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He never had a hit, never made an error, and pitched only 32 2/3 innings in 13 major league games, but he was a member of the World Champion 1918 Red Sox. Standard reference books show Vincent Leo Molyneaux as born near Niagara Falls, in Lewiston, New York, on August 17, 1888, although August 17, […]

Rich Hacker worked in professional baseball for many years as a player, coach, manager, and scout. He had a brief stint in the majors as a shortstop for the Montreal Expos in 1971 but is best known as a coach for the St. Louis Cardinals and Toronto Blue Jays. Richard Warren Hacker was born in […]

Many images come to mind when one hears the name Yogi Berra. One of the more obvious is that of a winner. Berra won three American League Most Valuable Player awards and appeared in 14 World Series as a player and another five as a manager or a coach. He won 13 championship rings and […]

In 1979, the Minnesota Twins’ third baseman, 24-year-old John Castino, emerged as the American League’s co-Rookie of the Year. His fielding prowess drew comparisons to some of the all-time great glove men at that position, including Brooks Robinson and Billy Cox. But Castino’s career was derailed by a congenital back defect that became a chronic […]

Before it came to a premature halt, the career of 1870s pitcher-turned-outfielder George Bechtel was not without distinction. Bechtel was a member of major league baseball’s first championship team, the 1871 Philadelphia Athletics of the National Association. Four seasons later, he and teammate Bill Craver became the first players to have their contracts transferred by […]

Although reputedly equipped with the best curveball in major league baseball,1 right-hander Jack Ferry saw only sparing service during his tenure with the 1910-1913 Pittsburgh Pirates, averaging barely 40 innings per season. Yet when given the chance, Ferry turned in solid – at times sterling – performances. In addition, he was an excellent batsman occasionally […]

In literature’s most famous soliloquy, Hamlet agonizes: To be, or not to be: that is the question:Whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to sufferThe slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,And by opposing end them? Hamlet chose to be. Willard Hershberger chose not to be. Why? The slings […]

During the 1880s, when the pitcher delivered his serves from the pitcher’s box rather than the pitching rubber, Dick Conway played two major league seasons and a portion of a third, compiling a lifetime 15-24 record in 41 games as a pitcher for Boston in the National League and Baltimore in the American Association. Conway […]

New York Yankee rookie Tom Tresh was living a dream. He stepped into the lineup of the defending World Champions in 1962, became a key contributor, faced some adversity, and here he was starting in the World Series. Not only was he contributing, he was the favorite to be named the American League Rookie of […]

When he died in 1979, Charlie Deal was the last surviving member of the 1914 Miracle Braves. A third baseman, he played in 89 games for the 1913 and 1914 squads, and jumped to the Federal League in 1915 after a salary dispute. It wasn’t the first time Deal and the baseball establishment clashed over […]

Right-handed pitcher Sam Dodge (0-0 in his career) appeared for the Boston Red Sox in 1921 and 1922, but never took part in anything but losing efforts. The Red Sox themselves didn’t do too well in those years, finishing fifth in 1921 (23½ games out of first) and dead last in 1922.  The “crack pitcher” […]

In 1942 St. Louis Cardinals’ farm director Branch Rickey singled out a particular right-handed hurler among a small army of top-flight pitching prospects: Max Surkont “can become another [Bob] Feller for us,”1 declared the future HOF executive. But by the end of spring training the Cardinals, blessed with the major leagues’ best pitching, assigned Surkont […]

“Some people say he was the greatest African American player ever. That may be so — I don’t know — but what seems clear is that he was the best black player of his time.” — Monte Irvin   The story of John Henry “Pop” Lloyd has many facets. It is a story of communities […]

Buddy Hassett was a New York boy who played for two of his hometown teams and almost made the trifecta. The first baseman had two distinctions: his ability to put the bat on the ball and his tenor voice. “The Bronx Thrush” would sing “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” at the drop of a leprechaun. […]

The Yankees grabbed all the headlines in 1961. Roger Maris set the new single-season home run record with 61. Mickey Mantle hit 54 home runs himself and was neck and neck with Maris for much of the year. Maris and Mantle finished first and second in the American League MVP voting, respectively, and the team […]

“There never was a better umpire in the history of the game than Jack Sheridan.”1 — Nap Lajoie   Hall of Fame umpires Bill Klem and Billy Evans concurred: Jack Sheridan was the greatest umpire who ever lived.2 Sheridan worked in major and minor leagues from 1885 to 1914. He was a fearless arbiter in […]

The highlight of Fred Curtis’s professional baseball career was a two-game appearance in St. Louis subbing for injured rookie first baseman Hal Chase and the 1905 New York Highlanders. Curtis’s personal life, however, hit a tragic low just four years later with the loss of his two infant children in an apartment fire. Frederick Marion […]

Matt Murray spent seven seasons working his way up through the minor leagues, finally making it to the majors in 1995 — when he pitched briefly for two first-place teams, the Atlanta Braves and the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox were swept in the Division Series by the Cleveland Indians, who went on to […]

In his prime, Long Bob Ewing—the “Long” referring to his 6’1″, 170-pound frame—was the workhorse of the Cincinnati Reds’ staff, becoming their winningest pitcher of the Deadball Era and the most significant spitball pitcher in the history of the franchise. Toiling for six managers in eight years on a succession of teams that never finished […]

“Baseball’s clichés remain largely unchanged through the years,” observed the writer Mordecai Richler in a 1986 essay for GQ.1 His first examples were the types of gripes from marginal pitchers and backup fielders: “If only they give me a chance to start, I know I can help this team,” and “I know I’m a .300 […]

Playoff baseball in the wild-card era is unpredictable. Teams that dominate during the summer routinely get ousted early in October by teams with less impressive regular-season records. Perhaps no franchise has benefited from expanded playoffs more than the Miami Marlins. Since they entered the National League as an expansion team in 1993, when they were […]

Stan Wasiak’s nearly five-decade bus ride in professional baseball reached its final stop on August 28, 1986. Wasiak, known as “the King of the Minors,” spent a record-setting 37 consecutive years as a minor-league manager in cities from Valdosta, Georgia, to Idaho Falls, Idaho, to Appleton, Wisconsin, to El Paso, Texas. Working at every level […]

No other player in baseball history has had a career quite like the iconic Bartolo “Big Sexy” Colón. Beginning as a fireballer with the 1997 Cleveland Indians and finishing as a wily, soft-tossing veteran with the 2018 Texas Rangers, the 285-pound righty pitched for 11 different franchises and amassed 247 career wins, the most of […]

Here are the SABR Defensive Index™ rankings through games of June 12, 2016. For the fourth consecutive season, the SDI will be used to help select the winners of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award and Rawlings Platinum Glove Award™, presented by SABR. The SABR Defensive Index accounts for approximately 25 percent of the Rawlings Gold […]