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On the first full day of his Florida Marlins layover in May 1998, after the blockbuster deal that sent him from the Los Angeles Dodgers into an unknown future, Mike Piazza prepared for his first start with his new team. No one, from sportswriters to the Marlins to Piazza himself, believed the All-Star catcher making […]

The Houston Astros owned a 3½-game lead in the National League West when they hosted the Atlanta Braves on August 3, 1979. Their starting pitcher, ace J.R. Richard, took the ball with a 9-11 record. As is often the case with pitchers’ won-lost numbers, though, the sub-.500 record failed to reflect the overall strength of […]

Twice in 2002 – in an 11-day stretch –the then-Anaheim Angels blew the other guys out by 19-run margins. They did it on May 10 with exactly 19 unanswered runs at the expense of the White Sox to open the second series of a two-set homestand, leaving the Angels winners of six out of eight […]

The slumping Ottawa Senators were in need of a spark heading into their Victoria Day doubleheader against the Trois-Rivières Trios.1 The Senators, who had joined the Class B Eastern Canada League for its inaugural season of 1922, were on a six-game losing streak and mired in last place with a woeful 1-11 record.2 A promising […]

The Cleveland Buckeyes swept the venerated Homestead Grays in the 1945 Negro League World Series, clinching the series with a 5-0 win on September 20. The Grays came into the best-of-seven series as the two-time defending champions and winners of eight of the previous nine Negro National League pennants.1 But they were no match for […]

The New York Yankees had entered the 1964 World Series as favorites to extend their record number of championships to 21, but they had blown a Game One lead and found themselves in an early hole. Though it was true that this Yankees squad carried no “superman aura, either by their manner or in the […]

Lou Clinton played right field in 603 of his 691 major-league games. He played for five different teams over parts of eight seasons, but the lion’s share of his time was spent in the organization which first signed him, the Boston Red Sox. Signing him to the Sox in 1955 was fellow Oklahoman, scout Danny […]

Right-hander Brandon Puffer pitched in 85 major-league games, but is perhaps better known in some circles for the World Series Championship ring he earned in 2004 as a member (however briefly) of that year’s legendary Boston Red Sox – despite the only pitches he threw at Fenway Park being against the Red Sox, rather than […]

Ben “Old Reliable” Taylor played professionally from 1909 to 1929 and got his nickname from his consistent on-field performance. Taylor is considered one of the best first basemen in the history of Black baseball. He was also a longtime manager. Today he is immortalized in Cooperstown as a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. […]

He was a Furman University pitching ace who rocketed from college state championship to the majors in three months. He was a fellow 1907 Washington Senators rookie pitcher with, and first major league road roommate of, Walter Johnson. Sam Lanford was even spoken of in the same conversation as Shoeless Joe Jackson as among the […]

The major-league baseball career of George Abrams was a drop in the bucket compared to his career and accomplishments in golf. Abrams served as a mop-up reliever in three games for the Cincinnati Reds in 1923, his last season of pro ball. He continued to pitch and manage in semipro leagues in the Pacific Northwest […]

The big front page news in the Oroville (California) Mercury-Register on September 13, 1948, was the death of Julian Wera, a member of the fabled 1927 New York Yankees. Wera, the business manager of the Oroville Red Sox of the Class D Far West League, was found that morning dead in his apartment with a […]

Mike Kreevich was 22 years old before he came out of the Illinois coal country to play his first game of professional baseball. He was 28 before he shed his major-league rookie status in 1936, following two brief trials earlier in that decade. He faced the obstacles of small stature, a teenage injury to his […]

With one of the finest spitballs in baseball history, Stan Coveleski baffled American League hitters from the final years of the Deadball Era into the 1920s. To keep hitters off balance, Coveleski went to his mouth before every pitch. “I wouldn’t throw all spitballs,” he later explained. “I’d go maybe two or three innings without […]

A fleet-footed slap hitter who perennially topped the .300-mark, Patsy Donovan entered the Deadball Era having already established himself as one of the game’s most consistent stars. Though his days as a regular player were winding down, Donovan went on to leave an indelible mark on the new century as a much-traveled manager and longtime […]

In the spring of 1989, the movie Field of Dreams introduced the public to an obscure figure in baseball history named Archibald Wright “Moonlight” Graham. His time in the major leagues amounted to two innings in one game played on June 29, 1905. This piece of baseball trivia has fascinated both moviegoers and fans of […]

Like a host of others, the name of John T. Powers was likely as familiar to baseball fans of a century ago as it is unknown to followers of the game today. Throughout the Deadball Era, Powers promoted baseball as a sportswriter, publicist, and organizer of amateur, semipro, and professional nines. His primary contribution to […]

He was the second overall pick in the June 1976 amateur draft. In his major-league debut his brother was the opposing pitcher. He was the winning pitcher on Disco Demolition Night. Pat Underwood accumulated only 13 victories over four big-league seasons, but he had a remarkable baseball career. Patrick John Underwood was born on February […]

Steve Crawford was a pitcher who spent most of his 10 major-league seasons fighting for a job on a major-league roster, the majority of them with the Boston Red Sox. He was a once-promising prospect, but became almost a forgotten man by 1986. He would have been left off the Red Sox’ postseason roster that […]

As of September 2020, when this story was originally published, the two oldest living major leaguers were Eddie Robinson and George Elder, both veterans of WWII. Robinson served in the Navy but because of a leg operation was never in a combat zone. Elder served as a Marine artilleryman in the Pacific theatre. He served […]

Although he displayed a strong batting eye and some extra-base power during his minor-league career, Bobby Brooks had a relatively brief major-league career over parts of four seasons. Nicknamed “The Little Hammer,” Brooks may have been hurt by his short stature (he stood 5-feet-8 and was listed at 165 pounds), which may have led some […]

He is the answer to one trivia question and half of the answer to another, but there was nothing trivial about the life of Will White. William Henry White was born in Caton, a farming community in Steuben County, in western New York, just a few miles above the Pennsylvania state line. He was the […]

Walter “Dobie” Moore was one of the greatest shortstops in Black baseball history. Nicknamed “The Black Cat,” he was a powerful hitter and gifted fielder. He began his career playing for the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry baseball team (a squad that produced more than a dozen Negro League players in the years surrounding World War […]

Oscar “Heavy” Johnson was briefly one of the premier power hitters of the Negro Leagues. After spending nearly eight prime seasons playing for the U.S. Army’s 25th Infantry Wreckers (where he was the batterymate of Hall of Famer Wilber “Bullet” Rogan), Johnson joined the Kansas City Monarchs in 1922 and immediately won back-to-back Negro National […]