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Baseball scouts have historically thrived on anonymity.   They ply their trade in the game’s shadows, rarely drawing acclaim or notoriety.  George Huff was the exception that proves the rule.   As both coach and scout, Huff was intimately involved in baseball for some 30 years.  But in truth baseball was essentially a sideline.  Despite considerable success […]

Jimmy Burke, a coach for the 1929 Cubs, was the quintessential baseball lifer. A marginal ballplayer at best, he somehow managed to hang around in the game for 38 years. His long career as player, manager, coach, and scout began in 1896 with the Peoria Distillers of the Western Association, where he felt privileged to […]

Today Harry Steinfeldt is the answer to a oft-heard trivia question: Who was the third baseman in the Cubs’ famous Joe Tinker-to-Johnny Evers-to-Frank Chance infield? In his time, however, the .267 lifetime hitter was considered one of the greatest third basemen in the game. “Harry Steinfeldt, the Cubs third baseman whose glorious fielding kept the […]

Eddie Brown was a great hitter and a superb defender for the New York Giants, Brooklyn Robins, and Boston Braves during the roaring decade of the 1920s. Over the span of 20 seasons in professional baseball, Brown patrolled all three outfield stanchions, covered first base one full season, and handled shortstop another. As a rural […]

Was Joe Giannini potentially the wealthiest player ever to appear in the Red Sox lineup? Joseph Francis Giannini was born in Drytown, Amador County, California, on September 8, 1888 (per the California Death Index – though according to his World War I draft card, he was born on that date in 1889). He had played […]

Hyland Gunning had himself a good education, graduating from South Orange (New Jersey) High School and attending both Andover and Princeton. [Gunning’s player questionnaire at the National Baseball Hall of Fame] He’d been born in Maplewood, New Jersey, on August 6, 1888, and he was a good size for a first baseman – 6-feet-1 and […]

A tremendous all-around athlete who was one of the Deadball Era’s best at fielding his position, Claude Hendrix was a spitball pitcher who posted three 20-win seasons, each with a different team, en route to a lifetime 144-116 record and 2.65 ERA. With a batting average of .241, 13 home runs, and 97 RBIs over […]

“There is something inspiring to discouraged ball players in the career of William Hinchman, of the Pirates. A man who had had his show and apparently failed, it took years of patient plodding before another opportunity presented itself.”1 That’s how author J.C. Kofoed introduced his Baseball Magazine article on Hinchman, who had an all-star-worthy year […]

The 1914 season was the fourth in a row in which a team with Josh Devore in the outfield went to the World Series. The speedy Devore was a great leadoff man for the Giants championship teams of 1911 and 1912, and played with the pennant winners of 1913 before being traded. He joined the […]

Tight batting races are usually decided by one or two hits throughout the course of a long season. In the closest batting race in National League history, the St. Louis Cardinals’ Albert Pujols edged Colorado’s Todd Helton .3587 to .3585 to take the batting championship in 2003. Before that, the closest race in league history […]

Right-hander Pat Simmons pitched for the Boston Red Sox in 1928 and 1929, appearing in 33 games with a career 3.67 earned run average, but never winning a game. He was charged with two losses. His surname was Anglicized. Unlike his contemporary namesake Al Simmons, who had been born as Aloys Szymanski, Pat Simmons was […]

Burleigh Arland Grimes, who pitched in four games for the St. Louis Cardinals at the beginning of the 1934 season, was born on August 18, 1893, on his parents’ dairy farm about halfway between the towns of Emerald and Clear Lake in northwestern Wisconsin. (Wisconsin records indicate he was born in Emerald, but he always […]

For over a century, the veterans service organization known as the American Legion has sponsored a nationwide amateur youth baseball program. Early Hall of Famers who participated in the program include Bob Feller, Ted Williams, Joe Medwick, Stan Musial, and Roy Campanella. However, the very first graduate of the Legion program to reach the major […]

Mike Maroth may be best known for being the last pitcher to lose 20 games in a season (as of this writing in 2017), but there was much more to his career than what happened in 2003. He toiled for one of the worst teams in history, the 2003 Detroit Tigers that went 43-119, but […]

In the early 1900s the fledgling automobile industry sought out connections to the national pastime. The Chalmers Motor Company presented a car to the most valuable player. Ty Cobb considered opening a Hupmobile dealership. According to a newspaper ad, “ ‘Hans’ Wagner, ‘Ty’ Cobb, Sam Crawford and other ball players ride in their own machines […]

Roy Partee’s career as a scout rivaled that of his career as a catcher. He caught for the Boston Red Sox for five seasons, 1943-48, and he scouted (mostly for the Mets) for more than a quarter of a century. He also managed in the minor leagues and helped win World War II. Partee was […]

Boston Red Sox pitcher Babe Ruth, later nicknamed the Sultan of Swat, began his home run-hitting career in a game on May 6, 1915, against his future team, the New York Yankees. A crowd of about 5,000 visited the Polo Grounds for an American League matchup between the two rivals. (In the National League on […]

No one won. No one lost. Game Two of the 1912 World Series ended in a 6-6 tie after 11 innings. There was strong suspicion that by starting Jeff Tesreau against Boston’s best pitcher, Joe Wood, Giants manager John McGraw may have partially conceded Game One so that he could throw his two big guns […]

Boston Red Sox ace Smoky Joe Wood started three games in the 1912 World Series and was also called on for relief in the decisive Game Eight. (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)   Game Seven (in the sense of an ultimate game) of the 1912 World Series was actually the eighth game, A 6-6 tie in the […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates seemed poised to win their first National League pennant since 1909. They had taken took a big step forward in 1921. The emergence of rookie hurlers Whitey Glazner and Johnny Morrison gave Pittsburgh the best pitching staff in the National League by a wide margin.1 Perhaps more importantly, the offseason acquisition of […]

The Cincinnati Reds arrived in New York for a three-game series on June 1, 1904, with a 26-12 record, only percentage points behind the Giants, who stood atop the National League at 25-11. The Reds kicked away the opener 2-1 the next day, with a couple of errors in the eighth. In the second game, […]

Leon Culberson didn’t start for the Boston Red Sox against the St. Louis Browns on May 7, 1946, but manager Joe Cronin had him bat for .164-hitting rookie third baseman Eddie Pellagrini in the bottom of the fourth inning.1 By then, St. Louis already had a 6-2 lead in the Tuesday afternoon game at Fenway […]

The first game of the doubleheader between the Cleveland Naps and Boston Red Sox on July 19, 1909, featured a matchup of two pitchers who were swapped in a multiplayer trade before the season, but it was little-known Cleveland shortstop Neal Ball who stole the show. When Cy Young’s longtime batterymate Lou Criger was traded […]

For both major leagues, 1912 “was a banner year for streaks by pitchers,” as noted at the start of a SABR article on such accomplishments.1 Future Hall of Famers in each league had already tied or set records for consecutive wins as the Tigers prepared to face Red Sox ace Joe Wood during the second […]