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By the end of the 1957 major-league season, Ed Bouchee had made good on all his early athletic promise with a fine rookie season as the first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies. His slash line was .293/.394/470, with 17 home runs and 76 RBIs. The 24-year-old Bouchee, a former high school sports hero from Spokane, […]

“I certainly had no idea of ever being a pitcher. I had never pitched as a kid,” said 13-year big-league veteran Big Jim Hearn, who won 109 games for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants, and Philadelphia Phillies from 1947 through 1959.1 A college basketball player, Hearn was signed by the Cardinals as a […]

The 1965 World Series moved to Metropolitan Stadium for Game Six. The Los Angeles Dodgers were holding a 3-2 series lead, and Walter Alston’s crew was looking to close out the Twins. Standing in the way of the championship was Minnesota ace Jim “Mudcat” Grant. Claude Osteen took the hill for the Dodgers. Grant, who […]

 “If you do stink it up today, you get to come out the next day and get another shot,” said Scott Radinsky. “That’s why I love being a reliever.”1 A hard-throwing left-hander, Radinsky was never afraid of failure, or a challenge. He made a big jump from Single A to the majors, debuting with the […]

“Considered by many to be the nonpareil umpire of the Post-War Era. A model of consistency with invariable accuracy both behind the plate and on the bases.” Those words on Nestor Chylak’s Baseball Hall of Fame plaque describe him well. An American League umpire from 1954 through 1978, Chylak was highly respected by managers, players, […]

Right-handed pitcher Bill Evans had a very brief major-league career, with a total of one decision (sadly, for him, a loss) in the 13 games he pitched over two seasons of big-league baseball. He worked in four games in 1949 for the White Sox, and in nine games in 1951 for the Red Sox. He […]

A southpaw off a Missouri farm, Oscar Fuhr pitched big-league ball for parts of two seasons and all of a third in the majors, 1921 with the Chicago Cubs and 1924-25 with the Boston Red Sox. The Cubs finished seventh and his Red Sox teams finished seventh and eighth. Fuhr was 0-0 with Chicago and […]

“I felt I’d be happier trying to make a living from baseball than any other business I know,” Judge Emil Fuchs said.1 “Happy” would not describe the Judge in the baseball business world: he lost nearly everything he had as owner of the Boston Braves, unsuccessfully striving to make them into a contender from 1923 […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

Harry Moran was born in Slater, West Virginia, on April 2, 1889. He was the son of L. D. (Lorenzey Dow) and Ella Moran, two native-born West Virginians. He was brought into at least a modestly wealthy family. At Harry’s birth L. D. was, according to the 1880 Census, a blacksmith laborer, a trade he […]

In 13 years as a professional baseball player, outfielder Dallas Williams appeared in 20 big-league games for the 1981 Orioles (two games) and 1983 Reds (18 games). The former first-round draft pick starred for three American Association championship teams in Triple-A before commencing a long coaching career, including four seasons in the majors with the […]

George Goetz is among those rare pitchers who won his only major-league game. It was in 1889 for Baltimore of the American Association, which existed from 1882 to 1891. In contrast to so many other major leaguers over the decades who played very few games at that level, Goetz had a very short career in […]

The defending World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates were in need of another pitcher early in the 1910 season. They traded a pair of players to the Boston Doves for a 26-year-old right-hander with one of the best curve balls in the league. Early in the 1911 season, an arm injury ended Kirby White’s major league career. […]

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 […]

A big, hulking 6-foot-3, 215-pound outfielder named Baby Doll?  There has to be a story behind that nickname.  More than one, as it happens, though they overlap. The story out of Jacobson’s own mouth is probably the right one. In his obituary, The Sporting News quoted him: “Everybody called me Bill until that day in […]

In September 1941, outfielder Bill Endicott seemed poised for a major-league career. In his fifth season of professional baseball, he had a stellar minor-league résumé: three All-Star teams, including one that year in the Pacific Coast League.1, 2 He had also won a batting championship three seasons earlier when he hit .354 for Albany in […]

Expectations for the Atlanta Braves heading into the 2006 season were that they would make the playoffs. They were riding a current postseason streak of 14 straight appearances, and there was no indication that it wouldn’t become 15.  For the Arizona Diamondbacks the picture wasn’t as clear. The team had shocked baseball with its thrilling […]

The Minnesota Twins were struggling going into the final game of a series versus the Chicago White Sox. Minnesota had lost six straight games and nine consecutive road games. The Twins had an American League-worst road record of 4-14.1 While the temperature was warm and the skies were sunny in Chicago, both teams were facing […]

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 […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates were eager to open the 1954 season following a disastrous 1953. That year the Pirates went 50-104, finishing 55 games behind the league-leading Brooklyn Dodgers. On the “brighter” side, their record was an improvement over the 42-112 record of 1952. Throughout the mid-1950s, the Pirates frequently joined the Chicago Cubs in the […]

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 […]

Note: This article was originally published at The National Pastime Museum on May 27, 2013, and is reprinted here by permission. By Jacob Pomrenke When Ban Johnson founded the American League in 1901, he strove to publicly distance his league from the rowdyism and lawlessness that had characterized the National League’s first quarter-century. The 1877 […]