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Wilbur Wehde was born on November 23, 1906, in the hamlet of Holstein, Iowa. The town, roughly 45 miles east of Sioux City, was at the time home to fewer than 1,000 residents, mostly first- or second-generation German immigrants. Wehde’s father, Gustave, managed a creamery and brokered other farmers’ produce, while his mother, Frieda, managed […]

Pat “Paddy” Duff, one of four native Rhode Islanders to play only one game in the major leagues, spent the majority of his years in Organized Baseball at the B and C levels of minor-league ball, rising to Class A in the 1905 season before his brief appearance in the majors on April 16, 1906, […]

Did outfielder Joe Riggert actually manage even before he began his 20 year career as a player? If nothing else, he seems to have managed in his first season. His career began started in 1909 with seven games for the Abilene Red Sox in the Central Kansas League; he hit .375 in the very small […]

Al Leiter spent 18 years in the majors and enjoyed pitching success in both leagues. During his career, he managed to earn two World Series rings and play on three different teams in the fall classic. Although Leiter never became one of the star pitchers of his day, he made important contributions to his teams’ […]

Baseball fame can be very fleeting. A perfect example is the career of William H. “Josh” Reilly. A San Francisco native, Reilly had a nearly twenty-year minor league career and made one of the most dramatic major league debuts ever. Before his career ended, he accepted a prominent position at San Francisco City Hall and […]

Though he didn’t invent the pitch, Eddie “Knuckles” Cicotte was perhaps the first major-league pitcher to master the knuckleball. According to one description, Cicotte gripped the knuckler by holding the ball “on the three fingers of a closed hand, with his thumb and forefinger to guide it, throwing it with an overhand motion, and sending […]

“It’s going to be a tough act for the kid to follow,” said Cleveland pitcher Bob Feller.1 Indeed, it would be. Feller had just thrown the 12th one-hitter of his fabulous career, blanking Boston, 2-0, in the first game of a doubleheader at Cleveland on May 1, 1955. Boston catcher Sammy White singled to center field in the seventh inning for […]

“Chicken Strikes Again” was a newspaper headline after Garey Ingram had a particularly good game with the Pawtucket Red Sox. His manager, Gary Jones, called him “Chicken.” The nickname came from a college teammate who first called him “Blue Chicken” about 10 years earlier. He wondered where that name came from since the team colors […]

After his retirement, Fritz Peterson recalled, “When I signed with the Yankees, the scout told me, ‘Heck, you’re a lefthander working in Yankee Stadium, you can count on a World Series check at least every other year.’”1 The Yankees hadn’t finished in last place since 1912, when they were still the New York Highlanders. However, […]

Even though her nickname was “Peanuts” in view of her small physical stature, there are two words that would better define Toni Ann Palermo throughout her life – fearless and accomplished. Born in Forest Park, Illinois, on February 15, 1933, she was named Antoinette Palermo when she was adopted along with her sister Mary Ann. […]

If you were lucky enough to bring Ron Darling to a party, how would you introduce him? Especially if the party was outside the New York City area, it’s possible you would have to do just that. While he has numerous accomplishments on and off the baseball field, he hasn’t grabbed the headlines (for all […]

One of the early relief specialists in the majors, George “Sarge” Connally started just 67 times in 304 games across a 12-year big-league career (1921; 1923-29; 1933-34). Connally never shied away from hard work. In 1933, at the age of 34, he exemplified his other nickname—“Rubber Arm”—by making eight relief appearances for Cleveland from June […]

As an itinerant left-handed pitcher in the 1870s and 1880s, John Driscoll pitched for numerous independent professional teams as well as three major league teams. He appeared as a pitcher in 83 major league games over four seasons in the early 1880s, recording a lifetime winning percentage of .494 with 38 victories and 39 defeats. […]

Among numerous icons from Cuba’s somewhat murky pre-revolution past, swarthy-skinned pitching ace José de la Caridad Méndez Báez stands at the very apex of the heap. Among the young nation’s first true national sporting heroes, the rawboned fastball hurler maintains an indelible image as one of the earliest icons of island baseball history. But it […]

Billy Hamilton was the greatest base stealer and most prolific run scorer of nineteenth-century baseball, but few recognized his name when he gained admittance to the Hall of Fame long after his death. Bill James, who ranks Hamilton as the ninth-best center fielder of all time in his book, The New Historical Baseball Abstract (1999 ed.), remarked […]

Manny Mota is frequently considered to be the Montreal Expos’ first player.1 Although Mota was the initial player chosen by the Expos in the National League expansion draft in October 1968, he wasn’t the first player under contract with the fledgling organization. That honor went to pitcher Dave Hartman, who was drafted by Montreal in […]

Bottom of the ninth. Game tied. Series tied. Only one team can win. On the mound for the New York Yankees was 24-year-old Ralph Terry. Leading off the inning for the Pittsburgh Pirates was 24-year-old second baseman Bill Mazeroski. The crowd “sucked in their collective breaths”1 as Terry delivered a shoulder-high fastball. Home-plate umpire Bill […]

The Cleveland Indians were on a hot streak. The Tribe had won seven in a row, and 10 of their last 11, when the last-place Washington Senators came a-calling for a six-game set beginning June 14 at Cleveland Stadium. The Indians had swept the Senators in a three-game series at D.C. Park one week earlier […]

Opening Day is usually a day of optimism, celebration, and a big crowd as fans flock to the ballpark after a long winter without baseball. Those very crowds, however, can overwhelm a team with poor ballpark security. Perhaps the modern nadir in Opening Day crowd control occurred in Chicago on April 5, 1974, when the […]

“Connie Mack Stadium is an old woman dancing nude at the Medicare Senior Prom. You know what she might once have been, but tonight she is an obscene accordion of yellowed flesh. … Connie Mack Stadium is the lengthened shadow of a man, sliding finally to rest. A small step for any other city, a […]

Any thought of the inevitability of the Boston Red Sox winning the 2007 American League pennant and World Series was likely dispelled by the way Game Two of the AL Championship Series turned out. Yes, the Cleveland Indians had been thrashed in Game One, a 10-3 defeat, but they turned the tables in Game Two. […]

Many decades later, it’s still a well-known piece of Eastern Pennsylvania sports lore. In June 1947 the Philadelphia Phillies played an off-day exhibition in the small Lehigh Valley village of Egypt, about 65 miles north of Philadelphia. The Phils agreed to play the game to court 18-year-old prospect Curt Simmons, who pitched a local team […]

In their one-season history (1969) as an American League expansion franchise, the Seattle Pilots played 14 extra-inning games. On July 19 they hosted an 18-inning night game at Sicks’ Stadium. That game was suspended after 17 innings and completed the following day, with the Minnesota Twins winning, 11-7.1 After the Twins left town and the […]

Rookie knuckleballer Tim Wakefield boosted the Pittsburgh Pirates to their third consecutive National League East Division crown in 1992 after getting called up in July to fortify a shorthanded starting rotation. With the Pirates trailing the Atlanta Braves two games to none in the NL Championship Series, Wakefield continued his late-season infusion, tossing a five-hit […]