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If a young, successful major league pitcher had decided to become an outfielder in 2001, it would have been news. And if he had hit above .300 for the next five straight years, culminating in 2005 by winning the league’s batting crown with a .377 average, he would have graced magazine covers. Finally, if upon […]

Tadahito Iguchi’s favorite motto is the Japanese proverb “The boughs that bear most hang lowest.” The literal translation describes how rice stalks, as they ripen and bear more grain, bow down due to the weight. This metaphor for human behavior suggests that the more you achieve in life, the more modest you become as a […]

John Wright was the “owner of a blazing fast ball and a sharp-breaking curve and plenty of control”1 and his sinker brought “despair (to) opposing batsmen.”2 To many who saw him, “He dominated batters.”3 Wright will forever be linked in history with Jackie Robinson as the first two players to break the color line in […]

As a teenager in the late 1930s, Ed Sanicki and his brother Emil would travel by train from New Jersey to Ebbets Field in Brooklyn. At the ticket office they would buy bleacher seat tickets, which was all they could afford. Occasionally Dodgers players would walk past the ticket office, and sometimes sign autographs. Babe […]

Despite having a lifetime .236 batting average, Randy Hundley is one of the most beloved Chicago Cubs of all time. The Virginia native played 10 seasons with the Cubs in the 1960s and 1970s and was considered a leader on the field for the team that endured a historic collapse in 1969. Hundley also introduced […]

“Just call me Hank,” said Henry “Prince” Oana. He didn’t really come from Hawaiian royalty, but there was still a certain mystique about this outfielder-turned-pitcher. In a time when mainstream baseball lacked diversity, Oana was something exotic. When this story was originally published in 2009, there weren’t many men alive who knew Hank Oana during […]

Although rarely in the everyday lineup for an extended period, George Shoch was a useful member of several late-19th-century major-league teams. In an era of small rosters, Shoch’s versatility – he could play second, shortstop, third, and the outfield competently – was coveted by his managers. His durability, strong work ethic, and temperate habits were […]

His big brother in college was Martin Luther King Jr. Somehow, it’s appropriate to begin with that fact when discussing Donn Clendenon. During his college years at Morehouse College, one of the most pivotal players in Mets history was mentored by the greatest and most pivotal African American of the 20th century. The big brother […]

Almost every kid who has ever played baseball fantasizes coming up in the bottom of the ninth inning during the seventh game of the World Series and hitting a home run to win it. As of the 2010 World Series, only one person has ever accomplished this. It occurred on October 13, 1960, at 3:36 […]

Crank: a baseball fan in the late 19th century. “The real, simon-pure baseball crank … thinks baseball, talks baseball, dreams baseball and, does all but play it. It is generally a fact that the real baseball crank cannot play right-field in even a ‘scrub nine.’” — Milwaukee Sentinel, October 12, 1884   They were there […]

June 14, 1908, South Side Park, Chicago. The White Sox had won 10 straight games. Manager Fielder Jones might well have uttered what would become a Hawk Harrelson catchphrase more than a century later: “Don‘t stop now, boys!”1 But Jones could see win 11 slipping away. After four innings, the New York Highlanders led 4-1. […]

His name was Clarence Charles Isreal. That’s Isreal, not Israel. His name should not be conflated with the country of the Middle East. Most of the newspapers of his time did not grasp that distinction. Consequently, often the misspelling has carried over into subsequent baseball records. In his six-year professional baseball career, Clarence Isreal spent […]

It took a tremendous blast to hit a home run over the 86-foot high right field roof at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field. From the time of the roof’s construction in 1925, until the stadium’s final game in June 1970, only 19 balls, hit by 10 different players[1], ever cleared the roof. Among the men who accomplished […]

On October 15, 1946, the St. Louis Cardinals won their sixth world championship with a 4-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox. Enos Slaughter led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a single, and with two outs scored from first base on Harry Walker’s double to left-center field. The play, which later became […]

With his one major-league hit, Roger Hornsby McKee never came close to his namesake’s Hall of Fame total. He did, though, channel Rogers Hornsby with an Organized Baseball batting title.1 And while the namesake Hornsby was a player-manager for 12 seasons during an era when such skippers had a penchant for giving themselves a turn […]

The third pitcher selected by the New York Mets in the 1961 National League expansion draft, French-Canadian Ray Daviault (pronounced dah-vee-yoh) debuted in New York’s inaugural home game, at the Polo Grounds. He walked the first batter he faced, then chased him home with a pair of wild pitches. After two eventful innings, Mets manager […]

Don Buddin played shortstop for the Red Sox in 1956 and then, after a year of Army service, from 1958 through 1961. After leading the league in shortstop errors in both 1958 and 1959, he became the butt of near-constant abuse from sportswriters and fans alike. Because of the numerous miscues, Boston Globe writer Bob […]

“It’s a shame … he would have been a helluva player if he hadn’t gotten hurt. Ron Jones was a hitting machine.” — Lee Thomas, general manager, Philadelphia Phillies (1988-1997) 1   Ron Jones was a stocky outfielder from Seguin, Texas. Shortly after he reached the majors, in September 1988, the Philadelphia Daily News wrote, “Jones, […]

If not for the existence of a similar game involving Hollywood actor Kevin Bacon, one would’ve had to be invented marking the numerous degrees between Denis Menke and Cooperstown. For although he got not a single vote in his only year of Hall of Fame eligibility, the Hall shadowed Menke throughout his four decades of […]

Long before launch angles, exit velocities, infield shifts, and OPS calculations, Clarence Jones taught the basics of hitting to some of the greatest players in Atlanta Braves history. Jones played 19 seasons of professional baseball as an outfielder-first baseman. Though his major-league career totaled 58 games with the Chicago Cubs, Jones won two US minor-league […]

Late in his major-league career, Bill Singer pitched a complete-game victory despite throwing in pain the entire game. His postgame comments accurately described much of his career. “It was so bad when I was warming up that I almost quit,” said Singer. “It was killing me. But then it’s easy to quit. Too easy. I […]

David Green was one of baseball’s big “what if” stories. The imposing Nicaraguan was often called “the next Roberto Clemente.” His talent has also been compared to that of Vladimir Guerrero, André Dawson, and Darryl Strawberry — even Willie Mays. Alas, personal troubles and nagging injuries stopped him from realizing this vast potential. Looking back […]

“It would be so easy to believe, had you not seen it, that there couldn’t possibly be, ever, such a game as this. Having seen it, you know you never had seen one like it before and that you never could forget it. Never as long as you live.” – Frank Graham1   Writing about […]

As a kid growing up in Pasco across the river, being able to stand on the mound at Sanders Field was as big for me as going to Yankee Stadium. — Bruce Kison1 Sanders Field, circa 1953 (Photos courtesy of the Eastern Benton County Historical Society)   Sanders-Jacobs Memorial Field, originally known as Sanders Field, […]