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This article was selected for inclusion in SABR 50 at 50: The Society for American Baseball Research’s Fifty Most Essential Contributions to the Game. Introduction In his December 29, 2005 internet blog, John Thorn, the noted baseball author and SABR member, mentioned that the shotgun that killed Ty Cobb’s father in 1905 had been part […]
Pitching in relief in the final innings of a 12-2 loss to the Philadelphia Athletics on August 10, 1927, sore-armed Boston right hander “Ted” Wingfield notched the final strikeout of his major league career and the only strikeout he recorded in 74½ innings of pitching that season. Wingfield’s one strikeout in 74½ innings, or .12 […]
Parkway Field, with the iconic Ralston Purina grain silos visible past the right field wall, was the site of benefit game between the Bustin’ Babes and Larrupin’ Lous in 1928. Ruth and Gehrig are flanked by some of the top local amateur ballplayers from Epps Cola and Beck’s Lunch who comprised their teams. (Used with […]
Appendix 2 in Herm Krabbenhoft’s research on Hank Greenberg.
People of a certain age know where they were when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Franklin Roosevelt died, and Bobby Thomson swung. “The most famous sports moment of all time,” Jon Miller termed Thomson’s October 3, 1951, pennant-winning blast. We still recall the Shot Heard ’Round the World: Russ Hodges five times crying, “The Giants […]
When quintessential baseball buff Douglas Heeren first approached me about a player named Ducky Holmes, I failed to grasp the depth of the subject. Pointing out my misidentification of Ducky in a team photo in my book about baseball in Northwest Iowa, Heeren simply wanted to set the record straight.1 A young man from rural […]
On June 24, 1972, Bernice Gera became the first woman to umpire a professional baseball game. Immediately after the game ended, she quit. She fought baseball for five years for the chance to umpire a professional game. Why fight so long for an umpiring career, just to give it up after one game? We […]
The 1954 major league baseball season ended leaving a lot of questions about the 1955 campaign unanswered — especially for the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Yankees. In 1954 the Yankees, led by 64-year-old Casey Stengel, won 103 games (the only time in Casey’s career that he would win 100 games) yet finished eight […]
A circa 1912 portrait of Chief Bender probably taken for advertising purposes when he was a sporting goods salesman/consultant at Wanamaker’s Department Store in Philadelphia. The shotguns in the background have price tags dangling from strings attached to their trigger guards. The gold pendant hanging from a fob on Bender’s waist was given to players by the Athletics’ club for winning the 1911 World Series. […]
The Big Red Machine reached its destiny when Cesar Geronimo closed his glove around Carl Yastrzemski’s fly ball on October 22, 1975 at Fenway Park to end the World Series. In that moment of ecstasy and exhaustion the Cincinnati Reds became world champions, finally grasping the ring that had eluded their reach in the first […]
In early February 1985, Alan Wiggins became the newest big-money player for the 1984 National League champion San Diego Padres. With the help of his San Diego-based agent, Tony Attanasio, and Padres general manager Jack McKeon, Wiggins, just 26 years old, signed a guaranteed four-year, $2.5 million contract, making him one of the highest paid […]
NOTE: This is the final installment of a three-part series addressing the founding of the Philadelphia National League Baseball Club.1 Click here to read Part One (1881 Eastern Championship Association) and click here to read Part Two (1882 League Alliance). Traditional histories of the Philadelphia Phillies portray the club’s entry into the National League […]
The use by Baltimore of two non-pitchers on the mound in a 24-10 loss to Toronto on June 26, 1978, served as a reminder that there have been a sizeable number of regular players who have taken a fling at pitching. If the pitching staff is depleted or overworked, the manager may go this route […]
For decades, baseball fans have debated who was the better center fielder, Mickey Mantle or Willie Mays. (SABR-Rucker Archive) Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle were both born in 1931 and reached the majors almost simultaneously in 1951, competing against each other as rookies in the World Series. Together with Duke Snider, they appeared in […]
He loved kids and despised umpires. Since he was a genuinely nice guy, youngsters followed him like the Pied Piper Grasso’s vendetta against the men in blue was attributed to his resentment of authority, courtesy of vicious beatings inflicted by World War II POW guards. Newton Michael Grasso was born on May 10, 1920, in Newark, […]
If you had asked fans prior to the 1969 baseball season which scenario was more likely—man landing on the moon or the New York Mets wining the world championship—they would probably have been hard-pressed to choose, both being equally improbable. Casey Stengel, original Mets manager and overseer of the ugliest launching of a franchise in […]
At Fenway Park, the umpires take the field through the same runway as used by the visiting team. All professional umpires use the same basic mechanics on the field, from rookie ball to the major leagues. This includes positioning behind home plate and on the bases, as well as how to indicate “out,” “safe,” […]
The 1955 crop of baseball “bonus babies” included Massachusetts native Tom Gastall, born on June 13, 1932, in Fall River, to Thomas and Concetta Gastall. (A “bonus baby” rule was first implemented by the major leagues in 1947, intended to restrict the inflated offers made by wealthy club owners seeking to monopolize the best young […]
There is a lengthy tradition of Red Sox booster clubs, ranging from the Royal Rooters to the Winter League and the Red Sox Half Century Club. The most venerable of all, though, is the BoSox Club, founded in early 1967.There is a lengthy tradition of Red Sox booster clubs, ranging from the Royal Rooters to […]
This article was originally published in SABR’s Baseball Research Journal, Vol. 23 (1994). Red Smith once wrote: “Ninety feet between bases is the nearest to perfection that man has yet achieved.”1 Technically, this statement is incorrect: there has never been 90 feet between bases. In fact, in the nineteenth century, the distance between bases […]
After being traded to Montreal, Dennis Martinez pitched the highlight of his career, a perfect game on July 28, 1991, at Dodger Stadium. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library) Dennis Martinez had just lost a heartbreaker of a game, 1–0, tossing 10 innings against the United States, losing to future major-leaguer Rich Wortham. […]
The 1985 Winter Meetings had showcased a then-record 62 free agents, but the 1986 free-agent class shattered that mark as 82 players filed for free agency by the deadline.1 Despite the uptick in the number of free agents, however, for the second year in a row none of them signed with a new club at […]