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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 […]

It sounds like a parody of Popeye, but the doctor was deadly serious when he told Oscar Melillo in 1926 that if he wanted to live he could eat nothing but spinach. Facing a potentially fatal kidney problem (Bright’s Disease), the 27-year-old Melillo wisely followed the doctor’s remedy and recovered from the disease, enabling him […]

Controversy and contrast defined Scott Perry’s brief major-league career. In 1918, his first full season, the Boston Braves and Philadelphia Athletics battled for his services, exposing the increasing inability of Organized Baseball to govern itself in the pre-commissioner era. Philadelphia retained Perry, and he produced a memorable rookie effort, becoming one of only seven pitchers […]

The leading member of the 1947 Yankees’ catchers-by-committee group, Aaron Robinson was behind the plate in seventy-four games, more than any of his fellow backstops. But perhaps his most important role that season was helping groom his eventual successor, future Hall of Famer Yogi Berra. Aaron Andrew Robinson was born on June 23, 1915, in […]

Andy Karl was one of those ballplayers who were able to benefit by the departure of many established ballplayers during the Second World War. He broke into Organized Baseball in 1937, playing for the Boston Red Sox affiliate in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Karl was a right-handed pitcher who stood 6-feet-1 and weighed 175 pounds. […]

In 2019 Justin Verlander led the major leagues with 223 innings pitched. His workload was less than half of the post-1900 major league record 464 innings by Ed Walsh in 1908. And it was less than one-third of the all-time mark — 680 innings by Will White in 1879. It is hard to imagine a […]

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 […]

In 1970 sportswriter Ted Blackman quipped, “If John Bateman bought a pumpkin farm, they’d cancel Halloween.”[fn]“Hustling Bateman Frets in Hospital Bed,” The Sporting News, April 18, 1970, 24.[/fn] The luckless reference was to the cursed timing of a kidney injury that hospitalized the Montreal Expos starting catcher two days before the start of the 1970 […]

“Crooked Arm” Cremins faced 24 batters in the major leagues and four of them scored. The lefty pitcher from just outside New York had already met Albert Einstein when he was taken under the wing of Hall of Fame pitcher Iron Man Joe McGinnity. He faced Babe Ruth, had a long career connected with boxing, […]

Russ Kemmerer pitched a one-hit shutout in his first major-league start, on July 18, 1954, at Fenway Park, leading the Boston Red Sox to a 4-0 win over the Baltimore Orioles. Deprived of a no-hitter in the seventh inning when Sam Mele’s fly ball to left field eluded the outstretched glove of Ted Williams, the […]

Of all the factors that influenced the development of baseball in its infancy, perhaps the most overlooked is the Great Irish Potato Famine. The famine compelled hundreds of thousands of Irish to immigrate to the United States in the middle of the nineteenth century, including the parents of future Hall of Famers John McGraw, Mike […]

A ballplayer can practice his swing, his curveball, or how he charges a bunt. Nobody practices an unassisted triple play. It’s a fluke, rarer than a perfect game. “That was one of the easiest plays I ever made,” Glenn Wright said. “I couldn’t help it.” Wright’s fluke came on May 7, 1925, when he was […]

Between the two of them, the baseball-playing Bender brothers embodied much of the popular turn-of-the-century American Indian stereotype, both positive and negative. Tall, dignified, and stoic, Charles “Chief” Bender epitomized the Noble Savage. He was also one of the finest pitchers of the Deadball Era. Never the staff workhorse, Chief Bender was manager Connie Mack’s […]

Right-handed reliever Don Newhauser joined the Boston Red Sox during the pennant drive in 1972. He contributed a 4-2 half-season, with a very good ERA, but appeared only briefly in the two subsequent years. “Newy” was born in Miami on November 7, 1947, the only child of Donald Louis Newhauser Sr. and Ann Sesso. “My […]

Eddie McGah’s first visit to Fenway Park was on June 22, 1939. He was there at the invitation of the Boston Red Sox, who gave him a number 15 jersey. He was just 17 at the time, but had made the three-day train trip across the country to join the team and get a feel […]

Throughout his minor league career, pitcher Lou Polchow was a notoriously slow starter, struggling with his control and effectiveness until the weather warmed. When he failed to round into shape in the spring of 1911, there were claims that he was “an indifferent sort of fellow”1 and, “not in the best of condition.”2 No one […]

Had he possessed the batting ability of his older brother John, Gil Hatfield might well have become a late 19th-century major league star. A natural athlete, Gil was blessed with good hands, a strong and accurate throwing arm, ample foot speed, and an abundance of baseball smarts. On top of that, he was both versatile […]

The Triple-A Rochester Red Wings’ home opener against the Richmond Braves on April 22, 1971, brought together some baseball names on their way up, others on their way out – and one caught intriguingly in the middle. The future stars on the rise included Rochester’s Don Baylor and Bobby Grich and Richmond’s Darrell Evans, who […]

He was such a green recruit that a hometown newspaper did not even know his name. Misidentified as “Nichols” by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Browns’ George Nicol made his major-league debut by holding the visiting Philadelphia Athletics hitless in a wild 21-2 victory called after seven innings because of darkness, though the real reason […]

When the New York Giants visited Philadelphia’s Baker Bowl to begin a three-game series with the Phillies on May 31, 1923, the two teams were polar opposites. Since 1917 the Giants had posted winning records, having finished first three times and no worse than second place and winning the World Series in 1921 and 1922. […]

It was almost November, but Rube Foster‘s 1920 Chicago American Giants were still at it, and taking on Jack Quinn, the spitballing 18-game winner for that season’s New York Yankees. The owner-manager’s team and, indeed, Foster’s league, the Negro National League of Colored Base Ball Professionals (NNL), did not survive and thrive by avoiding challenges. […]

“[Missoula right fielder] Hugh Campbell jumped into the river after Scander’s long hit in the first inning. He fielded the ball back in time to throw Scander out at home.” — Anaconda Standard, July 1, 1901   The Montana State League, formed in 1900, lasted only a year. Its teams represented the state’s most populous […]

St. Louis held its collective breath when reports emerged at the beginning of 1943 season that pitcher Mort Cooper’s right elbow was aching. To call Cooper an integral part of the Redbirds was an understatement. In what was then arguably the best season ever by a Cardinals pitcher, Cooper won the NL MVP award in […]

This article was originally published in SABR’s The National Pastime, Vol. 15 (1995).   The 25th Infantry Regiment baseball team, c. 1918. (JERRY MALLOY)   The 25th Regiment of United States Infantry was one of four African-American Regular Army units cre­ated after the Civil War, the others being the 24th Infantry, and the 9th and […]