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During a relatively brief 1880s professional career, pitcher John Fox manned the box for four different major league clubs. Except for catcher, the versatile right-hander also handled every other position on the diamond — a significant capability during an era of limited player rosters. Notwithstanding that, Fox seldom lasted long with the teams that engaged […]

Sam Nahem was a so-so pitcher who logged a 10–8 won-loss record and a 4.69 ERA in four partial seasons with the Dodgers, Cardinals, and Phillies between 1938 and 1948. Despite this unremarkable record, Nahem was a remarkable major leaguer in many ways. He was the only Syrian and one of the few Jews in […]

Frank O. Mancuso was the younger brother of a better-known big league catcher, August “Gus” Mancuso, a two-time All-Star who enjoyed a 17-year major league career and produced his best seasons with the New York Giants from 1932 through 1938. Gus spent more than 40 years in baseball, serving as a minor league manager, a […]

When Baltimore broke though in 1979, ending New York’s stranglehold on the American League East title, the postseason was a new experience for John Lowenstein. Since the year he broke into the majors with Cleveland in 1970, “Steiner” had been on two teams that played .500: Cleveland in 1975 and Texas in 1978. In Game […]

Peanuts Lowrey, who was the 1964 Phillies’ first-base coach, enjoyed a 13-year career as a player with the Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, St. Louis Cardinals, and Philadelphia Phillies, playing in 978 games. Regarded as one of the best utility players and pinch-hitters of his generation, he was usually found roaming the outfield but he also […]

Growing up in the early 1900s, southpaw Joe Giard was a pitching phenom on the sandlots of central Massachusetts. After four successful years with minor-league teams, Giard made his major-league debut in 1925 with the St. Louis Browns. He compiled a middling ERA of 5.04, but won 10 games against five losses, for a commendable […]

“He knows more about baseball than I’ll ever know,” Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson once said of George Scherger.1 Pete Rose, answering skeptics about his own ascension to player-manager in August 1984, told the press not to worry. “I have George Scherger [as bench coach], who just happens to be the smartest baseball man […]

After Bob Bowman’s rubber-armed 1939 rookie campaign, St. Louis Star-Times sportswriter Ray J. Gillespie asked the 28-year-old to explain his remarkable endurance. In his folksy West Virginia drawl, Bowman made plain that “Pitchin’ every day beats workin’ in the [coal] mines, accordin’ to my way of figgerin’.”1 Having nearly led the St. Louis Cardinals to […]

Perhaps no other sport offers redemption to a player more often, or more quickly, than baseball. It can be a dangerous motivator for a young ballplayer. This is especially true for one who has been given his first opportunity to play every day. Or for a player who has been lauded for his skill on […]

Henry Grampp Jr. was born in New York City on September 28, 1903, the only child of Henry and Frieda Grampp. There is some confusion about Henry’s middle name, which was long listed as “Erchardt” in baseball encyclopedias. But since his paternal grandfather’s given name was Eckhard and his father provided his name as Henry […]

Left-handed pitcher William Oliver “Billy” O’Dell, nicknamed “Digger” after a character in the radio-TV show The Life of Riley, was signed by the Baltimore Orioles as a bonus baby right out of Clemson University, and never played a day in the minors. In his 13-year major-league career, he pitched in five seasons for the mediocre Baltimore […]

One of only 21 Montanans to make it to the major leagues, Herbert Eugene Plews was born in Helena on Flag Day, June 14, 1928, the only child of Herbert and Marie Plews. Father and son had different middle names. Had things worked out otherwise, he might well have been born in Australia. His grandfather […]

“Coming into a game in the eighth or ninth inning is like parachuting behind enemy lines. And sometimes the chutes don’t open. You have to live with that. It’s an unexplained hazard.” – Dan Quisenberry1   The role of a relief pitcher, and more specifically, a closer, is one of the hardest tasks in baseball. […]

He was considered too small to play for a Division I college baseball program, yet John Valentin became one of the best-hitting middle infielders in the majors between 1992 and 1999, putting up impressive numbers for the Boston Red Sox. He won the Silver Slugger Award in 1995, hit for the cycle in 1996, and […]

As a child growing up in the 1940s on Rice Street in St. Paul, Jean Ann Havlish played football at the local playground, tucking her pigtails into her helmet so no one would know she was a girl. When an opposing team found out, she was banned from playing football.  Later, Havlish distinguished herself in another […]

Controversial, flamboyant, excitable, volatile, hot-headed, crazy, wild, and emotional are among the many adjectives used to describe Julián Tavárez during his 17-year major-league career spent with 11 teams. Over the course of his career, Tavárez developed a reputation as an unpredictable pitcher who was not afraid to pitch inside. The 6-foot-2, 165-pound right-handed hurler hit […]

Fate: “The supposed force, principle, or power that predetermines events.”[1] Some people believe in it, some do not, though no one can be certain of its existence. But Fred Clarke was a believer in fate. In an interview with a reporter from the New York Herald in 1911, Clarke admitted, “I attribute my success to […]

In the course of researching Sport Sullivan’s life, I became curious about the Arnold Rothstein associate “Nat Evans,” who allegedly was sent by Rothstein to monitor Sullivan and monitor how the 1919 World Series fix was going. Who was this Nat Evans? Why did Arnold Rothstein — not known to be trusting — trust him […]

Ray Chapman, star shortstop for nine seasons with the Cleveland Indians, might have ended up in the Hall of Fame had he not been fatally injured by a Carl Mays fastball on August 16, 1920, at the Polo Grounds. An ideal number two hitter who crowded the plate, the 5-foot-10, 170-pound Chapman led the league in […]

Gone and virtually forgotten today, Claude Ritchey was one of the key members of the first seven of Fred Clarke’s highly successful Pittsburgh Pirate teams of the early 1900s, a time when he acquired a reputation as a sure-handed, clutch-hitting second baseman and a durable performer. And even as late as 1964, after Bill Mazeroski […]

Although rarely in the everyday lineup for an extended period, George Shoch was a useful member of several late-19th-century major-league teams. In an era of small rosters, Shoch’s versatility – he could play second, shortstop, third, and the outfield competently – was coveted by his managers. His durability, strong work ethic, and temperate habits were […]

In Wisconsin during the mid- and late 1950s, the most recognizable voices in the entire baseball-crazy state belonged to Earl Gillespie and Blaine Walsh, the Milwaukee Braves’ tandem of radio broadcasters. In stores, on front porches, in open convertibles at stoplights, their descriptions and accounts of the games was unavoidable. Love-struck residents of the Badger […]

Winning the most games during the regular season by no means guarantees a team a World Series championship. As of 2023, neither of the two teams tied for the most regular-season wins in major-league history – 116 wins – had done so. The 1906 Chicago Cubs were 116-36 (.763) over a 154-game schedule but lost […]