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For an obscure two-season pitcher, mid-1880s left-hander Cyclone Miller had a disproportionate effect on the major league record book. For example, without Miller and his contribution to the troubles of the 1884 Providence Grays, it is improbable that teammate Hoss Radbourn would have won 60 games that year, the all-time major league single-season record. Nor […]

Had you stopped at the Phillips 66 gas station in Leesburg, Florida sometime in the 1960s or the 1970s, perhaps your gas would have been pumped by former major-league pitcher Frank Barrett. Maybe an oil change? Check your brakes? Maybe you wanted a bite to eat sometime in the middle to late 1950s to the […]

Over four seasons with a Chicago Cubs club that finished no better than fourth and was once dead last, Tony Kaufmann was a reliable starter and occasional reliever. During that stretch, 1923-1926, the righthander had a 52-41 record with a 3.68 ERA. But it was a turbulent 1927 season that shaped the rest of his […]

If the 2009 movie The Blind Side, for which Sandra Bullock received a Best Actress Academy Award, had been released about five years earlier, it might have been called the football version of Dewon Brazelton’s story. The true saga of offensive lineman Michael Oher bears many similarities to Brazelton’s life experiences: Both are African Americans […]

Shortstop Craig Robinson retired with 755 fewer career homers than his Braves teammate Hank Aaron. But only six men can say they joined Aaron in the starting lineup on the nights Hammerin’ Hank tied and broke Babe Ruth’s career home run record. Robinson is one of those special six.1 Craig George Robinson was born on […]

Three days before World War II ended, Philadelphia Phillies scout Fred Mathews convinced the mother of Stephen George Ridzik that she should let her 16-year-old son become a professional baseball player.1 Julia Ridzik agreed to sign the contract, provided that Steve finish his last two years of high school. Thus began a 22-year pitching career […]

It was raining on October 11, a day that Luther Taylor had awaited since he began playing in the major leagues, a chance to start a World Series game. So the game was cancelled. The next day Christy Mathewson would take the mound, to pitch the second of his three shutouts in the 1905 Series. […]

Mike Dorgan was the older brother of major league outfielder Jerry Dorgan, who died at an extremely young age of alcohol poisoning. Both brothers dealt with a severe alcohol problem during their playing days, but Mike eventually won the battle. Michael Cornelius Dorgan was born on October 2, 1853 to Cornelius Joseph Dorgan and Mary […]

Approximately 200 diehard fans returned to a cold and cloudy Ebbets Field on February 23, 1960. Among those present were former players Ralph Branca, Roy Campanella, Carl Erskine, and Tommy Holmes, reminiscing about the glory days in the iconic ballpark — opened in 1913 and vacated following the close of the 1957 season. Attendees sadly […]

A versatile defender who played as a utilityman in both the infield and outfield, Harry Hanebrink played for the two Milwaukee Braves teams that won the National League pennant in the 1950s, one of which won the World Series. He was also part of a much larger team that captured an even more important victory […]

Left-handed reliever Craig Skok pitched for three major-league ballclubs — the Red Sox, the Rangers, and the Braves — during the 1970s, throwing 150 innings in 107 games. He might have had some baseball in his blood. Craig’s father Joe was mistakenly reported at one point as having been a player in the Red Sox […]

April 10, 1962, is an important date in the history of baseball in Houston, Texas. It marked the culmination of years of effort by George Kirksey, Craig Cullinan Jr., Roy Hofheinz, and R.E. “Bob” Smith to bring major-league baseball to Houston. The newly minted Houston Colt .45s played their first official National League game, defeating […]

John William “Windy” McCall grew up about three blocks from Holly Park in San Francisco. He’d bring a bat and a glove and hop in a neighborhood game. “If you didn’t get chosen, then you hung around until someone went home for lunch.” McCall played a year in American Legion ball and a year in […]

“Henry Aaron in the second inning walked and scored. He’s sittin’ on 714. Here’s the pitch by Downing. Swinging. There’s a drive into left-center field! That ball is gonna be … outta here! It’s gone! It’s 715! There’s a new home run champion of all time, and it’s Henry Aaron!”  — Atlanta Braves’ announcer Milo […]

Less than four months after his 19th birthday, Del Crandall became the youngest starting catcher in baseball history when he supplanted 32-year-old Bill Salkeld of the Boston Braves in 1949. Returning to the Milwaukee Braves in 1953 after a two-year tour in the military, Crandall was named to eight All-Star teams during the Braves’ first […]

With two minor-league seasons under his belt and the 1969 Midwest League campaign rapidly approaching, Leo Mazzone, then a starting pitcher with the Decatur Commodores, sought clarity about his short-term pitching prospects. The young hurler split his first two seasons in the San Francisco Giants system, a total of 56 appearances, between the Medford Giants […]

On the very last ball he fielded as a major-league ballplayer, Pete Smith initiated a triple play. It happened in the seventh inning of the Red Sox game against the visiting Los Angeles Angels on September 28, 1963. It was a Saturday afternoon game at Fenway Park. There weren’t many fans in attendance – official […]

Serial retirement has a long tradition in sports. Boxing has produced many serial retirees, aging fighters who swear each fight is their last until the promise of another big payday becomes too much to resist. In the 2000s, no NFL season was complete without the will-he-won’t-he drama surrounding Brett Favre’s retirement. But perhaps the king […]

From manager Don Heffner’s perspective, hurler John Tsitouris drew favorable comparisons to Hall of Famer Red Ruffing because “when you sent him out to the mound, you knew he was going to give you a good job.”1 Splendid likeness for a pitcher with a lifetime 34-38 record. Tsitouris’s tantalizing ability caused teams to continually try […]

Ever since the convention of running the bases counterclockwise was established, sometime between 1834, when informal rules originating from the English game of rounders specified clockwise, and 1857, when the opposite direction was formally codified,1 infield positions beyond first base have been the domain of the right-handed. Able to throw leftward without pirouetting, righties have […]

Pink Hawley’s pitching and Bones Ely’s bases-loaded home run led Pittsburgh1 to a 9-1 win over Cincinnati, capping a three-game sweep in the Pirates’ first homestand of 1897. As 1897 opened, Emerson “Pink” Hawley and Frederick “Bones” Ely were Pirates mainstays. Hawley arrived in a trade with the St. Louis Browns before the 1895 season […]

Had Fred Haney not cared about maintaining his job as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, the story of one of the more improbable starts in major-league history might have turned out differently. “[Haney] said, ‘That’s it, no more – if you hurt your arm, they’ll run me out of town, so go take your shower,’” […]

Exciting, well-played baseball action was in limited supply for fans of the expansion Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres in 1969. The two newcomers to the National League posted identical 52-110 records in their first seasons, finishing a combined 89 games out of first place. Late in the season, though, teams of Expos and Padres […]

In 1997 Todd Helton was one of baseball’s most prominent prospects – and a subject of controversy in the Colorado Rockies’ struggle to sustain their early-expansion success. Mundane matters triggered his big-league debut that summer: one player’s looming disciplinary action, another’s batting slump, and a calf injury to a third. But Helton’s takeover of the […]