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Fictional hero Frank Merriwell first appeared in 1896. He was a multisport athlete who had fabulous adventures. St. Mary’s College in Oakland, California (it is now in Moraga), had its own Merriwell from 1912 to 1916. Lou Guisto (pronounced GWIS’ TOE) won 11 letters in football, baseball, and rugby. In 1915 he returned an interception […]

For the first half of the 1970 season, Cincinnati rookie pitcher Wayne Simpson had the National League by the tail. He won 13 of his first 14 decisions in the majors, making the All-Star team. “He was tough,” remembered Al Oliver, then an opponent with the Pittsburgh Pirates. “Outstanding. I’d have to rate him right […]

A name can sometimes be confusing. Four years into his major-league career, Joel Edward Horlen said that though the news media and fans knew him by his proper name, Joel, “All my friends call me Joe and that’s what I go by. When I got into baseball, it became Joel somehow. I guess because that’s […]

“[Jack] Harper’s career in baseball has been rather sensational,” noted a sportswriter in 1908.1 At the major league level, the pitcher began with the worst of all teams, the 1899 20-134 Cleveland Spiders, and finished with one of the greatest, the 1906 116-36 Chicago Cubs. In between lay betrayal, court rulings, moments of near greatness, […]

“Running! turning! leaping! like little Al Gionfriddo — a baseball player, Doctor, who once did a very great thing.” The great thing novelist Philip Roth described took place on October 5, 1947. It was Game Six of the World Series. Outfielder Al Gionfriddo, a little-used reserve, made a racing, twisting catch in deep left-center at […]

From the mid-1960s to 1980s, Vince Lloyd and Lou Boudreau brought Cubs games to life for legions of fans. Vince Lloyd Skaff was born June 1, 1917 in Beresford, South Dakota. His parents, Michael T. and Lula (Salem) Skaff, were Lebanese immigrants who owned a family bakery. He had three brothers (Francis, Alfred and John) […]

Texan outfielder C. L. Taylor was the first star of the new West Texas League in the summer of 1920. The “sphinx-like speed merchant”1 also led the Texas-Oklahoma League in hitting in 1922. At age 27, in the spring of 1925, he reached the majors but went hitless in six at-bats with the Chicago Cubs. […]

Rocky Ellis is one of the many Negro League players whose statistics tell only a fraction of the full story. Sandwiched between official league contests were the numerous battles against teams of varying skill. These games made up the meat of a player’s diet but usually are not taken into consideration when the breadth of […]

Late-1880s pitcher Billy George was a flame-throwing but incurably wild left-hander, an early prototype of the Steve Dalkowski model.1 In his rookie season with the 1887 New York Giants, George established an ignominious major-league pitching record that stands to this day – most walks issued by a pitcher in a single game: 16.2 Years later, […]

Her first words on the phone to the police were, “My name is Mary, and I’ve shot a man.”1 It was March 9, 1967. Left-hander Ted Davidson, just 11 days into spring training and with his big break in the Cincinnati Reds bullpen imminent, lay bleeding behind a Tampa bar. His blonde assailant had fired […]

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,” […]

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 […]

When Bill Pierro was rising through the Pittsburgh Pirates’ farm system, Hall of Fame center fielder Lloyd Waner declared, “This kid can throw harder than Bob Feller.” Which was music to Pierro’s ears as the flame-throwing Cleveland Indian pitcher was his childhood hero. With a sidearm delivery that evoked comparisons to All Star hurler Ewell […]

  Wahconah Park: an outdated barn or a precious relic? A swamp or a hallowed slab? A money pit or a landmark? After well over a century, the dichotomy persists. Baseball players were facing off there before Babe Ruth was born, before “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” was written, before architects sketched the […]

Having extended its winning streak to nine with an 8-5 win over Cleveland in the first game of a doubleheader on July 23, 1967, Boston looked to end its road trip with a sweep. Red Sox manager Dick Williams sent the struggling Gary Bell (6-9) to the mound; Bell, who had started the season with […]

An estimated 350,000 fans greeted the Expos as they paraded through downtown Montreal in open-air vehicles on a chilly Thursday afternoon on the eve of their 1977 home opener.1 Baseball had captured the imagination of Montrealers even though the NHL’s Canadiens had just begun a playoff run for their second consecutive Stanley Cup. Buried under […]

Going into the 2024 postseason, the New York Mets and Milwaukee Brewers had met 172 times in the regular season since 1998, each team winning 86 games and losing 86 games. The wild-card Mets and National League Central Division champion Brewers continued this trend by splitting the first two games of their 2024 NL Wild […]

In early May of 1980, Boston’s Fred Lynn was playing like there was no tomorrow. In fact, many in baseball felt that a strike was imminent, and that the national pastime might cease to be played. Players had gone on strike late in spring training, forcing the final eight days’ worth of games to be […]

Don Rose always seemed to keep good company. The right-handed pitcher was the first selection of the New York Mets in the 11th round of the June 1968 amateur draft, and was followed later in that round by Chris Speier, Milt May, Al Bumbry, and Ben Oglivie. Yet while those four future solid major leaguers […]

The Milwaukee Brewers were playing .500 baseball through the first 60 games of the 1988 season (30-30). On June 12 the American League East fourth-place Brewers played the final game of a three-game series against the AL West’s fifth-place Chicago White Sox (26-32). Chicago had won the first two games, holding Milwaukee to a total […]

In his second at-bat of the second All-Star Game in 1960, Willie Mays made history by completing the All-Star Game cycle. In the span of just two days, Mays had collected the four necessary hits to hit for the cycle: a single, double, triple, and home run. No major leaguer has ever hit for the cycle […]

We all remember our first time. We felt anxious, excited, nervous, hoping that we wouldn’t get hurt or screw it up. Ultimately we hoped for a happy ending. There’s only one first time when your team goes from being an expansion punching bag to a kick-ass pennant contender (what were you thinking about?) For Montreal […]

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 […]