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Baltimore native Tommy Thomas signed his first professional baseball contract while still in high school and later became a standout pitcher on one of the greatest minor league teams of all time. The talented tosser went on to flash occasional signs of brilliance during a 12-year stint in the majors. When his pitching career ended, […]

Prospects who don’t fulfill their promise are a dime a dozen throughout baseball history. Boze Berger could be the epitome of that kind of prospect. While his major-league service was not exemplary, Berger had a flexible glove in the field, giving him some value to a few American League teams. After spending three seasons with […]

4,256. 755. 5,714. 511. .366. As baseball has often been described as a game of numbers, fans, reporters, and students of the game would most certainly recognize the preceding list of significant digits. These were the career accomplishments forever linked to the respective immortals Pete Rose, Hank Aaron, Nolan Ryan, Cy Young, and Ty Cobb. To that list, another […]

“The taxi driver, the bartender, the waitress, the man in the street, those are my people,”1 Harry Caray once said. Caray was a larger-than-life figure who loved the game and broadcast it with enthusiasm. He was respected by colleagues for his play-by-play ability but unlike many sportscasters, he never hesitated to editorialize. A typical moment […]

Lou Kretlow displayed outstanding stuff over parts of 10 seasons (1946, 1948-56) with the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Browns, Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles, and Kansas City Athletics. Yet the right-hander finished with a major league record of just 27-47 and walked an average of six batters per nine innings. Late in Kretlow’s career, his […]

The little Hawaiian with the big round glasses had good hands and range, plus just enough pop in his bat to play during 11 major-league seasons. A second baseman by trade, Lenn Sakata also saw a good bit of action at shortstop. It is often noted that in May 1982, he was the last Baltimore […]

Underappreciated in his late-19th-century heyday and largely forgotten for decades thereafter, Roger Connor was baseball’s first great slugger, the game’s career home-run leader prior to the arrival of Babe Ruth. A fastball-loving left-handed batter, Connor spent virtually every season between 1880 and 1894 among league leaders in a wide array of offensive categories. Over time […]

Wiley Piatt burst onto the major-league scene in 1898 with the Philadelphia Phillies. With just one year of minor-league ball on his resume, he tossed over 600 innings the next two seasons and won 47 games while orchestrating 64 complete games. None of those heroics earned him a lasting nickname. That had to wait until […]

José Manuel Morales was a master pinch-hitter. In 1976 he made his big-league reputation with 25 base hits in this role. This single-season record stood until Colorado’s John Vander Wal stroked 28 in 1995; it remained the third best one-year total as the 2013 season ended. Morales — the seventh of 11 men from the […]

As a young player, Jason Giambi advertised his ideals on a T-shirt: “Party Like a Rock Star, Hammer Like a Porn Star, Rake Like an All-Star.”1 Whatever his proclivities toward pleasure seeking, Giambi certainly could “rake” (hit). From 1999 to 2002, Giambi was arguably the second-best player in the American League, accumulating 30 wins above […]

During his lifetime, Col. Frank Leslie Smith (1867-1950) adhered to a simple credo: the ends justified the means. The motto served him well as he built formidable business connections and amassed political clout on local, regional and national stages. By that same measure, it established the framework for his ultimate downfall. But during his youth, […]

Pete Charton’s time in the big leagues was brief; he pitched in 25 games for the Boston Red Sox in 1964. It hadn’t taken him long to get there, having worked just one season in the minors beforehand. He showed considerable promise, but professional baseball did not hold the attraction he had hoped for. Before […]

Remembered for his blazing fastball, Monty Kennedy had an abbreviated minor-league baseball career that was quickly interrupted by military service. Perhaps because of this lack of development time, Kennedy struggled constantly with his control during his time with the Giants and the club eventually ran out of patience with him. However, Kennedy displayed flashes of […]

Juan Pizarro was a talented, durable Puerto Rican pitcher. The lefty pitched in all or part of 18 major-league seasons, starting as a rookie with the 1957 Milwaukee Braves. The Braves rushed him to the big club after one eye-opening season in Class A, yet their very deep pitching staff limited Pizarro’s opportunities. He did […]

The story of baseball in the nation’s capital is interlinked with the career of Arthur P. Gorman, a name unrecognizable to today’s fans. Long before Clark Griffith made his annual trips to the White House to present the Commander-in-Chief with his season’s pass, Gorman actually befriended and entertained the President of the United States and […]

[With research assistance from John Leidy] Ray Fisher has been justly honored for his 38 seasons as head baseball coach at the University of Michigan. He was elected to Michigan’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1959, the American Association of College Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1966, and the University of Michigan Hall of […]

“Dr. Frederick L. Wood, Dentist, Dies Suddenly” announced the London (Ontario) Free Press on November 18, 1935.1 The obituary for the “well-known dentist” amounts to one unassuming paragraph. 2 Surprisingly, it makes no mention of his many and varied accomplishments in sports — including 13 games in major-league baseball in 1884-85 — music, and the […]

Steve Macko died from cancer ten weeks after his 27th birthday, leaving behind a sparse record of 25 games over two seasons with the Chicago Cubs. But the cold cadences of baseball’s official ledger misrepresent his life’s true measure. Macko continued a distinguished family lineage in the game, spearheaded an improbable College World Series bid, […]

Other than Abner Doubleday, perhaps no person associated with the beginnings of baseball is more celebrated yet disputed than Alexander Joy Cartwright Jr. No evidence exists for Abner Doubleday’s having anything to do with baseball. There is, on the other hand, sufficient evidence to connect Cartwright with baseball. However, in light of interviews with other […]

Kid Mohler played more games at second base (2,871) than anyone else in professional baseball history, and he ranks second in bases stolen in the minor leagues (769).1 For two decades he excelled in the minors, including eight seasons with the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League from 1905 to 1912. He captained […]

In Candlestick Park on September 2, 1963, the final nine outs were tallied by closer Lindy McDaniel, insuring the 20th win of the season for the tall Chicago Cubs left-handed starter. This particular win, coming off a 20-loss campaign the preceding year, would etch the youngster’s name with a mere six other hurlers who, since […]

For about a decade near the turn of the last century, now forgotten Manhattan Field served as an important New York sports venue. Hastily erected in 1889 to accommodate a displaced New York Giants franchise and initially called the New Polo Grounds, the park was an early success, hosting good regular season crowds plus that […]