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When the Philadelphia Phillies and Milwaukee Braves played a Sunday doubleheader in Milwaukee County Stadium on August 20, 1961, they were headed in opposite directions. The fourth-place Braves were riding a nine-game winning streak, including the first three games of the series with Philadelphia, which left them eight games behind the first-place Cincinnati Reds. The […]

It was Shotime! in Anaheim. Shohei Ohtani, the two-way Japanese star who signed with the Los Angeles Angels in the 2017-18 offseason, was making his home debut in the Angels’ sixth game of 2018, against the Cleveland Indians. He served as the designated hitter in this game – his home debut as a pitcher was […]

The Philadelphia Phillies were a year away from their infamous 1964 season when they arrived at Dodger Stadium in mid-May for a two-game series with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Gene Mauch’s team had a mediocre 15-16 National League record, four games behind the first-place San Francisco Giants. However, the Phillies had reason for optimism. They […]

Baseball players can suffer serious injuries in numerous ways, including getting hit by a pitch, injuring a hand or leg on a slide, and colliding with another player in the field. Normally a collision happens when two players fail to communicate as they both pursue a batted ball. However, on April 29, 1974, Houston Astros […]

Every once in a while, a marathon — 26.2 grueling miles of running — will come down to the final 400 yards or so, with the top two competitors sprinting head to head for the tape with every bit of energy they have left.1 And every so often, a baseball season — “a marathon, not […]

On April 30, 1887, their Opening Day and National League debut game, the Pittsburgh Alleghenys hosted and defeated the defending league champion Chicago White Sox, 6-2. Pittsburgh’s offense was led by Alex McKinnon’s four hits (two singles, a double, and a triple) and two runs scored. Teammate Fred Carroll, whose defensive versatility enabled him to […]

Charles Wheatley is usually identified by one line in the major-league record book: Most wild pitches in a game, AL: 5 – Charles Wheatley, Detroit, September 27, 1912 Yet his life is much more fascinating than that line from a very pedestrian baseball career. Wheatley became a successful businessman, inventor, and self-made millionaire. Charles D.1 […]

Ed Sukla made a career in the game of baseball, first in the 1960s and ’70s as a sinker-balling reliever for the Angels and in the Pacific Coast League, and then for decades with the Major League Scouting Bureau. Though baseball was the sport in which he made his living, he was an all-around athlete, […]

“He has a brain in his arm.” – Syd Thrift1 That high baseball IQ was a critical part of Rick Reuschel’s success. It led him to trust a pitch-to-contact approach that was not flashy but required supreme control and unwavering confidence. He defied the stereotypes of a star pitcher. “Big Daddy” was unathletic-looking, with an […]

On November 25, 1920, during a barnstorming matchup in San Jose, California, legend Ty Cobb, upset that the opposing pitcher was using a doctored emery ball against him, quit mid-game and vacated the premises. Faced with no subs, the remaining squad re-inserted their starting pitcher, a tall 21-year-old Bay Area lad named Herb McQuaid, to […]

He is remembered as the manager of the most infamous baseball team ever, but less well known as a versatile and gutsy ballplayer of the 19th century. His counseling and humor became crucial to the success of many big leaguers in the years between the World Wars. He was the Kid from the coal country […]

One of the greatest right-handed sluggers of all time, Ed Delahanty dominated the 1890s like no other hitter, batting better than .400 three times, leading the league in slugging percentage four times, and capturing three RBI crowns on his way to a lifetime batting average of .346, the fifth best mark in baseball history. Known […]

In the midst of the 1908 pennant race, Sporting Life declared that “Robert S. Rhoades of Cleveland is one of the most dependable of modern pitchers. … His habits are good, his conduct exemplary, and in all ways is he a credit to his club and profession.”1 Embodied in this passage are two hallmarks of […]

A fleet-footed flycatcher with a rifle arm, World War I-era outfielder Walter Mattick had his major-league career abbreviated by a common failing: the inability to hit top-quality pitching. Weakness with the bat limited his big-league time to parts of three seasons. Still, Mattick parlayed other assets into a long association with professional baseball, mostly as […]

“White Sox Will Take Star of Hoosier Feds; Action May Be Forerunner of Player War…the signing of Alcock by a club of the two major organizations may fall like a bomb in the Fed ranks, and may be taken to mean the opening gun for war.”1   By 1914, the Federal League’s feud with the […]

“There was no better teammate. … He’ll do anything to win.” – James “Cool Papa” Bell1   When legendary pitcher Satchel Paige became the first to be inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1971 based on his Negro League accomplishments, he told Afro-American reporter Sam Lacy that he thought there were others […]

When 19-year-old John Cavanaugh took the field in the opener of a July 7, 1919 doubleheader at Philadelphia’s Baker Bowl, he became the first player born in the 1900s to appear in a major-league game.1 A late-inning defensive replacement for the last-place Philadelphia Phillies, Cavanaugh struck out in his only at-bat, then watched as his […]

Ed Rowen was a backup catcher and outfielder on the 1883 Philadelphia Athletics squad, which won the American Association pennant. Although Rowen was not a key factor in the championship season – playing in only 49 games – he was 30-game-winner Bobby Mathews’ personal catcher. He fielded poorly that year, possibly due to a hand […]

For many years, “Hartford” Jack Farrell’s baseball record showed him making three appearances as an 18-year-old for his hometown club in the National Association in 1874. Eventually it emerged that the remainder of his big-league career consisted of two games in 1882. And when one looks under the surface, one finds that Farrell enjoyed 15-plus […]

Marty Bergen was one of the finest catchers in the National League during his brief stint. His defense was admired throughout the league. As one sportswriter noted in 1898, “Martin Bergen is a kingpin of catchers, and without him the Bostons would be probably in second place or even lower down the ladder.” Although he […]

Overshadowed by his more famous big brother Gene DeMontreville during most of his career, Leon was thought by many to have as much talent as his sibling. Early in his career, Chicago Cub manager Frank Selee predicted that, with more experience, Leon would turn out to be a better player than Gene.1 However, Gene played […]

A hard-luck catcher with a strong bat, Jack O’Brien was a fan favorite among Philadelphia baseball fans during the 1880s. Sporting Life described him as a catcher with “a great pluck and sure catch,” who struggled with throwing.1 He was often injured, earning the reputation of being a luckless player whose career was summed up […]

A switch-hitting reserve catcher (.228 career batting average) who came up in the Red Sox farm system, Tim Blackwell had his best season at the plate as a Chicago Cub, hitting .272 and catching full-time in 1980. Blackwell grew up in San Diego and participated in Little League baseball. A star in two sports at […]

This article appears in SABR’s “Wrigley Field: The Friendly Confines at Clark and Addison” (2019), edited by Gregory H. Wolf.   First, they were the “Chicago Base Ball Club.”1 They would not be the Cubs until much later. Some sportswriters and baseball fans – at various times and for different reasons – also knew Chicago’s […]