California Winter League. In 1934, at age 40, he was still […]
For nearly a quarter century, Gussie Busch simultaneously led a nationwide brewing company and the St. Louis Cardinal franchise. Nicknamed “The Big Eagle”, Gussie lived life to its fullest. His enemies called him profane, tyrannical, hot-tempered, a philanderer, and a huckster. His friends saw him as soft-hearted, congenial, open, personable, philanthropic, and loyal. In 1953, […]
No one confused portly right-hander Jim Tobin with hard-throwing contemporaries like Bob Feller, Johnny Vander Meer, or Hal Newhouser. “Tobin’s fast ball could not break a pane of glass,” opined sportswriter Arthur Daley in the New York Times. “He has two pitches — slow and slower. … He is the most tantalizing gent on the […]
Jerry Moses aspired to become a major-league ballplayer, and declined football scholarships at Southeastern Conference (SEC) universities to pursue his dream. A 1970 American League All-Star, Jerry became the youngest Red Sox to hit a home run, at age 18 and 289 days, with a pinch-hit rocket off Jim “Mudcat” Grant on May 25, 1965. […]
“Call me Red.” That’s apparently what William Russell Rollings always told people. Rollings, primarily a “bats left/throws right” infielder, played for both of Boston’s major league teams and no others during his few years in the majors. He didn’t have a lot of formal education. In completing his player questionnaire for the National Baseball Hall […]
At spring training in 1921, Branch Rickey, vice president of the St. Louis Cardinals as well as the club’s field manager, was looking over the rookies in camp at Orange, Texas. Turning to veteran shortstop Doc Lavan, he said, “Tell that bat boy to get out of the infield.” Advised that the “bat boy” was […]
In 1969 the expansion Seattle Pilots hired Eddie O’Brien as bullpen coach. His role was to assist manager Joe Schultz and pitching coach Sal Maglie. Asked at the start of the season to specifically describe his duties, O’Brien offered “Well, I look in to Sal or Joe, and they let me know when I’m supposed […]
Gene Conley excelled at the major-league level of two sports and is the only athlete to own dual-sport championships in major-league baseball and the NBA. Besides pitching for the World Series champion Milwaukee Braves in 1957, he was a member of three NBA championship teams with the Boston Celtics. He was the first player to […]
In what was described by Bert Walker of the Detroit Times as “one of the most vicious slugfests seen on the local diamond this year,” the Detroit Tigers and the Chicago White Sox combined for 43 hits and 31 runs at Navin Field in the Motor City on Tuesday, June 2, 1925. The Tigers enjoyed […]
“He’s been hotter than the weather, and in the Midwest, that’s torrid.” Les Biederman of the Pittsburgh Press, discussing Ernie Banks who during the final four games of a five-game series between the Cubs and Pirates went 11-for-19 with five home runs and 13 RBIs.1 Ernie Banks, in his second full season with the Chicago […]
Bargain seekers got all they wanted as the Tigers played football with the Indians and won both halves of the doubleheader 7-3, and 20-1.1 The opposing managers in the twin bill in Detroit on September 5, 1924, were two old foes, Ty Cobb of the Tigers and Tris Speaker of the Indians, both of whom […]
Opening Day of the baseball season is always a festive occasion, and no city honors the occasion quite like Cincinnati. Even in the midst of the Great Depression, Opening Day in the Queen City was a perfect moment for players and fans to lose their worries in hopeful anticipation of the coming season. The Reds […]
It was the best of teams, it was the worst of teams. On August 29, 1980, the Durham Bulls – the first-place team in the North Division of the Class A Carolina League – met the Rocky Mount Pines, just a few days away from finishing one of the worst seasons in professional baseball history. […]
Hoyt Wilhelm is credited with pitching in 1,304 regular-season professional baseball games across 28 seasons, spanning 31 calendar years.1 This remarkable journey began on the night of May 9, 1942, when Wilhelm took the mound for the Mooresville (North Carolina) Moors of the Class D North Carolina State League. At the time, Wilhelm was a […]
The New York Mets and Cincinnati Reds faced off in Game Two of the best-of-five National League Championship Series on October 7, 1973, at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium. The first game had been a heartbreaker for the Mets. Tom Seaver went the distance but lost when Johnny Bench hit a game-winning home run in the bottom […]
The Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds split the first four games in the best-of-five 1972 National League Championship Series. The defending World Series champion Pirates had cruised to the Eastern Division title with a regular-season record of 96-59, 11 games ahead of the second-place Cubs. The Reds (95-59), who had defeated the Pirates in the […]
In the midst of the best game of his career, the Brooklyn Dodgers’ Fred Frankhouse was just four outs away from every pitcher’s dream – a no-hitter – when Mother Nature intervened. Pacing in the clubhouse, “fuming with impatience,” reported the New York Times, Frankhouse wondered if he’d get the chance to etch his name […]
When Pie Traynor of the Pittsburgh Pirates grounded out to give the St. Louis Cardinals their 91st win of the 1930 season, the Redbirds, as they were commonly called, clinched the National League title and a third World Series appearance in five years. Blessed with a lull before facing Connie Mack’s defending World Series champion […]
The Triple-A Rochester Red Wings’ home opener against the Richmond Braves on April 22, 1971, brought together some baseball names on their way up, others on their way out – and one caught intriguingly in the middle. The future stars on the rise included Rochester’s Don Baylor and Bobby Grich and Richmond’s Darrell Evans, who […]
At the start of the 1941 season, 20-year-old Stan Musial was playing at the Class-C level of the minors. By the end of the season, he was playing for the St. Louis Cardinals. He was thrust into a starting role after his mid-September call-up and helped the Cardinals contend for first place with the Brooklyn […]
The 1953 Dodgers enjoyed so much success against the St. Louis Cardinals that it has stood the test of time. It was impressive dominance by a great team against a pretty good team that struggled mightily at Ebbets Field. The Ladies Day game between the Dodgers and Cardinals on September 1 was the last of […]
A day after dropping both ends of a Sunday doubleheader to the Brooklyn Dodgers at Forbes Field, the winless Pittsburgh Pirates traveled to New York City to take on the defending World Series champion Giants on Monday, April 18, 1955. It was yet another loss for the visitors, in front of fewer than 3,000 paying […]
Times were tough in June 1934. It was in the midst of the Great Depression. A Dust Bowl drought ravished the Midwest during one of the hottest summers on record. Rogue bank robbers pervaded the heartland. But with the World’s Fair under way on the lakefront, Chicago was a happening place to be. A place […]