Search Results

Joe Hoerner lived to play baseball and nearly died to play the game. He endured nine years in the minor leagues, which included heart-related blackouts on the mound, before becoming one of the game’s early relief specialists. The left-handed sidearmer’s best seasons came with St. Louis (1966-69), during which the Cardinals won two National League […]

Tim Laudner followed up on a record-setting season in the minor leagues in 1981 with a home run in each of his first two games in the majors. After creating a tough act to follow, Laudner didn’t reach the heights some expected of him. However, he played nine seasons for the Minnesota Twins, was the team’s starting […]

To date, there has only been one woman who played baseball with a team of major leaguers in a big-league ballpark. Her name was Mary Elizabeth Murphy and on August 14, 1922, she played for a team of “all-stars” in an exhibition game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. Lizzie Murphy’s team beat […]

In the summer of 1946, Pittsburgh Courier columnist Wendell Smith gave Newark Eagles manager Biz Mackey all the credit for molding “together the best all-around pitching staff in Negro baseball.”1 Assembling talent is one thing, using it wisely and coping with obstacles that arise is a totally different talent. Mackey’s ace, Leon Day, opened the […]

William Aloysius Purcell played and managed in the major leagues from 1879 through 1890 — but as one author quipped, “‘Blondie’ Purcell is better remembered for the color of his hair than his record as a manager.”1 Purcell also showed a willingness to cause trouble along the way. He later became a bookmaker and his […]

There have been three Gooches in major-league history, and at least another eight in the minors. The Gooch considered here is John Beverley Gooch, who played 805 games over the course of 11 seasons (1921-30; 1933), batting .280 with just seven homers while driving in 293 runs. His younger first cousin Charlie appeared in 39 […]

Louis Frank Klein, Jr. was an international baseball lifer who had a travelogue of experiences. Perhaps best known as one of 22 major league players who jumped to the outlaw Mexican League and for his tenure as a rotating manager in the Chicago Cubs’ College of Coaches, Klein had a varied and colorful career. The […]

Fiery and temperamental on the playing field but friendly and reserved off it, George Moriarty was one of the most colorful characters of the Deadball Era, gaining fame at various times as a third baseman, umpire, manager, poet, newspaper columnist, and songwriter. Famed for his leadership abilities, penchant for brawling, a strong arm at third […]

The flake – “an odd or eccentric player; a kidder or comic”1 – is an all-but-vanished species in major-league baseball these days. In 2003, writer Dave Joseph lamented, “Sadly, there are fewer creative thinkers these days in baseball. There are fewer flakes, if you will, who break up the monotony of an endless season played, […]

Left-handed pitcher Spike Merena had a rather brief baseball career – four games in the big leagues and 77 games in all. His major-league career began with the Boston Red Sox on September 16, 1934, and ended exactly two weeks later, on the last day of the month. John Joseph Merena had grown up in […]

Pitcher Brian Kingman compiled an 8-20 record with the 1980 Oakland Athletics. Prior to 1980, instances of pitchers losing 20 games in a season occurred with great regularity. After Kingman’s 20-loss season, however, his place in baseball lore was cemented for 23 long years until it finally happened again. The stinging effects of Kingman’s 20-loss […]

Dwight Lowry spent the bulk of his four-year major-league career as a backup catcher for the Detroit Tigers between 1984 and 1987, including an extended stay with the 1984 Tigers during their championship run. Aside from his early tragic death after a heart attack, he is best known as one of the relatively few American […]

The first player born in the western Canadian province of Manitoba to reach the major leagues, Russ Ford burst into the spotlight in 1910, winning 26 games for the New York Highlanders with a baffling new pitch never before seen in professional baseball. Using a piece of emery board hidden in his glove, Ford roughed […]

Soon after the 1967 World Series ended, Fleetwood Recording Co. released a long-playing phonograph record, The Impossible Dream, a reprise of the Boston Red Sox magical same-year pennant. Narrating, Sox announcer Ken Coleman hailed “an affair twixt a town and a team,” telling how the Boston American League Baseball Company used wonderwork to wave 1967’s […]

The Philadelphia Athletics of the American Association assembled in Philadelphia in early April of 1884. They welcomed four rookies, including pitcher Al Atkinson. The Philadelphia Inquirer wrote that the right-hander was “from an Illinois village and has his reputation to make as little is known of him.”1 He was quick to make an impression two […]

Of the 755 home runs that Henry Aaron hit from 1954 through 1976 with the Milwaukee and Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers, 754 cleared fences in 31 different big-league ballparks. Aaron’s only major-league inside-the-park home run came on May 10, 1967, in the first game of a doubleheader between the Braves and Philadelphia Phillies. It […]

Here’s a history lesson. On April 14, 1969, an American laid claim to Canadian territory for the first time since the War of 1812. The American was Montreal Expos left fielder Mack Jones. The territory was the left-field bleachers at Jarry Park, which was renamed Jonesville after his three-run homer and two-run triple helped the […]

Wrigley Field has seen its share of wild games over the past 100-plus years, and the September 24, 1985, contest between the Montreal Expos and the hometown Chicago Cubs ranks right up there. Andre Dawson belted three home runs – two in one inning – to help the Expos build a 13-run lead, only to […]

Rodney Dangerfield is credited with saying, “I went to a fight the other night, and a hockey game broke out.”1 If we replace hockey with baseball, we could get an idea of what happened in Cincinnati on July 22, 1986. In what he termed “the strangest game I’ve ever been in,”2 New York Mets manager […]

A crowd of 45,774 attended the 57th All-Star Game, held at the Astrodome in Houston on July 15, 1986. The American League’s Roger Clemens (Boston Red Sox), a hometown boy, faced off against the National League’s Dwight Gooden (New York Mets). They would see each other again in Game Two of the 1986 World Series. […]

Through the 2021 season, there were 334 cycles hit in major-league baseball games.1 The first one was hit by Curry Foley of the Buffalo Bisons on May 25, 1882. The second was hit by Lon Knight, the right fielder and manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, on July 30, 1883. Knight, who was a native of […]

As the 1972 season entered its last week, Pittsburgh’s 38-year-old right fielder, Roberto Clemente, was tired. Coming off an MVP performance the year before in the Pirates’ World Series victory over Baltimore, Clemente had labored through arguably the most difficult of his 18 seasons with the Bucs. He had been bothered by a serious intestinal […]

The year 1962 represented a solid start for Red Sox catcher Bob Tillman. He began his nine-year major-league career with a home run in his first at-bat. The following month, on June 26, Tillman caught a no-hitter thrown by Earl Wilson – a game in which Wilson himself provided the winning run with a third-inning […]

Here are the SABR Bookshelf listings for Summer 2014. To get your NEW book listed on The SABR Bookshelf, make sure a review copy is sent to: The SABR Bookshelf, Society for American Baseball Research, 4455 E. Camelback Rd., Ste. D-140, Phoenix, AZ 85018. An e-book file will also suffice; please send the e-book in […]