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He was known among his colleagues and sports scribes as “The Silencer,” a name he acquired from a Pacific Coast League sports writer in 1962 while playing for Portland. The nickname followed him through his professional baseball career. Dan Osinski, who would later pitch for the Boston Red Sox, was an original “fireman,” as the […]

Walter Paul Gautreau was born on July 26, 1901 in Cambridge, MA. His parents, Henri and Bibienne Gautreau, came to the United States from Sorel, Quebec, Canada after having lived earlier in New Brunswick. The Gautreau brood consisted of Walter, three other brothers and a sister. His first words as a child were spoken in French and he […]

Puerto Rico and baseball. From the legendary Roberto Clemente and Orlando Cepeda to Roberto Alomar, Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, and Pudge Rodriguez, the small island with only 3.5 million inhabitants has left an indelible footprint on the major-league landscape. As of 2016, the Caribbean nation has produced no fewer than 250 big-league players, including at […]

In 1955 Cleveland News sportswriter Ed McAuley noted that “[George] Susce is a man of many admirable qualities, but the ability to hit a baseball frequently was not among his assets.”1 At the time this was offered, Susce was 11 years removed from his last major-league appearance and well along into a coaching career that […]

Each one of the three years he played as a big-league infielder, Homer Ezzell hit better than the year before, but even the 1926 Red Sox didn’t feel they had a position for him.  He had a great name: Homer Estell Ezzell. It was bestowed on him, of course, by his parents, George and Leila, […]

Bruno Betzel had a $7,000 contract to manage the Montreal Royals in 1945. He saw only about $3,000 in take-home pay, though. Dissatisfied with the situation, he resigned. At the baseball convention in Columbus, Ohio, he was offered a managerial job for $6,000. As he pondered that offer, he met Carl Hubbell, who offered him […]

A big-league career is often a product of fate, luck, and timing.  Bob Keely would attest to that.  In 1944 the St. Louis Cardinals signed the 34-year-old sandlot star as a third-string catcher. Six months later, Keely was a world champion. Keely was originally signed by the Redbirds in 1936, but a knee injury ended […]

Doc Prothro never played professional baseball until he was 26 years old. He was a dentist with his own practice in Dyersburg, Tennessee pitching for a town team when he was spotted by a scout and signed, skipping the minor leagues and heading straight to a major-league debut in Washington DC. He spent over a […]

In 1942 St. Louis Cardinals’ farm director Branch Rickey singled out a particular right-handed hurler among a small army of top-flight pitching prospects: Max Surkont “can become another [Bob] Feller for us,”1 declared the future HOF executive. But by the end of spring training the Cardinals, blessed with the major leagues’ best pitching, assigned Surkont […]

Larry Pratt of the 1914 Boston Red Sox may not have been asked to be part of the team that won the World Series in 1915 (and again in 1916), but he never found out. Instead, he jumped his contract and played for the Tip-Tops and the Pepper. That may sound a little comic but […]

Tex Vache was a reasonably sizable ballplayer for his era who performed well at the plate during his one year in big-league ball, with the 1925 Boston Red Sox. Even though the Red Sox of the day were in no position to be too selective with their signings, one can reasonably guess that Vache’s poor […]

Versatility is the best word to describe Felix Mantilla’s 11-year career, in which he won a world championship with the 1957 Milwaukee Braves, appeared in the All-Star Game, and played every position other than pitcher and catcher.  Felix (Lamela) Mantilla was born on July 29, 1934, in Isabela, a town in the northwest corner of […]

“It was the worst trade I ever made,” said Washington Senators manager Bucky Harris about the straight swap of shortstops. He sent Buddy Myer to the Boston Red Sox for Topper Rigney on May 2, 1927. Rigney was 30 and had five years of big-league experience. Myer, 23, had one. But two seasons later, the […]

“Gary [Bell] has come up with a good nickname for Freddy Velázquez,” wrote Jim Bouton in Ball Four. “Freddy just sits there in the bullpen, warming up pitchers, and he never gets into a game and just looks sad. So, Gary calls him Poor Devil.”1 Although Velázquez saw action in just 21 major-league games for […]

Taking the field May 6, 1925, for the third game in a four-game set against the St. Louis Browns, the Detroit Tigers had reason to feel optimistic. Though still in the American League cellar with a 5-14 record, a 14-8 victory the day before – thanks in large part to the six-hit, three-homer barrage of […]

Wait ’til Next Year! The phrase became a euphemism for a baseball season gone awry and nowhere did it receive greater play than in the 1940s and 1950s with the Brooklyn Dodgers and their long-suffering fans.1 The Dodgers had never won a World Series and in those two decades leading to the 1955 season, they […]

Baseball games are frequently protested by managers and teams on the wrong side of controversial calls, but it’s rare that a protest is upheld and a game’s result is impacted. One such successful protest occurred during the 1924 season, following an umpire’s erroneous ruling after a series of substitutions. The scoreboard read “Boston Red Sox […]

St. Louis Cardinals fans had little reason to cheer during the Deadball Era of 1901 to 1919. The Cardinals posted nine consecutive losing records from 1902 to 1910, and they produced only four winning campaigns – never two in a row – during the entire era. Five of the19 seasons ended with St. Louis at […]

When the 1959 season opened, the Milwaukee Braves were favored to win their third consecutive National League pennant. Picked for first by 147 (65 percent) of the 226 writers polled by The Sporting News, they were listed no lower than third place on the remaining ballots. A similar consensus had the Los Angeles Dodgers pegged […]

On a late-April Sunday afternoon at Crosley Field, the Cincinnati Redlegs hosted the Milwaukee Braves in a slugfest. Cincinnati battled from behind three times to defeat the defending National League pennant winners. A wild and loud crowd of 14,925 braved a chance of rain to cheer the Redlegs to victory. The seesaw game ended on […]

A warm, humid Sunday afternoon hovered over the west side of Cincinnati on July 16, 1933, as the struggling hometown Reds (35-49, in the cellar of the National League) got set to do battle in a doubleheader against the mighty New York Giants at Redland Field. The Giants were at the other end of the […]

The Man continued to damage Brooklyn’s pitching. The day after he collected five hits in five at-bats, Stan Musial went 4-for-6 as the Cardinals romped over the Dodgers in a contentious 13-4 win that saw two Cardinals hit by pitches. It was the Cardinals’ sixth win in a row.1 Musial entered the game batting .393 […]

On June 27, 2024, the defending World Series champion Texas Rangers traveled to Baltimore for a four-game series with the Orioles. It marked the first time the two teams had faced each other since the Rangers swept the Orioles in the 2023 American League Division Series. The home team responded with retribution, winning the first […]

George McQuinn led the offense as the Browns swept the Boston Red Sox, 9-3 and 4-3, in a doubleheader at Sportsman’s Park on July 19, 1941. McQuinn’s 4-for-5 performance in the first game included the only batter’s cycle of the 1941 season. McQuinn, considered the best defensive first baseman in the American League at the […]