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Dave Righetti pitched in the major leagues for 16 seasons (1979; 1981-95), amassing 252 saves. He also served 18 years (2000-2017) as pitching coach for the San Francisco Giants.  However, “Rags” is remembered most for a performance that came during his early years as a starting pitcher. On July 4, 1983, before 41,077 fans at […]

Tony Freitas, left-handed pitcher with a deceptive delivery, appeared in 107 major-league games from 1932 through 1936 as both a starter and reliever for Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics and for Charlie Dressen’s Cincinnati Reds. Freitas also had a historic minor-league career, appearing in 736 games from 1928 through 1953, mostly in the Pacific Coast League, […]

June 15, 1977 is a black day in the history of the New York Mets. On that date, in what came to be known as The Midnight Massacre, M. Donald Grant, the team’s chairman of the board, traded away Tom Seaver, a/k/a “The Franchise,” to the Cincinnati Reds for Pat Zachry, Doug Flynn, Dan Norman, […]

Gene Garber parlayed a unique wind-up and delivery and an effective sinker into a 19-year career as a major-league reliever. Though he never pitched in the World Series or made an All-Star team, the righty used perseverance and an agrarian work ethic to overcome various setbacks and become one of the best among the first […]

At 6-feet-4, and close to 300 pounds, Jumbo Brown lived up to his name.1 Part of baseball’s first wave of relief pitchers, the massive righty saw action in 249 major-league games, starting just 23. He compiled a 33-31 won-lost record with 28 saves and a 4.07 ERA. The Rhode Island native played with many of […]

Inveterate business and baseball man Harry Gaspar skipped from Class D straight to the majors by exhibiting inherent talent, self-confidence, and know-how on the pitcher’s mound. Once described as a lanky chap with a devil-may-care air, he put in three quality years (1909-1911) playing for Cincinnati. Then, after a shaky start to his fourth season […]

Butcher, baker, candlestick maker best describes the baseball life of Grover Allen Hartley. He did it all. Baseball player, coach, manager, umpire, union organizer, business manager, owner, fireman – that was Grover Hartley. Loved, beloved, hated, and scorned – that was also Grover Hartley. Hartley was born July 2, 1888, on a farm near Splashville, Indiana, a […]

Babe Ruth was irreplaceable. So when the end finally came for Ruth during the first game of a doubleheader on May 30, 1935, Boston Braves manager Bill McKechnie sent in outfielder Hal Lee to replace the irreplaceable. Lee was accustomed to playing in the shadows of other stars of the 1930s, including Chuck Klein and […]

Few players in the history of major-league baseball have displayed each of the prized “five tools,” meaning the ability to hit for average and for power, to run, to field, and to throw. On that  short list belongs the name of Ellis Burks, who began his major-league career as a 22-year-old rookie for the Boston […]

Near the end of his long major-league career, Rudy May said, “I learned that it’s better to throw an 85 mile an hour fastball on the outside corner than it is to throw a 95 mile an hour fastball down the middle.” Asked when he discovered that, he replied, “When I couldn’t throw a 95 […]

Cuban outfielder Carlos Paula parlayed an all-star tour in the United States into a full-time minor-league role in the early 1950s. With his chiseled frame and stylish flair, he became the man who integrated the Washington Senators on September 6, 1954, making the Senators the 12th of the original 16 major-league teams to do so. […]

Disco music peaked in the United States with the top six songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart during the week ending July 21, 1979. At the time, “Disco Dan” Ford was starring for the California Angels club that was headed for that franchise’s first postseason appearance.1 Although the musical genre quickly fell out of […]

Orel Hershiser set a major-league record by pitching 59 consecutive scoreless innings in 1988, but he was well behind the mark established by Oliver “Rube” Faulkner, who pitched 78 consecutive scoreless innings in 1903 for the Wilmington (Delaware) Athletics.1 Faulkner was an enigma. A right-hander blessed with talent, he declined opportunities to pitch in the […]

Right-hander Bud Tinning emerged as an effective reliever and spot starter in the last two months of his rookie season with the Chicago Cubs in 1932 as the North Siders captured their second pennant in four years. He won 13 games and led the NL with a .684 winning percentage the next season but battled […]

Art Fromme struggled often with illness and injury, but when healthy he was among the best pitchers in the National League. In his finest season, the right-hander achieved a 19-13 record for the 1909 Cincinnati Reds. He never threw a major-league no-hitter, but from 1907-14 he hurled four one-hitters and four two-hitters. Arthur Henry Fromme […]

Tom Greenwade with Mickey Mantle during the 1952 World Series. (Courtesy of Angeline Greenwade McCroskey.)   The Mick Each scout is typically associated with his top signee, that marquee player no one else took note of but him. For Tom Greenwade that player was Mickey Mantle. How the two became forever linked has been retold […]

Professional football or professional baseball? That was the choice for pitcher Steve Renko. At 6-foot-5 and 230 pounds, Renko also starred as a basketball player at the University of Kansas. He was the school’s last three-sport letterman. The big right-hander ultimately chose baseball. Renko had an up-and-down career in the major leagues from 1969 to […]

Nearly everyone knows of a person who is a natural. The classmate who barely cracks open a book and yet gets straight A’s. The popular student whom everyone emulates. The athlete who succeeds in any sport they attempt. The phrase “He’s a natural” has been used again and again to describe those with innate ability. […]

Even after the integration of minor- and major-league baseball in the mid-1940s, the Negro Leagues continued for another decade and a half. The top black players were now in Organized Baseball, but others filled the rosters of all-black teams. One was a Minnesota native, Marcenia Lyle Stone, better known as Toni Stone. In 1953, Stone became the […]

In his second big-league season, young Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Jimmy Viox hit .317, good for third place in the 1913 National League batting race. In the eyes of many observers, including Sporting Life, Viox had supplanted Johnny Evers as the senior circuit’s top second baseman, and great things were expected of Viox in coming seasons. […]

Commissioner Ford C. Frick presided over 14 of the most turbulent years in the game’s history: the first franchise moves in half a century, expansion of the major leagues, the near-death of the minors, growing unrest among players, the rise of television, and the exploding popularity of football. With change swirling around him, Frick often […]

The 18-year-old righty dubbed 1925’s “sensation of the [New York-Pennsylvania L]eague”1 seemingly appeared from nowhere. Advanced to the Eastern League four years later, the youngster known as Dick Oliver was “ranked as one of the pitching mainstays of the [Albany Senators]”2 and a bright future beckoned. The problem was that no such pitcher existed. Hints […]

Black baseball pioneer and 2022 Hall of Famer Bud Fowler played for at least 15 minor-league teams from 1878 to 1895, and he’s considered the first acknowledged African American professional baseball player.1 One stop on his journey was with the Montpelier Capital Citys of the 1887 Northeastern League. Throughout his historic career, Fowler was the […]

The last game of the 1950 season found the Philadelphia Phillies clinging to a one-game lead over the Brooklyn Dodgers, who were closing fast. If the Phillies lost, a three-game playoff for the pennant would be needed and that did not bode well for the Whiz Kids, whose starting pitching was razor-thin due to injuries […]