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On this steamy August afternoon, the bespectacled outfielder Chick Hafey etched his name into the St. Louis record books and helped launch his team on a historic run to the National League pennant. As the Cardinals pounded out 19 hits in beating the Philadelphia Phillies, 16-6, in the first game of a five-game series, Hafey […]

Future Hall of Famer Chick Hafey went 5-for-5 with two home runs, a double, and eight RBIs in the St. Louis Cardinals’ 16-1 win over the Boston Braves on August 23, 1931. It was the first game of a doubleheader that had to be scheduled because of a rainout on May 15. It was also […]

On June 10, 1924, the New York Yankees and Detroit Tigers stood only a game apart in the standings, the Yankees tied for first place with the surprising Boston Red Sox, the Tigers in third place only a game back. The Tigers were eight games into a 21-game homestand when they hosted the Yankees for […]

The Milwaukee Braves and the Minneapolis Millers were both optimistic heading into their 1957 seasons. The Braves, who had finished one game behind National League champion Brooklyn in 1956, were the favorite to win the 1957 pennant, according to an Associated Press poll. “The club looks good,” said Braves manager Fred Haney, “I feel we […]

The woman took her seat in the fourth row of the grandstand in the crowded ballpark. She had purchased her ticket at the last moment and she was unrecognized as she sat among the patrons in a crowded Milwaukee County Stadium.  Later on that evening, Mrs. Henry Aaron would cover her face with her hands […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates suffered through a miserable 1955 season, and entered the final weekend hosting the NL-leading Brooklyn Dodgers. Back in April, Pittsburgh GM Branch Rickey was optimistic heading into the season opener, citing outfield and pitching improvements, with third base as his major concern: “This 1955 club will be the best Pittsburgh has had […]

The 2015 Major League Baseball season opened on Monday, April 6. The San Francisco Giants were the reigning world champions. Opening Day games included the Philadelphia Phillies hosting the Boston Red Sox at Citizens Bank Park. In 2014 the Phillies, three seasons removed from the last of five consecutive National League East Division titles, had […]

George Earnshaw “gave an exhibition of pitching mastery that has been seldom equaled in [the] world series,” declared St. Louis sportswriter John E. Wray.1 Pitching on one day’s rest, the Philadelphia Athletics hurler tossed a complete game to win Game Six and capture the club’s second straight title. Lauded as the “the lionhearted leviathan of […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers opened their 1955 season against the Pittsburgh Pirates on a chilly and drizzly weekday afternoon at Ebbets Field. One newspaper account reported, “The thermometer hung in the 40’s; the thin, cutting spray hung like a gray sheet over the field.”1 Brooklyn wanted to atone for the previous year’s second-place finish to their […]

The New York Yankees broke a 2-2 tie with four runs in the eighth inning of Game Seven to win the 1958 World Series, reversing the result from the previous year, capturing the Bronx Bombers’ sixth title of the 1950s, and becoming the first team to win a Series by taking the final two games […]

In late June of 1978 baseball historian Eugene Converse Murdock traveled to Albany, Oregon, to interview an old-time baseball player named Wes Schulmerich. During his chat with Schulmerich, the retired player asked Murdock if he was going to meet with any other baseball retirees from Oregon. Wes reminded the historian that his old friend and […]

Had Fred Haney not cared about maintaining his job as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the story of one of the more improbable starts in major-league history might have turned out differently. “[Haney] said, ‘That’s it, no more – if you hurt your arm, they’ll run me out of town, so go take your shower,’” […]

When Warren Spahn took the hill for Game Four of the 1957 World Series, he had started two previous Series games, losing to Bob Lemon of Cleveland in 1948 and to Whitey Ford of the New York Yankees in 1957’s Game One. Would today be his day? He was up against Tom Sturdivant of the […]

John McGraw’s men were sopping wet and mad as hell standing beneath bursting clouds at Redland Field.1 Mad as one Cincinnati player after another slipped and slid across home plate in the bottom of the sixth. Mad that umpire Bill Klem, perhaps gripping tight to a long grudge against the Giants manager, seemed unconcerned about […]

Budding media mogul Ted Turner, who had obtained the rights to broadcast Atlanta Braves games on his television station, WTCG, in 1973, purchased the franchise in 1976 and attempted to engineer an immediate reversal of its faltering fortunes. Turner dipped into the brand-new free-agent market and signed one of its trailblazers, Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher […]

It had been a long wait. The last time County Stadium hosted a major-league game for a hometown team was September 22, 1965, when the Milwaukee Braves lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, 7-6, but on Tuesday, April 7, 1970, the Milwaukee Brewers inaugurated a new era by hosting the California Angels. Milwaukee once again […]

SABR Bibliography Committee Research Guide No. 1: Baseball Figures in Current Biography Editor’s note: This guide was first published by the SABR Bibliography Committee in 1986. To download the original in PDF form, click here. By Joseph Lawler June 1986 Current Biography is a reference service of the H. W. Wilson Company of New York, publishers […]

Catcher Al Stokes “was one of the hardest workers a Rockford team ever had.” So wrote the Rockford (Illinois) Republic of his debut in the major leagues.1 It was a nice expression of appreciation and a nice way to be remembered for a couple of years of service for the local team. Stokes had caught […]

Fritz Brickell’s biggest claim to fame is probably that he was the Los Angeles Angels’ starting shortstop for the first seven games of their inaugural season in 1961. But he had a brief major-league career and died of cancer at the age of 30. Fritz Darrell Brickell was born on March 19, 1935, in Wichita, […]

When the 1959 Milwaukee Braves shuffled eight second basemen in a game of musical gloves, Casey Wise was Mr. June. Wise was born into a baseball family, but his big league career was short and disappointing. His baseball earnings paid his way through dental school, launching a successful second career. Kendall Cole Wise was born […]

Tenacity and zeal were hallmarks of Gail Henley’s game, which along with stellar baseball skills fueled a rapid rise to the major leagues and engendered high regard from renowned talent evaluators. That tenacity and zeal also played a part in making his big-league career much shorter than expected. The native of Wichita, Kansas, developed a […]

In 1962 the Los Angeles Times veteran sportswriter Braven Dyer offered in three short sentences an apt analysis of the brief career of Ron Moeller: “Moeller is something of a problem pitcher. At times, he seems to have everything. The next time out, he seems devoid of confidence.”1 Emerging on the major league stage in […]

Less than four months after his 19th birthday, Del Crandall became the youngest starting catcher in baseball history when he supplanted 32-year-old Bill Salkeld of the Boston Braves in 1949. Returning to the Milwaukee Braves in 1953 after a two-year tour in the military, Crandall was named to eight All-Star teams during the Braves’ first […]

Fleet-footed Dode Paskert was one of the finest defensive center fielders of the Deadball Era. “It is no exaggeration to say that Paskert is one of the greatest judges of a fly ball in the game today,” wrote Baseball Magazine‘s J. C. Kofoed in 1915. “Those who have seem him circle, hawk-like, turn his back […]