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Few players have managed to overcome greater challenges to succeed in professional baseball than Gary Ryerson. In 1952 an outbreak of poliomyelitis, more commonly called polio, swept the United States. The infectious virus attacked mostly the legs and caused muscles to become weak, poorly controlled, and ultimately paralyzed. The epidemic struck 57,628 Americans.1 Of those […]

Mark DeJohn was never a household name. As of 2015 he was monitoring minor-league practices for the St. Louis Cardinals. Though his title, field coordinator, was modest and his public profile was low, DeJohn fulfilled his two primary goals: “I just want to stay in the game and be a Cardinal.”1 DeJohn was a light-hitting, […]

On the last day of the 1955 regular season, 18-year-old Roger Marquis played one inning in right field and batted once for the seventh-place Baltimore Orioles. That was his only major league appearance, and he was out of professional baseball altogether by age 21. Roger Julian Marquis was born on April 5, 1937, in Holyoke, […]

When the Baltimore Orioles announced their 2015 Hall of Fame class, it seemed fitting that Gary Roenicke and John Lowenstein would be inducted together. The two previously shared left field duties for the Orioles in the late 1970s and early 1980s, not an ideal situation for Roenicke – a former first-round pick still in the […]

Garry Lewis Templeton was born on March 24, 1956, in Lockney, Texas, a small town in the state’s northern Panhandle. Templeton’s father, Spiavia, played in the Negro leagues, but Garry was not aware of his father’s history until he was 12 or 13. Spiavia was a backup infielder who played with Satchel Paige (who once […]

In an era when baseball players were supposed to be upper-class gentlemen and amateurs, Doug Allison didn’t fit the mold. He came from working-class origins and he was one of the first players to turn professional. Allison introduced two innovations that now are universally followed by all modern catchers. Douglass1 L. Allison was born in […]

John Kyle Mitchell’s big-league pitching debut took place exactly where he had hoped it would, in Fenway Park. It was an exhibition game played there between the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets on September 4, 1986, to support Boston’s Jimmy Fund and New York amateur baseball.1 But he was not with the Red […]

The first player from “The Big Island” of Hawaii to make it to the major leagues was pitcher Onan Masaoka. The lefty’s 1999 Bowman baseball card aptly described his ability and his nemesis, command: “Pure power southpaw . . . Lively low-to-mid 90s heater . . . Gets outs with breaking stuff, too, when mechanics […]

On September 16, 1976, Larry Landreth made his major-league debut with the Montreal Expos. In doing so, he became the first homegrown Canadian to play for a big-league team based in Canada.1 The 21-year-old hurler had quickly advanced through the Expos’ farm system, compiling a 44-32 record and a 3.10 ERA in his first four […]

Daryl Alan Patterson was born on November 21, 1943, in Coalinga, California. He graduated from Coalinga High School in 1962 and entered the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, California, that fall. At 6-foot-4, he entered college intending to play basketball as a point guard, but switched to baseball after pitching for an amateur team […]

The 1966 New York Yankees were two seasons removed from a seven-game World Series loss to a powerful St. Louis Cardinals team in 1964. The 1965 season saw the Yankees collapse into sixth place in the American League, their worst finish since 1925. As the 1966 season began, the team’s future looked slightly brighter. In […]

A marquee matchup was scheduled on June 10, 1981, with the Houston Astros in town to face the Eastern Division-leading Philadelphia Phillies. The two teams, which met in the NL Championship Series in 1980, were playing at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia on that Wednesday night. Several headlines dominated the festivities. First, barring a last-minute settlement, […]

The Rocket City Trash Pandas,1 the Double-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Angels, began their 2023 season with a series against the Chattanooga Lookouts, the Cincinnati Reds’ affiliate in the Southern League. After the Trash Pandas finished 2022 with the best record (81-57) in the league, 5,264 fans showed up at Toyota Field in Madison, […]

The 1994 season was one of the darkest in baseball history. A players strike in August led to the first season in 90 years without a World Series, and fans were not happy. Average game attendance dropped by 6,000 fans from 1994 to 1995.1 Yet, in the two years between 1996 and 1998, total attendance […]

No one at Montreal’s Jarry Park on Saturday, April 19, 1975, could ignore the howl of tropical-storm-force winds.1 Philadelphia Phillies manager Danny Ozark listened to the wind and let it dictate last-minute changes to his starting lineup. The results made him look like a genius as his team downed the Expos, 3-0. Most accounts of […]

Greg Minton did everything for the San Francisco Giants during the 1982 season, including stealing the team bus. More about that later. The right-handed relief ace achieved a milestone when he recorded his 30th save of the season in the Giants’ come-from-behind 5-4 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on September 25 at Dodger Stadium. […]

“I can’t say enough about it, or savor it enough,” said inspirational team leader Gary Carter after his New York Mets clinched the NL East crown by defeating the Chicago Cubs.1 While hard-throwing Dwight Gooden buoyed the team with a sparkling six-hitter, September call-up Dave Magadan, making his first big-league start, supplied the offensive fireworks […]

Heading into the seventh inning down 4-1 is far from game over, but for the Los Angeles Dodgers playing at Chicago’s Wrigley Field on Saturday afternoon, May 5, 2001, it would take just three more innings to go down in history as the LA franchise’s largest loss, with a final score of 20-1. “It just […]

For nearly two months in the summer of 1981, major-league stadiums were empty. On June 12, after a year of negotiations failed to produce an agreement on the structure of baseball’s free-agent compensation system, the players voted to strike. With the work stoppage still in progress on July 14, the All-Star Game was postponed. Instead, […]

For Game Five of the 1981 mini-series playoff between the Montreal Expos and the Philadelphia Phillies, Expos manager Jim Fanning unleashed his best pitching weapon, Steve Rogers. He also unleashed his secret offensive weapon — Steve Rogers? The 1981 major-league season was interrupted by a 50-day midseason players’ strike that divided the campaign into two […]