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In the spring of 1976, Roger Angell, who served simultaneously at The New Yorker magazine as fiction editor and baseball writer, decided to illuminate one of baseball’s less visible occupations. He wanted to present a firsthand view of the life of a scout—perceived by many fans as shadowy figures combing the back roads of America […]

Battles on the field and in the standings between the Hawaii Islanders and Tacoma Twins carried over from 1975 and into the following season. Hawaii, a San Diego Padres affiliate, produced the best record in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League in 1975, finishing 14 games ahead of Tacoma in the West Division, and then beat […]

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 […]

“That is the way this game is — you win, you lose, you celebrate and you suffer.”1 – Vin Scully Before divisional play came to the American and National Leagues in 1969, the pennant winners – the soon-to-be World Series opponents – were determined during the regular season. The turning of the calendar to the […]

Bob Moose’s strong pitching at two levels of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ minor-league system in 1967, punctuated by a pair of outstanding starts in the International League’s championship series, led to a September call-up that made him the Pirates’ first-ever amateur draft selection to reach the majors. On September 29, 10 days before his 20th birthday, […]

A Sunday crowd of 30,000 fans1 came to the Polo Grounds2 on September 24, 1922, hoping to see their defending World Series champion New York Giants clinch another National League pennant. They might have been disappointed with that expectation, as the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Giants 10-6, but they were still witnesses to history: […]

He accomplished what no other pitcher had done — came straight off the prep diamonds and hurled a major-league shutout. Fresh out of Chester (Pennsylvania) High, 18-year-old Lew Krausse strode to the mound on June 16, 1961, before the largest single-game crowd of the season up to that point in Kansas City’s Municipal Stadium to […]

Until the Negro Leagues were officially recognized as major leagues in December 2020, there had never been a big-leaguer whose surname began with X.1 However, the reclassification meant that Cuban outfielder Leovigildo Xiqués — who played with the Cincinnati-Indianapolis Clowns in 1944, 1946, and 1947 — filled this empty niche. Xiqués also played in Mexico […]

Hard-throwing right-hander Clay Bryant went 32-20 in parts of six seasons for the Chicago Cubs before chronic elbow and shoulder pain ended his career at the age of 28 in 1940. But for one summer, the affable Alabaman caught lightning in a bottle. En route to winning 19 games and leading the National League in […]

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 […]

Right-hander “Schoolboy” Waite Hoyt signed an option contract with the New York Giants as a 15-year-old in 1915. The following season he began a 23-year-career in Organized Baseball, including parts of 21 seasons in the big leagues, where he posted a 237-182 record and logged 3,762⅓ innings. Most remembered as a member of the New […]

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 […]

Roy White was a quiet, graceful leader on the New York Yankees during a transitional period in the club’s history. His strength of character and remarkable versatility enabled him to survive, and even excel, in the shark tank that is so often New York Yankee baseball. At a time when the great careers of Mickey […]

Right-handed pitcher Chet Nichols Sr. showed tremendous promise early in his baseball career. The undisputed star of his high school’s champion baseball team, Nichols went on to shine in semiprofessional and minor-league ball. As a major-leaguer, however, he struggled. Hampered by injuries, the 5-foot-11, 160-pounder appeared in only 44 games over six seasons, 1926-1928 and […]

In Jeff Plympton’s major-league pitching career, he never gave up a run – earned or unearned. Reading a statement such as that, one might correctly guess that his time at the top level was brief. He pitched in 279 games as a professional, but only four in the majors, for the 1991 Boston Red Sox. […]

Brad Woodall was a left-handed pitcher who pitched in five major-league seasons. He played for the Atlanta Braves (1994-1996), the Milwaukee Brewers (1998), and the Chicago Cubs (1999). Woodall made 55 career appearances, 27 as a starter and 28 as a reliever. For his career, Woodall posted a 10-14 record with a 5.31 ERA. He […]

An adept base stealer known for taking unusually large leads from first base, Wid Conroy used his raw speed and acrobatic skills to earn a reputation as one of the most versatile defensive players of the Deadball Era. During his eleven-year major league career, Conroy played a significant number of games at third base, shortstop, […]

The major-league career of Berlyn “Trader” Horne was brief. From April to July 1929, he threw 23 innings during 11 games with the Chicago Cubs, with a record of 1-1 and an earned-run average of 5.09. He was gone from the team before it won the pennant that year. But Horne (whose nickname came from […]

“I’m a damn good catcher, if I do have to say so myself,” Ed Bailey said.1 He wasn’t lying. Like other 1950s catchers, he was overshadowed by Yogi Berra and Roy Campanella, but Bailey was a five-time All-Star, a left-handed power hitter who threw out nearly half of would-be base stealers Besides his bat and […]

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 Case Patten filled out his player questionnaire at the request of the Hall of Fame, he declared his heritage as “Scotch, Irish, English, Dutch, and Indian” — the Native American part perhaps coming from his mother Mandana’s side of the family. As far as can be determined, he was one of the first players […]

“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 […]

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 […]

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 […]