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The San Diego Padres celebrated their 50th season in Major League Baseball in 2019. (SAN DIEGO PADRES)   San Diego’s quest for major-league baseball began earnestly in the mid- to late 1950s, around the time California’s largest cities, Los Angeles and San Francisco, ascended to “the bigs.” Home of the Pacific Coast League Padres since […]

In August 1948, both the Braves and their centerfielder Jim Russell were riding high. The Braves were in first place and Russell, acquired in an offseason trade with the Pirates, was having another strong season leading the team in home runs and RBIs. A switch-hitter with speed as well as power, he was batting .264 […]

The first American to win both a World Series ring and an Olympic gold medal, Pat Borders played parts of 17 major league seasons (1988-2005) for nine different teams.1 When the Blue Jays won consecutive championships in 1992 and 1993, he caught more innings than any American Leaguer both years and earned 1992 World Series […]

In late season 1910, buoyed by an impressive batting performance in his first 18 games in the major leagues, it appeared that the Cleveland Naps had found a long-term answer to their search for a first baseman to replace longtime incumbent George Stovall in the person of 25-year-old Eddie Hohnhorst. Unfortunately for Hohnhorst, and for […]

At the close of the 1890 season, the Cincinnati Reds had high hopes for rookie backstop Jerry Harrington. The 21-year-old had proved a major asset for the fourth-place (77-55-2, .583) ball club – an able handler of pitchers; a sure-handed receiver with a powerful and accurate throwing arm, and a decent enough batter for any […]

Jack Dunn was a right-handed pitcher who played professionally during the late 19th and early 20th century. His signature pitch was a slow curveball, and he was one of the few pitchers of his era who did not wear a fielder’s glove. Dunn was also a skilled position player, playing equally well in the infield […]

An auto accident curtailed this pitcher’s modest major-league career with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1960s. But when he moved on to Duke University, Butters became a smashing success. He served as baseball coach from 1968-70 and then found his true métier — The Sporting News labeled him the world champion of fundraisers. Noted sports […]

When Joe Nathan graduated from high school, he seemed destined for great things. Just not necessarily on the baseball diamond. “He was one smart dude,” recalled Tom Walraven, his baseball coach at Pine Bush (New York) High School, describing Nathan as a “thin little kid who batted .230” while playing shortstop his senior year.1 “I […]

Eddie Rommel had two careers in baseball, and created some milestones in both of them. As a right-handed pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics he was the first moundsman to make extensive use of the knuckleball. After retiring as a player and working briefly as a coach and minor-league manager, he became an umpire, one good […]

A two-year stint with the Cincinnati Reds, a fight with Honus Wagner, followed by a lengthy career as a successful mid-Michigan baseball man highlighted the career of John Albert Morrissey. Born to Irish immigrant parents in Lansing, Michigan, on May 2, 1876, he was the eldest child of Thomas and Catherine Morrissey. His father was […]

Pitching isn’t just about throwing hard. It’s about contrast and ball movement, and Enrique Romo kept hitters off stride and guessing. He had a broad repertoire, featuring a screwball, which he delivered from various arm angles while constantly changing speeds. “He’s the kind of pitcher you don’t want to face even once in a game,” […]

Earl Potteiger was the head coach of the New York Giants when they first won the National Football League’s championship. He grew up where a large percentage of professional football and baseball players did, in the heart of Pennsylvania. After attending Ursinus and Albright Colleges, where he played each sport plus basketball, Potteiger had professional […]

For decades, Emil Verban was remembered as an obscure minor-league infielder who made the majors because of depleted wartime rosters, then played for losing teams and hit one home run in 2,911 times at bat. But more than 20 years after his retirement, Verban won a measure of fame as the namesake of the Emil […]

Baseball writers were intrigued by the unlikely story of a slightly built walk-on working his way up to play for the New York Yankees. As a result, Bernard Oliver Bengough was referred to as “the Peter Pan of baseball” during the early years of his professional career.1 The youngest child of James Bengough (1862-1930), a […]

A 23-year-old minor-league outfielder named Maurice Archdeacon became a well-known individual in baseball circles when he gained the title of “the fastest man in baseball” following a baserunning contest. Archdeacon’s feat came about on September 2, 1921, when the fleet outfielder attempted to circle the bases faster than the then record of 13.8 seconds set […]

In the locker room celebration after the New York Mets won the 1969 National League pennant, he was quoted by the New York Daily News as saying, “I’ll walk down the street in New York now and people will say, ‘There’s Art Shamsky of the Mets.’ People used to laugh. They won’t anymore.’”1 Indeed, after his performance […]

Born on April 5, 1859, in Painesville, Ohio, a small town that lies just east of Cleveland, George Edward Andrews, like many players in his time, went by his middle name. In most other ways, Andrews was a rarity in his or any other time: a model player who later became a model citizen and […]

Although pitcher Jim Panther never appeared on a Topps baseball card, he nonetheless was able to stake a claim in baseball history as one of the original members of the Texas Rangers. After his relatively brief big-league career came to an unceremonious end, a new career in baseball began for Panther as a decorated high-school […]

Born and raised in the northern St. Louis suburb of Maryland Heights, Missouri, John Fulgham grew up a Cardinals fan who imagined playing for his hometown team.1 His fantasy became reality on June 19, 1979, when Fulgham made his major-league debut with the Cardinals against the San Diego Padres. It wasn’t merely a postscript appearance […]

Interleague play brought National League clubs to American League ballparks – and vice versa – during the 1997 regular season, an occurrence previously limited to the World Series and exhibitions. The first interleague game at Minneapolis’s Metrodome was played on June 16, when the Minnesota Twins hosted the Pittsburgh Pirates. Mark Smith, the first-ever designated […]

The Polo Grounds had been an important part of the New York sports scene since its original use in the nineteenth century as a field for polo players and then, in several different incarnations, as a home for professional baseball. The park “opened for baseball use September 29, 1880”1 and over the years a number […]

Going into 2017, not many in baseball had high expectations for the Arizona Diamondbacks or Colorado Rockies. Both were National League West Division afterthoughts after a 2016 season in which Colorado went 75-87 and Arizona 69-93. The D-backs had not made the postseason since 2011, the Rockies since 2009. When ESPN consulted 35 experts for […]

“It would be so easy to believe, had you not seen it, that there couldn’t possibly be, ever, such a game as this. Having seen it, you know you never had seen one like it before and that you never could forget it. Never as long as you live.” – Frank Graham1   Writing about […]

The Ballpark at Old Orchard Beach, as pictured in 2023. (Courtesy of Kurt Blumenau)   Before there was The Ballpark at Arlington, The Ballpark at Jackson, The Ballpark at Harbor Yard or The Ballpark at Disney’s Wide World of Sports, there was simply The Ballpark, in Old Orchard Beach, Maine.1 The pine-bordered park with the […]