Search Results

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 […]

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 September 1976 Hall of Fame inductees Yogi Berra and Warren Spahn were only the two most prominent names among a large field of managerial candidates available to the expansion Toronto Blue Jays. But the Jays startled the baseball world by selecting the hardly-household-name Roy Hartsfield as the franchise’s first skipper. But the surprise may […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

Pea Ridge Day was a big, strong Arkansas farmboy. If he hadn’t already had a colorful nickname denoting his hometown, he surely would have been dubbed Rube. Despite his entries in the baseball encyclopedias, Clyde Day wasn’t born in Pea Ridge, or Arkansas for that matter. Day grew up in Pea Ridge, though, and brought […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates had their fair share of heroes and players who had career years, but when all is said and done, without Vernon Law they might well have been just another team that came close to glory. Heading into 1960, Law had just turned 30 and was an eight-year veteran of the Pirates, […]

In April 1977 a brand-new baseball team called the Blue Jays took the field for the first time, kindling joy in the hearts of fans and bringing the pro game back to a baseball-starved city. And then, two months later, it happened all over again. The expansion Toronto Blue Jays played their first season in […]

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 […]

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, […]

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. […]

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 […]

The evening after catcher Christian Vazquéz homered to give the Boston Red Sox a walk-off win over the Tampa Bay Rays in Game Three of the 2021 American League Division Series, the Red Sox won Game Four and wrapped up the ALDS in another walk-off.1 Vazquez was again instrumental – this time as a table-setter. […]

Forty-three (43) members and guests of the Larry Dierker Chapter gathered in person and via Zoom for the February 20, 2023, chapter meeting at the Spaghetti Western restaurant in Houston. Click here to watch a video recording on YouTube. President Joe Thompson opened the meeting and gave the good news that José Altuve wants to […]

Editor’s note: At this year’s SABR convention in Long Beach, Harry Stovey was selected by SABR’s Nineteenth Century Research Committee as its Overlooked 19th Century Baseball Legend for 2011. The announcement was made during the committee’s annual business meeting.   Harry Duffield Stowe was born December 20, 1856 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Stowe (or Stow by […]