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Patrick J. “Paddy” Bolan was probably born in 1869. The first I could find of Bolan was in a March 26, 1890, article in the Sporting Life about baseball in Toledo: “Amateur ball in this city has struck a snag. Price, a promising first base player, has signed with an Indiana club, and Picord and […]

In the American League’s first-ever season-ending tiebreaker, the Cleveland Indians’ rookie sensation, Gene Bearden, faced the Boston Red Sox on October 4, 1948 at Fenway Park. At stake was who would face the Boston Braves in the World Series. Bearden’s last two starts had been shutout victories, giving him a 19-7 won-lost record for the […]

The rich farm country surrounding Lancaster, Pennsylvania, attracts visitors, and some of those visitors remain and thrive in the area. Many baseball teams at any number of minor-league and independent levels have called Lancaster home, dating as far back as 1884. In 1940 the Lancaster Red Roses came to town from Hazleton, Pennsylvania, and played […]

In November 1990, Texas Rangers general manager Tom Grieve released pitcher Jamie Moyer six days prior to his 28th birthday, telling him, “We don’t see you helping us.”1 St. Louis Cardinals manager Joe Torre echoed those words in 1991 when he informed Moyer, whose record was 0-5 at the time, that he was being sent […]

William H. Conant, Arthur H. Soden, and James B. Billings were the majority owners of the Boston Nationals1 from its difficult early years, through its ascendancy to the position of one of the best teams in the National League, to its eclipse after the entry of the American League team in Boston in 1901. Held […]

Though his major-league career was limited to parts of four seasons, Rod Gaspar was anything but a footnote player. While he played in only one full year in the majors, it was as a World Champion. Gaspar led National League outfielders in double plays while scoring a pivotal run in the 1969 World Series. Six […]

In May 1912, veteran outfielder Joe Birmingham of the Cleveland Naps claimed that “next to Walter Johnson,” one of his teammates was “the best right-hander in the [American] league.” However, few if any baseball fans today would be able to identify that young hurler as 21-year-old George “Crum” Kahler. For despite the high praise, Kahler, […]

Jackie Jensen, the blond rugged Californian who attained great heights on both the football gridiron and baseball diamond, also waged a complex struggle with anxiety that he seemed to have conquered only at the very end of his life, a life that ended too early. A member of the College Football Hall of Fame and […]

Stan Williams worked in professional baseball for more than 50 years. The Dodgers signed the big, tall, right-handed fireballer after he completed high school in the 1950s, and he was still on a major-league payroll as a scout as late as 2010. Williams had a knack for contributing to winning teams. In just his second […]

Clara Díaz Chacón was a little girl who lived on a street in the fishing village of Puerto Caimito in Panama. A few houses up the road was an elementary school classmate. That boy’s studies ended in the ninth grade, but their paths crossed again when they were teenagers. They became boyfriend and girlfriend, and […]

At the end of the 2019 baseball season, 25 former major-league baseball players who had seen military service in World War II survived. One of them was Massachusetts native George Edward Yankowski, who served in the United States Army and saw combat with General George S. Patton’s Third Army. At age 96, this ex-catcher said […]

Brian Jordan is one of seven men who have played major-league baseball and NFL football since 1970.1 Although Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders are better known for having accomplished the feat, Jordan’s 1,456 MLB games played are the most by any NFL player. In addition, Jordan played outstanding outfield defense. His career mark of 163 […]

Right-hander Tom Sturdivant pitched 10 years in the major leagues, for seven different teams over both leagues (wearing seven different uniform numbers). His first team was the New York Yankees, the team that first signed him, and he won Game Four of the 1956 World Series for them, evening the series against the Dodgers at […]

The 6-foot tall, 210-pound catcher for the Jersey City Jerseys looked like a giant to the boy. It was Camera Day at Jersey City’s Roosevelt Stadium in 1960. The Jerseys were the Cincinnati Reds’ Triple-A club. The catcher was Dutch Dotterer, a charming and intellectual athlete. Years later, Santa Ana High School’s Athletic Director, Frank Alvarado, would […]

It is easy to imagine that at the end of her final day of filming with acclaimed director Ken Burns, Rachel Robinson must have felt some sense of relief. When Jack died, she was only 50 years old. Since then, she had been blessed with a long life and had spent almost as many years […]

For nearly 80 years, this stumpy catcher was the only man from the Hawaiian island of Maui to make it to the majors. Even more curious is that Tony Rego was born during the brief period (1894-1898) when Hawaii was an independent republic. The “active little pepperbox” (as the Los Angeles Times described him) got […]

After the landmark Messersmith-McNally decision was handed down by arbitrator Peter Seitz in December 1975, the California Angels quickly engaged in what some pundits referred to as “checkbook baseball,” a process in which financially well-off teams like the Angels and the New York Yankees sought to bolster their rosters by bidding for the best free […]

Before he ever threw a pitch in the major leagues, Marino Pieretti had already experienced more challenges than most big-leaguers face in their entire career. A high school team reject, minor-league afterthought, serious injury survivor, and a risky contract holdout—his journey was anything but ordinary. How did a 5-foot-7, Italian-born pitcher, overlooked at every turn […]

The Buffalo Buffeds1 were already 10 weeks into their first season,2 but along with other members of the upstart Federal League, they were still trying to fortify their respective lineups with players willing to walk away from their American and National League teams and “jump” to contracts in the Federal League.  One of the prime […]

The iconic main entry of Ebbets Field was located at the intersection of Sullivan Place and Cedar Street (later renamed McKeever Place). (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)   On an October afternoon in the 1950s, while the Dodgers prepared for the first game of the World Series, an elderly man walked into Ebbets Field. On the surface […]

The Polo Grounds, an odd name for an odd stadium, was home to several baseball teams, most notably the New York Giants until the team moved to San Francisco following the 1957 season. Its horseshoe-shaped grandstand and elongated playing area provided for ridiculously short distances down the foul lines and equally ridiculous long distances to […]

For three consecutive seasons in the late 1880s, the Brooklyn Grays/Bridegrooms of the major league American Association relocated their home games from their grounds at Washington Park to a newly opened venue: Ridgewood Park II, originally known as Wallace’s Ridgewood Park or Grounds. The reason was straightforward: Ridgewood was located in Queens, where state blue […]

This article was originally published in SABR’s The National Pastime, Vol. 19, in 1999.   The whole history leading up to Jackie Robinson has usually been that an electric light went on in the head of the noble Branch Rickey one morning and he ended baseball discrimination.” As the lean, white-haired Lester Rodney speaks in […]

New York Giants manager John McGraw, left, and team owner Charles Stoneham in the early 1920s. (NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME LIBRARY)   INTRODUCTION The New York-San Francisco Giants baseball club is among the most storied franchises in the annals of professional sport. To fans, mention of the club’s name promptly evokes images of Willie […]