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Never known for his hitting ability, catcher El Tappe played 145 games of major-league baseball over parts of six seasons with the Chicago Cubs. In addition, his suggestion in December 1960 to use a rotating system of instructors turned into owner Philip Wrigley’s decision to employ the College of Coaches in 1961 and 1962. Tappe […]
Jack Rothrock, a solid outfielder for the 1934 Cardinals, played every position there was for the Boston Red Sox in 1928, a year in the middle of a good long run (1925-1932) for a really bad team. The versatile outfielder played 639 games in the outer garden in his eight major-league seasons, and more than […]
Like many New York Yankees from their late 1960s and early 1970s nadir, Jerry Kenney suffered from the curse of expectations that media and fans had for the once dominant franchise. Winning 29 pennants and 20 World Series in 44 years, from 1921 to 1964 inclusive, was proof to many fans that winning was an […]
A quintessential sportsman and promoter, Michael J. Finn was a newspaper writer, trainer of champion foot racers, dog racing promoter, boxing manager, and circus man before he ever got into professional baseball in 1897. Then, over the next 25 years, he served as a minor league manager, owner and scout, sending dozens of players to […]
Johnny Marcum was a farm boy from Eminence, Kentucky, the son of Kentucky natives Ben and Grace Marcum. The second oldest of five children, three boys and two girls, he was born on a farm at Campbellsburg, about a dozen miles north of Eminence, on September 9, 1909. When John was three years old, the […]
When the legendary University of Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant was growing up in Arkansas in the 1920s, he and his friends eagerly followed the exploits of quarterback Carey Selph of Ouachita Baptist College in Arkadelphia.1 Then called “the greatest football player in Arkansas,”2 Selph was a fierce competitor who “simply believed no team […]
Bob “Ziggy” Hasbrook was the first athlete ever to be a member of both a World Series winner and a national basketball champion. The infielder’s big-league baseball career consisted of just 11 games, but two of those came with the 1917 Chicago White Sox, who included him on their postseason roster. In basketball, he was […]
The stage was the fifth game of the World Series, on October 15, 1970. The Baltimore Orioles had taken a three games to one Series lead over the Cincinnati Reds. Brooks Robinson had already delivered a game-winning home run in the opener, robbed Tony Perez and Johnny Bench of base hits with a pair of […]
John Boyce Taylor – known as “Steel Arm Johnny” for his pitching – was the second of four tremendously talented baseball-playing brothers. One of them, Ben, was eventually inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. Eldest brother Charles, known in baseball as “C.I.,” was a brilliant manager; along with Rube Foster, he […]
More than anything, Ben Chapman is remembered these days for the vitriol he heaped on Jackie Robinson in April of Robinson’s first year in the majors. Chapman was the Phillies’ manager that day in 1947 and “decided to make Robinson’s color an issue and encouraged at least three of his men to do the same.”1 […]
Those who served during World War II were collectively known as the Greatest Generation. Many young, and not so young, men went into the service during that time and returned home to resume their lives. But for those whose lives had been baseball, they often found that their days of playing major-league baseball were over. […]
To tell the story of Buck O’Neil, one needs only to retell the stories by Buck O’Neil. He told stories of Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and other Negro League greats forgotten to history because of the color of their skin. He told them with a twinkle in his eye, a smile from ear to ear, […]
Several incidental details about William P. “Baldy” Louden Jr.’s life have been muddied by the march of time. Meticulous research failed to discover, for example, what the middle initial “P” stood for, or how a man with a full head of hair acquired the nickname Baldy. Even his date of birth is uncertain. Though various […]
“Judy Johnson was the smartest baseball player I ever came across.” — Ted Page1 Despite his father’s aspirations for William “Judy” Johnson to become a boxer, Judy never entered the ring. Instead, Johnson took his game to the diamond. For that, baseball owes him a debt of gratitude. In the Negro Leagues, if Satchel […]
This French-Canadian pitcher roamed widely but played just three big-league games in his career. During that one adventurous year, 1946, Roy hopscotched around Cuba, Mexico, Brooklyn — and his birthplace, Montréal. There Jackie Robinson played behind him as Branch Rickey’s “Great Experiment” moved forward. Then came a repercussion from Jorge Pasquel’s flashy raids. Roy jumped […]
On September 21, 2001, amid heavy security, 41,235 fans1 filed into Shea Stadium for the first baseball game to be played in New York City after the September 11 terrorist attacks. Only a week before, the ballpark had served as a staging and relief area for rescue workers, and at the time there was debate […]
Bert Griffith (1896-1973) had a brief major-league career, playing for the Brooklyn Robins in 1922-231 and Washington Senators in 1924, principally as an outfielder. Hitting and throwing right-handed, Griffith was a stocky man who stood an inch shy of 6 feet and weighed 187 pounds. He appeared in 191 big-league games and sported a .299 […]
In Jim Bouton’s revelatory 1970 book Ball Four, he describes a late September 1969 scene at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. “A group of terrorized pitchers stood around the batting cage watching Willie McCovey belt some tremendous line drives over the right-field fence. Every time a ball bounced into the seats we’d make little whimpering animal […]
Editor’s note: This article was selected as a winner of the 2012 McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award. In the early 1880s prosperous tobacco merchant John B. Day re-established the national pastime in New York – operating teams in both major-league circuits with great success. In 1884 Day’s New York Metropolitans were American Association pennant winners […]
Duke Farrell played for two major-league teams in Boston, with 11 seasons in between. He led the American Association in home runs and runs batted for the 1891 Boston Reds, and then played in the first World Series ever staged, in 1903 for the Boston Americans, who became the Boston Red Sox. Both teams finished […]
Left-hander Ron Perranoski’s sinking fastball, sharp-breaking curve and ability to thrive in critical situations made him one of baseball’s top relievers. Over 13 seasons (1961-1973) with four teams, mostly the Dodgers and Twins as well as the Tigers and Angels, he pitched in five postseasons and three World Series — earning championship rings with Los […]
Charlie Rivera was a third baseman, second baseman, and shortstop who played with several clubs in the Negro leagues for parts of five seasons, from 1939 to 1944. He was a right-handed hitter who stood 5-feet-9 and weighed 155 pounds.1 Carlos Manuel Lavezzari y Sierra was born to Manuel Lavezzari and Trinidad Sierra on September […]
In the days before radio, Billy Sunday was the most successful evangelist America had ever known. The renowned preacher and temperance crusader found the Lord while playing for the Chicago White Stockings in the 1880s. He was an exciting player, speedy and daring on the base paths and acrobatic in the outfield. His earnest and […]
This article appears in SABR’s “Pride of Smoketown: The 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords” (2020), edited by Frederick C. Bush and Bill Nowlin. Baseball and music have a long history together. Many songs, such as “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” or “Talkin’ Baseball,” have been written specifically about the game. The National Anthem is […]