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Right-handed pitcher Jason Johnson overcame a diagnosis of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus as a youth to forge an 11-year major-league career during which he became the first ballplayer to wear an insulin pump on the field of play. Jason Michael Johnson was born on October 27, 1973, in Santa Barbara, California, to John and Deanna Johnson. […]
As 2019 drew to a close, Don Hasenmayer was one of 23 surviving major-leaguers to have served in World War II. In May 1945, the 18-year-old infielder squeezed in five major-league games for the Philadelphia Phillies before joining the United States Navy. He collected a pair of base hits– both singles — in 18 at-bats […]
Right-hander Al Yeargin’s first game in the big leagues was at the Polo Grounds on Sunday afternoon, October 1, 1922. Working for the Boston Braves, he started the second game of a doubleheader against the reigning World Series champion New York Giants. The Giants had already clinched the 1922 National League pennant and held a […]
George “Bo” Strickland was the starting shortstop on the 1954 Cleveland Indians team that won the American League pennant and compiled one of baseball’s finest records ever, 111-43. He went hitless (0-for-9) in that season’s World Series, the only one he ever played in, as the Indians were swept by the New York Giants. Strickland […]
Before Pedro Martinez arrived, scout Danny Doyle could laugh that he had signed every Red Sox Cy Young winner: Jim Lonborg and Roger Clemens. In 1988, Danny Doyle was named Midwest Scout of the Year by the Scout of the Year Foundation. Danny Doyle was a catcher, called up to the major leagues right at […]
There are many quotes regarding the importance of living life. Just look it up on the internet; it’s a fact! One such quote is “It is not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts.” That quote is attributed to Abraham Lincoln … and Adlai Stevenson … and Dr. Edward […]
Thirty men registered plate appearances for the 2004 Boston Red Sox, but one of the biggest contributors to the offensive juggernaut did not face a single pitch. Had it not been for the December 27, 2002, announcement of Ron “Papa Jack” Jackson as the team’s new hitting coach, Boston’s stunning rise to the zenith of […]
The deep and talented farm system developed by General Manager Branch Rickey began to pay dividends when the St. Louis Cardinals won the National League pennant in 1930 and the following year won 101 games and captured the World Series. The team was expected to be even stronger in 1932 because the organization’s top three […]
Don Gile was a catcher and first baseman for the Boston Red Sox who, almost exactly two years to the day after Ted Williams did it, hit a home run in his final at-bat in the major leagues. Unlike Williams’ home run, Gile’s won the game in a walkoff. The date was September 30, 1962, […]
The appellation applied by baseball to turn-of-the-century right-hander George Lewis Cross was largely a matter of time and place. When he entered professional ranks in 1891 with a team from his hometown of Manchester, New Hampshire, he was called Lew Cross, the name that he had grown up with. During mid-1890s tours of duty with […]
On the evening of September 21, 1964, the Philadelphia Phillies’ Art Mahaffey was pitching a gem of a baseball game. In the top of the sixth inning it was a scoreless duel in between Mahaffey and the Cincinnati Reds’ John Tsitouris at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. With two outs, 25-year-old Reds rookie Chico Ruiz […]
Left-handed pitcher Charlie Boardman was one of many forgettable ballplayers who had a “cup of coffee” in the major leagues. Boardman pitched in just seven major-league games, with two different teams over three seasons (1913-1915). There is nothing remarkable about Charlie’s major-league record. But like so many other ballplayers, he had a long and colorful […]
“I have never seen a pitcher like him, and I have caught some of the best in the business.” – Frank Duncan1 “That Rogan can beat you, even when you pitch around him.” – Candy Jim Taylor2 How good was Bullet Rogan, also known as Bullet Joe Rogan? If the baseball gods were kind, […]
Alfred L. Shaw’s parents James and Annie (Beech) Shaw emigrated to America around 1880. This was almost 40 years after the famous Pottery Riots of 1842, emerging from a general strike that year in the Stoke-on-Trent area of England. Coal-mine owners were trying to impose wage cuts on their workers. The resultant organization of workers […]
No compilation of baseball’s all-time top left-handed pitchers is complete without Whitey Ford. Indeed, he is near or at the top of any worthwhile list. His 236 wins made him the winningest pitcher in the storied history of the New York Yankees. He incurred only 106 defeats, giving him a lifetime winning percentage of .690, […]
One can sensibly argue that Hugh Mulcahy was one of the hardest-luck pitchers in baseball history. At first glance a pitcher with a 45-89 career record and a lifetime earned-run average of 4.49, one who was twice the league leader in losses, is not exactly a player one thinks of as a victim of bad […]
Dick Siebert seemed destined for a life as a Lutheran minister but instead devoted more than 50 years of his life to the game of baseball. Stuck in the minor leagues as a player, he finally got a chance at the big leagues when Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis and Philadelphia Athletics owner/manager Connie Mack […]
A Deadball Era outfielder, Frank Delahanty rated middle-of-the-pack among the ballplaying Delahanty brothers. The accomplishments of his six-year major league career were decidedly modest. Frank was little more than a journeyman, nowhere near the player that his Hall of Fame brother Ed had been. Nor was Frank in the same baseball class as his brother […]
Nearing the midway point of the 1900 season, Noodles Hahn made history by shutting out one of baseball’s most potent offenses without allowing a base hit. Hahn, a 5-foot-9, 160-pound left-hander with the Cincinnati Reds, blanked the Philadelphia Phillies on July 12, prompting the Cincinnati Enquirer to report, “No-hit games have been pitched before, but […]
Jackie Robinson once said that Emil John “Dutch” Leonard’s knuckleball “comes up, makes a face at you, then runs away.”1 On May 28, 1946, the New York Yankees had trouble with the Washington Senators knuckler’s elusive pitch in a 2-1 loss. Leonard may have had a little help that night, though, because the Bronx Bombers […]
There was no love lost between the Orioles and Royals in the aftermath of Kansas City’s sweep of the 2014 American League Championship Series. Despite their four straight victories, the series was anything but a cakewalk for the Royals, with two of the games being decided by one run and the other two by a […]
The Oakland A’s ruled the American League from 1988 to 1990, winning 306 regular-season games on their way to three consecutive World Series appearances and the title in 1989. During the first two years of this run, Oakland’s AL West rival Kansas City had two pitchers who had proved to be a thorn in the […]
The Minnesota Twins signed Venezuelan Luis Arráez as an amateur free agent at age 16 in 2013. In seven minor-league seasons, he posted a .331 batting average. He continued to hit for average in the majors, batting .334 as a rookie in 2019 and winning the American League batting crown with a .316 mark in […]
The game between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox on May 28, 2000, was one of the most anticipated regular-season games of that era. As pitching matchups go, it did not get any better. Roger Clemens, the former Red Sox ace, squared off against Pedro Martinez, the current Red Sox ace, in […]