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The Texas Rangers found themselves in need of a third baseman. Late-season injuries, including Rangers utilityman Brad Miller going on the 10-day injured list, paved the way for Josh Jung to start at third base.1 The Texas Rangers called up Jung from the Round Rock Express of the Triple-A Pacific Coast League on September 7, […]

Ask a Tigers fan of recent vintage to associate “Blue Jays” and “extra innings” and the memories will not be positive. On August 10, 2014, Detroit squandered a 5-0 victory, eventually losing when Jose Bautista sliced a game-winning single in the 19th inning. Thirty years before, the Tigers and Blue Jays faced off in an […]

The 1974 baseball season had arrived and all eyes were focused on Hank Aaron. Hammerin’ Hank had finished 1973 with 713 career home runs, one behind Babe Ruth’s total. Aaron’s Atlanta Braves were scheduled to open on the road with a three-game series against the Cincinnati Reds before returning to Atlanta for an 11-game homestand. […]

The headline writer for the front page of a daily newspaper is challenged to provide the reader with glimpses of tragedy and joy, victory and defeat, worry and elation, all appropriately befitting the day’s news. When Pittsburgh awoke on the morning of July 26, 1956, the headline spread across the front page of the Pittsburgh […]

As the Kansas City Royals overcame the Oakland A’s for their first-ever American League West Division title in 1976, Royals teammates George Brett and Hal McRae and Minnesota Twins hitting star Rod Carew battled for the AL’s batting crown. The three-way race came down to the regular-season finale between Kansas City and Minnesota on October […]

The Boston Red Sox had the opportunity to sign Jackie Robinson at a supposed tryout at Fenway Park in April 1945.1 Instead, it was more than 14 years later – after every one of the other 15 teams in the American and National leagues had integrated, and after Robinson himself had been retired for nearly […]

“You know what they say about Chicago. If you don’t like the weather, wait fifteen minutes.” — Ralph Kiner1   Ralph Kiner was about to see more of Chicago than he bargained for. While taking batting practice, the Pirates slugger learned he was traded to the visiting Chicago Cubs. “What’s the number? Kiner asked. “22,” […]

While Neil Young began the year singing, “Keep on rockin’ in the free world,”1 millions around the globe were seeking freedom by the spring of 1989. One day before Toronto and Boston concluded their weekend three-game series, the Chinese government used lethal force to crush a seven-week pro-democracy protest in Beijing.2 In Poland, citizens voted […]

Len Boehmer spent most of this Sunday afternoon in the New York Yankees’ bullpen, just hoping for the opportunity to play. The 27-year-old infielder had spent nearly eight years in the minor leagues, save for three at-bats for the 1967 Reds, before surprisingly making the Yankees in the spring of 1969. For the season’s first […]

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 […]

Over the years, the Boston Red Sox have featured a number of philosophers or other intellectuals among their ranks. They’ve had Aristotle, Archimedes, Beckett, Cicero, Dante, Darwin, Emerson, Euclides, Godwin, Jonson, Hobson, Pascal, and Webster.1 They also had someone who might have been confused with Friedrich Nietzsche, the author of Beyond Good and Evil: an […]

There is a dream of baseball that most Americans know. A small-town boy from a working-class family making it to the major leagues and pitching. Few realize their dream. David Sanders did. He progressed from being an all-state player for his high school in rural Kansas to contending for pitching records at the collegiate level […]

Nicknamed the “Iron Man,” the remarkably durable Ray Mueller caught an average of 153 games per season between the Pacific Coast League and National League from 1942 to 1944. He set the NL record by catching 233 consecutive games, including all 155 for the 1944 Cincinnati Reds. Mueller was a backstop for 1,598 total games […]

Being able to hear the sounds of the game is important to a baseball player, particularly to an outfielder. Hearing the distinctive sound of bat meeting ball enables the fielder to be off at the crack of the bat, getting a jump on the ball, and racing to the spot where he can catch the […]

Frank McManus was a turn-of-the-century catcher who saw brief tours of duty with four major league teams. A substandard batsman, McManus was a first-rate defensive backstop with an exceptional throwing arm. At various times during his career, observers wondered why, given his talents, McManus seemed unable to secure a place on a big league roster. […]

Fred Glade was a wealthy man before playing major league baseball. His family owned milling businesses which eventually became a piece of the modern conglomerate ConAgra. He had pressing family and business responsibilities and didn’t need a salary from baseball. He appeared at spring training on his own schedule, if at all. He jumped clubs […]

A tall left-handed pitcher, Henry Keupper pitched seven years in professional baseball, but just one year in the majors — 1914, when he was 8-20 for the last-place St. Louis Terriers of the short-lived Federal League. Henry John Keupper was born on June 24, 1887, in Staunton, Illinois. Staunton, the second largest city in Macoupin […]

Billy Evans had one of the most varied nonplaying careers in baseball history. The third umpire to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, Evans umpired from 1906 to 1927 during most of the Deadball Era in the American League, and augmented his umpire’s salary by writing a nationally syndicated sports column, “Billy Evans Says,” […]

“By now, I’ve been around long enough not to be surprised at anything.” That’s what former pitcher Walt Ripley told newspaper columnist Ed Bridges in 1982.1 Ripley was talking about the sudden interest in his autograph at the time. After all, he’d only pitched in two major-league games, way back in 1935, both for the […]

With Aaron Ward at second base, the New York Yankees won three consecutive American League pennants from 1921 to 1923. He was a capable hitter, but he drew comparisons with Nap Lajoie, Eddie Collins, and Frankie Frisch for his splendid fielding. “Next to Babe Ruth,” Ward “is the most valuable man” on our team, said […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]