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Montreal mayor Jean Drepeau with (from left) John Bateman, Jim “Mudcat” Grant, and Maury Wills on Opening Day in New York, April 8, 1969 (COURTESY OF THE McCORD MUSEUM, MONTREAL)   When the International Olympic Committee chose Montreal as the host city for the 1976 Winter Olympics, Jean Drapeau, the mayor of Montreal, told the […]

The Philadelphia Phillies surged to 10 games over .500 with their 4-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds at Riverfront Stadium on July 17, 1984. With six wins in seven games, the Phillies were 2½ games behind the National League East-leading New York Mets. Philadelphia, which had won five division titles, two NL pennants, and one […]

On the evening of Friday, May 27, 1994, 3,954 fans gathered at Municipal Stadium in St. Paul, Minnesota, to watch the Colorado Silver Bullets, a pioneering all-women’s team, take on the Richfield (Minnesota) Rockets.1 The Silver Bullets, coached by 318-game winner and Hall of Fame inductee Phil Niekro, were in the midst of their inaugural […]

In response to the new “freak delivery” rules implemented for 1920, American League President Ban Johnson allowed teams to designate two pitchers who could continue throwing the spitball for one more season,1 while the National League did not limit the number of authorized spitball pitchers.2 The thought was that the transitional year would give those […]

Floyd Baker was primarily a third baseman who played a good number of games at second base, too, though he began as a shortstop. He batted from the left side, but threw right-handed. He was a Virginian, relatively small of stature: 5-foot-9 and listed at 160 pounds. He played in 13 major-league seasons, with 2,692 […]

Just five short years after the Pittsburgh Pirates won the 1979 World Series championship, the team had fallen to last in the National League East. They were on their way there again in 1985 – but a rebuild was under way, as the trade for Bob Kipper that August showed. The deal in which the […]

One of the greatest pitchers in 19th-century major-league baseball, Tim Keefe won 342 games and still ranks among the top ten pitchers in lifetime victories. He was known for his change-of-pace pitch, which he used to establish a still-standing major-league record of 19 consecutive victories in 1888. “No more graceful, skillful and strategic pitcher ever […]

He was an eight-time All-Star, batted .300-plus seven times, and upon his retirement after the 1988 season, held the major-league record for hits (2,472) and doubles (483) by a catcher, to go along with 248 home runs and 1,389 RBIs. In December 2019, 25 years after receiving only 3.7% of the vote in his first […]

“I’m lucky to be alive. I’m happy to be alive. I’m doing everything I can to play again. It would be a plus. But there are more important things.” — Dickie Thon (1985)1   Some baseball careers are remembered for a single moment. It could be a hit to win the World Series, a strikeout […]

Indians fans in Cleveland awoke the morning of May 23, 1957, to the musings of columnist James E. Doyle of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Doyle often wrote a small poem at the beginning of his column, and this spring day was no exception. Soxcess with Cal “That stuff served up by Cal McLish,” The Red […]

More than anything, Ben Chapman is remembered these days for the vitriol he heaped on Jackie Robinson in April of Robinson’s first year in the majors. Chapman was the Phillies’ manager that day in 1947 and “decided to make Robinson’s color an issue and encouraged at least three of his men to do the same.”1 […]

On a crisp, sunny autumn afternoon, the 1970 World Series began in Cincinnati’s brand-new Riverfront Stadium. The Reds and the Baltimore Orioles had breezed through their respective League Championship Series to meet at the apex of the baseball season. For the visiting Orioles, the taste of bitter disappointment lingered like castor oil on their tongues […]

A long-time left-handed pitching ace for one of baseball history’s best staffs, Dave McNally was also a legend and hero in his native Billings, Montana, where he lived his entire life outside of baseball. Though a World Series pitching (and hitting) star, he might be best known in some circles for the role he played […]

After three uncharacteristic second-place finishes in 1933, ’34, and ’35, the New York Yankees responded in decisive fashion. Changes were in order, as reported by Dan Daniel in The Sporting News: “Joe McCarthy is making every effort to win this year.”1 Significant personnel moves prior to the start of the1936 season included the signing of […]

Bobby Richardson played second base for the New York Yankees from 1955 to 1966, a key contributor during one of the Yankees’ most successful stretches in their legendary history. Richardson was by all accounts a slick, rangy glove man and a steady stick man. He won the Gold Glove Award five times, he batted over […]

“When I lost Frank I lost one of my best friends. Baseball lost one of its best managers. He was one of the best catchers we ever saw.” — Buck O’Neil1 Frank Duncan’s legendary Negro League career lasted 27 years and his unquenchable zest for life was etched across each and every one of them. […]

Few players in the history of major-league baseball have displayed each of the prized “five tools,” meaning the ability to hit for average and for power, to run, to field, and to throw. On that  short list belongs the name of Ellis Burks, who began his major-league career as a 22-year-old rookie for the Boston […]

The June 6, 1945, headline in The Dispatch (Moline, Illinois) read, “Cincinnati Clowns to Play at Davenport Friday Night.” The piece to follow reported, “Some of the greatest names in Negro baseball appear in the Clowns’ lineup, among them being Roosevelt ‘Duro’ Davis, second only to ‘Satchel’ Paige in Negro pitching circles.” Hyperbole or not, Davis, 41 […]

Back in the Deadball Era, when sassafrass was the primary ingredient used to flavor root beer, just as ginger provided the flavoring for ginger ale, a baseball player who displayed “sassafrass” or “ginger” was a lively player who put forth extraordinary effort, sometimes compensating for a perceived lack of natural ability. Several players have been […]

Bronson Arroyo played 16 years of major-league baseball and helped the Boston Red Sox end the Curse of the Bambino with the 2004 World Series championship. His controversial tag of Álex Rodríguez in Game Six of the ALCS, when the umpires reversed their original call, spurred the Red Sox on to a victory. Boston closed […]

He’s been termed a “reluctant pioneer.” All Pumpsie Green wanted to do was play professional baseball. He didn’t even aspire to the major leagues at first, and would have been content playing for his hometown Oakland Oaks in the Pacific Coast League. That said, Pumpsie Green took pride in the fact that he helped accomplish […]

It’s a common tale. A major-league prospect falters after being celebrated as a highly significant addition to the team. So goes the story of Albert LaVerne “Bunny” Fabrique, who played in 27 games for the Brooklyn Robins in 1916-1917 and enjoyed a reported, though improbable, familial lineage to King Louis XVI.1 In 1917 spring training […]

Prominent in the baseball circles of his time but now forgotten, Bill Watkins spent more than thirty years as a player, manager, front office executive, and team owner of various major and high minor league franchises. His playing career short-circuited by a near fatal beaning in 1884, Watkins thereafter assumed the manager’s post for the […]

Sinclair Oil’s dinosaur logo is as powerful a brand identifier as Exxon’s tiger or Mobil’s Pegasus. When Harry Sinclair died at the age of 80 in 1956, his obituaries in the Los Angeles Times1 and the New York Times2 highlighted his oil exploits—but did not mention his baseball interests.  In the early 1900s, Sinclair was […]