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Eighteen-year-old Cincinnati Reds pitcher Gary Nolan, in his first major-league start, defeated the Houston Astros 7-3 at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field on April 15, 1967. In the first inning he faced four batters, and struck out Sonny Jackson, Jim Landis, and Jimmy Wynn en route to a 7-3 victory. Later in the season, on June 7, […]

As a pitcher, Lary Sorensen handled plenty of challenges over the course of his successful 11-year major-league career with seven teams. But not even the best-hitting opposing lineup—like the one he faced in the 1978 All-Star Game—compared to the opponent he battled after his playing days: alcoholism. His story resembles an amusement park ride, with […]

Jack “Boss” Marshall stood 5-feet-9 and weighed 167 pounds. He was a right-handed pitcher, both a starter and a reliever. Most of his seven seasons in the Negro National League were with the Chicago American Giants; he appeared on the rosters of the first two teams to win Negro National League pennants. He also played […]

He was as natural a ballplayer as you would ever want to see. His swing was as beautiful as a Michelangelo sculpture and his throws from right field were so powerful and accurate that a cartoonist for the Montreal Gazette drew a caricature of Ellis Valentine that had a cannon where his right arm should […]

Unique in every respect, left-handed submarine pitcher Michael Stanley Myers brought a presence to the mound that exhibited the definition of left-handed specialist. In a 13-year career with nine major-league teams, Myers made his presence known as a one-trick pony with a few more tricks up his sleeve. Myers, the premier LOOGY of the late […]

If the designation “starting pitcher” was ever applicable, it is a description that fits the career of right-hander Gar Finnvold. He pitched in 113 professional baseball games and every single one of them – both in the minor leagues and in the majors – was as a starter. The tall 6-foot-5, 195-pound righty hails from […]

“When Mr. Reardon speaks you are under the impression that he has just spit out a hand grenade.” — Harry A. Williams, Los Angeles Times1   Beans Reardon learned a lot about umpiring at the age of 16 when he worked as a riveter’s assistant. “Riveting was good education for umpiring,” he recalled. “If I […]

Scott Taylor had a seven-season professional career as a pitcher (1988–93; 1995), including two stints as a September call-up for the Boston Red Sox in 1992 and 1993. Taylor’s major-league service was limited to one start and 20 total appearances, a disappointing body of work for a highly regarded prospect “with a wider assortment (of […]

When fireworks launched on America’s 196th birthday, the nighttime celebration was an afterthought for Mets fans. Earlier in the day, Tom Seaver gave them another reason to rejoice when he took a no-hitter into the ninth inning against the San Diego Padres; Leron Lee’s one-out, broken-bat single prevented the Mets ace from getting his first […]

“Batting and playing first base for the Boston Red Sox: Mary Elizabeth Murphy. First base: Murphy.” You can almost hear Sherm Feller, the longtime Red Sox public-address voice, announce her – the first female ballplayer for the Boston Red Sox. It never happened, though. It’s well-known that the Red Sox were the last big-league team […]

The postgame talk after the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Atlanta Braves, 11-2, on August 28, 1980, focused on Cardinals outfielder Dane Iorg—and with good reason. A day after going 4-for-5 against the Houston Astros, the veteran left-handed batter collected a career-high seven RBIs with two doubles and a single. But the following day, all […]

The rebuilding and fortunes of some major-league baseball teams tend to be cyclical. Especially those that do not have the ownership with the deep pockets who could buy the top-tier free agents every season. The Minnesota Twins were one of the former, not the latter. But the Twins were putting together a solid club that […]

If Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton were a sportswriter covering the game in which the Montreal Expos’ David Palmer pitched five perfect innings for a 4-0 rain-shortened win, he could have started his story off with the line that he wrote and which Snoopy has made famous: “It was a dark and stormy night.”1 Those immortal words […]

The Montreal Expos’ 1976 season was a soap opera. Clubhouse dissension, along with the second-worst record in franchise history (55-107), made for a long, frustrating year, so it only seemed appropriate that fans had to “tune in tomorrow” to find out if Tim Foli became the first Expo to ever hit for the cycle (spoiler […]