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“He can pitch,” said Montreal Expos skipper Gene Mauch about rookie right-hander Steve Rogers, who tossed a brilliant one-hit shutout over the Philadelphia Phillies to earn his first big-league win in his second start. “Rarely does a man with such experience have the confidence in his control of so many pitches.”1 Described by Pat Jordan […]

Nolan Ryan debuted in the major leagues with the New York Mets as a teenager in September 1966, joining the team full-time in 1968. It was the start of a 27-year Hall of Fame career in which he set numerous records for pitching excellence. In 1990 Ryan was the ace of the Texas Rangers pitching […]

In 1988 the movie Bull Durham helped popularize the image of affiliated minor-league baseball as the repository of wild and crazy fun, sufficiently removed from Major League Baseball’s corporate image and structure to expose the players’ and teams’ authentic natures. The lesser-known independent minor leagues, however, such as the CanAm League, Frontier League, and Atlantic […]

No matter your perspective, the 1919 Patriots Day opening day doubleheader at Braves Field just didn’t feel the same as those previously played in the twentieth century. Many things swirled in the festive atmosphere that April 19, including the lingering sweet aroma of the January 15 molasses tank explosion/flood tragedy in the North End that […]

The New York Mets stopped being the laughingstocks of baseball and became unlikely World Series champions on the afternoon of October 16, 1969. After the Mets joined the National League in 1962, they spent most of the decade known as a bunch of lovable losers. All that ended on a pleasant fall afternoon with temperatures […]

In 1932 the MVP winners in both the American and National Leagues plied their trade in Philadelphia. A’s first baseman Jimmie Foxx won the AL award by blasting 58 home runs, more than any other hitter in the city’s professional baseball history. A mile away, Phillies outfielder Chuck Klein gained the NL’s accolade by slugging […]

On May 5, 1943, the Chicago Tribune was chock-full of news. For a cost of 3 cents, one could absorb 48 pages from the Trib, self-described as the “World’s Greatest Newspaper.” With the United States nearing its 17th month as a combatant in World War II, the bulk of the front page centered on military […]

The Cleveland Indians were still reeling from a wretched nine-game losing streak from August 15 to 24 when they traveled to New York City for a three-game series with the Yankees starting on August 31, 2004. On August 14 Cleveland defeated the Minnesota Twins 7-1 for their sixth consecutive victory, and pulled within a single […]

Steve Blass was arguably the best pitcher on the Pittsburgh Pirates during the 1970, 1971, and 1972 seasons, when the Pirates won the National League East each year. In 1971, Blass helped the Pirates to their World Series victory over the Baltimore Orioles by pitching complete-game victories in Games Three and Seven, allowing only 11 […]

As members of the Society for American Baseball Research descended on the Sheraton West Palm Beach Hotel for SABR’s 30th annual convention, the Chicago Cubs came to town in a “circus-like” atmosphere to face off against the Florida Marlins. The South Florida Chapter of SABR was busy preparing for the first-ever SABR convention in Florida, […]

A beautiful Labor Day 2006 matinee in Washington, DC, seemed unlikely to produce a pitching masterpiece. The National League Central Division-leading St. Louis Cardinals were at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium to face the Washington Nationals, who were last in the NL East Division. The Cardinals had won seven of their last nine games, while twice […]

The team that was the last to integrate had been – 26 years earlier – the first to field a native of Mexico in the major leagues. The team was the Boston Red Sox, who took until 1959 to field a Black ballplayer – Pumpsie Green. In 1933, however, when Baldomero Melo “Mel” Almada took […]

On April 6, 1970, the Cincinnati Reds were a club transitioning from one era to another. By midseason the Reds would leave their longtime home at Crosley Field for the brand-new Riverfront Stadium. Without necessarily knowing it, the Reds stood on the brink of the most successful era in team history. Expectations were raised. Cincinnati […]

A transformation of baseball’s fandom in St. Louis was undeniably apparent in 1998. Crowds pouring into Busch Stadium had shifted their fans-in-the stands appreciation moments from stolen bases, pitching skill, and defensive gems of the 1980s to batting practice, the booth announcer, and home-run derby. Despite the fact that a disappointing season in the standings […]

The Chicago Cubs led the National League in home runs in 1986, and their game against the San Francisco Giants on July 19 was one of six times during the season in which they hit four round-trippers. Their home-run outburst was the difference in a comeback win against the first-place Giants. All-Star second baseman Ryne […]

Ralph Kiner’s 301 home runs, the product of an unparalleled slugging spree in the late 1940s and early 1950s, ranked first in Pittsburgh Pirates franchise history when Willie Stargell made his big-league debut in 1962. Blossoming into a prodigious, consistent power threat over the next decade, Stargell overtook Kiner in 1973 with his 302nd career […]

Immortalized in the movie Field of Dreams, Archibald “Moonlight” Graham stands as the embodiment of the soul of a baseball player. His dream to simply play in at least one major-league baseball game and forever etch his name into the annals of baseball history is one shared by baseball players and fans alike. Graham took […]

Excepting some otherwise brief ventures as a young man, this 14-year-old runaway spent nearly 60 years in professional baseball as player, manager, owner, innovator and groundskeeper. In this latter capacity, Henry Fabian was considered “one of the great masters of his craft.”1 St. Louis Browns owner Bob Hedges tried to entice him from the Texas […]

A funeral Mass was celebrated for one of Fall River’s favorite sons on Saturday, September 16, 1933, at the city’s St. Louis Church. Bouquets and tributes were sent by many of his old baseball friends and fans. Joe Harrington had been born in Fall River, Massachusetts, and he died in Fall River, having played baseball […]

On September 28, 1908, at the end of his tenth game as an American League umpire, John “Jack” Kerin was coldcocked by a furious Chicago White Sox fan who broke his nose.1 This incident makes a fitting introduction for two reasons. It reminds us that Kerin worked in an era when umpires faced physical threat—and […]

It has become almost legend, though in reality there are a few different versions of the story: In March of 1966, three New York Mets farmhands, all going by the name of Jerry, set out from Atlanta on their way to minor league training camp in Homestead, Florida. Jerry Johnson sat between the driver, Jerry […]

The Cleveland Indians paid Pat Donahue $200 for a tip that led to the signing of Bob Feller in 1935. They later gave him another $200 to forestall him from making any claims for additional compensation. Donahue saw Rapid Robert while umpiring a semipro game in Des Moines. Before he moved on to umpiring, and […]

A switch-hitting reserve catcher (.228 career batting average) who came up in the Red Sox farm system, Tim Blackwell had his best season at the plate as a Chicago Cub, hitting .272 and catching full-time in 1980. Blackwell grew up in San Diego and participated in Little League baseball. A star in two sports at […]

No one chooses to become a professional widow, and Eleanor Gehrig derived little satisfaction in being called one. Yet few ballplayers’ wives maintained a level of such prominence so long after their husband’s death as they had when he was alive. Mrs. Lou Gehrig was married less than eight years; she was a widow for […]