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Despite Elmer Flick’s accomplishments on the diamond and his selection to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1963, he remains relatively obscure to all but the most ardent baseball fans. That is unfortunate; Flick put up outstanding numbers in both the National League and the American League before contracting a “mysterious gastrointestinal illness” that […]

Nolan Ryan had been here before, but it was never like this. For the fourth time in two years, inquiring baseball writers pounced on the easygoing Texan for his thoughts about potentially joining Johnny Vander Meer of the 1938 Cincinnati Reds as the only major leaguers to throw back-to-back no-hitters. After he no-hit the Baltimore […]

The 1890 Louisville Colonels – dubbed the “Cyclones” in newspapers in Louisville and other American Association cities1 – had already doubled their 1889 win total when the Syracuse Stars came to town for a three-game series on August 9. Baseball’s first-ever 100-game losers at 27-111-2 in 1889, a season that included the majors’ first players […]

In late January of 1901, American League President Ban Johnson convened a series of organizational meetings at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Chicago. The purpose of the gatherings was to iron out the final details in preparation for the launching of his new major league. Seven years earlier, Johnson, a Cincinnati sportswriter, had become president […]

Most fans dream of seeing a no-hitter in person, but decades can pass without an opportunity close to home. For instance, Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field hosted National League baseball from 1909 to 1970 – more than 4,700 games – without a no-no.1 Fans at Boston’s hitter-friendly Fenway Park could have attended Red Sox games from September […]

Seeking their third straight World Series championship and their fourth in six seasons, the Boston Red Sox opened 1917 with 10 wins in their first 14 games. Their hot start included a two-game sweep of the Washington Senators at Fenway Park in late April. Boston’s Babe Ruth and Washington’s Walter Johnson had faced each other […]

“I haven’t been swinging the bat real good,” admitted former home-run champ Ben Oglivie after breaking out of a 1-for-17 slump and just one homer in his last 41 at-bats by whacking three round-trippers. “I’ve been getting a lot of changeups. I give a lot of credit to my teammates for helping me make some […]

Heading into their September 16 game with the Toronto Blue Jays, the New York Yankees (27-21) were second in the American League East in the pandemic-abbreviated 2020 season, four games behind the Tampa Bay Rays. With only 12 games remaining, their chances of catching Tampa Bay for the division title were slim. But an expanded […]

In 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates rookie catcher Steve Nicosia watched the 6’1”, 220 lb. right-handed power hitter crowd the batter’s box and wondered, “How are we ever going to get a pitch by him?”1 Nicosia was hardly alone in these thoughts. For much of his 15-year major-league career Greg Luzinski – whose large bat appeared toothpick-like […]

They called him “The Blazer.” As a minor leaguer he drew comparisons to Jackie Robinson. Don Blasingame wasn’t as talented as Robinson, but he was good enough to play 12 years in the major leagues, with appearances in an All-Star Game and a World Series. He married a Miss America finalist, who was the daughter […]

 Cub Stricker was a nineteenth-century second baseman who played for seven different clubs over an 11-year major-league career (1882-1885, 1887-1893). Affectionately referred to as Cub because of his diminutive stature – he was 5-feet-3 inches tall and weighed between 135 and 140 pounds – the right-handed-hitting and -throwing Stricker was considered an average hitter with […]

Hector Headley Lopez, the Panamanian-born third baseman for the Kansas City Athletics, saw his solid career shift to a better team when the A’s traded him to the New York Yankees on May 26, 1959. After more than four seasons in Kansas City as a regular infielder, mostly at third base, Lopez continued to play […]

For someone who participated in only 855 major-league games spread over nine seasons, Ed Abbaticchio has had more questions raised about his life than most baseball fans might expect. Was he the first Italian American big leaguer? Was he the first professional dual-sport athlete? Was he the creator of the spiral punt? Why did he […]

Signed by the Minnesota Twins in 1961, left-hander Jim Roland debuted as a 19-year-old in a September call-up the following season and tossed a three-hit shutout in his first big-league start, in 1963. “[He] has a blazing fast ball and is effectively wild,” wrote Twins beat reporter Arno Goethel.1 Battling injuries and control issues throughout […]

Ken Hogan, whose first game as a professional came in the major leagues, but who played in only three more games thereafter, was probably the fastest, most instinctive outfielder ever to roam the amateur and semipro ballfields of Cleveland. He drew raves for his ability to cover ground in center field. The Cincinnati Post said, […]

Twenty-five-year-old Jim McAndrew emerged from spring training 1969 to start the second game of the year for a New York Mets team that boasted one of the game’s top young rotations. Yet due to a series of misfortunes, injuries, and bad luck—a continuation from the previous year where the Mets were shut out in his […]

The fourth member of the Boyle family of Cincinnati to play in the majors, Ralph “Buzz” Boyle, made a splash when he joined in the Brooklyn Dodgers at age 25 in June 1933 after brief appearances with Boston Braves in 1929 and 1930. Joining the Dodgers in midseason after some time in the minors, the […]

Saves became an official major-league statistic in 1969. By the mid-1970s, closers had become firmly entrenched on big-league rosters. Pitchers such as Rollie Fingers, Bruce Sutter, Sparky Lyle, and Rich “Goose” Gossage were helping to define the role, often pitching multiple innings at the end of games. In 1976, the antacid maker Rolaids, whose motto […]

Throughout his 18-year major-league career, Lew Burdette was known for his antics as much as for his success on the mound. One of the best control pitchers of the 1950s, the right-hander paired with his roommate and best friend Warren Spahn to form one of the greatest and most durable pitching combinations in baseball history. […]

“No more pitiful case exists in the annals of base ball than that of Arnold Hauser,” stated The Sporting News on April 9, 1914.1 Hauser, since debuting with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1910, had emerged as one of the game’s finest young shortstops. By 1913, however, injuries and personal tragedy began to derail both […]

Kid Elberfeld, called “the dirtiest, scrappiest, most pestiferous, most rantankerous [sic], most rambunctious ball player that ever stood on spikes” for his vicious arguments on the diamond, patterned his combative style after that of his favorite team, the Baltimore Orioles of the mid-1890s. He believed, like those Oriole players, that an umpire should be kept […]

John Leo ‘Paddy’ Driscoll went directly from the purple uniform of Northwestern University to the Chicago Cubs in 1917. The diminutive infielder had been a three-sport star at Evanston (Illinois) High School before lettering in two sports at Northwestern.1 He played one season with the Cubs before entering the Navy during World War I. Back from […]

Outfielder Frank Welch played 723 major-league games for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1919 through 1926, before spending part of one final season (and only 15 games) with the 1927 Boston Red Sox as the coda to his time in the big leagues. He played in the minors into the 1935 season. Welch was a 5-foot-9, […]

A genuine pre-modern national star, one of the major league game’s pioneers, and one of the sport’s most enduring and intriguing figures, Louis Rogers “Pete” Browning was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on June 17, 1861, at 13th and Jefferson on the city’s west side. A lifelong resident of Louisville, Pete Browning was the youngest of […]