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“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 […]

Massachusetts-based contractors Lou Perini, Joseph Maney, and Guido Rugo became majority owners of the Boston Braves baseball club in 1944. In 1947, through a working relationship with Perini, Massachusetts native Joseph Cairnes shifted his career path from construction engineer, in the private and public sectors, to major league baseball administrator with the Braves. Perini, familiar […]

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 […]

How is it that someone who weighed 160 pounds and stood five feet, 8 1/2 inches tall attracted the nickname “Moose”? It’s not as though he came from northern Wisconsin or near the northwest Maine/Canadian border. Elmer Albert Eggert was born and died in Rochester, New York – born on January 29, 1902 to parents […]

Catcher Johnny Riddle had one of the more unusual careers in major-league history. His big-league career spanned 19 years, from his debut with the Chicago White Sox in 1930 until his final game with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1948. He played for five major-league teams, but he also spent long stretches of time in the minors, the […]

Bob Quinn was a baseball man for more than 60 years. He started as a player in the 1880s, although he never made the majors, and then became a business manager/general manager. At various points from 1917 through 1945, he held this role at the big-league level with the St. Louis Browns, the Brooklyn Dodgers […]

Left-hander Ted Bowsfield spent seven seasons in the big leagues, initially signing with the Red Sox but later becoming arguably the best pitcher in the first year of Los Angeles Angels baseball. He later became director of stadium operations and team travel for the Angels, then head of the Kingdome in Seattle. Bowsfield was born […]

On October 28, 2011, the St. Louis Cardinals won their 11th World Series championship. Among those celebrating with the team was 88-year-old Red Schoendienst, who had first tasted World Series victory as a young second baseman for the Cardinals in 1946. Sixty-five years after he savored his first World Series win, Schoendienst was still an […]

A left-handed batting rookie who averaged .322 for Pittsburgh during the second half of the 1949 season, speedy outfielder Tommy Saffell–often a leadoff hitter–figured that he would be in good shape with the Pirates in 1950. Saffell, who spent six years working his way up in the minor league system, knew that he could hit […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The St. Louis Cardinals were in a disastrous midseason slump on July 6, 1929, when they finally found their way to break out of it against the Philadelphia Phillies. The Cardinals’ loss in the first game of the doubleheader that day was their 11th consecutive defeat. (One tied game was sandwiched among the losses.) Then […]

Jim Palmer gained national acclaim early in his major-league career by hurling a four-hit shutout against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game Two of the 1966 World Series. He was the youngest pitcher (age 20) to toss a complete game shutout in the history of postseason play. The Orioles went on to sweep the heavily […]

Orioles pitcher Billy O’Dell was surprised when he was greeted by a host of reporters after the American League’s 4-3 win in the 1958 All-Star Game. Two days earlier, he believed he had no chance of getting into the game, and now he was the All-Star Game’s MVP. “I had good stuff all right,” O’Dell […]

The day before Game Six of the 1931 World Series, more than 500 baseball fans crowded into the Union Station Midway to wait for the St. Louis Cardinals’ special train to arrive.1 The gathering was celebratory in manner as their team returned home sporting a three-games-to-two advantage over the favored Philadelphia Athletics. An arrival message […]

With the Cardinals trailing the Philadelphia A’s two games to one in the 1930 World Series, most St. Louis fans expected Cardinals manager Gabby Street to send Burleigh Grimes to the mound in Game Four at Sportsman’s Park, especially with ace Lefty Grove scheduled to pitch for the visitors. Grimes had 240 career wins to […]

Two years after this game, the Boston Red Sox were well on their way to winning the American League East. That team went on to win the 2018 World Series, marching through each of the three rounds of the postseason with only one loss per round. The 2018 Red Sox featured an outfield of Andrew […]

Decisively beating the visiting New York Yankees, 14-1, on April 10, 2018, the Boston Red Sox won their ninth consecutive game, giving them a 9-1 season record, the best 10-game start in franchise history. They had lost on Opening Day to the Tampa Bay Rays, 6-4, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, then won the […]