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After a 40-year drought, the Chicago White Sox clinched the American League pennant on September 22, 1959, with a 4-2 victory in Cleveland. Sirens were activated in Chicago to announce the significant baseball happening. The long-wailing scream pierced the night and frightened many sleepy residents who thought the city was under nuclear attack. Mayor Richard […]

“Jackie has been accepted in baseball, and we of the Philadelphia organization have no objection to his playing and wish him all the luck we can. Baseball is an American game, and there are no nationalities, creeds, nor races involved. Jackie Robinson is an American.”1 This quote, attributed to Philadelphia manager Ben Chapman, was made […]

“I don’t know how you feel about it at the other end of these microphones, whether you are sitting at home, or driving a car, on the beach or anywhere, but I know sitting here watching the Giants and Dodgers apparently playing for the last time at the Polo Grounds, you want them to take […]

In 1915, a baseball team with female players was a novelty that could attract a paying audience. One such team calling itself the All-American Girls toured western Canada that year. In Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, on Saturday, July 3, 1915, this team of six women and three men were defeated by an all-male team of local semipros. […]

By 1986, San Diego Padres manager Steve Boros and first baseman Steve Garvey had built reputations as mild-mannered baseball men throughout their decades in the game. But during a series against the Atlanta Braves at Jack Murphy Stadium in June of that year, both suffered their first major-league ejections in back-to-back games, adding some pizzazz […]

The 1979 St. Louis Cardinals were flying high when they arrived in Los Angeles for the start of a three-game series with the Dodgers on June 11. They had won nine of their previous 11 games — all at home, including a three-game sweep of the Dodgers — ascending into first place in the National […]

At the Pirates’ minor-league pitching camp in 1970, Harding Peterson, the team’s minor-league director, told two pitching prospects to abandon their side-arm pitching delivery. Fortunately neither listened, as each would become a Pirate World Series hero, with Bruce Kison starring in 1971 and Kent Tekulve in 1979 with the “We Are Family” champs. During offseason […]

“You dream of things like this, but you never think of it happening to you. It’s something out of the movies.” — Mike Devereaux, October 15, 1995, after being named NLCS MVP1   Mike Devereaux became an instant hero on an Atlanta Braves team filled with future Hall of Famers. Having played with five different […]

The 1983 film National Lampoon’s Vacation introduced moviegoers around the world to Walley World, a fictitious Southern California amusement park billed as “America’s favorite family fun place.” The film depicts Clark Griswold, played by Chevy Chase, leading his family on a cross-country journey from the suburbs of Chicago to Walley World. Following an everything-that-can-go wrong-does-go-wrong […]

Like the real estate business that he would later enter, success and failure during the career of late-19th century pitcher George Haddock was often a matter of location. When on the roster of bad clubs, Haddock regularly tasted defeat, losing a staggering 72 games over his first three full professional seasons. Yet once assigned to […]

If Marty O’Toole is remembered at all today, it is as one of baseball’s greatest flops — the “$22,500 Beauty” or “Lemon” the Pittsburgh Pirates paid a record price for in 1911. Truth to tell, O’Toole was well worth the price. Based on his minor league credentials, Marty could have been one of the game’s […]

Dennis Lamp was a right-handed pitcher who racked up 96 major-league wins over the course of a 16-year career that saw him work for six different ballclubs. Three of his first four wins were shutouts. He worked most of his last 10 seasons as a reliever, with exactly half (48) of his wins coming in […]

On July 9, 1884, the St. Louis Maroons of the Union Association played the Baltimore Monumentals in Baltimore, with both starting pitchers making their major-league debuts. Henry Boyle pitched for the Maroons, allowing just four hits and no unearned runs. “Dorsey, late of the Trentons, pitched for the home team, but was batted out of […]

Ed Ashenbach was known as the “King of the Minors.” Who else could claim discovery of Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Ty Cobb, and Grover Alexander? From 1890 to 1911, Ashenbach toured the minors as an outfielder and manager. During this period, minor leagues were formed and disbanded at a dizzying pace. “Ash” navigated these waters, […]

Here is one of the most moving, human-interest stories in the entire history of the game—a story that exemplifies the spirit of baseball and America . . . It is the . . . dramatic story of the skinny, under-nourished, weak-visioned kid, the son of a poor immigrant family, a product of New York’s tough […]

Billy Horne was a Negro League second baseman and shortstop who played for several clubs in his 15-season career, from 1935 to 1949. He was a left-handed hitter, threw right-handed, stood 5-feet-5 and weighed 152 pounds. Nicknamed Little Grumbler and Aussa, Horne was regarded as a fine defender and appeared in several all-star games.1 William […]

Brian Jordan is one of seven men who have played major-league baseball and NFL football since 1970.1 Although Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders are better known for having accomplished the feat, Jordan’s 1,456 MLB games played are the most by any NFL player. In addition, Jordan played outstanding outfield defense. His career mark of 163 […]

Charles Joseph Riefenhauser was born on January 30, 1990, in Yonkers, New York, to Chuck Riefenhauser, an elevator mechanic, and Mary Lou, a nurse. He was raised in Mahopac (population 7,755), 47 miles north of New York City. Unlike some ballplayers who get their nicknames after establishing a career, Riefenhauser was named for his father, […]

In a pro career that lasted from the winter of 1958-59 through summer 1973, righty-hitting corner infielder Rick Joseph played parts of five major league seasons with the Kansas City Athletics (1964) and Philadelphia Phillies (1967-1970). The Dominican Republic native was the Triple-A Pacific Coast League’s 1967 Most Valuable Player. Ricardo Emelindo Joseph Harrigan was […]

Almost every kid who has ever played baseball fantasizes coming up in the bottom of the ninth inning during the seventh game of the World Series and hitting a home run to win it. Only one person has ever accomplished this. It occurred on October 13, 1960, at 3:36 p.m. That was when the Pittsburgh […]

Personal problems rooted in a car accident stopped Dinny McNamara from fulfilling what might have been a legendary Boston sporting career. Still, before his troubles intervened, McNamara became a multisport high-school and college star, an outfielder with the 1927 and ’28 Boston Braves, and head football coach at Boston College – all before his 30th […]

“Just call me Hank,” said Henry “Prince” Oana. He didn’t really come from Hawaiian royalty, but there was still a certain mystique about this outfielder-turned-pitcher. In a time when mainstream baseball lacked diversity, Oana was something exotic. When this story was originally published in 2009, there weren’t many men alive who knew Hank Oana during […]

What do you do, when at the age of 26, you discover you can throw a baseball harder than most professionals? If you’re Jack Kull and it’s 1908, you go to the local minor-league ballpark, climb a tree and wait until an opposing manager comes out of the ballpark after the game. You then offer […]

Turn-of-the-century catcher-utilityman Joe Connor belongs to a baseball fraternity whose charter members include John Ewing, Butts Wagner, John O’Rourke, a pair of Clarkson bothers, and a quartet of Delahantys. The entry requirement is not altogether a happy one: a major-league career totally eclipsed by the accomplishments of a family member bound for Cooperstown. In Joe’s […]