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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, […]

A bouncer to the first baseman leading off the game called a hit. This judgment call remains the only hit until two out in the ninth inning when the potential last batter singles to right, replacing the lonely ‘1’ that had sat on the scoreboard for more than two hours. “That’s about as far down […]

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 […]

When the New York Mets awoke on Wednesday, September 17, 2008, they found themselves in second place in the National League East, a half-game behind the Philadelphia Phillies. They had enjoyed a 3½-game lead just a week earlier before losing four of their next five games. The recent rough patch brought up memories of the […]

It was a night like no other. A night to say farewell to an old friend. A night full of memories. A night that would go down in history. And so it was, on September 21, 2008, that more than 54,000 people showed up for the final game to be played at the old ballpark […]

Van Lingle Mungo was off to a better start than his team as the 1935 calendar hit June 13, easing out of spring and toward summer. The 24-year-old fireballing righty, workhorse of Casey Stengel’s Brooklyn staff, already had eight wins in 13 starts. He was three games over .500, but the Dodgers were only 23-22, […]

It’s not often that a team hits two grand slams in one game, but when the Baltimore Orioles turned that very feat in one inning against the Texas Rangers at Memorial Stadium on August 6, 1986, the hometown fans surely thought that the game had turned in favor of their team. After Texas second baseman […]

The 31,389 fans attending this Wednesday midday game could expect a pitcher’s duel: Two first-time All-Stars were taking the mound, both with solid 2019 performances. The White Sox and Twins had split the first two games of the series: The Twins put up seven runs in the eighth inning the night before to win 14-4. […]

There was no reason to expect St. Louis Cardinals catcher Glenn Brummer to play a significant role in the team’s Sunday afternoon game against the San Francisco Giants on August 22, 1982. Though manager Whitey Herzog called Brummer “the best third-string catcher I’ve ever seen,”1 that was more a reference to his willingness to work […]

In the late 1940s, Dick Fowler was one of the American League’s top pitchers. He tossed 61 complete games between 1946 and 1949 — only three AL pitchers threw more ­— and posted back-to-back 15-win seasons despite an aching shoulder.1 He played in an era when sore-armed hurlers were expected to keep throwing.2 That’s exactly […]

Jim Gosger was a hustling, hard-working ballplayer for 13 professional seasons, years that took him all over the baseball map, and to the majors for parts of 10 seasons with five different teams. He played a good center field but never really established himself as a good enough hitter to stay in a lineup long. […]

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 […]

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 […]

In life James Donaldson Brown’s journey took him from humble beginnings in Laurel, Maryland, to a nondescript death in an Oregon logging town. In between his birth and death he completed an odyssey that entailed stops in at least 28 minor-league cities, one foreign country and two major-league cities. He crisscrossed the county playing in […]

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 […]

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 […]

Rodney McCray is known as “Crash” for the time he made his mark and then some on an outfield wall in the minor leagues. But though his major-league time was brief and he totaled only three hits at the top level, McCray left a positive impression on the game and baseball did likewise to him. […]

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 […]

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 […]

For Johnny Mitchell, it was a long slog making it through the minor leagues and up to the bigs – but he made it and broke in with the New York Yankees in 1921. He’d paid his dues along the way and seemed to have a penchant for playing on pennant-winning teams, despite never being […]

Jerry Cram’s signature moment in the big leagues came on September 11, 1974. He threw eight scoreless innings in relief for the New York Mets — the 17th through the 24th of what became a 25-inning loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. If the Mets could only have scratched across a run, Cram would have […]