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Not many players can say they had a higher batting average than both Joe Jackson and Nap Lajoie. Moxie Meixell could claim that distinction, even if it was for just one day. In his major-league debut with Cleveland, on July 7, 1912, he was a late-inning defensive replacement for Jackson in right field and rapped […]

Ellis Clary played in the majors for nearly four seasons during World War II, and he had an at-bat during the St. Louis Browns’ only World Series appearance in 1944. Once his playing career ended, he spent six years as a coach with the Washington Senators and more than three decades as a scout for […]

A star outfielder at the University of Georgia and reputedly a cousin of Ty Cobb, Rucker Ginn received a two-game tryout with the 1914 Cleveland Naps. Farmed out for seasoning, Ginn proceeded to lead the Eastern Association in batting. Yet by the following June, his professional playing days were behind him. Over the ensuing 15 […]

Joe Murphy was a major league pitcher at 19, a world-class sprinter at 21, and charged as an accessory to murder at 23. He then reinvented himself as a nationally respected figure in horse racing for more than 40 years. Joseph Aiken Murphy was born in St. Louis on September 7, 1866, the second of […]

Herb Stein is a baseball rarity in that his whole career was spent under the aegis of one organization, the Washington Nationals. (When he went to independent teams early in his career it was with the Nationals’ blessings.) He was born in New York City on December 3, 1917, and graduated from George Washington High […]

Lou Brissie still has the wristwatch he was wearing when a 170mm German artillery shell exploded near him, breaking the watch and both his feet and also shattering Lou’s left tibia and shinbone in 30 places. Shrapnel also pierced his right shoulder, both hands, and both thighs. And, one might assume, crushed Corporal Brissie’s hopes […]

Baseball lore is filled with stories of players who distinguished themselves on the diamond despite physical limitations. Examples include Dummy Hoy, Three-Finger Brown, One-Armed Pete Gray, Monty Stratton, and more recently, pitcher Jim Abbott. But Washington Senators left-handed pitcher Bert Shepard remains the only player to have ever played in the major leagues on an […]

Early in his career on the baseball diamond he was a man without a position. Luckily for him, the power emanating from his bat allowed him to hang around the major leagues long enough to settle into the only position he could play reasonably well. He came from Native American – or, in the common […]

Prior to 1923, the largest attendance at a baseball game was 47,373 at Game 2 of the 1916 World Series. This record was shattered on Opening Day, April 18, 1923, when 74,200 fans filled the brand-new Yankee Stadium to see the New York Yankees play the Boston Red Sox. The Seventh Regiment Band, led by […]

Josh Kinney was an unlikely candidate to become a major-league ballplayer. He grew up in rural Pennsylvania and spent most of his time dreaming not of baseball, but of hunting turkeys and deer. He attended a high school that lacked a baseball program, forcing him to commute each afternoon to a neighboring school to play. […]

Ron Luciano was a football All-American, baseball umpire, TV broadcaster, and best-selling author. He barged through the world like a gnu amid a herd of Shetland ponies, entertaining many, offending a few, and hiding behind a cheerful and outrageous persona until life somehow proved unbearable. Everyone knew him, but nobody did. He was born June […]

At age 22, crafty left-hander Jerry Nops was a budding star, a 20-game winner for the 1897 Temple Cup champion Baltimore Orioles. By age 26, his major league career was behind him, a sterling .637 winning percentage notwithstanding. Undone by alcohol abuse and behavioral issues, Nops – whom Cooperstown-bound manager Ned Hanlon once described as […]

“Pete Kilduff, by dipping dust whenever Burleigh Grimes was to pitch a spitter in the 1920 Brooklyn-Cleveland (World Series), tipped off the Indians when a spitter was coming, and they let it pass and clouted his fast one, winning the series by beating the Brooklyn spitball ace, simply because they got onto a spitball sign.” […]

A strong, quiet leader. Steady and determined. One of the best minds in baseball. All apt descriptions of the often-overlooked player, coach, and manager Bob Lillis. In 1928, Perry Reed Lillis, born in Michigan, married Lillian Pearl Porterfield, from Oklahoma. The couple had two sons: Jack Howard Lillis, born in 1928, and Robert Perry “Bob” […]

Although he became a star for the most famous team in baseball, for whom he helped win three pennants and a World Series, Jim Bouton’s most lasting contribution to the sport would come a few years later, after he lost his fastball and returned to the major leagues as a struggling knuckleballer for an expansion […]

Who was George Whiteman? This is oversimplifying things, but in some ways he was a cross between Roy Hobbs and Crash Davis. Eleven years after having a cup of coffee with Boston and five years after having another one with the Yankees, he became an unlikely World Series hero for the 1918 Red Sox. Then he went back […]

Even casual baseball fans know of the 1927 New York Yankees, considered the best team of all time by many. Featuring “Murderers’ Row” at the heart of the batting order, they rolled to the American League pennant with a 110-44 record and swept the Pittsburgh Pirates in the World Series. But, as great as the […]

Editor’s note: A version of this article was originally posted to the SABR-L listserv on August 25, 2009. The post has not been updated. By Ted Turocy Here’s a summary of what the Retrosheet corpus has on the topic of most foul balls in one at-bat. The most foul balls in a PA in Retrosheet […]

The rivalry between Boston College and Boston University is a deep-rooted part of the city’s sports landscape. In the twenty-first century, this rivalry is probably most visible on the hockey rink, where nationally ranked teams of both male and female Eagles and Terriers face off in fervent competition. Before BU dropped varsity football (in 1997) […]

Fenway Park in Boston was supposed to host the 1945 All-Star Game on July 10, but it was canceled on February 21 after the Office of Defense Transportation asked the American and National Leagues to curtail travel by 25 percent as part of the war effort during World War II.1 As NL President Ford Frick […]

The visiting Cincinnati Reds faced the hosting Cleveland Indians on a rainy Friday night in downtown Cleveland. The teams squared off for the “Battle of Ohio,” which received a new trophy for the 2008 interleague series. The state’s lottery program created a 32-inch-tall trophy for the series winner. The series matchup was tied the previous […]

A mood of nervous, anxious excitement permeated Shea Stadium on an abnormally cool 60-degree Saturday afternoon, September 20, 1969, as the New York Mets took on the Pittsburgh Pirates in the third tilt of a five-game series. The Mets were on the verge of a miracle, but a celebration in the Big Apple was far […]

Dark, ominous storm clouds rolled off Lake Erie and barreled toward League Park. Black sky loomed over the ballyard, and rain, which had been falling lightly since the fourth inning, threatened to become heavier. The baseball game stirring underneath the clouds on this Sunday afternoon in Cleveland was nearly complete. The Indians led the visiting […]

Baseball fans, tune in this season to SABRcast with Rob Neyer, a new weekly podcast hosted by award-winning author and longtime SABR member Rob Neyer. SABRcast will feature insights and analysis of what’s happening in modern baseball on and off the field, plus compelling interviews with figures from around the game — and music from […]