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One can statistically evaluate with some degree of accuracy the worth of a baseball player to his team. However, sometimes a player stands out because of characteristics that inspire his teammates and draws the admiration and respect of fans. Eddie “The Brat” Stanky was one of those. Stanky was a gritty, scrappy player, not gifted […]

On a road trip in 1954 with the Philadelphia Phillies, Stan Lopata, called “Big Stash” in the press and Lop by his teammates, was having trouble making contact with the ball. He and his roommate on the Phillies, outfielder Johnny Wyrostek, had just finished eating breakfast at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. While Lopata […]

He established his “Touch ’Em All” call for home runs in New York and had it resonate with fans in his first year at Minnesota, when the Twins won the World Series in 1987. John Gordon had also broadcast for a world championship team in Baltimore, in 1970, joining Chuck Thompson and Bill O’Donnell in […]

Southpaw pitcher Pete Dowling made his major-league debut with the Louisville Colonels on July 17, 1897, just two days after his 21st birthday, and two days before Honus Wagner played his first game with the Colonels. Louisville acquired the two in separate transactions, Dowling from Paducah, Kentucky, of the Central League for pitcher Jim Jones […]

Red Shannon is one of the 53 players who played for both the Boston Braves and the Boston Red Sox. His career embraced five consecutive years in the American League, bookended by two disconnected years in the National, first for the Braves and later with the Cubs. Shannon’s debut was with the Braves, in the […]

He grew up in a small Nebraska town with a high school that did not field a baseball team. He signed professionally with an organization that notoriously signed hundreds of prospects with the expectation that such quantity would yield quality. Yet Johnny Hopp diligently overcame these obstacles to carve out a successful 14-year career in […]

Johnny Lazor was a ten-year veteran of the minor leagues and a wartime major-league outfielder for the Boston Red Sox, playing for four seasons from 1943 through 1946. Why he never appeared in the ‘46 World Series is a matter of conjecture, but there appear to have been a couple of good reasons. He was […]

A speedy outfielder, Ollie Pickering had three separate stints in the major leagues (1896-1897, 1901-1904, and 1907-1908) during which he fashioned a .272 batting average over nearly 900 games. A baseball “lifer,” Pickering was managing, and still sometimes playing, in the minor leagues well into his fifties. Ollie developed a reputation for somewhat eccentric behavior. […]

George Carey, who skipped around professional baseball like a well-thrown rock across a pond, spent four seasons in the major leagues during his professional baseball tenure. Traversing the country from Minneapolis to Memphis in the minor leagues, Carey bracketed his career from 1892 to 1911 — the inauguration years for basketball and the Indianapolis 500, […]

While the honor of having the sweetest swing in baseball may seem like it’s a subjective one, few would disagree that Ken Griffey Jr. possessed the sweetest swing there ever was. He was a natural, and his inborn abilities coupled with his youthful enthusiasm ignited an entire city’s passion for baseball. Behind the center-field wall […]

Baseball teams rely on their stars and regulars to make the greatest impact. Of course, backups also play important roles, giving starters a rest and filling in when injuries occur. Oscar Boone assumed the role of second-string catcher behind future Hall of Famer Roy Campanella for the Baltimore Elite Giants in 1939 after Biz Mackey […]

A promising young left-hander, Carney Flynn flunked three National League pitching auditions during the mid-1890s. Despite the brevity of his tenure, Flynn still managed to establish two enduring major league standards for pitching ineptitude: most baserunners allowed per nine innings (24.65), and highest ERA for anyone who pitched more than 30 innings (11.27).1 But on […]

“Gus Weyhing is one of the swiftest pitchers in the business. He is, comparatively speaking, a small man and his appearance gives no indication of the muscular power necessary to manipulate the ball at the speed with which he delivers it.”1 The 145-pound Weyhing was a true rabble rouser, often as mischievous off the field […]

The first big stage that Grant Gillis appeared on was in Pasadena on the first day of January in 1926. He was the starting right halfback for the University of Alabama — the Crimson Tide – facing the University of Washington Huskies in the Rose Bowl. It was the first appearance of a Southern team […]

One of the most remarkable characteristics of Goodwin “Goody” Rosen is that the diminutive former National League All-Star spent the entirety of his career drawing strength from his identity as “the other” in baseball. On the one hand, Rosen was a Jew, one of only 25 Jews to play in the major leagues during the […]

When Jackie Robinson debuted with the Montreal Royals on April 18, 1946, he became the first Black player to appear in what was then known as Organized Baseball in nearly 47 years. Canadians feel a special connection to Robinson because of his year spent in Montreal. What many Canadians don’t know is that they have […]

One of the most unlikely pitchers in baseball history among the “One-Win Wonders” must be Clayton King Fauver of the National League Louisville Colonels. On September 7, 1899, at Pittsburgh’s Exposition Park, Fauver, appearing in his only game as a major leaguer, flustered the Pirates by giving up 11 hits and 4 runs (none of […]

If the NBA was as big in the 1940s as it is today, Ernie Andres might have been a star basketball player. He was a guard for Indianapolis in the National Basketball League, a forerunner of the NBA, and in 1974 was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.1 And in 1942, he played […]

Jimmy “Fitz” Fitzpatrick was already known as one of the best athletes in the history of Boston College when he stepped onto the mound at Braves Field on May 9, 1921. His coach, Frank Cavanaugh, called Fitz “the greatest athlete Boston College has ever had,” and added, “I doubt that any has ever done more […]

“The Western Front is now a somber memory of half-filled trenches and grass covered dugouts, where only forgotten ghosts and rain washed crosses remain.”1 “But from the glory of Verdun Colonel Tillinghast Huston of the 16th Engineers, brought back this slogan and rammed it down the throats of his world series ball club: ‘They Shall […]

The race for the American League pennant had tightened considerably. The Boston Red Sox came into the game just 2½ games behind the New York Yankees. It truly was a race. The Red Sox had been 12 games behind on the Fourth of July, seven back at the end of July, and as close as […]

“There is no smarter man in baseball today than Miller Huggins.” — John McGraw1 New York Yankees co-owner Jacob Ruppert realized by mid-August 1917 that the Yankees, mired in a seven-game losing streak, were not going to contend for a championship anytime soon with easygoing manager Bill Donovan leading the team. The Yankees were not […]

Johnny Mize, a country boy from Demorest, Georgia, had been given the nickname of Big Cat because of his defensive prowess, but it was Mize’s offense that made him a star early in his career. Mize had a fine pedigree, being a distant cousin of Ty Cobb and a relation to Babe Ruth through marriage. […]

On the afternoon of April 20, 1886, some 3,500 fans gathered in Eclipse Park to see if the homestanding Louisville Colonels could capture a third straight victory in the season-opening series against the visiting Cincinnati Reds. Hometown hopes were pinned on promising youngster Tom “Toad” Ramsey, a left-handed fireballer with a “puzzling drop curve.”1 But […]