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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. […]

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 […]

Bill McCool was once one of the most promising pitchers in baseball – a teenager with a fastball that was often too much for major leaguers to handle. But bad luck and injuries derailed his career before he turned 25. William John McCool was born on July 14, 1944, to Carl and Dolores McCool. He […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 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 […]

R C Stevens, said one of his minor-league managers, was “capable of breaking up a game anytime he took his bat in hand.” He hit 191 home runs in 12 minor-league seasons, but didn’t meet the test in the major leagues, and played only briefly in four seasons, three of them (including 1960) with the […]

Gene Autry was the kind of man who paid the bills for old friends in their old age, rode in the front seat beside his chauffeur, and showed up in the bar of his resort hotel to lead guests in a sing-along. During his heyday as a singing cowboy, his fans ranged from the obvious […]

In the baseball record books, Bob Neighbors was originally without a date of death but a “date of loss.” Now, most have the August 8, 1952, date of death but provide no indication of where he died. For books or sites that offer information on the place of burial or cremation, there is often a […]

Charles Bernard Lear, a pioneering knuckleballer for the Cincinnati Reds, was born on January 23, 1891, in Greencastle, Pennsylvania. He was Frank and Mary Lear’s first-born child; his sister Mildred followed nine years later. Frank Lear worked in the metal trades, with his census professions indicated as moulder and tinner. Greencastle, a small borough nestled […]

When former Boston Red Sox owner Harry Frazee died on June 4, 1929, Red Sox president Bob Quinn ordered that the American flag at Fenway Park be flown at half-staff in his memory. In the many obituaries that appeared in Boston newspapers at the time, most noted that during Frazee’s tenure the Red Sox won […]

Arguably one of the slowest runners in baseball, Edward Frank Burtschy earned the nickname “Molasses Shoe,” or “Moe” for short. The bulky 6’3”, 208-pound hurler may have tarried on the base path but the hard throwing righty, in the vernacular, could bring it. The problem was where. Blessed with a blazing fastball and cursed that […]

In the late 1940s, Dick Fowler was one of the American League’s top pitchers. He tossed 61 complete games between 1946 and 1949 — only three AL pitchers threw more ­— and posted back-to-back 15-win seasons despite an aching shoulder.1 He played in an era when sore-armed hurlers were expected to keep throwing.2 That’s exactly […]

Although most people familiar with Jean Cione knew her as a longtime professor of sports medicine and director of women’s athletics at Eastern Michigan University, she also had an earlier career as a standout player in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL). Cione primarily pitched and played first base for five teams between 1945 […]

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 […]