If you are not happy with the results below please do another search
George Pfister spent 56 years in Organized Baseball. However, he played just once in the majors, with the 1941 Brooklyn Dodgers. It came on September 27, in the second to last game of the NL pennant-winners’ season. Pfister, then 23 years old, came in for the last five innings – but there was just one […]
The “Pebble” game. After 85 years it remains one of the most memorable games in the history of the World Series. On October 10, 1924, at Washington’s Griffith Stadium, in the seventh game of the World Series between the New York Giants and Washington Senators, the Senators’ Earl McNeely came to bat in the bottom […]
Cory Lidle pitched for seven teams in the major leagues, primarily as a starter, during nine seasons from 1997 to 2006. His life was cut short on October 11, 2006, when the Cirrus SR20 airplane he was piloting struck a building while attempting to make a turn over the East River in New York City.1 […]
“I’m on the bench with two out. My heart was breaking. Just a terrible feeling I had, as well as we played all game. You sit and try to comprehend what we just did. It’s hard to believe. It’s something you sit back and say, ‘Geez, how did we do it?’ I don’t (understand). I […]
“Carmen Fanzone always led a double life.” That’s how Jerry Crowe led a story about the former ballplayer and trumpeter that ran in the Los Angeles Times.1 Primarily a third baseman on the diamond, Fanzone played in parts of five seasons (1970-1974) for two major-league teams that suffered nearly century-long droughts between World Series wins: […]
With his trademark dark glasses and red socks, Bob Addie, the son of a New York City butcher, was a respected and popular fixture on the Washington sports and social scene for almost 40 years. A columnist and Senators beat writer for the Washington Times-Herald and the Washington Post, Addie served as president of the […]
A master of the one-liner, Billy Grabarkewitz once claimed that “Abner Doubleday dreamed up this game [of baseball] to drive people crazy.”1 Perhaps no one knew this more than the diminutive right-handed hitting infielder whose entire career pivoted on injuries. It was injuries that slowed Grabarkewitz’s march to the big leagues; injury to fellow infielder […]
Despite missing two of his prime seasons while serving his country during World War II, Marlin Carter played professional baseball for nearly a quarter-century in major and minor Negro Leagues. Nicknamed “Pee Wee,” the 5-foot-7, 160-pounder threw right-handed and batted lefty. Primarily a third baseman, he also saw action at second base and shortstop, and […]
Right-handed pitcher Charley Schanz worked 13 years in the minor leagues and four full seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1940s, followed a couple of years later by 14 games with the Boston Red Sox in 1950. His major-league record was 28-43 with a 4.34 earned run average. His best big-league season was his […]
Curtis Brown’s one game in the majors came on May 27, 1973. He played left field for the Montreal Expos at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, going 0-for-4 against Ron Bryant. Less than two weeks later, the 27-year-old was sent back to the minors, never to return. For reasons unknown, he just didn’t have any […]
It was a scene that even a Hollywood scriptwriter might find fantastic. As baseball’s 1972 regular season entered its final week, the Oakland Athletics, preparing for their second consecutive American League division playoffs, wanted to give their regulars some much needed rest. So with the minor-league season over, management decided to call up one of […]
When pitcher Steve Olin entered games at Cleveland Stadium, the organist would play the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” in recognition of the righty’s unusual low side-arm delivery.1 Indians general manager John Hart once described Olin as a 16th-round afterthought, a guy designated only to fill out a Class A roster. But Mike Hargrove, who managed Olin […]
Bob Friend was one of baseball’s more consistent starting pitchers during his era and a workhorse for the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates. That year the right-hander led the team in games started and innings pitched while posting an 18-12 record and 3.00 earned-run average in a major comeback from a disappointing 1959 campaign. Durable at 6-feet […]
During right-hander Lerrin LaGrow’s final year in the majors, he quipped “Hillerich & Bradsby” when asked to identify his toughest opposing hitter.1 By naming the company that manufactures Louisville Sluggers, he perhaps inadvertently referenced the moment for which he’s arguably most remembered – being the target of Bert Campaneris’s thrown bat during the 1972 AL […]
A backup catcher who amassed only 984 plate appearances in 12 seasons, Wallace Larry Haney nevertheless was a member of some historic teams, including the 1974 Oakland Athletics. Upon retiring as an active player, the right-handed hitting Haney spent an additional 34 years in professional baseball as a coach and scout, and his dedication to […]
As a young and hopeful Art Kusnyer (pronounced KUSH-ner) started his professional baseball career in 1966, he made a contingency plan: “If I didn’t make it in baseball, I wanted to be a highway patrolman,” he told the author.1 He never got to work for the highway patrol. Instead, the solidly built 6-foot-2, 197-pound Kusnyer, […]
“Henry Aaron in the second inning walked and scored. He’s sittin’ on 714. Here’s the pitch by Downing. Swinging. There’s a drive into left-center field! That ball is gonna be … outta here! It’s gone! It’s 715! There’s a new home run champion of all time, and it’s Henry Aaron!” — Atlanta Braves’ announcer Milo […]
In the 2007 postseason, the 96-66 American League Central Division champion Cleveland Indians faced the 94-68 wild-card New York Yankees in one AL Division Series, while the 96-66 AL East champion Boston Red Sox hosted the 94-68 AL West-winning Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the other.1 From their 13th game of the season, on […]
Heading into the 1961 season, the National League pennant race looked to be a five-team battle. Only three teams, the Cubs, Phillies and Reds, appeared to have no chance to challenge for first place.1 However, Cincinnati manager Fred Hutchinson was optimistic about the team’s prospects. “I don’t care about anyone’s pick,” he said on the […]
For John Denny and George Hendrick, their actions absolutely spoke louder than their words on August 19, 1979, when the St. Louis Cardinals defeated the San Francisco Giants, 4-0, before a crowd of 42,622 at Busch Stadium. Denny pitched 6⅓ shutout innings and Hendrick powdered two home runs to lead the Cardinals to a three-game […]
It was an eagerly anticipated matchup between opposite styles of play: Harvey’s Wallbangers and Whiteyball. Skipper Harvey Kuenn’s Milwaukee Brewers who led the majors in home runs (216), runs scored (891), and slugging (.455) against manager Whitey Herzog’s St. Louis Cardinals who paced the NL in stolen bases (200) and fielding (.981), while hitting the […]
Despite his busy schedule as one of baseball’s top hitters with the Milwaukee Brewers, Paul Molitor took time to partake in some dress-up in the middle of the 1991 season. Before a July 31 night game, Molitor made an appearance at the Women for the Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer Children’s Luncheon and Fashion Show […]
A season of great promise suddenly looked impossible. The Red Sox fans who stayed to the end of this evening’s game at Fenway Park could hardly have been more despondent. Boston fans had been waiting 86 years for a world championship and 18 years since their team’s spirit-crushing defeat at the hands of the New […]
The 1951 National League season is usually remembered most for the legendary “Shot Heard ’Round the World” capping the New York Giants’ September pursuit that plucked the pennant from the Brooklyn Dodgers. But a May game in Boston matching the Braves, then in pennant contention, with the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates featured an odd pitching performance […]