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The small mining community of Swoyersville, Pennsylvania, located near Wilkes-Barre, was home to only 5,000 or so inhabitants but gave five ballplayers to the major leagues: Adam Comorosky, Dick Mulligan, Packy Rogers, Steve Shemo, and Harry Dorish. The town also contributed professional athletes in other major-league sports as well. Dorish himself also played football and […]

In the New York State League, he came to be known as “Bill Ging with the Wonderful Wing.” William Joseph “Bill” Ging was born in Elmira, New York, on November 7, 1872, the second son of Lawrence and Mary Ging. Lawrence was born in Ireland and immigrated to the United States in 1860 before marrying […]

Ryan Garton is an example of a boy who grows up rooting for his hometown big-league team and dreaming of one day playing for it, and then, with the benefit of hard work, talent, and some good fortune, sees that dream come to fruition. Ryan Patrick Garton was born on December 5, 1989, in Clearwater, […]

In averaging 27 homers a year from 1964 through 1968 to become one of the more feared power hitters on the San Francisco Giants, Jim Ray Hart first had to learn how to avoid getting clobbered at the plate. In his second game as a major leaguer, on July 7, 1963, Hart’s shoulder blade was […]

“He’s a quality player who’s getting better all the time. A year ago, he played on talent alone. Now he’s doing it on talent and know-how. His potential is unlimited.”1 — Pittsburgh Pirates manager Jim Leyland   No word better describes Bobby Bonilla’s baseball career than “potential.” He was selected as an All-Star six times. […]

It took a special type of athlete to play for Chicago American Giants manger Rube Foster. He liked to engage in small ball and built his teams around speed and bunting. He wanted only smart competitors on his team. Foster was known to say, “If you haven’t got intelligence enough to fit into this play, […]

Chick Fraser spent his entire life in baseball as a pitcher, coach, scout, and minor-league manager, and though his playing career wasn’t especially successful it was certainly unique. He went 175-212 over 14 seasons, lost at least 20 games in a season five times, including three straight from 1904-1906, and ranks second all-time with 219 […]

Turner Ward has two World Series rings from his time with the 1992 and 1993 Toronto Blue Jays. He is a member of the Mobile, Alabama, Sports Hall of Fame (2007 inductee) and is best known in baseball history for never giving up and not having taken his eye off the ball. Turner Max Ward […]

In late July 1958 newspapers nationwide published a brief Associated Press dispatch announcing the death of Deadball Era pitcher Jack Rowan.1 Follow-up articles supplied poignant detail. The elderly gent, believed to be about 85 and without family, had spent his final years living alone in a small Detroit hotel room, surviving on a small monthly […]

Some people called him Smiler. His daughter said he was known as the Clark Gable of Dallas. Because he came from North Carolina, some called him Tarheel.i George King Murray was a right-handed pitcher from Charlotte and his father, William, was a railwayman. The Murrays – William and Mary Lee – lived in Charlotte, and […]

Though he stood only 5′ 9½” and weighed just 160 lbs., Dick Rudolph was a large component of George Stallings‘ “Big Three” that helped lead the 1914 Boston Braves to their miraculous pennant and World Series sweep. “He was the bellwether of the pitching staff,” said Braves coach Fred Mitchell, “and being a little fellow, […]

A tenacious, feisty catcher who played six years in the 1890s with the Chicago club of the National League, Tim Donahue appeared in 466 major league games and compiled a .236 lifetime batting average. He was an outspoken individual, having what one sportswriter termed “a tongue as nimble as a squirrel’s and as sharp as […]

“I don’t care for Rockefeller’s millions and I have no desire to share Wilson’s honors,” Heinie Wagner once quipped to a group of players during a long, hot train ride out west. “But I would like to be as good a pitcher as Walter Johnson and always be able to pitch for a team as […]

If the fates had been kinder to George “Kiddo” Davis, he would have had the opportunity to display his skills in five World Series during his eight major-league seasons. In two Series with the New York Giants, 1933 and 1936, the center fielder complemented his outstanding defensive work with 8 hits in 21 at-bats, a […]

Jason Davis, a 6-foot-6-inch right-handed fireballer, pitched in seven seasons from 2002 through 2008 for Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners, and Pittsburgh Pirates. Known for a high-velocity sinking fastball in the upper 90s, Davis in 2003 led all American League rookie pitchers in innings pitched (165⅓), his first full season. Indians pitching coach Mike Brown compared […]

Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck faced a dilemma after the 1976 season. The White Sox had finished that campaign, their fourth consecutive losing season, with a 64-97 record. Only 914,945 fans attended games at Comiskey Park. The team needed stars to improve the record and increase attendance. The start of free agency, however, boosted […]

Sunday, August 30, 1970, dawned as a typical late-summer day in Houston, Texas: the temperature in the high 80s, humidity in the 70s, with a thunderstorm or two almost a certainty.1 Though the inside of the Astrodome was a cool, air-conditioned 72 degrees, the hometown Astros were hotter than the outside air. The Astros had […]

A season of great promise suddenly looked impossible. The Red Sox fans who stayed to the end of this evening’s game at Fenway Park could hardly have been more despondent. Boston fans had been waiting 86 years for a world championship and 18 years since their team’s spirit-crushing defeat at the hands of the New […]

In the days leading up to one of Yankee Stadium’s most surprising comebacks, it was the visitors’ ballpark that was making headlines. The previous week, the New York Yankees dropped a two-game series to the Minnesota Twins, and placed the blame on the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome’s roof. After New York fielders lost some routine […]

For the first three weeks of the 1980 season, the St. Louis Cardinals’ bullpen provided anything but relief. To wit: an 0-5 record, one save and a ghastly 7.46 ERA with 51 hits allowed in 35⅓ innings through April 29.1 “If we had the relief pitching, we’d probably be in first place,” general manager John […]

Baseball fans primarily think of Kenny Lofton as a pesky leadoff hitter who terrorized teams on the basepaths. In his first five full major-league seasons, from 1992 to 1997, he led the American League each year in steals, averaging 65 per year. He finished his 17-season career in 2007 with 622 stolen bases, as of […]

Eric Davis is described in his SABR biography as having “all the tools, and when his body was right, he was one heck of a ballplayer.”1 Unfortunately, he dealt with injuries for a good part of his amazing career, limiting his playing time. In 17 years in the major leagues, Davis never played more than […]

On Memorial Day 1960, the Pittsburgh Pirates had squeezed past the San Francisco Giants by a half-game to take over first place in the National League. And by mid-July the Giants had faded; the Pirates, forging on and 18 games over .500, held a three-game lead over the Milwaukee Braves. Pirate fans were ecstatic. Their […]

The 1986 Boston Red Sox went 95-66 during the regular season, their most wins in nearly a decade (99 in 1978), and won the American League East flag by 5½ games over the New York Yankees. It was their first postseason appearance in 11 years, since they lost the 1975 World Series to the Cincinnati […]