Search Results

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 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 […]

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 […]

Catcher Fred “Bootnose” Hofmann played in part or all of nine major-league seasons (1919-25; 1927-28). He never played in The Show for a team other than the Yankees and the Red Sox, but his minor-league career (which began in 1915) continued through 1937. Hofmann also served as a minor-league manager, coached with the St. Louis […]

Curtis Le Roy Blefary is best remembered for winning the American League Rookie of the Year award in 1965. He had three productive seasons for the Orioles before his intertwined personal demons, alcohol and anger, overcame his terrific natural ability. Blefary was a key contributor to the Orioles’ pennant in 1966. The left-handed hitter was […]

In the late 19th century, real estate investor, stockbroker, and fruit and produce wholesaler George Vanderbeck gained attention in sporting circles as a prominent minor-league baseball magnate. Between 1890-94, he was involved in the launch of three franchises and rubbed shoulders with notable contemporaries such as Charles Comiskey, Ban Johnson, and Connie Mack. Although refined […]

Denny Lyons hammered the baseball and played fine defense in his 13-season 19th-century major-league career. His outstanding performance at the plate, now obscured by a century-plus of intervening baseball history, ranks him with the top third basemen of all time, at least as measured against his contemporaries. David Nemec’s profile of Lyons in Volume 1 […]

Helen Dettweiler was “The Girl of Summer” in 1938 when she became the first woman to broadcast professional baseball, according to The Sporting News. A promotional stunt for a radio sponsor, it was just one stop in a life of adventure. She served as a World War II code-breaker and military pilot, and was one […]

“We are a baseball family, I guess,” said Charlie Ganzel of his clan in a 1904 interview.1 One of a bevy of family members who achieved success in baseball, Charlie was arguably the most prominent of the Ganzel brothers. Although he was a key contributor to five pennant-winning National League teams during the late nineteenth […]

Supplanting a future Hall of Famer (if only for a spell), a stalwart of the New Orleans semipro circuit, and a historically poor major-league fielder, Larry Pezold is an intriguing figure in the Cleveland Naps history. Lorenz (Larry) Johannes (John) Pezold was born June 22, 1893, in New Orleans, Louisiana, the youngest of eight children […]

“You were a good man to have on a team. You kept the spirits up. You were the life of the party.” — Ted Page, to Jake Stephens 1   Jake Stephens may have been the greatest defensive shortstop of all time. He was on par with Modern Era defensive shortstops like Mark Belanger and […]

Leon “Boogie Wolf” Childress is one of many obscure “ghost players” of the Negro Leagues, a player skilled enough to make it onto the rosters and even into group photographs of some very good teams, but never earning regular playing time or appearing in any statistical record. Leon was born on June 23, 1910, in […]

Ninety miles. To most baseball fans, the term refers to fastball speed, a pitch whose “standard” for major-league success hinges on such baseline velocity. A ball thrown at such speed can cross home plate in little more than a second. By contrast, it takes much longer to travel the 90 miles that separate Cuba and […]

Eddie McFarland was one of the most talented catchers of his day but suffered badly from alcoholism, many years missing big chunks of playing time during the course of a season. Despite ultimately drinking himself out of the game, he still had a long career. He must have had a strong constitution, because he also […]

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 […]

Mike Corkins is one of many ballplayers with reason to dislike Jim Bouton’s Ball Four — not because it captured his personal indiscretions, but because it chronicled his professional failings. In his entry for September 8, 1969, Bouton summarized Corkins’ unfortunate major-league debut for San Diego against Houston, in which the rookie yielded two triples […]

May 13 was still early in the 1967 season. A sparse crowd of 9,606 was in attendance on a cool spring day in Boston’s Fenway Park with temperatures in the low 60s. Strong winds between 18 and 21 MPH were blowing from left to right field. The first-place Detroit Tigers were clinging to a half-game […]

The 21st-century baseball devotee has at his fingertips an abundance of statistical trivia the likes of which were undreamed of by his 19th-century counterpart. He is duly advised by the media when So-and-so has collected his 700th hit or Whatzizname has notched his fifth straight season of 20 stolen bases. In the first decades of […]

On August 15, 1966, Boog Powell of the Baltimore Orioles delighted Chesapeake Bay’s baseball fans when he swatted three balls into the Fenway Park stands. The 230-pound, 6-foot-4 first baseman was responsible for all the runs scored in Baltimore’s 4-2 victory over the last-place Boston Red Sox. Powell’s feat in the 11-inning contest secured the […]

Baseball’s All-Star Game was played at Griffith Stadium in 1937 and 1956, and now it was time for another generation of local baseball fans to gather at the new District of Columbia Stadium to watch the feats of the greats. History told us later that the 1962 All-Star Game featured 18 future Hall of Famers.1 […]

“You know, we just don’t recognize life’s most significant moments while they’re happening. Back then I thought, ‘Well, there’ll be other days.’ I didn’t realize that that was the only day.” — Archibald “Moonlight” Graham (Burt Lancaster), Field of Dreams   After eight years in the minor leagues and numerous injuries, Ron Wright certainly realized […]

Twenty-four people attended the December 18, 2012, monthly roundtable of the Bob Broeg St. Louis SABR Chapter, held at the usual location, the Original Crusoe’s in St. Louis. Bob Giovanni reported on the recently published book, Bushville Wins! The Wild Saga of the 1957 Milwaukee Braves, by John Klima. Bob said the book offered a […]

Every so often there comes a phenom who streaks across the baseball sky like the flash of a comet, leaving only the faintest of light in its wake. Among them are Mark Fidrych, “Super Joe” Charboneau, and Bob “Hurricane” Hazle. Remember to add the Washington Senators’ Joe Hardy to that list. Hardy, born Joe Boyd […]