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For much of his post-baseball life, Max Flack’s 12-year major-league career was remembered for one thing: his playing for two major-league teams in the same day. In 2011, 35 years after his death, his major-league career faced a renewed interest in his performance in the 1918 World Series. Flack was born Conrad John Flach on […]

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 […]

Like a lot of young players who first came to professional baseball in the very early 1940s, catcher Len Okrie may have wondered if he’d ever truly have the opportunity to play, given the Second World War. He came from a baseball family. His father, Frank Okrie, was a left-handed pitcher who appeared in 21 […]

There have been a number of horribly inauspicious rookie debuts over the century and a half of major-league baseball. In 1901 Pete Loos threw 18 consecutive balls to start his only game. In 1945 Joe Cleary surrendered seven runs while recording only one out for a 189.00 ERA. On September 21, 1922, Doc Hamann arguably […]

For more than 70 years, pitcher Joe Cleary was the last native of Ireland to play in the major leagues. Appearing in just one game in 1945, Cleary had the misfortune to post a lifetime 189.00 earned run average, the highest on record for pitchers who retired at least one batter, when he yielded seven […]

War was raging in Europe as the 1941 baseball season came to a close. News of the fighting kept fans justifiably preoccupied, while the pennant races served as a badly needed diversion. The New York Yankees captured the American League flag, and then defeated the National League champion Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series. A […]

A competent but colorless right-hander, Joe Lake had the misfortune of pitching for some of the Deadball Era’s worst American League teams. In six big-league seasons, he was never once a member of a winning team, and three of Lake’s clubs finished more than 50 games behind the pennant winner. Through it all, Joe labored […]

Canadian-born Gus Dugas was an injury-plagued journeyman major leaguer for parts of four seasons in the 1930s, but a hard-hitting minor-league slugger for 14 years. Born on March 24, 1907, in the small central Quebec village of Saint-Jean-de-Matha, Joseph Augustin Dugas was the sixth of seven children of Azarie Dugas and his wife, Marie (Archambault) […]

Nicknamed “Moose” because of his 6-foot-5, 215-pound stature, Mike Marshall spent the bulk of his 11-year (1981-1991) major-league career with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Batting and throwing right-handed, he was primarily a right fielder, but with a number of games at first base and in left as well. During his nine seasons with the Dodgers, […]

Stan Pawloski spent his entire career in the minor leagues save for two games with the Cleveland Indians in 1955. His journey to the majors wound through half-a-dozen minor-league towns. Along the way, he earned the distinction of being called a “can’t-miss” prospect and voted to three All-Star teams. That made him among the last […]

A cursory glance at Jimmy Williams’ record does not capture his colorful 20-year path through minor- and major-league play. His final statistics reflect a slightly above-average player — but his solid career was speckled with historic participation and achievements, including one possibly unbreakable record. James Thomas Williams was born on December 20, 1876, in St. […]

Dusty Baker has spent a lifetime in baseball. After a productive career as an outfielder for four teams over a 19-year career, Baker joined the managerial ranks. As a major league manager over most of the period since 1993, he developed a reputation for helping teams win, although it took him until 2022 to capture […]

Clara Díaz Chacón was a little girl who lived on a street in the fishing village of Puerto Caimito in Panama. A few houses up the road was an elementary school classmate. That boy’s studies ended in the ninth grade, but their paths crossed again when they were teenagers. They became boyfriend and girlfriend, and […]

With his one major-league hit, Roger Hornsby McKee never came close to his namesake’s Hall of Fame total. He did, though, channel Rogers Hornsby with an Organized Baseball batting title.1 And while the namesake Hornsby was a player-manager for 12 seasons during an era when such skippers had a penchant for giving themselves a turn […]

“Now, if I can just get the chance…” an optimistic Pat Dodson remarked during spring training with the Red Sox in 1988.1 Dodson excelled at the Triple-A level, becoming the International League MVP, and was a top prospect in the Red Sox farm system. However, his chances were limited, and success didn’t translate to the […]

Lewis “Buttercup” Dickerson was a stocky little outfielder – 5-foot-6 and 140 pounds – who played in the big leagues for seven seasons (1878-81; 1883-85). When in form, he was a capable hitter, batting .284 overall at the top level and leading the National League in triples with 14 in 1879. However, he was also […]

Hub Pruett was an unassuming lefty with a screwball so good that Babe Ruth once told him, “If all pitchers were like you, no one would have heard of me.”1 But Pruett’s peak was brief. It served merely as the prologue to a lengthy and remarkable career outside the game. Hubert Shelby Pruett was born […]

James “Red” Moore had a long and distinguished career in the Negro Leagues, from 1936 to 1948. Best known for his fine fielding, Moore held his own at the plate as well. Playing primarily at first base, Moore anchored the infield for nearly two decades in Atlanta, Baltimore, Indianapolis, and Newark. Born on November 18, […]

Del Pratt was arguably the second-best second baseman of the second decade of the 20th century. And his argumentative nature led The New York Times’ John Kieran to call him “the greatest clubhouse lawyer baseball ever knew.” Pratt was born into a well-off family on January 10, 1888, in Walhalla, South Carolina, near the Georgia-North […]

Assumption High School in Windsor, Canada, must have had some pretty good ballplayers in 1956 and 1957. “I never made the baseball team. I was cut in both my junior and senior years,” said Pete Craig. “They had two really good pitchers and didn’t need a third. I could throw hard, but had no control.”1 […]

A hard-throwing right-hander, Fred Beebe began and ended his major-league career in fine style. As a rookie in 1906, he posted 15 wins and led the National League in strikeouts. Ten years later, he provided excellent spot starter-relief work as a midseason Cleveland Indians call-up. In between, Beebe suffered from bouts of wildness, arm problems, […]

On May 12, 2023, two teams with early-season hopes of playoff berths clashed at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in the first of a three-game series. The Pittsburgh Pirates, leading the National League Central Division,1 visited the Baltimore Orioles, who were in second place in the AL East. The Orioles (24-13) had won 18 of […]

The Atlanta Braves jumped out to a three-games-to-one lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1992 National League Championship Series, outscoring the Pirates by 13 runs in the first four games. Pittsburgh’s bats came alive in Game Five and the Pirates won the next two games, outscoring the Braves by 15 runs, to tie the […]

Baseball fans feel many emotions during the course of a game. They may feel joy, anger, euphoria, or despair. But rarely, if ever, does a single, ordinary play become a moving, lump-in-your-throat memorable event. It did on this night. The 45,757 fans who attended the game at Olympic Stadium on September 17, 1993, felt all […]