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“I’m on the bench with two out. My heart was breaking. Just a terrible feeling I had, as well as we played all game. You sit and try to comprehend what we just did. It’s hard to believe. It’s something you sit back and say, ‘Geez, how did we do it?’ I don’t (understand). I […]

Cuban infielder Giraldo Sablón – known in the U.S. as Chico Ruiz – ignited two tinderboxes. On September 21, 1964, his steal of home scored the game’s only run, starting the collapse of ten straight losses that cost the Philadelphia Phillies the National League pennant. On June 13, 1971, he waved a handgun in the […]

One of the top two-sport athletes to come out of the Twin Cities, Bill Davis starred at the University of Minnesota in both baseball and basketball in the early 1960s. After graduation Davis began his professional baseball career by signing with the Cleveland Indians. Davis played parts of three seasons in the majors but could […]

When he made his debut in a mid-August 1923 game against the Philadelphia Athletics, Chicago left-hander Paul Castner secured a line for himself in the record book of the national pastime. That entry, however, would be a slender one, as Castner made only five more big-league appearances before abandoning the game at the close of […]

Dave Eiland holds a unique baseball record: He is the only major-league player to give up a home run to the first batter he faced, and to hit a home run off the first pitcher he faced. But his contributions to the game go beyond that unusual historical footnote. A “pitch to contact”1 right-handed pitcher […]

In March 1884, young pitching prospect Jim McElroy1 joined a contingent of ball-playing California hopefuls headed east in search of employment by a professional club. Before the season was out, McElroy achieved his objective, pitching for both the National League’s Philadelphia Quakers and the Wilmington Quicksteps of the Union Association. But success eluded him, as […]

Lew Simmons was a popular performer as a minstrel entertainer both before and after his time in baseball management. One of many persons who linked the theater with nineteenth-century baseball, Simmons was a noted banjoist, a professional comedian of great repute, and an end man with the tambourine in the minstrel show.1 There is considerable […]

Two-sport standouts were not as common in the Deadball Era as in later decades, but several men excelled in two or more sports (one being baseball). The best known of these players is Jim Thorpe, but Bill Powell (basketball) and Homer Davidson (football) also played two sports. Another two-sport athlete was R.B. Kelly of the […]

Vaughan Pallmore “Bing” Devine, a soft-spoken, modest man, spent more than a quarter-century as a baseball executive and played a major role in building four National League champions and three World Series winners. Devine left his biggest mark as the general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, whose owner fired him in 1964 just as […]

Tom Hernon was a career minor leaguer who as a 30-year-old outfielder gained a four-game trial in 1897 with Chicago in the National League before his premature death in 1902 at age 35. Thomas Hernon was born on November 4, 1866, in East Bridgewater, Massachusetts, the oldest son of Irish immigrants John Hernon and Mary […]

Quincy Trouppe’s passion for baseball led to a long career as player, manager, and scout. An exceptional catcher and switch-hitter, “Big Train” played on Negro League teams including the St. Louis Stars, Kansas City Monarchs, and the Homestead Grays. He also played for and managed the Cleveland Buckeyes, twice leading them to the Negro American […]

William Orange Forman, who pitched briefly for Washington in 1909 and 1910, was born on October 10, 1886, in Venango, Pennsylvania, the youngest of William (Billy) and Almira (Myra) Forman’s three children. The elder Forman came to northwestern Pennsylvania during its oil rush, and made a living drilling wells and refining their product. Young Will […]

In September 1927, the Cincinnati Reds brought up a 23-year old right-handed pitching prospect named Pete Jablonowski for a late-season look-see. Although he made a good first impression, going 2-1 with a 1.82 ERA and a shutout victory, Jablonowski struggled the following year in 31 games. In 1930-1931, however, he saw considerable service with the […]

David Leslie Stapleton played his entire seven-year major-league career with the Boston Red Sox. An infielder and renowned utilityman, Stapleton made his lone World Series appearance as a member of the 1986 American League Champion Red Sox. Stapleton was born on January 16, 1954, in Fairhope, Alabama. He grew up in Loxley, Alabama with his […]

A left-handed pitcher who batted from the right side, Johnny Schmitz enjoyed a good time in baseball, though a four-year hitch in the US Navy during World War II interrupted a career that was just getting started. He was signed originally before the 1938 season (almost certainly in 1937) by Lou Nahin and Harold Schiefelbein […]

George Winn had one win and two losses in his dozen major-league games, and he hit .300 as a batter. Winn had first become known to baseball fans in Boston when secretary Larry Graver of the Boston Red Sox announced on March 3, 1919, that “Pitcher Winn had signed with the Red Sox. Winn comes […]

Any fans who decided to take in both games of the Cleveland Guardians-Minnesota Twins split doubleheader on September 17, 2022, spent a very long day—and night—at the ballpark. The first game of this Saturday twin bill, a 1:10 start, was over in a tidy 2:32, giving fans at Cleveland’s Progressive Field plenty of time for […]

Hey, it’s Opening Day. Fans had been without live baseball for more than five months. You’d think fans would want to stick around and see a full game. But at the Fenway Park home opener on April 10, 1998, Peter Gammons wrote, there were only “about 13,000 remaining” of the 32,805 in attendance at the start.1 […]

When the New York Mets played the San Francisco Giants in the 2000 National League Division Series, it was the first time the teams had faced each other in the postseason. The Giants had finished in first place in the National League West Division with a 97-65 record, the best in baseball. They clinched their […]

The New York Yankees (36-24) were in a fight for supremacy in the American League East. The defending World Series champions were in second place in the middle of June 1978. At the close of play on June 15, the Yankees trailed their oldest adversary, the Boston Red Sox (43-19), by six games. After posting […]

When the 1931 World Series opened at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis on October 1st, it appeared to be a mere continuation of the regular season. The Philadelphia A’s star pitcher, Robert Moses “Lefty” Grove, rebounded from an early 2-0 deficit to cruise to a 6-2 win for Connie Mack’s team. Grove had outdone himself […]

After a three-season Negro National League liftoff, Minnie Miñoso’s career as integrated baseball’s first Afro-Latino star blazed almost entirely in the American League, from 1949 debut with the Cleveland Indians through late-season appearances with the Chicago White Sox more than a quarter-century later. Miñoso crossed over to the National League only once, in 1962, when […]

It was a short day’s work for Hector “Heity” Cruz on April 27, 1977, but he got a lot done as one of the offensive stars for the St. Louis Cardinals in their 21-3 rout of the Chicago Cubs. Cruz’s accomplishments in only six innings included three hits and two walks in five plate appearances, […]

Both the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers were out of contention when they played the final game of the 1952 season on September 28, but there were still some individual titles to be decided, including the American League home-run crown. It had been only five years since Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947; […]