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As the owner of the Boston Red Sox for 43 years, few if any people have influenced the history of the team as much as Tom Yawkey. He was a man of immense wealth who spent millions on the Red Sox and on gifts to dozens of charitable organizations. He saved a dying franchise in […]

Despite having a lifetime .236 batting average, Randy Hundley is one of the most beloved Chicago Cubs of all time. The Virginia native played 10 seasons with the Cubs in the 1960s and 1970s and was considered a leader on the field for the team that endured a historic collapse in 1969. Hundley also introduced […]

As a player on the great New York Yankees teams of the 1950s and later as a manager with five different major-league clubs, Billy Martin was known to be brash, bold, and fearless. He played the game hard and made no excuses for the way he handled himself on or off the field. Many people, […]

Ask casual baseball fans which Tigers player drove in the run that clinched the 1984 World Series, and you can’t blame them if they answer Kirk Gibson. After all, Gibson’s blast off Goose Gossage gets replayed time and again and is perhaps the most memorable hit in Tigers history. But the game-winning RBI, an official […]

One of baseball’s eternal debates is naming the hardest-throwing pitcher of all time. A dark horse in the field is Harry “The Flame Thrower” Fanok. Harry appeared in just 16 big-league games for St. Louis in 1963-64 — but his fastball branded the memories of those who saw him. Just ask Joe Morgan. The former […]

Pack your bags. Frank Lane’s in town. The compulsive trader known as Frantic Frank shuffled at least 690 players in 414 transactions with five teams.1 Wherever Lane went, turmoil followed. He traded one manager for another. He traded a home run champion for a batting champ. He traded local heroes and future Hall of Famers. […]

Dick Siebert seemed destined for a life as a Lutheran minister but instead devoted more than 50 years of his life to the game of baseball. Stuck in the minor leagues as a player, he finally got a chance at the big leagues when Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and Philadelphia Athletics owner/manager Connie Mack […]

The story of baseball in the nation’s capital is interlinked with the career of Arthur P. Gorman, a name unrecognizable to today’s fans. Long before Clark Griffith made his annual trips to the White House to present the Commander-in-Chief with his season’s pass, Gorman actually befriended and entertained the President of the United States and […]

The New York Yankees dynasty began with Jacob Ruppert Jr. When Ruppert purchased the franchise in January 1915 with his partner, the improbably named Tillinghast L’Hommedieu Huston, it was one of the American League’s most hapless teams. The previous owners, a gambler and a shady ex-police chief with Tammany Hall connections, had run a shoestring […]

In an era when baseball players, collectively and individually, began to clash with management as never before, it is likely that no one clashed more than Alex Johnson. Though he was blessed with much-coveted talent, teams that employed him tired of him fairly quickly. The winner of a batting title, his emotional disability was at […]

In professional baseball from 1937 to 1950, Lou Novikoff batted .337 in the minors and .282 in parts of five major-league seasons. Ted Williams called him “a great natural hitter.”1 Novikoff also excelled in fast-pitch softball, as a hitter and a pitcher. A softball promoter gave him a colorful nickname, “The Mad Russian.” Novikoff was […]

Our younger readers might not realize there was a time when the baseball owners intentionally scheduled doubleheaders and fans could see two games for the price of one. More amazing to 21st century fans is that in those doubleheaders both starting pitchers might toss complete games. On rare occasions a pitcher might even start and […]

José Cardenal, one of the last Cuban baseball players to leave that island before the Castro regime clamped down, played for 18 seasons in the US major leagues for nine teams. But that information only scratches the surface of a talented, yet complicated man who was once compared to Willie Mays as a young player. […]

Reginald Martinez Jackson was born on May 18, 1946, in Wyncote, Pennsylvania, a largely white suburb north of Philadelphia’s central city. His father, Martinez Jackson, ran a dry-cleaning and tailoring business. As a grown man, Reggie claimed he still knew how to cuff a pair of slacks.1 His father was a veteran of World War […]

Born in St. Louis on September 5, 1857, Henry Van Noye Lucas was the twelfth and youngest child of James H. Lucas and Marie Emilie (Desruisseaux) Lucas.  His French-born paternal grandfather, Jean Baptiste Charles Lucas, was appointed Federal Territory Judge by President Thomas Jefferson.  One of Henry’s older brothers, John B. C., was a significant […]

Mark S. Polhemus, known as “Humpty Dumpty,” was a gifted right-handed batter who performed for clubs in several minor leagues in the 19th century with a brief appearance in the National League.i He was born on October 4, 1860, in Brooklyn, New York, the younger of two sons of Garret G. Polhemus, a livery-stable keeper, […]

John Perkins Luby was a right-handed pitcher and left-handed batter of the 19th century whose meteoric rise in 1890 was followed by a slow, steady decline until his death in 1899. [1] The second of three sons, Luby was born in Charleston, South Carolina, to James and Johanna Luby in either the last half of […]

Sam Mertes possessed a rare combination of speed and power. From 1899 to 1905, he was routinely among the league leaders in stolen bases, triples, and home runs. He was an outstanding defensive outfielder. Gritty and energetic, Mertes harassed opponents and umpires in his foghorn voice. He had the physique of a heavyweight boxer and […]

Sportsman’s Park was home of the St. Louis Browns from 1902 to 1953. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.)   Introduction Achieving on-field success has often proved elusive to owners of the Baltimore Orioles and its predecessor teams, the St. Louis Browns and Milwaukee Brewers. The franchise, dating back to the inception of the American […]

Ken Griffey Jr. slides in with the winning run for the Seattle Mariners on Edgar Martinez’s 11th-inning double to beat the New York Yankees 6-5 in Game Five of the American League Division Series on October 8, 1995. The excitement of the Mariners’ first playoff appearance helped fuel a political effort to build a new […]

Citi Field has been home of the New York Mets since 2009. (COURTESY OF THE NEW YORK METS)   As part of the expansion of the National League in 1962 a franchise was given to New York City. From 1962 to the current day, the Metropolitans’ ownership has been fairly stable. Joan Payson and her […]

Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, home of the Orioles from 1954 to 1991 (DAVID STINSON)   Memorial Stadium was located at 900 East 33rd Street in Baltimore, a mile northeast of Oriole Parks (I)-(V).1 Memorial Stadium was the home of the American League Baltimore Orioles from 1954 to 1991, and the National Football League Baltimore Colts […]

The iconic main entry of Ebbets Field was located at the intersection of Sullivan Place and Cedar Street (later renamed McKeever Place). (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)   On an October afternoon in the 1950s, while the Dodgers prepared for the first game of the World Series, an elderly man walked into Ebbets Field. On the surface […]

In 1939, Yankee Stadium hosted the seventh All-Star Game between the American and National Leagues. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   The New York Yankees did not have an auspicious beginning as a franchise. Starting as the New York Highlanders, they played their home games at Hilltop Park in upper Manhattan from 1903 to 1912. In 1913 the […]