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In the waning weeks of the 1962 season a player with a career .190-1-10 batting line played a crucial role in the National League pennant race. On August 23, San Francisco Giants’ infielder Ernie Bowman launched his only major league home run in New York’s Polo Grounds. Five innings later he delivered the game-winning single […]

Wendell Smith built a media career that would eventually be recognized in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He’s best known for his campaign to integrate major league baseball, which resulted in Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Wendell Smith, however, was more than an activist. During his 35-year career, he evolved […]

As the end of the year 1894 approached, prospects appeared bright for Tommy Cahill. A college graduate on hiatus from medical school studies, he also had a season of playing major league baseball on his resume. And after having just batted .328 for the high-minor Eastern League Scranton (Pennsylvania) Miners, a likely return to the […]

“Dr. Frederick L. Wood, Dentist, Dies Suddenly” announced the London (Ontario) Free Press on November 18, 1935.1 The obituary for the “well-known dentist” amounts to one unassuming paragraph. 2 Surprisingly, it makes no mention of his many and varied accomplishments in sports — including 13 games in major-league baseball in 1884-85 — music, and the […]

“When I lost Frank I lost one of my best friends. Baseball lost one of its best managers. He was one of the best catchers we ever saw.” — Buck O’Neil1 Frank Duncan’s legendary Negro League career lasted 27 years and his unquenchable zest for life was etched across each and every one of them. […]

Although the 1970s Reds were famous for their great offense, a pitcher holds one of the team’s – and baseball’s – most impressive records. Jack Billingham has the lowest earned-run average in World Series play, 0.36. He allowed just one earned run in 25⅓ innings spread over three different World Series for the Reds. In […]

Larry Dale Ray was born at King’s Daughter’s Hospital in Madison, Indiana, on March 11, 1958. The youngest of nine children, he was raised with a farming family near Vevay, Indiana. Ray’s parents, William and Dorothy Ray, had a dairy farm and grew tobacco. Larry worked the family fields as well as those of other […]

Charles Herbert Klein was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, on October 7, 1904. His parents, Frank and Margaret, were German-born farmers who had immigrated to America shortly before the turn of the last century. The couple owned a relatively small corn farm a few miles south of the state capitol. In addition to farming, Frank Klein […]

Rollie Fingers was clearly excited as he caught a leaping Ted Simmons, his catcher, after Fingers struck out Detroit’s Lou Whitaker to nail down the victory and the second-half American League East title for his Milwaukee Brewers in 1981. (The unprecedented split season was devised after the players’ two-month strike was settled.) The Brewers were […]

After serving his country for three years during World War II, Chuck Diering played parts of nine seasons (1947-1956) for three major league teams. Regarded as a top-notch defender by his contemporaries, the lithe center fielder became the first player to earn team Most Valuable Oriole honors when big league baseball returned to Baltimore in […]

Sam Jethroe was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1950, playing for the Boston Braves, and the first African American to play major-league baseball in Boston. Five years earlier, he’d tried out for the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, along with Jackie Robinson and Marvin Williams, but the Red Sox pursued none […]

He had just 11 big-league at-bats in 1990, but Brian Traxler was still a cult figure. Over 13 years as a pro, the first baseman delighted fans across the minors, the Caribbean winter leagues, Asia, and independent circuits. His immediate appeal was visual. “Trax” was rotund — leniently listed at 5-feet-10 and 200 pounds, he […]

During the fourth game of the 1927 World Series, Pittsburgh hurler Johnny Miljus threw a wild pitch in the ninth inning that scored Earle Combs from third base, completing a sweep by the New York Yankees. Perhaps the happiest player that day was New York shortstop Mark Koenig. His .500 batting average in the Series […]

Although most baseball fans today don’t know his name, Will “Cannonball” Jackman used to be one of the most widely respected Black players in semipro baseball. He was also one of the hardest workers: by his own account, he pitched in about 1,200 games, in a career that spanned three decades.1 Because he was both […]

Joe Cambria was one of the most prolific scouts in major-league history, signing hundreds of men to professional contracts as a scout for Clark Griffith and the Washington Senators. He also inked countless others as a promoter of semipro and Negro Leagues baseball in Baltimore and minor-league teams throughout the country. He was one of […]

“Hornung of the Boston Club is generally acknowledged to have no equal as a left fielder.”1 – New York Clipper, February 9, 1884   Joe Hornung was called “the king of left fielders” and a “flying fool” famous for his circus catches before the days of gloves.2 The 5-foot-8, 164-pound human highlight reel was one of […]

For every 30-home-run hitter and 20-game winner, there is often a role player who, though contributing less, is embraced by the fans and given nearly unconditional support in return for those elusive attributes scrappiness and hustle. For the pennant-winning White Sox of 1959, that player was Sammy Esposito. Despite spending the majority of his career watching […]

Tony Lloyd at Birmingham’s Rickwood Field in 2023 (Courtesy of Jeb Stewart)   Tony Lloyd1 was a second baseman for the Birmingham Black Barons in 1959, which was his only season in professional baseball. He was a right-handed hitter and thrower who stood 5-feet-9 and weighed 150 pounds.2 Anthony Carl “Tony” Lloyd was born on […]

A hard-throwing southpaw and two-time All-Star, Max Lanier won 45 games and posted an impressive 2.47 earned-run average from 1942 to 1944 for the St. Louis Cardinals, who captured three consecutive National League pennants and two World Series championships in those seasons. At the height of his career, in 1946, Lanier stunned baseball by breaking […]

Carlos May was called “Tank” for his burly stature. At 5-feet-11 and 200 pounds, he had the physique of someone who carried a pigskin on a football field. However, May was also a talented baseball player, adept at hitting the horsehide. He reached the big leagues in 1968 at the age of 20. His career […]

One could pull up Dickey Pearce’s statistics at the reference sites and be completely unimpressed. His numbers in the National Association and the National League are unremarkable. This is only part of the story; he was 35 years old when the National Association started and 40 when the National League began. Pearce’s reputation and contributions […]

Deacon White was a baseball pioneer. He caught baseball fever after the Civil War and played until the 1890s. His baseball career spanned the end of the amateur era and the start of professionalism, the establishment and demise of the National Association, the founding of the National League, and a players’ revolt that led to […]

The man the Boston Globe called the “ultimate utility man,” Randy Kutcher, played from 1986 through 1990 for the San Francisco Giants and the Boston Red Sox.1 Primarily an outfielder, he played every position on the field except for first base and pitcher, though his time at catching was limited to the final three innings […]

A weak offense marked the Washington Nationals’ 2005 season, so an offseason trade for a bat seemed inevitable. On December 8, 2005, they obtained Alfonso Soriano from the Texas Rangers in exchange for outfielders Brad Wilkerson and Terrmel Sledge and minor-league pitcher Armando Galarraga. Soriano was a four-time All-Star and a Silver Slugger winner who […]