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The 1960 season was the end of an era in the major leagues. It was the last year that both the American and National Leagues would be eight-team leagues. Expansion bolstered each circuit to 10 teams in 1961 and 1962. At the end of the decade, each league added two more cities to its burgeoning […]

Steve Garvey played on 10 All-Star teams for the Dodgers and Padres and holds the National League record for playing in 1,207 consecutive games. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   The Los Angeles Dodgers, returning to the postseason after an eight-year absence, beat the Pittsburgh Pirates twice on the road to open the 1974 National League Championship Series. […]

In 1963 Kansas City Athletics owner Charlie Finley proposed the use of orange baseballs as beneficial for players and fans. Finley, an insurance magnate who’d bought the Athletics three years earlier from the estate of Arnold Johnson, said it was easy for him — and presumably other fans — to lose the ball while tracking […]

The Phillies’ home opener on April 20, 1961, was a cool spring day at Connie Mack Stadium. The afternoon was cloudy with temperatures in the low 50s. Philadelphia fans should have left happy with an Opening Day win. The Braves had done almost everything wrong heading into the top of the ninth inning. The Phillies […]

In 1975 Dave Parker became the Pittsburgh Pirates’ starting right fielder and began a half-decade reign as baseball’s best outfielder. His loudest declaration of onrushing superstardom came on May 9 against the defending National League champion Los Angeles Dodgers, when he bashed out run-producing extra-base hits in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings and drove […]

Vin Scully was hired at the age of 22 by Dodgers broadcaster Red Barber, and broadcast his first game at Shibe Park in Philadelphia on April 18, 1950. Scully became the team’s primary announcer when Barber joined the New York Yankees in 1954.1 Scully was on the call when the team won its first championship […]

Edwin Jackson is unlikely to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. But if he were, it would be difficult to decide what cap he would wear. In his 17-year career he pitched for a major-league-record 14 different teams,1 one to three years with each team, including two separate stints with the Washington Nationals. […]

Undersized and a powder puff hitter, late-19th century utility man George Ulrich parlayed hustle, cunning, and defensive versatility into a nine-season professional career that saw him don the uniform of 23 different teams, including, albeit briefly, three National League clubs. Perhaps tellingly, Ulrich never lasted a complete season with any one of them, regularly drawing […]

Samuel B. Sager may just be the most tantalizing man to have played in the first major-league season of 1871. He left a vivid enough impression to be pegged with two nicknames and to figure prominently in Cap Anson’s memoirs. Yet even the most basic biographical information has eluded generations of researchers, until a group […]

Ron Fairly was born to be a major leaguer on July 12, 1938. His father Carl had a 10-year minor league career and reached the International League with Toronto and the American Association with Indianapolis. The year Ron was born was one of Carl’s best seasons as he hit .302 and slugged .406 for the […]

Pioneer Era outfielder John Hatfield was “widely regarded as one of the best ballplayers of the 1860s.”1 Thereafter he turned in a pair of first-rate seasons playing in the National Association, the game’s first professional league. Hatfield’s attributes included good hands, a live bat, and the most powerful throwing arm of his generation. At the […]

He was the second overall pick in the June 1976 amateur draft. In his major-league debut his brother was the opposing pitcher. He was the winning pitcher on Disco Demolition Night. Pat Underwood accumulated only 13 victories over four big-league seasons, but he had a remarkable baseball career. Patrick John Underwood was born on February […]

Uninvited and unannounced, “Harold Emerich” traipsed into the 1920 Philadelphia Phillies training camp in Birmingham, Alabama, and made a credible showing before being shipped out to the minors. However, “Harold Emerich” was actually Michigan contract jumper Herrick “Spoke” Emery. Fast forward four years, and the speedy Emery actually donned a Philadelphia uniform in five July […]

Bob Hope entertained troops in war zones, hosted the Academy Awards 19 times, and had more wealth than Midas thanks to oil investments, real estate holdings, and television commercials for Texaco and Chrysler. His relationship with NBC, unparalleled in show business, started on radio in the 1930s and continued on television when it became a […]

When 25-year-old Humberto Robinson appeared on the mound for the Milwaukee Braves on April 20, 1955, he became the first Panamanian ever to play in the major leagues.1 A quick glance through the statistics he compiled in the majors would indicate the oft-told story of the journeyman just hanging on in the majors for parts […]

It would not be inaccurate to call the 1929 Cubs team president William L. Veeck’s crowning achievement. Arguably baseball’s strongest franchise — even the Ruth/Gehrig New York Yankees could not have been rated higher at this juncture  — the Cubs had been built player by player over a decade by Veeck, with assistance from keen […]

Known as “Old Stone Face” for his colorless, stoic demeanor, Frank Navin controlled the destiny of the Detroit Tigers for three decades, becoming one of the game’s most influential owners and important power brokers. During his lengthy tenure as Tigers president, Navin was, at various times, an implacable foe of the American League’s strong-willed president, […]

The Chicago White Sox won its only two championships of the 20th century in 1906 and 1917. In between those two glorious seasons, the team fell back to the middle of the pack in the American League, but were always competitive, due in large part to the unheralded and hard luck hurling of a burly […]

The list of major-league record-holders contains names familiar to all baseball fans — Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth, Nolan Ryan, Spike Owen … wait a minute! Spike Owen? Yep. While his name won’t roll as easily off the casual fan’s tongue as some others would, Spike Owen was indeed a record-setter during a steady 13-year career, […]

The resume accumulated by the investor was something less than the model envisioned by Ban Johnson for club ownership in the fledgling American League. Nor was a bankroll amassed via saloon ownership, bookmaking, horse racing stables, casino operation, and service to Tammany Hall the preferred source of the financial wherewithal needed for relocation of the […]

Emery Adams pitched during 11 years in the top Negro Leagues, from 1932 to 1947, with military service during World War II explaining one break in his statistical record. Two earlier gaps seemingly resulted from run-ins with the law, but a jury acquitted him of the serious charge that might have cost him the entire […]

The Hall of Fame second baseman is not the only significant figure in New York baseball history to have the name Joe Gordon. Decades before Flash was anchoring the infield of great World War II-era Yankees teams, an earlier Joe Gordon was helping to put the franchise on the map, serving as the first president […]

Em Lindbeck’s big-league career spanned only two plate appearances. Although unsuccessful in the major leagues, he achieved success in nearly all other areas of his life. Lindbeck was a high school class president, a decorated multisport collegiate athlete, an all-star minor leaguer, an esteemed professional educator, and a public servant. A series of poor decisions […]

Note: This article was originally published at The National Pastime Museum on May 27, 2013, and is reprinted here by permission. By Jacob Pomrenke When Ban Johnson founded the American League in 1901, he strove to publicly distance his league from the rowdyism and lawlessness that had characterized the National League’s first quarter-century. The 1877 […]