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Player, coach, manager, scout – such was the lot of a baseball lifer in the first half of the twentieth century. Dutch Zwilling, with more than 60 years in baseball, filled all of those roles and many more. From the early days of the nascent American League to the cusp of free agency, Zwilling was […]
From 1922 to 1938, middle infielder Hal Rhyne went back and forth from the San Francisco Seals to the Pittsburgh Pirates, and back and forth from the Seals to the Boston Red Sox. Rhyne was the starting shortstop for the Red Sox from 1929 through 1931 and the first half of the 1932 season. He […]
“It’ll be kinda tough to do a story on me,” Don Lenhardt once said, “because I lead an ordinary life. Nothing really exciting ever happened to me.”1 For literally millions of people, of course, the opportunity to get a time at-bat in one baseball game would be pretty exciting, even if they were to strike […]
A wild southpaw, Fred Besana spent the first month of the 1956 season with the Baltimore Orioles, appearing in seven games and winning one of his two starts. Besana also played parts of eight seasons in the minors and starred in semipro leagues around four years of Air Force service. Frederick Cyril Besana was born […]
In his first year in the big leagues, center fielder Denny Sullivan played in three games for the Washington Senators, and in his last year in the big leagues he played in three games for the Cleveland Naps. In between, he played in 245 games for the Boston Americans/Red Sox. He missed most of a […]
Mike McNally emerged from the gritty Lackawanna Valley before World War I to fashion a half-century career in baseball. A deft, light-hitting utility infielder, he played 10 seasons in the big leagues, twice scored spectacularly in the World Series, and went on to become a popular manager, scout, and front-office executive. Along the way, irrepressible […]
In his debut as manager of the Atlanta Braves on August 9, 1966, Billy Hitchcock sent 27-year-old left-hander Denny Lemaster to the mound against one of the greatest pitchers of all time, future Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax. Before what then the largest crowd at Atlanta Stadium (52,270), Lemaster was every bit the equal of […]
The announcement came from the umpire’s megaphone – “McCarthy now replacing Rawlings at second base” – at the start of the bottom half of the eighth inning in the final game of the 1921 season at Ebbets Field. Manager John McGraw of the New York Giants was giving his starters a rest in this regular […]
One of the greatest pitchers in 19th-century major-league baseball, Tim Keefe won 342 games and still ranks among the top ten pitchers in lifetime victories. He was known for his change-of-pace pitch, which he used to establish a still-standing major-league record of 19 consecutive victories in 1888. “No more graceful, skillful and strategic pitcher ever […]
When 21-year-old Charlie Beamon debuted for the Baltimore Orioles on September 26, 1956, he became the youngest of the majors’ 15 pitchers of color since Jackie Robinson integrated the sport in 1947.1 The righthander throttled the mighty Yankees, 1-0, with a complete game, but earned only two more victories in his three-year (1956-1958) big league […]
“There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer,” said the greatest player of his time, or most any other time — Honus Wagner. He may be the greatest player in National League history. One of five sons and four daughters of the former Katrina Wolf and Peter Wagner, Honus (a diminutive of […]
From playing in the schoolyards and sandlots of St. Louis to scoring the winning run in Game Seven of the World Series; from wearing the “tools of ignorance” to holding the title of general manager; from to being a short, skinny, 19-year-old rookie to being special assistant to the Commissioner of Baseball, Muddy Ruel wore […]
A graduate of Colgate University, Walter Hammond excelled as a multi-sport athlete while earning his Bachelor of Sciences degree. His first professional sports action came when he joined the touring Oswego Indians basketball team as a forward. In addition to playing basketball, Hammond served as an instructor of athletics and head basketball coach at his […]
The late-19th century hurler known as Roscoe Coughlin on the West Coast and Bill Coughlin most everywhere else possessed all the attributes seemingly required for success in the major leagues: good stuff, command of the strike zone, pitching intelligence, a durable arm, and temperate habits. And he was a consistent winner in the high minors, […]
Right-handed pitcher Roy Wilkinson reached the pinnacle of his modest baseball career in only his second major-league game. A capable seven-year minor-league veteran, Wilkinson had been acquired by the Chicago White Sox late in the 1919 pennant chase to provide some respite for a strained pitching corps. Given a September start against the Philadelphia A’s, […]
The date was May 27, 1944, and as left-handed starter Stan Partenheimer toed the mound and prepared to deliver his first major-league pitch, he might have paused for a moment to consider his surroundings. Only 1,408 fans dotted the stands of St. Louis’s Sportsman’s Park that Saturday afternoon, as Partenheimer’s fifth-place Red Sox faced the […]
Hugh Miller was a quiet man with a penchant for strife. His life was a constant seesaw ride—minor-league phenom, big-league flop, decorated war hero, hobbled veteran. His lows were lengthy and commonplace, his highs brief and extraordinary. Miller, born in St. Louis on December 22, 1886, was the second of four sons of John and […]
Fans often remember the ends of seasons more readily than the beginnings. What is often associated with the beginnings of the 1975 season for the Cincinnati Reds is that on Saturday, May 17, 1975, the Reds stood at 19-19 and in second place 5½ games behind the rival Los Angeles Dodgers and just a half-game […]
The 1984 Cubs drove to National League East glory after years of mediocrity and nearly four decades without a postseason appearance. Three Cubs integral to the upswing – second baseman Ryne Sandberg, left fielder Gary Matthews, and pitcher Rick Sutcliffe – placed capstones on their respective outstanding seasons in Chicago’s 4-1 division-clinching win in Pittsburgh […]
Eight teams made up the American Association at the beginning of the 1891 season,1 and eight teams were around at the end, but they were not the same eight teams. The Cincinnati Kelly’s Killers, managed by Mike “King” Kelly,2 began the season in the mix but played their final game on August 16, as ownership […]
Two first-place American League teams clashed for the first time in 2001 when the Seattle Mariners battled the Minnesota Twins in Minneapolis on May 22. The AL West Division’s Mariners, who held an 11-game advantage over the second-place Oakland Athletics with a 32-11 record, were paced by their 27-year-old rookie leadoff hitter, Ichiro Suzuki. A […]
Miguel Cabrera’s list of accolades is long. His manager in 2022, A.J. Hinch, said it best, “I’ve tried to remind our players that we’re playing with a living legend.”1 A native of Maracay, Venezuela, Cabrera was the first Venezuelan and seventh player born outside the continental United States to reach the 3,000-hit plateau.2 He was […]
The Brooklyn Bridegrooms routed the Pittsburgh Alleghenys 20-1 in the darkness-shortened second game of a National League doubleheader on August 1, 1890. In the blowout, Brooklyn’s Thomas P. “Oyster” Burns became just the fourth player in major-league history to hit for a natural cycle, recording a single, double, triple, and home run in ascending order. […]
On July 13, 1953, officials from the Cotton States League and its eight teams were enjoying cocktails and dinner at the Willow Room in Hot Springs, Arkansas, prior to the annual all-star game scheduled for that evening. The festive occasion was interrupted when a United States marshal arrived to serve papers in a $50,000 civil […]