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His induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1983, not to mention his inclusion in 1996 on the list of the 50 greatest players in National Basketball Association history, is clear evidence that Dave DeBusschere did not err in choosing basketball over baseball in 1964. At the same time, the 1963 decision by the White […]

Billy Barnie touched all aspects of baseball before his untimely death in 1900 at age 49. This includes player trades, player contracts, home and away uniforms, three strikes and out, modern schedule making, five-pointed home plates, all-star teams, coaching boxes, overhand pitching, ballpark construction, championship rings, and daily game promotion. Barnie held every conceivable baseball […]

During 24 years in the National League, August John Donatelli was one of major-league baseball’s most respected umpires. He worked four All-Star games (1953, 1959, 1962, 1969), five World Series (1955, 1957, 1961, 1967, 1973), and two League Championship Series (1969, 1972).  Moreover, he was the home-plate umpire for four no-hitters: Warren Spahn (1961), Carl […]

The 21st-century epithet “ump show,” coined to describe umpires who make themselves the center of attention, could have been created 100 years earlier to describe Charles Van Sickle. Brawls, riots, ejections, and suspensions followed Van Sickle throughout his 20-year career, which included 67 games in the 1914 Federal League and stints in more than a […]

Whispering Bill Barrett was a Cambridge, Massachusetts, man through and through: born in Cambridge (May 28, 1900), died in Cambridge (January 26, 1951), and buried in Cambridge (Cambridge Cemetery, 7113 Chapel section).  He’s also one of four Cantabrigians who played major league ball for the Boston Red Sox; the other three are Fred Mitchell, Carl […]

“A pitcher can make great use of his tallness when he is as big as me, because when he gets on the hill he can zip ’em through there so fast it’s like tryin’ to hit a ball thrown off the top of the Washington Monument, and you have got a fine chance of hitting […]

David Wright, who possesses more team batting records than any New York Met,1 was arguably the team’s best position player ever. Wright finished in the top 10 in NL MVP voting four times, including 2007, when he finished fourth. He represented the Mets as a National League (NL) All-Star five consecutive years and seven times […]

“When I go, I want to be buried in my umpiring suit, holding my indicator.”1 When Tom Gorman died, his children carried out their father’s final desire. Gorman was dressed in his suit, which was meticulously buttoned, and wore his blue cap with the white “NL” embroidered on the front of it. He also held […]

Si Burick’s byline adorned the sports pages of the Dayton Daily News in seven decades, from the 1920s to the 1980s. Over that impressive span, he demonstrated that it’s possible to have a big-league career without ever working in a big-league city. In 1983 he received the J.G. Taylor Spink Award “for meritorious contributions to […]

“It’s the starting pitcher’s job to win the game. My job is to save it. Sure the starters make more money. They don’t have as much fun.” — Don “Every Day” Elston1   If a Chicago Cubs skipper picked up the bullpen phone during the late ’50s or early ‘60s, chances are he was calling […]

Art McGovern, the carpenter’s son. He came to America and made good in New England, only once in his baseball career briefly returning to the land of his birth, Canada. Art was a right-handed catcher who was born in St. John, New Brunswick, on February 27, 1882. His father, John, was a native New Brunswicker […]

“He was a missionary extraordinary for the game itself. … Wherever he went … Barrett talked and preached baseball.” i He was referred to as the King of Weeds, a play on words about scouts who “beat the bushes” for prospects. He signed the second most major-league players in baseball history, second only to his […]

In the summer of 1955, Robert Leroy Powell became the first player from Flint, Michigan, to make the major leagues. Bob signed a $36,000 bonus contract with the Chicago White Sox following the spring quarter at Michigan State University, where he starred as a hard-hitting outfielder for the Spartans’ baseball nine. As it happened, Powell […]

Injuries forced Chicago White Stockings player-manager Cap Anson to dip into his reserve team early in the 1884 season and call up a promising right-handed pitcher named George Crosby. He actually pitched respectably in the three games he started, but those three games were the extent of his major-league career, and as far as can […]

A seven-game major-league career rarely affords a player much chance to leave a lasting impression on the game. Still, the imprint left by turn-of-the-century left-hander Warren McLaughlin is fainter than that of most marginal big leaguers. The availability of box scores from the era permits baseball reference works to construct a statistical line for McLaughlin, […]

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 […]

“I’d like to have played in the Majors.”1 — Spotswood Poles   Spotswood Poles. One could not ask for a more memorable name. And with the unique appellation, not surprisingly, his name was misrepresented in multiple ways in official documents. The1886 Winchester, Virginia Register of Birth, the earliest official notification of Poles’ arrival, spelled his […]

You would not be expected to play major-league baseball if you were five-feet-six and 155 pounds. Nor would you be expected to play on the left side of the infield if you threw left-handed. You most certainly would not be expected to spend nearly 20 years in a jail if you had never been charged […]

Sometimes cited as the worst player in major-league history, John Gochnaur played shortstop for Cleveland in 1902 and 1903. His batting statistics those two seasons are amazingly similar, as he hit a lowly .185 with 16 doubles and four triples each year. His 1903 stats did show 17 more sacrifices and 11 more stolen bases […]

Right-hander Lou Knerr (pronounced Nerr) debuted in 1945 when big-league rosters were ravaged by World War II. He posted a modest 5-11 slate with the cellar-dwelling Philadelphia A’s, but took umbrage with the label of wartime player. “Sure there were a lot of players who shouldn’t have been in the major leagues, . . .” […]

Griffith Stadium was death to home runs, yet inside-the-park home runs dictated the results in a game between the hometown Washington Senators and the Philadelphia Athletics. Ty Cobb, playing with the A’s at age 41 in what was his final year, batted second, going 0-for-4 and showing his liability in right field. Cobb hit 46 […]

The uniform seemed strange. Gone were the Yankee pinstripes and the interlocking “NY” on the left breast. The jersey that Babe Ruth buttoned over his considerable paunch was that of the Boston Braves, his new team. “Trimmed with red piping, (it) looked comical and cheap after the sober Yankee garb he had worn for so […]

With the Atlanta Braves’ unprecedented playoff run one defeat from expiration, 21-year-old left-hander Steve Avery’s second dominant start of the 1991 National League Championship Series kept the Pittsburgh Pirates scoreless through eight innings of Game Six on October 16 at Three Rivers Stadium. Clutch play by Ron Gant, Greg Olson, and Alejandro Peña then secured […]

Not even the oppressive St. Louis heat could break Bob Sykes on the Fourth of July in 1980. With the Busch Stadium on-field temperature a reported 140 degrees,1 the Cardinals left-handed pitcher spun a 10-inning shutout against the Philadelphia Phillies. Center fielder George Hendrick hit a walk-off home run with one out in the bottom […]