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In the late 1980s the story of DeWayne Buice was one of success through rare determination and perseverance. He spent nine seasons in the minor leagues before he finally reached the majors. Twice the righty suffered a broken bone in his arm while pitching. After recovering, no team would give him a chance – but […]

In a period of volatility, heartbreak, and disaster for the New York Mets — including the death of owner Joan Payson, the trading of Tom Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds and Dave Kingman to the San Diego Padres on the same day, and last-place finishes from 1977-79 and 1982-83 — backup catcher Ron Hodges provided […]

Irish Meusel was the starting left fielder on New York Giant teams that won four consecutive National League pennants from 1921 to 1924. He was one of the leading sluggers of the era, a clutch hitter known for his ability to drive in runs. In 1923 he struck out only 16 times while leading the […]

Heinz Becker, the only German-born big-leaguer who played during the years of World War II, had a modest four-year career and appeared in just 152 games for the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians. In 1945, his only full season in the majors, Becker became a fan favorite for the pennant-winning Cubs, and his feet were […]

Frank Shaughnessy was an outfielder who played nine major-league games in 1905 and 1908, compiling a .281 batting average in 32 at-bats. After more than a quarter-century in the minor leagues as a field manager and then business manager for several clubs, Shaughnessy was elected president of the International League in 1936. He served in […]

During a fifteen-year major-league career that spanned the Deadball and Lively Ball Eras, Jack Fournier was one of the premier power hitters in baseball. His batting accomplishments were impressive: While compiling a lifetime .313 batting average, he led the National League in home runs once; led the American League in slugging percentage once; hit three […]

Eddie Kasko was a major-league infielder with four different teams from 1957 through 1966, an All-Star for the Cincinnati Reds in 1961, and he hit .318 in that year’s World Series. He managed the Boston Red Sox for four full years, 1970 through 1973, with a winning record each season and two third-place and two […]

To some, Andy Pettitte’s name is immediately associated with the Mitchell Report, Human Growth Hormone, and ties to his old friend Roger Clemens. To others he will forever be known as a member of the “Core Four” — one of a quartet of homegrown Yankee legends that led the team to a phenomenal string of […]

After the landmark Messersmith-McNally decision was handed down by arbitrator Peter Seitz in December 1975, the California Angels quickly engaged in what some pundits referred to as “checkbook baseball,” a process in which financially well-off teams like the Angels and the New York Yankees sought to bolster their rosters by bidding for the best free […]

Harry Eisenstat might have said it best after the conclusion of his eight-year (1935-1942) big-league career: “As long as baseball fans talk about Bob Feller, my name will probably never be forgotten.” When Feller set the modern big-league record (at the time) with 18 strikeouts in a nine-inning game in 1938, Eisenstat – in his […]

Arthur Daley of the New York Times once wrote that Mike Ryba had been “too good for his own good.”1 One way or another, Mike Ryba seemed to be associated with saints for a great part of his life. He went to St. Adrian’s in DeLancey, Pennsylvania, a coal-mining town of about 2,000 people, for […]

Angelo Dagres played the first eight games of his professional baseball career for the Baltimore Orioles at the end of the 1955 season. The speedy, lefty-hitting outfielder spent the next seven years in the minor leagues but developed a drinking problem and never returned to the majors. Angelo George Dagres was born on August 22, […]

Baseball and history are uncanny bedfellows in language, traditions, and mythology. The ties that bind. Sixteenth-century Peru and the modern Dominican Republic. Atahualpa (ca. 1502-1533) was the last indigenous Inca emperor of Peru, whose capture and execution by Francisco Pizarro enabled the Spanish conquistadores to secure the Inca lands for the Spanish crown.1 Vicente Valverde, […]

In all of Major League Baseball history, 119 players originated in the “Tree Planters’ State”1 of Nebraska. Charlie Abbey was the first, arriving during “the mauve decade”2 of the 1890s. Abbey doggedly zig-zagged his way through the loosely knit minor leagues with uneven progression. He was an anomaly as a lefty second baseman early on […]

During his five full seasons with the Boston Red Sox, Babe Ruth established himself as one of the premier left-handed pitchers in the game, began his historic transformation from moundsman to slugging outfielder, and was part of three World Series championship teams. After he was sold to the New York Yankees in December 1919, his […]

Mexico had given two pairs of brothers to Major League Baseball as of 2018: the Romos (Vicente and Enrique) and the Treviños.1 Of this quartet, U.S. fans saw the least of Carlos Treviño, also known as “Bobby.” The outfielder played in just 17 games for the California Angels in 1968, and he spent just three […]

Pat Kelly played just three games in the majors as a catcher with the 1980 Toronto Blue Jays — but he has survived in professional baseball for 45 years. How has he done it? “He’s just a leader; he’s a player’s coach, which means he relates to the players like he’s a player,” said Zach […]

Like his Hall of Fame teammate, Ernie Banks, right-handed pitcher Bob Rush was just happy to be in the big leagues. “I never really regretted signing with the Cubs,” Rush said. In his 10 campaigns with the North Siders (1948-1957), the “Lovable Losers” finished in the second division every season and never had a winning […]

Suggest today to Costen Shockley that judging by the newspaper headlines of 50 years ago he must have been quite a high-school baseball player, and he replies with a prideful chuckle that conveys barely a trace of conceit, “Yeah, I was pretty good.” Indeed he must have been. After dominating on the baseball diamond for […]

In his major league debut, this man pitched a no-hit game and followed it with a one-hitter in his next start. He went on to compile a lifetime major league batting average of .362. Such exploits suggest a first-ballot Hall of Famer. In fact, George Nicol spent much of his career in the minor leagues […]

Pitcher Joe Berry was variously described as little, skinny, slight, bandy-legged, and pint-sized. Berry was officially listed as 5-feet-10 and 145 pounds, but Jim Coleman of The Sporting News wrote that “he was only 135 pounds and looks as harmless as a dead moth.”1 So small was Joe that in 1942 during an exhibition game […]

During 24 years in the National League, August John Donatelli was one of major-league baseball’s most respected umpires. He worked four All-Star games (1953, 1959, 1962, 1969), five World Series (1955, 1957, 1961, 1967, 1973), and two League Championship Series (1969, 1972).  Moreover, he was the home-plate umpire for four no-hitters: Warren Spahn (1961), Carl […]

The Dominican Republic has often been called “The Land of Shortstops,” and not without reason. On September 24, 2005, for example, 14 different Dominicans played the position in the major leagues. Many of those players come from a particular city in the southeastern part of the country, San Pedro de Macoris, which also sent a pair of […]

After Hal Trosky retired in 1946, it was 30 years before his hometown, tiny Norway, Iowa, provided its second major leaguer in Bruce Kimm. But while Kimm exited the major leagues in 1980, the very same season marked the debut of Norway’s third – and perhaps most successful – player, pitcher Michael James Boddicker.  Born on […]