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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 […]

In the long history of the Rookie of the Year Award, Butch Metzger gained the dubious distinction as the recipient with the fewest innings played over a major-league career. This was a bizarre idea to teammates and coaches alike, who once projected a far more productive path for the righthander. In 1976, Metzger tied Hooks […]

Perhaps it’s a good thing when you have a major-league baseball affiliate in your hometown.  Right-handed pitcher Rudy Minarcin was born in North Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, and the year he turned 17 the Philadelphia Phillies happened to situate a Class C farm team there, the Vandergrift Pioneers of the Middle Atlantic League, managed by Pat Patterson. […]

The road to the major leagues can be a long haul for some. Others find it much easier and, of course, thousands never make it at all. Certainly, in all cases the player must have more than a modicum of talent. But there’s another important factor that Steve Biras recognized. When asked how he broke […]

Depending on how you spell it, or sometimes how you pronounce it, Boston has enjoyed its share of “Miller Time” for many seasons. In recent years the Red Sox have employed pitchers Andrew and Wade Miller, third baseman Bill Mueller (pronounced Miller) and first baseman Kevin Millar (OK, close enough). In past history there were […]

Remembered mostly for his more famous older brother Ed, Jim Delahanty was a fine player in his own right, and one of the most well-traveled hitters of the Deadball Era. During a professional career that lasted nearly two decades, the free-swinging right-hander played for fifteen different clubs, including eight in the major leagues. Despite his […]

Babe Ruth is considered by many, if not most, baseball fans, as the greatest player ever. The Great Bambino is noted for his magnificent clouts and overwhelmingly charismatic personality. Before he became baseball’s home run king, he was a tremendous pitcher, winning 94 games in his career. His enormous appetite for everything that life had […]

George “Bo” Strickland was the starting shortstop on the 1954 Cleveland Indians team that won the American League pennant and compiled one of baseball’s finest records ever, 111-43. He went hitless (0-for-9) in that season’s World Series, the only one he ever played in, as the Indians were swept by the New York Giants. Strickland […]

In various ways, the life of right-handed pitcher George Pechiney typified the existence of the late-nineteenth-century journeyman player. Pechiney’s abilities were modest, and his major-league career was a relatively brief one, abbreviated by abuse of alcohol. Once his playing days were over, Pechiney returned to the arduous everyday working life from which he had sprung, […]

Frank Whitney was a reserve outfielder for Boston in 1876, the first year of the National League. Playing in only 34 games in his career, Whitney was better known in the Boston area for playing on the popular Lowell, Massachusetts, amateur team. His name rarely appears in newspaper accounts of the time, other than to […]

Steve Balboni played for the New York Yankees and the Kansas City Royals before he bookended brief stints with the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers around a second tour with the Yankees. He owns four World Series rings, one as a player with the Royals and three as an advance scout with the San […]

In the baseball record books, Bob Neighbors was originally without a date of death but a “date of loss.” Now, most have the August 8, 1952, date of death but provide no indication of where he died. For books or sites that offer information on the place of burial or cremation, there is often a […]

Walter John Gilbert was born December 19, 1900, in Oscoda, Michigan, a small town on the Au Sable River where an Air Force base and the lumber industry are the major sources for the local economy. His father, a lumberjack by trade, moved his wife and only child to Duluth, Minnesota, when Wally was just a […]

On page 1,444 of the fourth edition of The Baseball Encyclopedia published in 1979, Joe Staples nestles in obscurity between journeyman outfielder Leroy Stanton and Hall of Famer Willie Stargell.1 The scant entry is the reflection of a rather unremarkable career. He appeared in seven games with the 1885 Buffalo Bisons, recorded just one hit […]

Like many marginal ballplayers from the Deadball Era, Grover Land has been largely forgotten with the passage of time. His career as a player and coach spanned 27 seasons (1904-1930). He logged seven years as a major leaguer, the first five as backup catcher for the Cleveland Naps in the American League and the last […]

Jeff Heath was 33 years old and in his 13th big-league season in 1948 when he surprised his critics and helped lead the Boston Braves to the National League pennant. Playing in just 115 games under manager Billy Southworth’s platoon system, he hit 20 home runs, drove in 76 runs, and batted a resounding .319. […]

“(Curt) Motton has been Baltimore’s best pinch-hitter ever since I’ve been managing this club. He was an automatic choice in this spot.” — Orioles manager Earl Weaver after Motton’s game-tying double helped Baltimore come from behind to beat Oakland’s Vida Blue in the 1971 American League Championship Series1   Curt Motton grew up in the […]

Lewis Henry Meacham’s place in baseball history is linked to that of his friend, Chicagoan William Hulbert (1832–82).1 In 1870, Hulbert purchased a share of stock in the city’s newly formed White Stockings organization (a team now known as the Chicago Cubs).2 Five years later he was elected president of the Chicago Base Ball Association, […]

A teammate of Allie Reynolds in their college days, James G. “Jimmy” Cleghorn was a full-blood Indian pitcher. He was born on December 18, 1916, on the Otoe/Missouria tribal reservation at Red Rock, Oklahoma. Cleghorn was three-quarters Otoe and one-quarter Sac & Fox, descending from his full-blood Otoe father, Grant Cleghorn, and his Otoe/Sac & […]

Arizona Diamondbacks left-hander Tyler Gilbert (0-1, 0.00 ERA1) was making his first major-league start. His family was among the 16,716 fans at Chase Field enjoying the comfortable 75-degree temperature with the roof closed.2 The 27-year-old California native had been drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2015, then traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, then selected […]

Jerry Reuss was on a roll. He’d returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ rotation in mid-May of 1980, replacing Rick Sutcliffe.1 He had won five of his last eight starts, justifying the Dodgers’ decision to move him out of the bullpen.2 Reuss, who would be selected as a 1980 All-Star, entered the game with a […]

The New York Yankees on November 4, 2001, were one game from winning their fourth consecutive World Series and their fifth in six years.1 With New York City still shaken by the events of September 11, the Yankees had fought their way through the postseason, providing their city and fans some relief from the devastation. […]

Today’s ballplayers and their union would be aghast, but Great Depression-era club owners responded to the new economic reality with doubleheaders – lots of them. On Wednesday, September 17, 1930, the Boston Braves were playing their 30th twin bill of the season and sixth in an extended Wigwam stand that had begun on September 1. […]