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Pumpsie Green holds two places in Boston Red Sox history – one well-known and eternal, the other obscure and perishable. The switch-hitting infielder, born Elijah Jerry Green, is remembered as the Red Sox’ first Black player, integrating the major leagues’ last segregated team on July 21, 1959. He played in 327 games in four seasons […]

In the words of Stan Musial, “If I hadn’t come up to the Cardinals in the fall of 1941 and hit so hard, I’m convinced I would have been sent down in the spring of 1942 because I hit so softly.”1 Musial, the rookie most discussed in baseball circles, started slowly in spring training in […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates and Cincinnati Reds split the first four games in the best-of-five 1972 National League Championship Series. The defending World Series champion Pirates had cruised to the Eastern Division title with a regular-season record of 96-59, 11 games ahead of the second-place Cubs. The Reds (95-59), who had defeated the Pirates in the […]

Tampa Bay was struggling to stay in the playoff picture as the 2017 season wound down. After winning their final game in Boston, the Rays were supposed to head home for a crucial series against the Yankees. But Hurricane Irma altered those plans and the Rays were forced to play three “home games” against the […]

The New York Mets and Cincinnati Reds faced off in Game Two of the best-of-five National League Championship Series on October 7, 1973, at Cincinnati’s Riverfront Stadium. The first game had been a heartbreaker for the Mets. Tom Seaver went the distance but lost when Johnny Bench hit a game-winning home run in the bottom […]

Derek Jeter entered the 2011 season 74 hits shy of becoming the first player to reach the 3,000-hit milestone while wearing a New York Yankees uniform. Based on his career tendencies,1 it looked as if Jeter would reach that mark during New York’s homestand between June 7 and 16, and sure enough, he entered the […]

The Angels came into the August 29 game with an AL West-leading record of 71-56. Three weeks before, they had lost three straight and saw their four-game lead shrink to 1½ games. But now they had won four games in a row and 15 of 22, and were back in front by 4½. The Tigers, […]

Even by the Chicago Cubs’ deep-rooted standards of frustration, the second inning of the Cubs-Brooklyn Robins game of May 12, 1915, was one to forget. The Cubs committed four errors and a passed ball in the inning, helping the Robins to five runs and an early 7-1 lead at Ebbets Field. The home team cruised […]

With Pennsylvania law still barring Sunday baseball,1 the Pittsburgh Pirates scheduled two games against the Washington Senators2 for Saturday, May 30, 1896, at Exposition Park.3 It was the first doubleheader of the season for both clubs, and a huge crowd was expected. The sixth-place Pirates (17-13) were looking to climb in the standings at the […]

The woman took her seat in the fourth row of the grandstand in the crowded ballpark. She had purchased her ticket at the last moment and she was unrecognized as she sat among the patrons in a crowded Milwaukee County Stadium.  Later on that evening, Mrs. Henry Aaron would cover her face with her hands […]

Phil Morrison’s baseball career is indelibly connected to that of his older brother Johnny, known as Jughandle because of his quick-dropping curveball. Johnny’s glowing recommendation led directly to the professional baseball career of Phil, who was three years younger. Just as Johnny started out with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1920, Phil began pitching for his […]

“Pitchers by the name of Fitzgerald are becoming confusingly numerous,” grumbled Sporting Life in late July 1891.1 Occasioning the baseball weekly’s consternation was likely the recent acquisition of pitcher John Fitzgerald by the Boston Reds of the major league American Association. Simultaneously pitching elsewhere in major or high minor league baseball were Fitzgeralds named Warren […]

Don Gutteridge always said he had a wonderful life. He was married to his wife, Helen, for 74 years. In his latter years, she was bedridden, but she was always there for him. “She pushed me on to do well,” he said. “She encouraged me and gave me a lot of confidence.”1  His son, Don Jr., […]

Although he was a four-time All-Star with the Boston Braves and respected throughout baseball as an excellent defensive catcher and steady hitter, Phil Masi is best remembered for being part of one of the most controversial plays in World Series history. During the bottom of the eighth inning in Game One of the 1948 Series […]

Harold Wolfe is among the several baseball players from northern Ohio to make it to the big leagues via the minor-league Duluth (Minnesota) White Sox in the second decade of the 20th century. The White Sox player-manager from 1909 to 1916 was Cleveland native Thomas J. “Darby” (aka “Dook”) O’Brien (1876-1964). O’Brien recruited boys from […]

Norris O’Neill, one of three nineteenth-century baseball figures nicknamed Tip, made a name for himself on the West Coast, where he captained the Oakland squad for several years. He played and/or managed in the minors from 1885 to 1899. In his youth, O’Neill was an acclaimed catcher, but after turning pro he tired of the […]

From his debut in the majors to his fifth and final game spanned a mere 11 days in April 1947, despite his getting two hits in that last game. But Frank Strickland Shofner played nine years in the minor leagues. Though both were Texans, Strick Shofner was no known relation to pitcher Milt “Pinky” Shoffner, […]

Right-hander Elmer Singleton pitched professionally for 23 seasons — more than half of them in the Pacific Coast League, where he won 146 games and once carried a no-hitter into the 13th inning. Over parts of eight major league campaigns with the Boston Braves (1945-1946), Pittsburgh Pirates (1947-1948), Washington Senators (1950), and Chicago Cubs (1957-1959), […]

Massachusetts-based contractors Lou Perini, Joseph Maney, and Guido Rugo became majority owners of the Boston Braves baseball club in 1944. In 1947, through a working relationship with Perini, Massachusetts native Joseph Cairnes shifted his career path from construction engineer, in the private and public sectors, to major league baseball administrator with the Braves. Perini, familiar […]

Pitcher Nick Cullop had already turned in two strong seasons in the minors, but it was his performance in Cuba in the fall of 1912 that cemented his reputation. A group of New Orleans Pelicans players augmented with Heinie Groh went to Cuba for a 12-game series. They only won four of them; those were […]

You could say that John Candelaria’s story is a tale of heartbreak, or a tale of unfulfilled promise, or a tale of self-destruction, and you might be right every time. On the other hand, how unlucky can a person be if he managed to pitch in the major leagues for 19 seasons? The Candy Man […]

Alabaman Leo “Lefty” Townsend is not the same Leo Townsend who was once a Hollywood screenwriter and alleged Communist sympathizer in the 1950s.1 Nor is he the same Townsend as Ira “Texas” Townsend, a right-hander who pitched for the Boston Braves in 1920 and 1921. This Leo Townsend pitched in seven games in September 1920 […]

“I didn’t like how my baseball career ended, particularly because I was so young. I won only 19 games total. But I realized how fortunate I was to have made it to the majors. Not many make it. And how many guys who played for many years didn’t get to play in the World Series […]

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the Black Sox Scandal Committee’s December 2023 newsletter. Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey, center left, and American League president Ban Johnson, center right, seen here in 1911, were friends and business partners when they founded the AL together at the turn of the 20th century. Two decades […]