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Sometimes, even a short career and a short life can affect other people for a long time. Herman Hill played in only 43 major-league games and was just 25 when he died in an accidental drowning. But almost a half-century after his death, the memory of him remained strong in the hearts of his family. […]

Few players in the history of major-league baseball have displayed each of the prized “five tools,” meaning the ability to hit for average and for power, to run, to field, and to throw. On that  short list belongs the name of Ellis Burks, who began his major-league career as a 22-year-old rookie for the Boston […]

In the box, Beaneater Harry Staley pitched a mystifying curve, yet he often wrestled with his control and the barrage of temptations offered baseball stars. At his peak, the curves, the speed, and workhorse stamina helped the Boston Beaneaters to three straight pennants (1891-1893). “Staley wild” was an often-used phrase by the papers of the […]

Charles Radbourn’s pitching achievements were hailed by contemporaries and sportswriters for decades as some of the greatest feats of nineteenth century baseball. Little known today, many considered an 18-inning game in 1882 as the finest athletic contest ever seen on a baseball diamond. That game was won, not by the pitcher Radbourn, but by the […]

When he pitched a hitless inning in relief for the New York Highlanders (already beginning to be called the Yankees) on April 16, 1907, Roy Castleton became the first native of Utah to play major league baseball. Castleton, however, was much more than the answer to a trivia question. He was a promising left-handed pitcher […]

Randy Ready played 13 major-league seasons, 1983 to 1995. He won a 1980 college batting title, 1980 and 1982 minor-league hitting titles, plus a 1986 Caribbean Series MVP and batting crown. And he overcame challenges. Tony La Russa, his 1992 Oakland manager, called Ready the “quintessential professional.”1 Tony Gwynn, a San Diego teammate (1986-1989), stated: […]

He could have been nicknamed “Tugboat” or, for that matter, “Giuliani the Magician,” for the many varied and workmanlike roles Angelo John Giuliani played during his life dedicated to baseball.  From a fledgling full-time backstop in the minors to sharp-eyed scout in the majors, Giuliani’s resume was a convincing testimonial of a player who, having […]

John Fowler was one of the true pioneers of American baseball, one overlooked by the National Baseball Hall of Fame for more than a century after his death until he was elected in 2022 to Cooperstown — the same village where he had grown up as a teenager. In Black baseball history, he is the […]

A master of the one-liner, Billy Grabarkewitz once claimed that “Abner Doubleday dreamed up this game [of baseball] to drive people crazy.”1 Perhaps no one knew this more than the diminutive right-handed hitting infielder whose entire career pivoted on injuries. It was injuries that slowed Grabarkewitz’s march to the big leagues; injury to fellow infielder […]

After a highly successful playing career as both a slick-fielding infielder and a slugger, Davey Johnson went on to an even more decorated career as a manager. His winning percentage of .562 is 10th all-time among managers with 1,000 victories, and is surpassed by only Earl Weaver among pilots who began their career after 1960. […]

William Porter Shannon, known from his teenage years as “Spike,” loved football but instead spent a career in baseball. A quick glance at his record shows a short major-league career of five years between 1904 and 1908. A closer look at his minor-league career reveals six years with several minor-league clubs before 1904 and four […]

Chris Carpenter spent 15 seasons in major-league baseball, first with the Toronto Blue Jays and then with the St. Louis Cardinals .His won-lost record was 144-94 with an earned-run average of 3.76, and in 2005, his 21-5 season and 2.83 ERA won him the National League’s Cy Young Award. But statistics alone don’t tell the […]

When Oregonians turned to the sports section of their newspapers on June 20, 1971, they got a shot of optimism for another year of Northwest League (Class A) baseball, set to begin that afternoon. An Associated Press story highlighted a switch-hitting Bend Rainbows prospect who gave hope for a climb past the team’s 1970 mark […]

For nearly eighty years, Hub Kittle loved and studied pitching. He first realized that this was his calling when he was eight years old. He could outthrow all the neighborhood kids. “Something clicked there, that I had something the good Lord must have gave me. I don’t know why, I couldn’t outfight ’em and I […]

Joseph J. Lannin owned the Boston Red Sox for less than four full years, but in that short span, the team won two world championships in the back-to-back years 1915 and 1916. A native of the Province of Quebec, he came to the United States at a very young age – the story says he […]

For 34 years TV broadcaster Jerry Remy was a familiar presence in the living rooms of Red Sox Nation. Genial and relaxed, Remy (rhymes with “hemi”) conveyed his professional expertise without arrogance – the ideal companion for watching baseball. As team chairman Tom Werner described him, “He’s the guy you’d like to have a beer […]

Louis Frank Klein, Jr. was an international baseball lifer who had a travelogue of experiences. Perhaps best known as one of 22 major league players who jumped to the outlaw Mexican League and for his tenure as a rotating manager in the Chicago Cubs’ College of Coaches, Klein had a varied and colorful career. The […]

“I’m average. I’ve always been that,” Mike Macfarlane humbly said of himself as his career was winding down. “But I’ve got 12 years of major-league experience and I work hard.”1 Most of us would gladly have taken such an “average” career like his: 13 years as one of the most respected players in the game, […]

Fred Claire wasn’t a politician. However, like many politicians, the erstwhile executive vice president of the Los Angeles Dodgers said one thing when he was talking about Pedro Martínez in 1992, ended up doing the opposite, and regretted his action. “I won’t trade Pedro Martínez, I don’t care who they offer,” said Claire.1 Well, he […]

In the 1951 St. Louis spring training camp, considerable focus turned to Bobby Tiefenauer as the answer to Philadelphia Phillies reliever Jim Konstanty, a high bar for the 22-year-old rookie to reach. Konstanty was the reigning National League Most Valuable Player, It was hoped that Tiefenauer’s knuckleball could match Konstanty’s success with off-speed sliders and […]

Except for two games in the 1890 Players League, Fred Doe devoted his entire baseball career to the minor leagues in New England. On the diamond, Doe quickly progressed from player to manager during the period 1885 to 1888. In the 1890s, Doe became a non-playing manager and in the early 1900s he moved up […]

During the 2000s, Carlos Zambrano was a mainstay at the top of the Chicago Cubs’ rotation. Though lacking the renown of teammates like Kerry Wood, Mark Prior, and Sammy Sosa, the three-time All-Star led the Cubs in wins above replacement during the first decade of the new millennium. Nicknamed El Toro (Spanish for bull) and […]

Few multi-purpose stadiums in North American history can rival Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium for the number, variety and stature of events held there. Set in a vast fairgrounds complex on the shore of Lake Ontario, the municipal facility originally known as Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) Stadium served as the largest sports and entertainment venue in Canada’s […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2021 as part of the SABR Century 1921 Project. New York Yankees captain Roger Peckinpaugh, second from left, and New York Giants captain Dave Bancroft, far right, pose with the umpires at home plate before Game One of the 1921 World Series at the Polo Grounds in […]