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The archives of baseball are filled with the stories of players whose major-league careers spanned one year, others who played a decade or more, and an unfortunate few who only grabbed a cup of coffee, arriving after years in the minors and leaving after a scant handful of games that gave their careers a certain […]

Sid Farrar was living in Melrose, Massachusetts, in 1882, working winters in a box factory and singing in the church choir when his wife, the former Henrietta Barnes, gave birth to a daughter Geraldine. At age 3, Geraldine was already singing with her darkly handsome father in the Melrose choir; 18 years later she created […]

James Lee “Jimmie” Newberry was a starting pitcher for the Birmingham Black Barons from 1942 to 1950. Most newspapers and historical sources refer to “Jimmy” as the diminutive of Newberry’s first name. However, the best evidence, which includes two autographs, signed “Jimmie Newberry,” is that he preferred to use the variant “Jimmie.”1 Newberry was born […]

Frank Bowerman’s major-league career spanned 15 seasons, from 1895 through 1909. It included stops with the Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Giants, and Boston Doves. Bowerman was a sturdy, robust player who stood 6-feet-2 and weighed approximately 190 pounds. Although known mainly as a catcher, the righty could play almost any position. Bowerman logged […]

Friday evening, October 2, 1908: Billy Murray walks the streets of Philadelphia. Cigar in mouth, immersed in thought, he continues mile after mile, hour after hour.1 The fourth-place Phillies team he manages is well out of contention. But as one of the most famed pennant races in baseball history draws to a close, one of […]

Between growing up on a dairy farm and working as a Federal crop inspector for the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Jim Bucher wedged in 17 years of playing professional baseball from 1930 to 1946. Bucher was an infielder and occasional outfielder who batted left-handed and threw right-handed, and spent his better years in the […]

Perhaps the greatest example of the old baseball cliché “good field, no hit,” Raymond Francis Oyler was the regular shortstop for two late-1960s Detroit Tigers teams, including the world champion 1968 squad, as well as the original Seattle Pilots the following season. Ray compiled a sub-”Mendoza line” .175 career batting average—the lowest of any player […]

Though his major league career consisted of only five hitless at-bats for the 1980 Baltimore Orioles, Drungo Hazewood remains a legendary baseball cult figure, chiefly because of his unique moniker. Eyewitnesses to Hazewood’s feats of power and speed, however, wondered what might have been had the muscular outfielder learned to hit a curveball before leaving […]

Dick Whitman’s life was described by his brother-in-law Bob Read as “the kind of story that maybe America was built on.”1 A member of “The Greatest Generation” that survived the Great Depression and fought totalitarianism in World War II, he forged a professional baseball career that began in 1942 and ended in 1957. While the […]

In 1889 at the age of 15, diminutive southpaw Willie McGill graduated from the Chicago sandlots to the Evansville (Indiana) Hoosiers in the Central Interstate League. He defeated the Davenport Hawkeyes in his first outing. The following year he joined the Cleveland Infants in the Players’ League and had 11 wins under his belt before […]

Bob Emslie, National League umpire and newlywed in 1893. (Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum)   Robert Daniel Kean Emslie, the least-known famous umpire in baseball history, made his earthly debut on January 27, 1859, in Guelph, Ontario, the fourth son and seventh of eight children born to Alexander and Mary Graye,1 immigrants from […]

He wasn’t “Snake” and he wasn’t “Hooks” – Hal Wiltse went by the more pedestrian nickname of “Hal.” Of course, that wasn’t uncommon for a man named Harold. Harold James Wiltse was born in Clay City, Illinois, on August 6, 1903. The other two Wiltses were brothers from New York State. All three were left-handed […]

Versatile sandlot alumnus Mike O’Rourke packed a fair amount of action into his nine-game career as a major leaguer. As a pitcher for the 1890 Baltimore Orioles of the American Association, he completed all five of his starting assignments, albeit with only modest results. O’Rourke also served the club as a backup infielder and outfielder, […]

Bill Stoneman started out as a Vandal and ended up as an Angel. No, Stoney, as he was known, was not a wayward soul who found redemption. Rather, he has had a long, successful career in baseball and business, during which he took some Lip, put a franchise that was barely out of diapers on […]

You come to Colorado, the first guy you talk about is Todd Helton. We try to stay down in the zone and not give him anything to hit.”1 — Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood   In the so-near-yet-so-far-away category, Todd Helton has a place of honor. In 2003, the batting race in the National League came […]

Johnny Lucadello was a hard-hitting and versatile infielder who, like many of his generation, saw a promising Major League career fizzle after he lost four prime years to military service. John Lucadello was born on February 22, 1919, in Thurber Texas.1 At its peak, in the early 1900s, Thurber, situated between Fort Worth and Abilene, […]

Any conversation about the greatest hitter in baseball history must include Rogers Hornsby in the opening gambit.1 His .358 lifetime batting average in 23 big-league seasons is second all-time to Ty Cobb’s .367 and well ahead of such all-time greats as Tris Speaker (.345), Ted Williams (.344), Babe Ruth (.342), Lou Gehrig (.340), and Stan […]

The New York Mets lost Mike Piazza to a strained left hamstring in the first inning of their 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on April 23, 2002.1 Despite missing their slugging catcher, they won four of their next five games to move into a first-place tie with the Montreal Expos in the National […]

Fresh off a second-place finish in 1979, the Milwaukee Brewers arrived in training camp in Sun City, Arizona, in 1980 with dreams of a division title. But talk of games and pennants was shunted aside when, on March 6, Brewers manager George Bamberger was hospitalized with chest pains. Bamberger had suffered a mild heart attack. […]

If the 1975 Tacoma Twins had been as good at winning baseball games as manager Cal Ermer was at winning protests, they would have gone undefeated. The Twins’ June 8 loss to the Hawaii Islanders, their top rivals in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League’s Western Division, was temporarily put on hold after Ermer mounted a […]

On an August night at Candlestick Park in 1972, Pittsburgh Pirates right-hander Nelson Briles missed perfection by inches – and escaped with a win by an equally slim margin. Two innings after Ken Henderson’s line drive eluded first baseman Willie Stargell for the San Francisco Giants’ only hit and baserunner of the game, substitute left […]

The mood in Ottawa was somber in the fall of 1916, more than two years after Canada had declared war on Germany. The bloody Battle of the Somme in northern France was into its fourth month, and a lengthy list of the local soldiers killed, wounded, or missing in action appeared daily in the Ottawa […]

They say everything’s bigger in Texas. On April 15, 2009, in only the ninth game of the season, Texas Rangers second baseman Ian Kinsler entered the contest against the Baltimore Orioles batting .375. That day was designated as Jackie Robinson Day in the major leagues. Wearing Number 42 like every other player on the field, […]

The Philadelphia Phillies joined the National League in 1883, and nearly a century later they were still looking for their first championship. They had won pennants in 1915 and 1950 before losing the World Series to the American League champions. They had won NL East Division titles from 1976 through 1978 before losing the National […]