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Ray Rippelmeyer pitched 39 1/3 innings in 18 games for the 1962 Washington Senators. Over 11 minor-league seasons, the right-hander compiled a .579 winning percentage with a record of 114 wins and 83 losses in 330 games. He also played winter ball in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. After his playing days, Rippelmeyer’s work […]

From 1955 to 1965 Bill Virdon established his reputation as one of the finest and fastest center fielders of his generation, and was known for his accurate throws from the deep center-field power alleys in spacious Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. Ironically, one of his throws that inadvertently hit his manager may have led to his […]

An All-Star and 20-game winner in 1970, Jim Merritt was a crafty southpaw who went 81-86 during an 11-year big-league career spent most notably with the Minnesota Twins and the Cincinnati Reds. “Aggressiveness,” replied Merritt when asked about the key to his success. (He won 62 games over the four-year period 1967-70 before arm injuries […]

When New York Giants announcer Russ Hodges uttered the immortal words “The Giants win the pennant!” the legacy of Bobby Thomson was indelibly etched into baseball history. Despite modest career stats, Thomson’s October 3, 1951, home run off Ralph Branca was, in 1999, ranked number one on The Sporting News’ Greatest Baseball Moments.1 The “Shot […]

Best known as the host of the 1960 television series, Home Run Derby, Mark Scott’s career encompassed acting, serving as a television broadcaster for the Cincinnati Reds in 1956, and five-seasons (1952-55; 1957) as the radio play-by-play voice of the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League. Scott was born Samuel Marks Solomon on February […]

Upon his arrival in the major leagues, Ken Holtzman was promoted as the new Sandy Koufax. A hard-throwing, left-handed Jewish pitcher, Holtzman quickly became the ace of the Chicago Cubs staff and one of the best pitchers in the majors. He enjoyed a fine career, spending his best years with the tumultuous and talented Oakland […]

“Billy Williams,” said his manager Leo Durocher, “never gets excited. Never gets mad. Never throws a bat. You write his name down, in the same spot every day, and you forget it. He will play left, he will bat third. Billy Williams is a machine.”i This was not wholly hyperbole—at the time Durocher made this […]

If one wished to find the spiritual reincarnation of prototypical renaissance man Leonardo Da Vinci within the all-time register of major league baseball players, they would do well to consider one William Grover Slayback. Slayback, who walked with the gods of baseball during the summer of 1972 while pitching for the Detroit Tigers, would most […]

When he took the mound on April 7, 1954, Chicago Cubs outfielder Hal Jeffcoat hadn’t pitched professionally since being hit hard in five games in the low minors eight years earlier. Yet, as spring training was ending, he held the Baltimore Orioles to two bloop singles and just one walk over five innings.1 This unexpected […]

On a road trip in 1954 with the Philadelphia Phillies, Stan Lopata, called “Big Stash” in the press and Lop by his teammates, was having trouble making contact with the ball. He and his roommate on the Phillies, outfielder Johnny Wyrostek, had just finished eating breakfast at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. While Lopata […]

On June 1, 1986, 31-year-old pitcher Chris Welsh made his debut for the Cincinnati Reds, the hometown team he grew up rooting for. “I had my family and my friends there,” Welsh said years later.1 But trouble started right away. He walked the leadoff man, and not just any leadoff man. He then proceeded to […]

On August 31, 1956, President Dwight D. Eisenhower traveled approximately two miles from the White House to Griffith Stadium take in an afternoon of baseball featuring the Washington Senators and New York Yankees, whose star, Mickey Mantle, was in pursuit of Babe Ruth’s home-run record. Mantle walloped his 47th round-tripper in the Yankees’ 6-4 victory, […]

Baseball fans in the 1960s and ’70s could bet their Cracker Jack that second baseman Félix Bernardo Millán would put the ball in play when he stepped up to bat for the Atlanta Braves or New York Mets. In 6,325 plate appearances, the 172-pound right-handed batter whiffed only 242 times, establishing himself as the National […]

George Crowe was Indiana’s first Mr. Basketball and became a “Big Daddy” to early black players in major league baseball. “Crowe was the most articulate and far-sighted Negro then in the majors,” Jackie Robinson wrote. “Young Negroes turned to him for advice.”1 Yet this splendid athlete and respected leader chose to spend one-third of his […]

“If the talents of Christy Mathewson, John McGraw, Ban Johnson and Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis were combined in a single body, and that body was enveloped in a black skin, the result would have to be named Andrew ‘Rube’ Foster. As an outstanding pitcher, a colorful and shrewd field manager, and the founder and stern […]

David LeFevre, who once tried to buy the Cleveland Indians, said it: “I want to stand next to Gabe Paul when they drop the atomic bomb.”1 Because Paul was a survivor. In his first 20 years as a major league general manager, he never won a pennant and only once came close. Then he sold […]

Baseball has yet to take firm hold in the island of Jamaica, even though it is surrounded by other nations with a strong tradition in the sport. As the 2018 season ended, four men of Jamaican birth have made it to the majors, all of whom learned the game in the United States. The first […]

“Some in the press and in the stands considered him too casual about his job, but that was a misperception. In fact, he was driven, not merely by a desire, but by a rage to succeed.” David Halberstam, “October 1964”1   When the June 15 trading deadline rolled around in 1964, Cardinals general manager Bing […]

Kurt Bevacqua played in 15 major league seasons with the Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Milwaukee Brewers, Texas Rangers, and San Diego Padres from 1971 to 1985. Bevacqua crafted a career as a pinch hitter and utility player at a time when that role was needed on a major league roster and for […]

As a young player, Jason Giambi advertised his ideals on a T-shirt: “Party Like a Rock Star, Hammer Like a Porn Star, Rake Like an All-Star.”1 Whatever his proclivities toward pleasure seeking, Giambi certainly could “rake” (hit). From 1999 to 2002, Giambi was arguably the second-best player in the American League, accumulating 30 wins above […]

Nate Colbert wasn’t supposed to play on August 1, 1972. The San Diego slugger had injured his knee in a collision at home plate the night before and was listed as doubtful against the Atlanta Braves. Looking forward to hitting in Atlanta Stadium, known as the Launching Pad, Colbert decided to tough out the pain. […]

Over the course of a 14-year major-league baseball career that ran from 1981 through 1994, Tom Brunansky played in exactly 1,800 big-league games. Most of them he played in right field, but he played all three outfield positions, some at first base, and some as a designated hitter. He was a member of the World […]

John J. Quinn spent 47 years working for major-league baseball teams, 28 of those as a general manager. During his tenure as GM of the Boston and Milwaukee Braves (1945-58), the franchise won three National League pennants and the 1957 World Series. After owner Bob Carpenter brought Quinn to Philadelphia in 1959, the savvy executive […]

Soft-spoken Richard Atley Donald once threw 95-mile-per-hour fastballs for the 1939 New York Yankees, the first major league team to win four straight World Series.  He won 12 straight games for them, to set an American League mark for rookies. Atley was a star pitcher for the 1937 Newark Bears, considered by many to be […]