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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 […]
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’ […]
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 […]
A journeyman for most of his eight seasons in the minor leagues, left-handed pitcher Alpha “Al” Brazle overcame career-threatening arm injuries by reinventing himself as a slick side-arm sinkerball pitcher. After an unexpectedly strong first half with the Sacramento Solons in the Pacific Coast League in 1943, Brazle debuted with the St. Louis Cardinals in […]
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 […]
When Jeff Montgomery took the mound for the Cincinnati Reds on August 1, 1987, he was living out the storybook baseball tale. A three-sport athlete from small Wellston, Ohio, Montgomery grew up a couple of hours down the road from Riverfront Stadium in the era of the Big Red Machine. His idol, Reds manager Pete […]
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 […]
Two words: Señor Smoke. Hernandez/Lopez. Things Change. Take your pick of the trio of descriptions that defined Aurelio Lopez’s baseball career. Things change. That’s a truism that, in its pithy wisdom, fails to reveal that perceptions of the past — even the recent past — can vary so widely from those of contemporary observers. Ask […]
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 […]
George McQuillan was the Doc Gooden of the Deadball Era. In 1908 he enjoyed one of the best rookie seasons in history, going 23-17 for the mediocre Phillies with a sparkling 1.53 ERA in nearly 360 innings of work (in 1985 the young Gooden posted an identical ERA). An unusually fast worker even in an […]
Right-handed reliever Larry Sherry captured the 1959 World Series Most Valuable Player award after he appeared in all of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ four post-season wins, receiving credit for the last two. Four years previously, the then 19-year-old considered quitting after a miserable season in the Piedmont League (Class B). He was talked out of […]
“I’m Willie Mays,” one might imagine a kid in New York City in 1955 calling out as he came to the plate in a midsummer day’s game of stickball. For kids growing up in Kansas City in the late 1980s, maybe it was Bo Jackson. There are players who occupy a certain time and place […]
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 […]
On September 28, 1983, the Philadelphia Phillies were on the verge of clinching their fifth National League East Division title in eight seasons. That afternoon they were scheduled to play the rubber match of a three-game series at Wrigley Field against the Chicago Cubs. A victory against their division rivals would secure the title, and […]
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 […]
“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, […]
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 […]
The New York Mets were struggling to stay in contention in the National League East in July 1989. After winning six games in a row in the middle of July, they closed out the month by losing seven straight. At the trade deadline on July 31, Mookie Wilson was traded and Frank Viola joined the […]