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“One of the greatest things the Red Sox ever did in all the years I’ve known them was when they brought Pop Popowski up here after 30 years in the minors working with young players and made him a coach. He’s one of the greatest baseball men I’ve ever known in this game.” — Ted […]

Bruno Betzel had a $7,000 contract to manage the Montreal Royals in 1945. He saw only about $3,000 in take-home pay, though. Dissatisfied with the situation, he resigned. At the baseball convention in Columbus, Ohio, he was offered a managerial job for $6,000. As he pondered that offer, he met Carl Hubbell, who offered him […]

Randy Ready played 13 major-league seasons, 1983 to 1995. He won a 1980 college batting title, 1980 and 1982 minor-league hitting titles, plus a 1986 Caribbean Series MVP and batting crown. And he overcame challenges. Tony La Russa, his 1992 Oakland manager, called Ready the “quintessential professional.”1 Tony Gwynn, a San Diego teammate (1986-1989), stated: […]

Best known as the younger brother of a Hall of Fame catcher, Archie Cochrane had a brief career as a player in Class B minor leagues during the 1930s, following an ill-fated tryout with a Class D team in 1929 that cost him his college baseball eligibility. Archie gained baseball recognition in his own right […]

John A. (Johnny) Gee, Jr. drew national attention in August 1939 when the Pittsburgh Pirates purchased him for cash and four players from the Syracuse Chiefs of the International League. A front-page story in the September 21 issue of The Sporting News stated that the $75,000 price was the “biggest independent deal since 192[4], when […]

When the Detroit Tigers took the field at Yankee Stadium on October 3, 1990, for the final game of the regular season, it didn’t feel like a momentous event. Only 13,380 fans were present on a Wednesday night to watch the home team finish the season in last place. The Tigers, who also had a […]

When Charles A. Stoneham came home one night in October 1918 and told his teenage son Horace, “Horrie, I bought you a ballclub,” he set in motion a family commitment.1 For the next 58 years the Stoneham family name was synonymous with the New York and San Francisco Giants, one of the most storied franchises […]

Mention brothers from the Dominican Republic who were major-league outfielders in the 1960s, and most people will understandably think of Felipe, Matty, and Jesús Alou. But Manny and Elvio Jiménez also fit the description. While Elvio appeared in just one game, Manny Jiménez spent all or parts of seven seasons (1962-1964, 1966-1969) with the Kansas […]

“An average day in the minors is far superior to the best day pulling green chain and risking life and limb in a stifling sawmill,” said Jamie Burke, commenting on his first seven years in the minors. “It’s my job; I’m getting paid for something I love to do.”1 That attitude is what kept Burke […]

Bob “Bucky” Oldis wasn’t an All-Star, or even a journeyman major leaguer, but he had much more than just a “cup of coffee.” He was a true lover of the game who liked to have fun. Along the way, he played in 135 games, hit a major-league home run, got three hits in one game, […]

“Billy Williams,” said his manager Leo Durocher, “never gets excited. Never gets mad. Never throws a bat. You write his name down, in the same spot every day, and you forget it. He will play left, he will bat third. Billy Williams is a machine.”i This was not wholly hyperbole—at the time Durocher made this […]

Philadelphia A’s star left-hander and future Hall of Famer Eddie Plank had scattered five hits and had not allowed a run as the Boston Braves batted in the top of the ninth in Game Two of the 1914 World Series. Unfortunately for Plank and his mates, Braves starter Bill James was pitching just as well. […]

Long before launch angles, exit velocities, infield shifts, and OPS calculations, Clarence Jones taught the basics of hitting to some of the greatest players in Atlanta Braves history. Jones played 19 seasons of professional baseball as an outfielder-first baseman. Though his major-league career totaled 58 games with the Chicago Cubs, Jones won two US minor-league […]

Amy Dunkelberger Jurasinski’s one season with the South Bend Blue Sox of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League ended prematurely in August of 1946 when her husband, Mark Shuman, and his mother went to South Bend, Indiana, seeking to talk her into returning to their home in Mohrsville, Pennsylvania. Amy (who played in the AAGPBL […]

Martin Flaherty was a major-league owner, player, and umpire during the 1880s – sort of. Mostly, he was a fan. For six innings in 1881, he played outfield as an emergency substitute for the Worcesters, a National League team he partly owned. The following season he umpired a single game: the Worcesters’ final nine innings […]

First baseman Jack Baker’s time in the majors was limited to a dozen ballgames in September 1976 and two more in June 1977. All came with the Boston Red Sox. Asked to look back at his career, Baker said, “I always wonder what might have happened if they’d have given me a chance to play […]

The 1981 American League Championship Series was primed for epic status before it began. Billy Martin, fired twice as manager by the New York Yankees, now led his up-and-coming Oakland Athletics against the Yankees in the postseason. Martin made no secret of his animus, telling reporters, “I’m going to beat [Yankees owner George] Steinbrenner’s ass […]

The Houston Astrodome was the first fully enclosed, air-conditioned major-league ballpark. It was formally unveiled in an exhibition game that pitted the Houston Astros against the American League champion New York Yankees on April 9, 1965. Unlike previous sports venues, the Astrodome was built to be a massive all-purpose, climate-controlled facility that would serve as […]