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Vern Hoscheit’s career in professional baseball spanned six decades. Signed as a catcher by the New York Yankees in 1941, he had little hope of making the major-league roster with Bill Dickey and later Yogi Berra ensconced behind the plate. The Yankees front office took notice of Hoscheit’s leadership potential and made him a player-manager […]

“One of the greatest scholastic pitchers ever turned out in Louisiana,”1 Seth Marvin Morehead was seemingly on a fast path to stardom. In 1957, Cincinnati manager Birdie Tebbetts dubbed him the “best young left-hander in the National League and a pitcher who has the potential to be a 25-game winner. Morehead has the natural equipment […]

The Cincinnati Reds did not seem a bit concerned about their opponent from the junior circuit. The Big Red Machine were the bullies on the beach, waiting to kick sand in the face of their rival, the Oakland Athletics. Pete Rose viewed the coming 1972 World Series as anticlimactic. “The real World Series was between […]

Best known as the host of the 1960 television series, Home Run Derby, Mark Scott’s career encompassed acting, serving as a television broadcaster for the Cincinnati Reds in 1956, and five-seasons (1952-55; 1957) as the radio play-by-play voice of the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League. Scott was born Samuel Marks Solomon on February […]

A southpaw off a Missouri farm, Oscar Fuhr pitched big-league ball for parts of two seasons and all of a third in the majors, 1921 with the Chicago Cubs and 1924-25 with the Boston Red Sox. The Cubs finished seventh and his Red Sox teams finished seventh and eighth. Fuhr was 0-0 with Chicago and […]

Serving as the pitching coach for the Big Red Machine is a bit like being the drummer in Billy Joel’s band. Even if you’re an integral part of an exceptional team, only the most devoted and hard-core observers will ever know your name as opposed to the headline-grabbing main attraction. While the Reds’ offense and […]

Mexico had given two pairs of brothers to Major League Baseball as of 2018: the Romos (Vicente and Enrique) and the Treviños.1 Of this quartet, U.S. fans saw the least of Carlos Treviño, also known as “Bobby.” The outfielder played in just 17 games for the California Angels in 1968, and he spent just three […]

San Francisco’s Mike Finn was a pioneer professional as a California baseball player and manager. A versatile performer, he was an adept infielder, outfielder, and catcher, but was, in the Oakland Tribune’s opinion, “a pitching star of magnitude.” His managerial legacy was five championships during the California League’s formative years (1886-1893), more than any other pilot. An established […]

Taylor Phillips had an outstanding career in armed-services baseball, good seasons in the minor leagues, and a six-year major-league career highlighted by being part of the 1957 world champion Milwaukee Braves. William Taylor Phillips was born on June 18, 1933, in Atlanta, Georgia, to parents Amos and Jewell Phillips. He had a kidney disease as […]

This outfielder was the first member of the Lumbee people of Robeson County, North Carolina, to play in the majors. Throughout his playing days, Gene Locklear’s skill as an artist also got attention. “They are both individual things, and you have to have talent. You can’t just have desire,” Locklear said in 2005.1 One of […]

William Angelo Consolo was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on August 18, 1934, the same day as Roberto Clemente. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was a child, and at the age of 8, he began playing baseball alongside his brother Horace, who preferred third base. While on the local playgrounds he met George […]

“Handsome Hal, the Hoboken Hercules” – such was said to be the Brown University characterization of Hal Neubauer.1 Once he had his Ivy League degree in hand, the young graduate went almost straight to work for the Boston Red Sox. The right-handed pitcher debuted in the major leagues on July 12, 1925, pitching in relief […]

Many baseball players from the New Orleans area signed professional contracts in the 1930s and 1940s. Ray Yochim rode the wave, along with other signees from his high school that included future major-leaguers Lou Klein, Mel Parnell, George Strickland, and Jack Kramer. Yochim missed three formative years of his professional development as a pitcher owing […]

In retirement, former major leaguer Johnny Romano took up flying radio-controlled model airplanes near his retirement home in Florida. He liked to fly them high and far. There was a time, though, when those terms — high and far — also referred to his ability as a hard-hitting All-Star catcher for the Cleveland Indians and […]

He pitched only 267⅓ innings in parts of three major league seasons, but Cletus Elwood “Boots” Poffenberger was the character in all of baseball in his day—and his day included such notable characters as Dizzy Dean and Van Lingle Mungo. While amassing a modest 16-12 career record, the right-hander holds the lifetime mark for funny […]

The St. Louis Cardinals had their most exemplary offensive performance of the 1921 season on June 21. Mother Nature had provided a brief hiatus for the team; this game was initially scheduled for a day earlier, but “[a] terrific rain, hail, and wind storm hit the town just before game time”1 and forced rescheduling of […]

These St. Louis Cardinals were a gang of swaggering roughnecks who deferred to no one, not even the defending world champions. Their preening and trash-talking started even before the World Series began and continued during and after their 5-2 loss in the opener. In Game Two Philadelphia turned to a tall, well-bred gentleman from the […]

Given Satchel Paige’s reputation and talent, his assignment to pitch on Opening Day 1935 should come as no surprise. Unfortunately, racism and Paige’s skin color kept him from displaying his skills for any National League or American League club until 1948. Further, in 1935 a contract dispute was keeping Paige from gracing a roster in […]

It wasn’t your typical August day in San Diego. With temperatures in the 70s and a lot of clouds, it wasn’t the picture-perfect setting for baseball. For the Padres, it was their first year under the ownership of Ray Kroc, and the team was struggling. The Padres were 44-65 and in the midst of a […]

“Batting and playing first base for the Boston Red Sox: Mary Elizabeth Murphy. First base: Murphy.” You can almost hear Sherm Feller, the longtime Red Sox public-address voice, announce her – the first female ballplayer for the Boston Red Sox. It never happened, though. It’s well-known that the Red Sox were the last big-league team […]

With the Milwaukee Braves having won the opening game of the 1958 World Series the day before, the narrative was simple for both teams. If the Braves were to win again, they would take a 2-0 lead in the series and start to feel really confident about capturing their second straight title. If the New […]

As the saying goes, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Jim Bouton had approached Seattle Pilots pitching coach Sal Maglie and asked why reliever Diego Seguí had been selected to start the first game of their July 18 twin bill instead of him.1 Bouton wasn’t satisfied with Maglie’s answer, but after Seguí won his start […]

Still led by four pillars of their 1940s dynasty, the St. Louis Cardinals surged into first place in the National League in July 1950. But three losses in three days in Pittsburgh, punctuated by Jack Phillips’ game-winning ninth-inning pinch-hit grand slam on July 8, foreshadowed their subsequent fall from contention and final fadeout of the […]

The baseball team known as the Braves makes its home in Atlanta, but traces its diamond ancestry back through Milwaukee and to Boston, where it began in 1871. In fact, the Atlanta Braves are the only baseball team that has played every season consecutively since 1871, outdating even the National League itself. While forgotten by […]