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Promise unfulfilled denotes the playing career of right-handed pitcher Mike Brown. When the Red Sox drafted the Clemson University star in the second round in the 1980 amateur draft, Boston Globe baseball writer Peter Gammons wrote that “two teams whose scouts I respect” considered Brown among the top 20 prospects in the country.1 But after […]

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 […]

By some standards, Ed Swartwood toiled in relative obscurity, playing nearly his entire career in the American Association, an under-appreciated major league in the 19th century. Even the teams he played on weren’t impressive. During the league’s inaugural season, 1882, he came up with the Pittsburg Alleghenys, a poor club during his three summers there. […]

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 […]

Keith Hernandez, one of the major leagues’ all-time best fielding first basemen, played a key role in the New York Mets’ late 1980s successes. Hernandez, who was originally a St. Louis Cardinal standout, found himself in a predicament when he was traded in midseason to the struggling 1983 Mets. His trade was due to conflicting […]

George Tsamis, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound former left-handed pitcher, made his mark on the diamond managing in the independent leagues. Tsamis described himself as a “players manager” who asks “players to give 100 percent and run out every ground ball, and hustle, show up on time. If you don’t, you’ll be disciplined; but if you can’t […]

Tony Kubek was a bit anxious. Not just because he was the starting left fielder for the New York Yankees, or that he was a rookie who was participating in his first World Series. But the series had shifted to his hometown of Milwaukee. For the first time, his family would see him play in […]

Mike Palm is one of the relatively few Red Sox players to have been born in the city of Boston. Richard Paul Palm’s date of birth was February 13, 1925. After moving to a suburb, he picked up his nickname in high school, where Belmont High’s baseball coach was Myron “Mike” Palm, a former Penn […]

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 […]

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 […]

Eddie Waitkus was a slick-fielding first baseman who in an 11-year big-league career for three teams batted a solid .285 and struck out only 204 times in 4,681 plate appearances. Although a fine ballplayer, he would today likely be little remembered but for what happened to him on June 14, 1949, in a room at […]

Of the two pitching Bennett brothers, briefly teammates on the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies, Dave was the tall one (6-feet-5), the young one (by six years), the right-handed one, the reserved one, and the most sought-after one, having received a $70,000 bonus upon signing in 1963. They briefly drew comparisons to Dizzy and Paul Dean, the […]

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 […]

It seemed like Murray Wall and Boston were meant to be together. The right-handed pitcher debuted with the Boston Braves, next made the majors with the Boston Red Sox, and in 1959, was sent from Boston to Washington, but then sent back to Beantown three days later. Wall pitched in 91 big league games, all […]

Perhaps the most emphatic action ever taken by the Commissioner of Baseball occurred on August 3, 1921. On that day, Kenesaw Mountain Landis banished eight Chicago White Sox players from Organized Baseball for life for throwing the 1919 World Series, despite their acquittal in a court trial. The expulsion edict quickly became a baseball landmark, […]

England has contributed 33 players to major-league baseball. About two-thirds of them played in the late nineteenth century and first decade of the twentieth century. Charles Joseph Hanford, who made his major-league debut in 1914 at the age of 31, is one of a minority of English-born major leaguers who made his major-league debut after […]

The final game of the 1983 Eastern League season completed one chapter in New England baseball history, while serving notice that an exciting new chapter was poised to begin. The story that was ending belonged to the Lynn (Massachusetts) Pirates, Pittsburgh’s Double-A affiliate. The Pirates were successors to the Lynn Sailors, who were created in […]

One way to make a good impression with a new team is to homer in your first game. In 1965 outfielder Lenny Green, a nine-year veteran, joined the Boston Red Sox, his fourth American League club. Green had reached the big leagues in 1957 with the Baltimore Orioles, who traded him to the Washington Senators […]

After 15 years of resounding success under the bright spotlights of New York City, the Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle Show played a less celebrated encore performance in July 1968, in Syracuse, New York, the baseball equivalent of off-Broadway.1 Ford, one year into retirement and serving on the New York Yankees’ coaching staff, returned to […]

“Nice work, kid,” St. Louis Cardinals second baseman Rogers Hornsby said to Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop Glenn Wright as Wright tagged Hornsby.1 It was the top of the ninth inning at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field on May 7, 1925. The 24-year-old Wright had caught a line drive and stepped on second before tagging Hornsby, completing the sixth […]

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 […]

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, […]

Springfield Sallies hurler Erma “Bergie” Bergmann looked in for the sign from her catcher, Sonia Vialat,1 wound up, and delivered the first pitch of the 1948 All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) season.2 It’s not known whether the pitch was a ball or a strike, or if it was put in play by Helen Callaghan […]

New York’s American League team, known as the Highlanders in the earliest years before morphing into the Yankees, was mostly moribund in its first decade and a half. Only twice, in 1904 and 1906, did it even challenge for the flag. The Yanks finished third in 1919, 7½ games behind the pennant-winning Chicago White Sox […]