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How much is a ballplayer’s time worth? In 1912 Tex Wisterzil was released by the Indianapolis Indians of the American Association but incoming manager Charley O’Leary asked him to stay in town in hopes of retaining him. Wisterzil waited around for three days until it was decided that he was going to Wichita in the […]

Buddy Myer was the “cocky little second baseman” of the Washington Senators when they won their last American League pennant in 1933. In 17 seasons in the majors, he won a batting title and was a two-time All-Star. Myer was often cited as one of the few Jewish baseball stars and was chosen for the […]

Honus Wagner is regarded by many as the greatest shortstop of all time. It is hard to imagine that his team, in a season where Wagner hit .341 in 148 games, would have to bring in raw recruits to play shortstop. The 1899 Louisville Colonels, managed by Fred Clarke, found themselves in that dilemma. At […]

Candy Cummings, at first glance, appears to be one of the least qualified pitchers in the Baseball Hall of Fame. His major-league won-lost record is usually listed as 21-22, because most career totals begin with the formation of the National League in 1876. Cummings earned his stardom in amateur play during the late 1860s and […]

Al Blanche pitched only 33 1/3 innings in the major leagues, all in relief for the woeful Boston Braves/Bees of 1935-36. A star at Providence College who attracted no major league scouts, the tall, slender Italian right-hander pitched batting practice for the Braves until given his own opportunity. While having a short baseball career, Blanche […]

“He was a beautiful person. Yes he was. Cool Papa Bell. He was a lovable person. And still is. And always has been. I love him. My goodness, that’s one beautiful man.” – Dave Barnhill (hard-throwing ace pitcher and all-star of the New York Cubans)1 “He had time for everybody. Never hurried. Signed autographs, talked […]

The Philadelphia Phillies’ World Series victory in 1980 was the culmination of a long rebuilding process. From 1968 to 1974, the Phillies suffered through seven straight losing seasons and had six different managers. While things seemed grim, the Phillies had a plan. They drafted well and stocked their farm system with good players, many of […]

Emery Adams pitched during 11 years in the top Negro Leagues, from 1932 to 1947, with military service during World War II explaining one break in his statistical record. Two earlier gaps seemingly resulted from run-ins with the law, but a jury acquitted him of the serious charge that might have cost him the entire […]

Jackie Tobin’s older brother, Jim Tobin, pitched in the major leagues from 1937 through 1945, first for the Pirates, mostly for the Boston Braves, and then for the last several weeks of his career for the Detroit Tigers. Though Jackie, an infielder, was a little more than eight years younger, the two played in Boston […]

“The best defensive centerfielder I have seen here in a long time. I think one of the highest compliments you can pay him is that he’s as good as Garry Maddox.” — Richie Ashburn1   On the evening of July 20, 1969, families across the globe gathered in front of their television sets to watch […]

The boy loved baseball. As a teenager he was the best baseball player in his hometown. But Charlie Gould probably never dreamed of playing baseball for a living. His future career was more likely as a clerk or perhaps as a bookkeeper. At that time, there were no openly all-professional baseball clubs, where a young […]

The early life of pitcher Tom Johnson, one of the star hurlers for the 1920 Chicago American Giants team that won the inaugural Negro National League pennant, is largely shrouded in mystery. What is known is that he had two outstanding seasons for Rube Foster’s squad, including the 1920 campaign, in which he pitched to […]

Hank O’Day is one of the few men to have played, umpired, and managed at the major-league level. He was a World Series pitching hero. He had one of the greatest starts of any rookie manager in history. He was the home-plate umpire for 23 World Series games, as well as for four no-hitters in […]

After a breakout 1961 season during which he won 18 games and struck out a National League modern-day record 269 batters,1 Sandy Koufax was even better during the first months of the 1962 campaign. Prior to a Dodgers’ mid-June three-game series in Milwaukee, the 26-year-old had compiled an 8-2 record (3.02 ERA), with 131 strikeouts […]

Legendary San Diego Padres closer Trevor Hoffman recorded 601 saves over the course of an illustrious 18-year major-league career, a mark that as of 2020 stood as the second-most saves by a major-league pitcher, behind only Mariano Rivera. The California native saved 40 or more games nine times, with two separate four-year stints of doing […]

Few teams in baseball history have had the luxury of all but clinching their division as early as April. The 1986 New York Mets knew this better than most, having fought to 98 wins in 1985 only to miss the playoffs at the hands of their bitter National League East rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals, […]

As the Pittsburgh Pirates and Baltimore Orioles prepared to meet in the winner-take-all Game Seven of the 76th World Series, there arose a commotion over a column written by Baltimore Sun sports editor John Steadman. The Pittsburgh media provided the Pirates and their fans with the gist of Steadman’s opinion, which was that the Bucs […]

For every great World Series pitcher’s duel, there are a dozen duds that don’t live up to the hype. Game Two certainly fell into the latter category; the hype belonged in a class by itself. The game’s starting pitchers had each put together 24-4 seasons by age 24 – Dwight Gooden pulled off the feat […]

Boston Red Sox first baseman Kevin Millar was apparently seeing the ball well in this Friday night game against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park. He homered three times, off three different pitchers, but all three came with the bases empty and were not enough to overcome an uncharacteristically poor start by Curt Schilling, […]

The hopes of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of repeating as division champion in 2008 appeared to be derailed by injuries before the season began. As players reported to spring training in Tempe, Arizona, number-two starter Kelvim Escobar suffered a reaggravation of a shoulder injury and was certain to begin the season on the […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs began 1949 with an unprecedented matchup: the National or American League’s first-ever Opening Day clash of starting pitchers who had reached their 40th birthdays.1 In a game scoreless until a ninth-inning unearned run, with both Pittsburgh’s Rip Sewell and Chicago’s Dutch Leonard going the distance on fewer than 100 […]

Roberto Clemente stepped into the batter’s box in the fifth inning at Forbes Field. More than 13,000 hometown fans watched on September 2, 1966, as the Pittsburgh Pirates superstar took a few practice swings. Ferguson Jenkins, the Chicago Cubs’ 23-year-old right-hander, stood on the mound. Clemente slammed Jenkins’ first pitch into the right-field upper deck […]

“This has a special place right up there with the fifth one because it comes so late in my career,” said Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers after tossing his sixth career no-hitter.1 At 43 years of age, Ryan became the oldest pitcher to hurl a no-hitter and the first to fire one with three […]

If the baseball fans of Seattle had understood the significance of April 12, 1969, they might have arranged a parade, or perhaps a municipal celebration at Seattle Center with plenty of free-flowing Rainier beer.1 And certainly, more than 8,319 of them might have come out to Sick’s Stadium for the evening’s Seattle Pilots-Chicago White Sox […]