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Two and a half miles southeast of the United States Capitol, situated along the Anacostia River, lies the historic Congressional Cemetery.  Founded in 1807 by Congress as the first national burial ground, the 35-acre historic site is the final resting place or memorial for more than 65,000 people, including senators, Cabinet members, a Supreme Court […]

Imagine being able to say you’d seen the big-league debuts of Ernie Banks, Roberto Clemente, Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, and Bill Mazeroski1 – not to mention an All-Star Game, a no-hitter, a four-homer game, and a batter hitting for the cycle. Some baseball lovers spend a lifetime hoping to see those kinds of milestones. Bill […]

Born in Barre, Vermont, of an immigrant father who worked in the granite industry. Died in Barre, Vermont, 70 years later. Hearing those bare facts, you might think Walt Lanfranconi’s story is that of the quintessential Vermonter, living his life out in obscurity in the town where he was born and raised. Walt Lanfranconi answers […]

It was pouring rain at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh in the waning twilight of October 15, 1925, when Pirates outfielder Carson Lee Bigbee stepped into the left-handed batter’s box to pinch-hit. There were two out in the bottom of the eighth inning of the seventh game of the 1925 World Series. The Washington Senators had […]

A former New York City police commissioner thrust into the role of Philadelphia Phillies president, William F. Baker oversaw the franchise’s first National League pennant, followed soon after by 13 consecutive years of mediocrity as Baker traded away most of his best players and churned through managers. Doing so earned Baker the reputation of being […]

After a slow start for the first four weeks of the 1944 season, the Detroit Tigers jelled as a club, climbed into pennant contention, and finally fell one game short of winning the American League flag. In the end, the pitching of a tall recruit right-hander, James Ruffus Gentry, helped fuel Detroit’s pennant run. Speaking […]

Prior to Edgardo Alfonzo and José Altuve, three Venezuelan second basemen stood out for their skills: Manny Trillo, Remy Hermoso, and Gustavo “Gus” Gil. Trillo was the most complete player of the trio and Hermoso was likely blessed with the most speed – but Gil was peerless with the glove. He executed split-second double plays […]

Eldon John “Rip” Repulski was a major-league ballplayer from Sauk Rapids, Minnesota, who enjoyed storytelling. This was especially true after his career with the St. Louis Cardinals, Philadelphia Phillies, Los Angeles Dodgers, and Boston Red Sox came to a close in 1961, and Rip eventually opened a cocktail lounge on St. Germain Street in St. Cloud, […]

Right-hander Schoolboy Rowe endured chronic, career-threatening shoulder pain to win 158 games in his big-league career from 1933 to1949. In his second season, he won 24 games, including an AL-record-tying 16 consecutive victories to help lead the Detroit Tigers to their first pennant since 1909. The next season, 1935, he won 19 games as the […]

There have been a dozen individual offensive seasons by a full-time catcher in MLB history with 30 HR, a .300 average, and 150 OPS+. Half of them came from Mike Piazza and three were by Roy Campanella. Joe Torre and Javy Lopez also achieved the feat – as did Rick Wilkins in 1993. Combining his […]

“He is another Vance, another Dazzy, I’m telling you. Hasn’t the best disposition in the world. You know some of those Carolina fellows get funny ideas sometimes, but he certainly can buzz that ball over. Best young pitcher I’ve seen since Rube Marquard. Only he is faster than Rube was. Say, maybe he is another […]

Frank Carswell was a right-handed pitcher whose career began in 1944 with the local Dan Montgomerys of Buffalo, New York; included stints in the Negro Leagues with the Cleveland Buckeyes, Harlem Colored Giants, Harlem Globetrotters, Chicago American Giants, and Indianapolis Clowns; and ended with a postseason barnstorming gig with Jackie Robinson’s New York All-Stars in […]

If any player could be called Mr. Brewer it is Robin Yount. He played his entire 20-year major-league career with the Milwaukee Brewers, debuting as an 18-year-old shortstop in 1974, and helped reinvigorate and re-energize a fan base that had been reeling since the Braves abandoned Milwaukee for Atlanta in 1966. Yount led the Brewers […]

“Baseball is our way of life in the Amaro family,” said Rubén Amaro Sr. Four generations of Amaros have played professionally. Amaro’s father, Santos, had a long and distinguished career in Cuba and Mexico. His son, Rubén Amaro Jr., became a player, executive, and coach in the major leagues. Rubén Sr. was in the majors […]

On June 12, 1996, the Birmingham Barons returned to historic Rickwood Field after an eight-year absence for the first Rickwood Classic. Before the game with the Memphis Chicks, the team honored former Baron Walt Dropo and Birmingham baseball legend Lorenzo “Piper” Davis. As the capacity crowd of over 10,000 cheered Davis, he must have reflected […]

“Mothell was the greatest utility man in the game of baseball. He could step in at any position, except pitcher, and you’d never notice that the regular player was missing.” – Cool Papa Bell1   Playing a variety of positions over the years, the versatile Dink Mothell was a member of three Kansas City Monarchs […]

Murray “Skeeter” Watkins was a baseball lifer. He was a Negro League all-star on the left side of the infield in the 1940s for the Cincinnati Clowns, Newark Eagles, and Philadelphia Stars, and when opportunities disappeared he played in the Canadian ManDak League in the early 1950s. He would continue to play baseball for local […]

When Bob Keegan finally made a major league roster with the Chicago White Sox in 1953, he was 32 years old, a husband and father, and a long-time minor leaguer with enough credibility as a person and a ballplayer to have had a day in his honor at an opponent’s ballpark. Keegan didn’t have a […]

When the legendary University of Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant was growing up in Arkansas in the 1920s, he and his friends eagerly followed the exploits of quarterback Carey Selph of Ouachita Baptist College in Arkadelphia.1 Then called “the greatest football player in Arkansas,”2 Selph was a fierce competitor who “simply believed no team […]

Over his 22-year career, fleet-footed center fielder Bernard “Frenchy” Uhalt knocked out more than 3,000 hits and was elected to the Hall of Fame. His name might not be familiar to many baseball aficionados, though, since 21 of those seasons and all but 40 of his hits came in the minor leagues, and because he […]

Bob Cooney pitched 110⅓ innings during a major-league career that included appearances in 28 games. He won one game. The game he won was scheduled to be played the day after he was given credit for the win. Robert Daniel Cooney was born in Glens Falls, New York, on July 12, 1907. He was the […]

Ebbets Field has been gone for more than half a century, but the place still has a remarkable grip on our consciousness. At least three books have been devoted to the lovable old ballpark in Crown Heights.1 Yet even these in-depth works don’t shine much light on what happened after the Dodgers left Brooklyn. They […]

This article appears in SABR’s “Puerto Rico and Baseball: 60 Biographies” (2017), edited by Bill Nowlin and Edwin Fernández.   Major-League Spring Training in Puerto Rico The 1936 Cincinnati Reds “The Cincinnati Reds put on the first major league baseball game in Puerto Rican history yesterday” was lead of an AP wire story on February […]

This material was gathered and re-typed from the original newspaper stories by Bill Nowlin, in 2016, to accompany publication of the SABR book Boston’s First Nine: The 1871-75 Boston Red Stockings.   Some Newspaper Coverage of the 1874 European Tour of the Red Stockings and Athletics The bulk of the material presented here is comprised […]