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Bob Bescher amassed 428 career stolen bases even though he played regularly for only eight seasons in the major leagues. The switch-hitting leadoff hitter and left fielder pilfered 81 bases in 1911, still the Cincinnati Reds single-season record. In 1912 F.C. Lane of Baseball Magazine declared him the “King of Basestealers,” not only for his […]

Once upon a time decades ago, girls played professional baseball. To quote from the opening paragraph of our book, The South Bend Blue Sox (McFarland, 2012), written by Robert M. Gorman and myself, “The unique circuit immortalized by the 1992 movie, A League of Their Own, resulted from talented women undertaking nontraditional roles and occupations […]

During the 1892 season while playing for St. Louis, Cliff Carroll had the misfortune of being fined by the club when a ball inadvertently rolled into his pocket. The incident, which occurred in the sixth inning on August 17 of that season, was his major claim to fame, although in his time he was a […]

More than 80 years have passed since Lester Sweetland pitched the last game in his five-year big-league career, but baseball enthusiasts still occasionally invoke his name when discussing the pitcher who has the dubious achievement of having posted the highest earned-run average in a major-league season. Breaking in with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1927, Sweetland […]

From 1872 to 1884, Tim Murnane was a first baseman and outfielder who compiled a .261 lifetime batting average in 383 major-league baseball games. An average ballplayer during the formative years of professional baseball, better known for his fielding and baserunning than his hitting, Murnane made a more lasting contribution to the sport of baseball […]

“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 […]

The inaugural 1966 season of the Atlanta Braves began with Tony Cloninger as the ace of the pitching staff, but it ended with Pat Jarvis as the ace. Jarvis was in the middle of a so-so season with the Braves’ Triple-A Richmond club when Atlanta’s new manager, Billy Hitchcock, needed fresh arms. Assigned to the […]

There used to be a ballpark on the edge of Burlington’s Intervale, near the intersection of North Prospect Street and Riverside Avenue. It was known as Athletic Park, and from 1903 to 1906 it was the home of Burlington’s team in the first of Vermont’s legendary Northern Leagues. During those years Athletic Park was the […]

Right-hander Walter Ball was one of the top pitchers in early black baseball, often being favorably compared with a contemporary, Hall of Famer Rube Foster. In the prime of his career, the Indianapolis Freeman remarked, “everyone knows that Walter Ball and ‘Steel Arm’ Johnny Taylor are the most sensational pitchers of the race.”1 Lacking great […]

Juan Pizarro was a talented, durable Puerto Rican pitcher. The lefty pitched in all or part of 18 major-league seasons, starting as a rookie with the 1957 Milwaukee Braves. The Braves rushed him to the big club after one eye-opening season in Class A, yet their very deep pitching staff limited Pizarro’s opportunities. He did […]

Tight batting races are usually decided by one or two hits throughout the course of a long season. In the closest batting race in National League history, the St. Louis Cardinals’ Albert Pujols edged Colorado’s Todd Helton .3587 to .3585 to take the batting championship in 2003. Before that, the closest race in league history […]

Whenever the name Harvey Haddix is mentioned, there is usually a reference to a 115-pitch game he threw in Milwaukee in 1959. His career in professional baseball, however, was much more — lasting parts of five decades. Haddix was born on September 18, 1925, the third son of Harvey Haddix, Sr. and Nellie Mae Greider-Haddix. […]

Jack Sanford got his start in baseball with a push from his big sister. Sanford was named National League Rookie of the Year, won sixteen straight games one season, and started three times in the World Series, but he never got over being labeled “no prospect” when he was a teenager. John Stanley Sanford was […]

Not to be confused with the American League first baseman or the cigar-wielding comedian of the same name, who were roughly his contemporaries, George Burns of the National League was the most consistent hitter in major-league history, batting .287 for his 15-year career, but never higher than .303 nor lower than .272 in a full […]

In a 16-year career marked by steady production, Todd Zeile was literally all over the place. He was traded five times, released once, and signed five separate free-agent contracts, toiling for 11 different organizations: Cardinals, Cubs, Phillies, Orioles, Dodgers, Marlins, Rangers, Mets, Rockies, Yankees, Expos, and Mets again. Ironically it was Zeile’s very dependability — […]

Bobby Richardson played second base for the New York Yankees from 1955 to 1966, a key contributor during one of the Yankees’ most successful stretches in their legendary history. Richardson was by all accounts a slick, rangy glove man and a steady stick man. He won the Gold Glove Award five times, he batted over […]

Hoping to reignite their late-season surge, keep pace with the National League East Division-leading Chicago Cubs, and avoid a series sweep by the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates, the second-place St. Louis Cardinals turned to NL strikeout leader José DeLeón on September 13, 1989. DeLeón took a one-hit shutout into the sixth inning at Busch Stadium, but […]

The losing team accuses the winning pitcher of doctoring the ball. The winning pitcher shakes his head and avows his innocence. It’s a tale as old as time – or, at least, it goes back to the earliest days when scuffing a pitched baseball became illegal. On May 12, 1915, Detroit Tigers manager Hughie Jennings […]

During the 1926 American League season, there were a handful of instances where the capacity of Comiskey Park in Chicago was exceeded by the demands of the public, usually when the New York Yankees came to town.1 In these situations, the excess attendees were allowed onto the playing field and rather ineffectively roped off from […]

Ballpark discounts and giveaways have fueled memorable moments, including some that certain teams would rather forget. In the second half of a doubleheader on September 26, 1942, after the New York Giants gave free admission to any child who brought scrap metal for the World War II effort, mobs of kids stormed the Polo Grounds […]

An Opening Day record crowd of 51,668 saw the Houston Astros take on the visiting Chicago Cubs in the 35th and final home opener to be played in the Astrodome.1 This was the Cubs’ first season opener in Houston since April 10, 1962, when they played at Colt Stadium, losing 11-2 to the Astros.2 Chicago […]

As the spring of 1974 turned to summer, the San Francisco Giants were slumping. They were 33-36 and in fifth place in the six-team National League West Division, already 12 games behind the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers. By Friday, June 21, as they arrived in Los Angeles to open a three-game series with the Dodgers, […]

Game Four of the 2012 World Series was about to begin with the San Francisco Giants leading the Detroit Tigers three games to none.1 No team had ever come back from this position to win a World Series. With Detroit’s back to the wall, the Tigers’ faithful were in a state of disbelief. In Game […]

“No one is better in the National League,” declared Los Angeles Dodgers beat writer Wells Twombley about Sandy Koufax, coming off a then career-best fifth straight complete-game victory, a 7-3 win over the defending World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates on June 7, 1961.1 Two months into the 1961 season, the 25-year-old Koufax might have been […]