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Carl Owen Hubbell, one of the top pitchers of the 1930s, is rated one of the greatest pitchers in the game’s history. Born in Carthage, Missouri, on June 22, 1903, he spent his early years on a pecan farm near the small community of Meeker, Oklahoma. After his graduation from Meeker High School, Hubbell went […]

Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd starts his autobiography recalling back in 1964 when he was 5 years old, and his uncle Frank Boyd brought three civil-rights workers by the family home. Later that same year, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were discovered murdered. Dennis believes they were killed just after they left the Boyd […]

The school system in Jackson, Michigan, discontinued the baseball program about the time Benny Frey reached high school. Undaunted, Benny learned to pitch on the sandlots and from his brothers. He played summer ball for a variety of teams in Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio before being signed by the Toledo Mud Hens of the Double-A […]

Unlike quite a number of major leaguers, World War II veteran Art Schallock didn’t play baseball during his time in the service. He worked as a radio operator in the United States Navy in the Pacific Theater of Operations, serving aboard the USS Coral Sea. Per the aircraft carrier’s tribute site, the Coral Sea saw […]

“I’ve done football for fun,” Lindsey Nelson once said. “I did baseball for a living.”1 He made an extravagant living as one of network television’s premier college and pro football broadcasters while following the New York Mets from worst to first and back for the first 17 years of their history. During three decades he […]

Over a major-league career that lasted 10 seasons, Elden Auker played for Hall of Fame managers Bucky Harris, Mickey Cochrane (who called him “Mule Ears”), and Joe Cronin (who severely limited Auker’s effectiveness by calling, from his shortstop position, each pitch Auker was to throw). Auker was a teammate of Hall of Famers Hank Greenberg, Charlie […]

When Susie Finney Narron, wife of Sam Narron, would say, “God picked Sam up and set him in baseball,” Sam would respond, “I would have played for nothing.”1 It did not hurt that Sam became a protégé of Branch Rickey, a “Rickey man.”2 Narron was signed by the St. Louis Cardinals during Rickey’s tenure and […]

Playing in the majors for one’s hometown team is the dream of many American boys, and Lou Sleater achieved it two times over. Born in St. Louis, but a Baltimore resident by his high school years, Sleater started his big-league career with the Browns and finished it with the Orioles. Primarily a reliever, the left-hander […]

Some pitchers are more intense than others. Randy Johnson hit 190 batters in an era when brushbacks were frowned upon. Lefty Grove threw furniture in the clubhouse after tough losses. Among the fiercest competitors in history, Johnny Allen took his frustrations out on anyone who barred his path to victory. Allen’s temper was so notorious […]

Joe Marshall had two brief stints in the major leagues, appearing in ten games with the 1903 Pittsburgh Pirates and in 33 games with the 1906 St. Louis Cardinals. Marshall was considered by many as one of the top power hitters in the minor leagues, and early in his career acquired the moniker Home Run […]

A once-promising Philadelphia Phillies prospect, catcher Joe Lonnett collected fewer than 400 major-league plate appearances yet put in nearly 50 years in professional baseball. An avid fan of the Pie Traynor/Frankie Frisch-led Pirates who played less than 50 miles from his boyhood home, he manned the third-base coaching box during the franchise’s famous “We Are […]

In Good Enough to Dream,1 Roger Kahn lyrically recounts the 1983 Utica Blue Sox’ remarkable run to the New York-Pennsylvania League (NYP) championship as an unaffiliated mélange of minor-league castoffs and free agents.2 Remarkably, despite their season of success, none of the Blue Sox ever attained the reality of the major leagues for as much […]

Early in the morning of September 13, 1948, an Oroville, California, telephone operator told police the phone was off the hook in the Myers Street apartment that was the home of the Oroville Red Sox’ business manager Julian Wera, the former New York Yankees third baseman. Wera’s wife, Ruth, and her nine-year-old daughter, Jerry, had […]

The New York Giants began the 1930 season with seven straight wins, including two in walk-off fashion, but followed with six losses in their next nine games. Entering play on May 8, John McGraw’s squad (10-6) had the best winning percentage in the National League (.625), yet they stood a half-game behind the Chicago Cubs […]

A relatively small crowd of 23,1181 assembled at RFK Stadium for the Fourth of July festivities and a baseball game. As always in DC, the Fourth was a day game so the fans could head home before the fireworks over the National Mall. Neither team was going anywhere: The Marlins (35-44) and the Nationals (36-48) […]

My dear Mr. Whitman, While “days” for baseball players are in vogue, I would like to suggest some sort of a testimonial of appreciation to Fred Hoey for the splendid service he has rendered to baseball and to the thousands of fans who cannot always be at the game. I am sure that great numbers […]

The Minnesota Twins were scheduled to open their 1962 home season on Friday, April 13. The date proved unlucky for a ballgame as six inches of snow blanketed the Twin Cities, forcing a postponement to the next day. It took a flamethrower, sprinklers, and a helicopter hovering over the outfield to melt the snow and […]

“Steps back up onto the mound, tucks the ball in his right hand. Now into the glove. Holds it in front of the letters. Nods yes. The wind; the one-two pitch. Swing, and a groundball to the left side. Castro’s got it. Spins, throws. He got him! A perfect game for Roy Halladay! 27 up […]

Coming off their National League championship season of 1968, the St. Louis Cardinals had started the 1969 season with only four wins in their first 12 contests. As Memorial Day weekend arrived, they had evened the keel under the direction of manager Red Schoendienst, winning 17 of their next 32 games, to find themselves in […]

As the 1978 Los Angeles Dodgers prepared to host the Atlanta Braves in the third game of a four-game series on July 5, the Dodgers were on their way to a third National League pennant in the decade while the Braves were struggling to avoid the fate of another 100-loss season as had befallen them […]

After the Negro Leagues ended their regular seasons, October was an excellent time for league teams to go barnstorming, untethered from their home cities and hopping from location to location to squeeze the last gate receipts from the season before cold weather and football put an end to the baseball year. The Chicago American Giants, […]

The Braves’ move from Boston to Milwaukee in 1953, the major-leagues’ first franchise relocation in 50 years, installed a rival just 90 miles north of Wrigley Field. The timing was terrible for the Cubs; their new neighbor ascended to dominance in the National League while the Cubs were stranded near the cellar. By 1957, the […]

There was bad blood between the second-place Atlanta Braves (51-39) and fourth-place Cincinnati Reds (45-39) as they prepared to open a four-game, three-day series with a doubleheader on Tuesday, July 15, 1969, at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field. The teams were fighting it out in a four-team Western Division scramble and beginning their final week of action […]

Milwaukee was ready for major-league baseball in 1953.  More than 10,000 people turned out for an open house at the ballpark on March 15, three days before the Braves’ move to Milwaukee was approved by the National League owners.    Another large crowd turned out on April 6 and braved sleet and cold just to […]