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When it comes to nicknames, there is no shortage in baseball. While there are plenty of “Kids” and “Rubes” such as Kid Baldwin or Rube Foster, other nicknames are more baseball specific like Home Run Baker or Lefty Williams. Still others are based on the player’s geographic place of birth like “California” William Brown or […]

Billy Sorrell was the type of player scouts coveted: a 6-foot, 190-pound left-handed hitter with power and speed who could play both infield and outfield. Legendary scout Tony Lucadello tracked and signed Sorrell for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1959. Sorrell was a good batsman, often clutch, who played 14 professional seasons from 1960 until 1973, […]

This outfielder was the first member of the Lumbee people of Robeson County, North Carolina, to play in the majors. Throughout his playing days, Gene Locklear’s skill as an artist also got attention. “They are both individual things, and you have to have talent. You can’t just have desire,” Locklear said in 2005.1 One of […]

For Nick Polly, his big-league debut came early. He played in 10 games for the 1937 Brooklyn Dodgers at the age of 20. Then, seven years later, he appeared in four games for the 1945 Boston Red Sox. That was it. He was a right-handed third baseman of Polish descent, who stood 5-foot-11 and weighed […]

Of Scottish ancestry, John Menefee, like many Scotsmen of immigrant families who were baptized with the forename John, was nicknamed Jock early in life. He had a younger brother Tom, a catcher-outfielder two years his junior, who preceded him in pro ball by a year and spent all or part of some 10 seasons in […]

His story is typical of many pitchers in the early history of the game. A blazing fastball provided an opportunity to escape a life of working the local coal mines. But wildness and constant conflicts with team management over his salary limited him to just ten major league games. His talent allowed him to pitch […]

It is the stuff of dreams. Coming to bat with the bases loaded, representing the lead run. Stan Johnson, in just his ninth major-league at-bat, was in that position. Little did he know that it would be his last major-league at-bat. Perhaps had he not hit into a rally-killing double play, he would have had […]

Bill Shettsline must have been delighted. Peering through a knothole in a fence around a baseball park, the Philadelphia Phillies business manager was getting a chance to scout a left-handed pitcher who was making headlines in the semipro leagues around Philadelphia. And he was doing it without leaving the confines of the city. The only […]

During the first decade of the Deadball Era, the Chicago Cubs boasted eight different pitchers who posted 20-win seasons for the club.1 Perhaps the least known of them is Bob Wicker, a strapping 26-year-old right-hander who went 20-9 in 1903. Unhappily for Wicker, he was traded to Cincinnati early in the 1906 campaign, thus missing […]

Any pitcher who strikes out more than 450 batters in a single season is going to attract attention. Left-hander Bill Kennedy is credited as having struck out 456 in 280 innings of work for the Rocky Mount Rocks in 1946.1 Yes, it was Class-D baseball, but it was still quite an accomplishment. He was the […]

Andy Coakley is remembered most as “Lou Gehrig’s coach” in his 37 years as head of Columbia University’s baseball program. But this overlooks his extensive influence on the game. Once a promising right-hander with Connie Mack’s Athletics in the early 20th century, Coakley was also a labor pioneer, a forward-thinking league organizer, a team owner, […]

Right-hander Jimmie LeRoy “Hot Rod” McDonald was undefeated (1-0) as a pitcher for the team that first signed him. He won the only postseason game he ever pitched, Game Five of the 1953 World Series. He had a successful baseball career that ran from 1945 to 1960. McDonald was born in Grants Pass, Oregon, on […]

The year 1959 was Jerry Mallett’s best year in baseball. He had his best year in minor-league baseball and he also had the opportunity to play four games of major-league ball for the Boston Red Sox. Mallett later earned a doctorate and became a successful educator and school administrator, and worked his way up to […]

In the late 1960s and early ’70s, Hal King defined the moniker of journeyman catcher. A left-handed hitter with some pop in his bat, King played for the Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves, Texas Rangers, and Cincinnati Reds for parts of seven seasons. Never quite consistent enough with either bat or glove to keep a starting […]

America loves an underdog. It favors stories of players who weren’t given a chance because they were too small or didn’t have a traditional background, but they pushed and persevered and in the end made the team. Wayne LaMaster’s baseball career isn’t widely remembered today, but it is the classic underdog story of a player […]

Herbert “Babe” Barna was a star football player in college, an end who excelled as a receiver. He had “mercury in his shoes and glue on his finger tips.”1 He starred at football, basketball, and baseball at West Virginia University and received an offer by Bert Bell of the Philadelphia Eagles to play professional football […]

Although his playing days were not without accomplishment, Brooklyn Dodgers outfielder Len Koenecke is remembered only for his bizarre and violent death late in the 1935 season. While aloft in midnight skies, he was beaten to death by the pilot of the six-passenger airplane that a berserk Koenecke had attempted to commandeer in mid-flight. The […]

An adept base stealer known for taking unusually large leads from first base, Wid Conroy used his raw speed and acrobatic skills to earn a reputation as one of the most versatile defensive players of the Deadball Era. During his eleven-year major league career, Conroy played a significant number of games at third base, shortstop, […]

William “Gunner” McGunnigle had a flair for fashion on a baseball field that likely will never be matched. McGunnigle managed and coached the bases wearing black patent-leather shoes, a cutaway suit coat, lavender trousers, a silk tie and a derby hat. “It’s only a good looking man like yours truly who could wear patent leathers […]

Em Lindbeck’s big-league career spanned only two plate appearances. Although unsuccessful in the major leagues, he achieved success in nearly all other areas of his life. Lindbeck was a high school class president, a decorated multisport collegiate athlete, an all-star minor leaguer, an esteemed professional educator, and a public servant. A series of poor decisions […]

By the time he was 21 years old, George Rettger had established himself as a skilled pitcher at the semipro level in his native Cleveland, Ohio. He yearned for a professional career and earned his first pro experience with Akron in the Ohio State League in 1889. The league was formed in August and featured […]

“I’m sure God never meant me to be a ball player,” Taft Wright said. “If he had, I wouldn’t be built so close to the ground and always worrying about my weight and being muscle bound.”1 Sportswriters called him “Fat Wright” and “Round Man.”2 Wright was a born designated hitter — born decades too soon. […]

The New York Giants’ Carl Hubbell had been outstanding in the first five seasons of his big-league career (1928-32).1 But when he tossed a stunning 18-inning shutout against the hard-hitting St. Louis Cardinals in the first game of a pivotal doubleheader on July 2, 1933, it was becoming apparent that the 30-year-old left-handed screwball artist […]

On a muggy July day with intermittent showers looming in the forecast, the fifth-place Brooklyn Tip-Tops took the field against the cellar-dwelling Pittsburgh Rebels at Washington Park. This was the last game of a nearly two-week-long homestand for the Tip-Tops. Brooklyn, like many Federal League teams, had been having trouble drawing fans but fortunately for […]