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The 1951 National League season is usually remembered most for the legendary “Shot Heard ’Round the World” capping the New York Giants’ September pursuit that plucked the pennant from the Brooklyn Dodgers. But a May game in Boston matching the Braves, then in pennant contention, with the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates featured an odd pitching performance […]
When Nap Lajoie was a child, he earned the nickname Sandy from his baseball-playing friends in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. The moniker had nothing to do with the game, but everything to do with shielding Lajoie from his mother’s wrath. Celina Lajoie did not care for baseball. The widowed mother of eight surviving children saw participating […]
It was the middle of June, and the Kansas City Monarchs were holding down second place in the Negro National Baseball League. Coming into Kansas City for a five-game series were the Cincinnati Cuban Stars, so named because they had many of the best players from the island in their lineup.1 The Cuban Stars had […]
During the last week of June 1982, the Detroit Tigers slumped into Baltimore with a 10-game losing streak. They had been swept in consecutive series by the Cleveland Indians, Milwaukee Brewers, and Boston Red Sox, and that dropped them from first place in the American League East Division to third.1 Their offense was struggling, averaging […]
“He has six homers, but this was actually his first. It just happened after the other five.”1 I promise that sentence will make sense by the end of the story. The New York Yankees, and their fans, were in Washington for a rare visit.2 The teams were nervously watching the weather: It was a two-game […]
Any time a young minor-league player is called up to the major leagues for the first time, it’s surely a nerve-wracking experience. So as Cleveland Indians farmhand Kevin Kouzmanoff sat on an airplane that was sitting on the runway in Cincinnati waiting for more fuel, the “what-if” scenarios about what might play out that evening […]
Hall of Famer Nap Lajoie is often referred to as the American’s League’s first superstar, excelling both offensively and defensively. Cy Young, who knew Lajoie first as an opponent and later as a teammate, said of the career .338 hitter, “Lajoie was one of the most rugged hitters I ever faced. He’d take your leg […]
“You could see the skyline without the towers. You could see the smoke. Eerie. An eerie feeling,” — Mark Johnson on flying past Manhattan en route to Pittsburgh on September 161 On the morning of September 11, 2001, the early morning calm in western Pennsylvania was shattered when an airplane crashed into the countryside […]
It sounds like the kind of far-fetched scenario you might hear in a barroom bet: “True or false? Two baseball teams once played a game where the pitchers threw seven shutout innings, but the score was 21-17.” If anyone ever offers you that brainteaser, pick “true,” because it really happened to two teams in the […]
On Monday night, May 19, 1986, the Boston Red Sox hosted the Minnesota Twins at Fenway Park. The first-place Red Sox had defeated the Texas Rangers on Sunday in a stunning 10-inning finish. As Yogi Berra once said, it was déjà vu all over again on Monday, as Boston again rallied and won in walk-off […]
A very enthusiastic Brooklyn crowd of 12,000 turned out to Washington Park for Opening Day 1906, to witness their Superbas take on the Boston Beaneaters.1 The home fans were hopeful that their team, under new manager Patsy Donovan, would fare better than the 1905 squad, which had won 48 games but lost 104.2 Not since […]
“I’ve been told as long as I can remember, ‘You’re too small. You’ll never pitch in the big leagues. You’re too short.’ I’ve always used that to kind of fuel my fire” – Shane Nance, June 12, 2002.1 “When you get sent down, your goal is to get back up. I got some things figured […]
Ken Holcombe was a Jehovah’s Witness who first caught the attention of big-league scouts at a tryout camp. A right-handed pitcher of modest stature, he was 5-foot-11 and listed at 169 pounds. Kenneth Edward Holcombe was born in Burnsville, North Carolina, on August 23, 1918, to Lee Polk Holcombe and Eula Pansy (Wilson) Holcombe. Lee […]
James McCormick amassed 265 victories from 1878 to 1887 in the National League and the Union Association. He possessed an excellent fastball and was one of the earliest pitchers to master the curveball. His repertoire also included a “drop” ball. Many fans believe he is an overlooked candidate for the Hall of Fame. Baseball-Reference, for instance, has […]
Charles O. Finley indulged in many whims as owner of the A’s—and hiring world-class sprinter Herb Washington was one of his most fanciful experiments. Washington’s stint with Oakland (1974 and early 1975) was just part of Finley’s longstanding infatuation with “designated runners.” The track star was the second of six specialists whom the A’s employed […]
Southpaw pitcher Pete Dowling made his major-league debut with the Louisville Colonels on July 17, 1897, just two days after his 21st birthday, and two days before Honus Wagner played his first game with the Colonels. Louisville acquired the two in separate transactions, Dowling from Paducah, Kentucky, of the Central League for pitcher Jim Jones […]
Lenny DiNardo’s baseball career has been diverse, highlighted by a World Series ring, two no-hitters, setting collegiate strikeout records, and playing in the World Baseball Classic twice. DiNardo’s time playing baseball spanned five years in the major leagues and 11 years including college, the minor leagues, the Dominican Republic Winter League, and in the Chinese […]
Guy Morton reported to New Orleans for spring training in 1914 with Cleveland. After a few workouts his manager, Joe Birmingham, was unimpressed. “He doesn’t know how to stand on the rubber even. He doesn’t know how to hold the ball.” What he did have was a tremendous fastball and Birmingham declared, “[O]nly one pitcher […]
Imagine an infielder who played his last game more than half a century ago, who appeared in 1,058 games and batted .262 lifetime. Probably only his family and his most diehard fans would know his name. But that’s not so in the case of William Richard “Billy” Cox. Anchoring the infield on three Brooklyn pennant […]
Playing on seven different teams across 13 major league seasons, outfielder Tuck Stainback acquired a reputation as a player “who ought to be great, but never will be.” The weight of expectations affected him, as it did many other touted talents.1 During the 1930s, Stainback was considered one of the fastest runners in the National […]
In the summer of 1909, Detroit Tigers center fielder Ty Cobb won the Triple Crown, his Tigers won their third straight American League flag, and Ty was involved in the infamous spiking of Frank “Home Run” Baker. Because of that slide, Baker’s manager, Connie Mack, accused Cobb of being the dirtiest player in the history […]
Daniel Staub? Who the hell is Daniel Staub? Nobody has ever heard of a ballplayer named Daniel Staub. But everyone has heard of Rusty Staub, and for the French and English fans of a brand-new ball club in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, he was known — and loved — as Le Grand Orange. Daniel Joseph “Rusty” […]
“Catchers are in demand,” declared the Fort Worth Record in 1907; they “are scarcer than snowflakes in July.”1 Catchers’ equipment was primitive, and injuries were common. Who wanted to endure abuse from fastballs and foul tips? Tommy Hess was willing. From 1890 to 1911, he caught for minor-league teams in at least 10 U.S. states […]