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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 […]

Frank Cashen was one of the most successful front-office executives of his time, taking part in the winning of five pennants and three World Series, and one of the more educated and erudite.  “Frank is very bright man, a man for all seasons,” remembered a former New York Mets vice president. “You hear about people […]

Many baseball players from the New Orleans area signed professional contracts in the 1930s and 1940s. Ray Yochim rode the wave, along with other signees from his high school that included future major-leaguers Lou Klein, Mel Parnell, George Strickland, and Jack Kramer. Yochim missed three formative years of his professional development as a pitcher owing […]

He won 31 games as a 20-year-old minor-leaguer and became one of the top young pitching prospects in the country. One publication described Kid Camp as follows: “He is a wonder. Quick and agile as a cat with muscles of iron, he is a representative of the highest type of ball players.”1 Another predicted that […]

Righty Elías Sosa was a useful reliever for eight different big-league teams. He appeared in 601 games at the top level from 1972 through 1983. He posted 83 saves, with a high of 18 in both 1973 and 1979. Though Sosa was never a big strikeout pitcher, “he’s got a good fastball and excellent slider,” […]

Mike Smithson, a 6-foot-8, 215-pound righty, pitched in eight seasons as a big leaguer from 1982 through 1989. He won 15 games for the Minnesota Twins and led the AL in games started in both 1984 and 1985, and finished his career with the Boston Red Sox, who had originally selected him in the fifth […]

Chuck LaMar once commented, “I’m a baseball guy and my heart lies with the people out in the field. … I was one of those and I started out in professional baseball as an area scout and I drove 50,000 miles a year away from the wife and those kiddos as much as anybody so […]

July 15, 1933, should have been the greatest day in Jim McCloskey’s sporting life – or, perhaps, the first in a string of great days. The 23-year-old lefty was in Buffalo, New York, where he’d grown up, pitching for the visiting Jersey City Skeeters of the International League. July 15 was Jim McCloskey Day at […]

Andy Coakley is remembered most as “Lou Gehrig’s coach” in his 37 years as head of Columbia University’s baseball program. But this overlooks his extensive influence on the game. Once a promising right-hander with Connie Mack’s Athletics in the early 20th century, Coakley was also a labor pioneer, a forward-thinking league organizer, a team owner, […]

“Versatility will keep me in the game a long time,” said Eddie Jurak in 1983.1 Indeed, Jurak was a true utility player. Primarily a shortstop, he appeared at every position as a professional save pitcher and catcher. Spring training 1984 summed up his job approach. He carried four different gloves with him, one suited for […]

Manny Mota never seemed to age. “He’s scary,” said Steve Garvey, his teammate with the Los Angeles Dodgers. “I wish just one spring he would show up with one gray hair.”1 That was in June 1979, a couple of months before the Dominican set the career record for pinch hits. Mota wound up with 150 […]

The phrase “first-place Montreal Expos” still had a novel ring when the Expos met the Philadelphia Phillies on the night of May 15, 1974. That season was Montreal’s sixth in the National League, and the first in which the Expos held first place at any point after the end of April. Gene Mauch’s Expos entered […]

It was an explosive night in Pittsburgh: St. Louis Cardinals hitters finally broke out of a grueling slump and Bob Gibson avenged a loss in one of his most commanding performances in a dominant season. Pirates rookie Freddie Patek called Gibson “the hardest throwing pitcher I’ve seen,” while All-Star Gene Alley could only shake his […]

A modest crowd of 9,018 fans gathered at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field on Saturday, April 18, 1970, as much of the nation was riveted on activities that took place earlier in the week many thousands of miles above the Earth. Millions of TV sets across the land were focused on the return to Earth and dramatic […]

With one day left in the American League schedule, Detroit’s Heinie Manush was battling New York’s Babe Ruth for the league batting crown. Both batters were hitting .372; Manush was 182-for-489 (.37219), while Ruth was 184-for-494 (.37247). The outcome would be decided on this Sunday afternoon. Just below them was Detroit’s Bob Fothergill, at .360. […]

The New York Mets and Kansas City Royals squared off for the fourth game of the 2015 World Series on October 31. Noah Syndergaard had fired up the Mets with his solid performance in Game Three. It was now Steve Matz’s turn to take the mound. This was a dream come true for the left-hander. […]

It took the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets nine innings, 37 players, 366 pitches, eight pinch-hitters, 13 walks, six stolen bases, two blown saves, and exactly four hours of a Thursday afternoon to play one of the most exciting games of the 2007 season. The Phillies prevailed, 11-10, on August 30 to complete a […]

Frank Robinson’s solo home run in the first inning was all the offense Baltimore needed, but the Orioles scored a total of 17 runs on as many hits in the first five frames to secure a blowout victory over the Chicago White Sox on July 27, 1969. According to the Baltimore Sun, “The merry-go-round was […]

Lyall Smith, sports editor of the Detroit Free Press, made a surprisingly detailed prediction early in 1954 spring training. In one of his columns, Smith “guessed” that 36-year-old outfielder Pat Mullin, the senior member of the Detroit Tigers in both age and service time, would be cut from the team and become a player-coach with […]

In the time it took the Mets and Expos to finish their game on July 9, 1977, they could have watched Luke Skywalker’s journey from farmboy to war hero in the summer blockbuster Star Wars twice.1 Ending after 4 hours and 17 minutes on a two-run homer by Lenny Randle, the Expos-Mets marathon was a […]

Four days after the Cleveland Indians’ disappointing 1961 season ended, general manager Gabe Paul obtained right-handed pitcher Dick Donovan from the Washington Senators, trading starting center fielder Jimmy Piersall for Donovan, catcher-outfielder Gene Green, and infielder Jim Mahoney. Donovan was expected to give the Indians’ young pitching staff some veteran leadership.1 Piersall, who turned 32 […]

In 1995 the Florida Marlins and Colorado Rockies were both in their third season, albeit a strike-shortened one. But for newly minted expansion teams, the clubs were pretty solid. That season, the Rockies, managed by Don Baylor, spent 117 days in first place, finished second in the National League West Division with a 77-67 record, […]

“You Called That A What …?”The Newsletter of the Official Scoring Committee Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Spring 2016, Volume 1, Number 1 Past newsletters   Editor: Stew Thornley Howdy Conundrum of the Month (or Quarter or Whatever) Committee Meeting at SABR Convention (a Scene You Should Make) What’s Shakin’? Conundrum Answer Everyone’s an […]