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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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

The Philadelphia Athletics had a veritable lock on first place. A win today, Tuesday, September 15, would produce their 99th victory of the season, a goal reached only five times before in franchise history. The second-place Washington Senators were mathematically still in the hunt. An A’s win coupled with a Senators loss would seal the […]

The month of August had not been kind to the Red Sox. They had lost nine of 13 games, including a walk-off loss to the Indians the night before on a Carlos Santana home run. At 63-59, they were third in the AL East, 17 games back of the Yankees. For their part, the Indians […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

Al Richter had a memorable debut, though it wasn’t the kind anyone would want to remember: He was asked to pinch-hit for Les Moss in the bottom of the ninth inning. It was September 23, 1951, facing the New York Yankees. Richter hit into a double play. The Red Sox lost the game, 6-1, to […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

During the 1892 season while playing for St. Louis, Cliff Carroll had the misfortune of being fined by the club when a ball inadvertently rolled into his pocket. The incident, which occurred in the sixth inning on August 17 of that season, was his major claim to fame, although in his time he was a […]

Chick Fraser spent his entire life in baseball as a pitcher, coach, scout, and minor-league manager, and though his playing career wasn’t especially successful it was certainly unique. He went 175-212 over 14 seasons, lost at least 20 games in a season five times, including three straight from 1904-1906, and ranks second all-time with 219 […]

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 […]

In his April 27, 2014, major-league debut, righty Scott Carroll tied the Chicago White Sox record for the longest initial outing by one of its pitchers: 7⅓ innings, last established by Gerry Janeski in 1970. After a dubious start to his major-league career – four hits and a hit-by-pitch to his first six batters – […]