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On August 29, 1977, Gene Richards was nearing the end of what was one of the finest rookie seasons in baseball history. His 56 stolen bases during that season were an all-time rookie record. However, on this particular evening, he stood silent at first base at San Diego Stadium, next to a man who had […]

His baseball ability was once described as good mouth, no hit. Not known for his bat but a solid glove man, Jimmy Smith built an 8-year major league career with his wit and his mouth. Referred to as “Serpent Tongue,” Smith rode a great ability as a bench jockey to remain on rosters while compiling […]

Elston Howard was born February 23, 1929, in St. Louis, Missouri, the son of Emmaline Webb and Travis Howard. A schoolteacher in Sikeston, Missouri, Emmaline fled to St. Louis when Howard, her principal, refused to marry her. She worked to become a dietician, and when Elston was 5 years old, she married Wayman “Big Poppy” […]

Ray Herbert entered professional baseball at the age of 19 with the sinking fastball that major-league franchises dream of, but lacked the knowledge and skill to convert his great “stuff” into immediate success. For 11 years he toiled with mostly second-division teams, both in the majors and minors, rarely winning more than he lost, surrounded […]

Paul Carter was a late bloomer as a professional pitcher with a career ERA+ of 85, a statistic that appears to denote him as a below-average pitcher. Nevertheless, across the 54 games he pitched for teams of Negro major-league quality, he had a record of 22 wins and 15 losses that resulted in an impressive […]

Understanding is shrouded by the passage of more than a century, but it is still difficult to figure out what the St. Louis Cardinals saw in minor-league outfielder Ody Abbott. During five professional seasons, Abbott had established himself as a capable fly-catcher, but had proved unable to hit even Class C-level pitching. Still, in August […]

Nearly a quarter-century before Thurman Munson perished in a midseason plane crash in 1979, another active major league catcher suffered a similar fate. While Munson was a former MVP with two World Series rings at the time of his tragic demise, Orioles backstop Tom Gastall was a second-year bonus baby whose career was just getting […]

In Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities, two men lead such intertwined lives in London and revolution-torn Paris that it can simultaneously be the best and the worst of times. Bill Sweeney’s major league career was bookended by dramatic moves between two cities, but it was his unhappy fate to discover that, like Dickens’ […]

One of the most ignorant things ever said about baseball was the labeling of catcher’s gear as “the tools of ignorance.” The origins of that regrettably memorable phrase date back at least to the 1930s, though the etymology is disputed. Suffice it to say, however, that anyone who repeats that ignorant utterance must never have […]

From 1902 through 1911, Walter Schlichter owned the Philadelphia Giants, the finest African American team of the era. Schlichter was white, the Philadelphia Item’s sporting editor, and had previously managed boxers, not ballplayers. Yet with Sol White he formed a persevering, successful partnership. Competition, alignment with more powerful forces, an ill-advised secondary baseball venture, and finally a break […]

On August 2, 1997, Ryne Sandberg announced his second retirement from the Chicago Cubs, a season after the star second baseman had returned from his earlier retirement. “Everyone has their time,” Sandberg said. “My time has come.”1 He played his final game on September 28, the last day of the 1997 season, at St. Louis’s […]

The St. Louis Cardinals entered July 1944 with an eight-game lead over the second-place Pittsburgh Pirates. The reigning NL champions compiled a 42-19 record through June 30, the best record in the majors. Manager Billy Southworth guided the Cardinals to successive World Series appearances in 1942-43 and a 17-5 record during June 1944. Their success […]

Charles Lindbergh’s nonstop solo flight across the Atlantic in May of 1927 brought him overnight worldwide acclaim. No more than a thousand well-wishers saw the former stunt pilot take off from Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, but as many as 150,000 were on hand when his Spirit of St. Louis touched down in […]

Bob Watson’s situation before the Houston Astros’ game on June 24, 1977, was desperate, he told reporters crowded around his locker at the end of the game. “I’ve had a lot of problems lately, and, seriously, I got with my wife today and we said a prayer.”1 Watson had been seeing a doctor weekly to […]

On Sunday, August 21, 2005, as the New York Yankees (67-54) took the field to play the White Sox (74-46), they were in second place, three games behind the Boston Red Sox in the AL East Division while the White Sox were in first place in the AL Central, 8½ games up on the Cleveland […]

“My only regret is that it was not on national TV so the whole country could see it. That was a great baseball game, and I wish that more people could have been part of it. If you didn’t get excited over that one, you’re not a baseball fan. It had everything – great plays, […]

Time and again during their run to the world championship in 1986, the New York Mets clawed back in desperate situations. They were all but eliminated in Game Six of the World Series, when the Boston Red Sox were one strike away from winning it all for the first time since 1918. Earlier, in Game […]

Dodgers right-hander Don Sutton holds numerous team records, including career wins (233) and shutouts (52). (SABR-Rucker Archive)   The 1972 major-league season was winding down. Unfortunately for the San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Dodgers, the year did not go as they might have planned. In 1971 the Giants (90-72) won the National League West […]