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After his rookie season in 1918, Chicago Cubs shortstop Charlie Hollocher was hailed in some circles as the next Honus Wagner, one of the first five inductees in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. He was also mentioned in the same breath as another all-time great. “For a time it seemed as though Rogers Hornsby, […]

Many players spend their entire playing careers hoping for the opportunity to play in a World Series. Some players get to play in one World Series, while even fewer get to play in two World Series. But Possum Whitted not only played in two World Series, he did it in consecutive years for different teams. […]

A preview of the pitching staff of the 1902 Chicago White Sox included a brief profile of right-hander “John Katoll, known to his teammates as ‘Big Jack’ … a blacksmith from Detroit … who has been a steady and reliable man if not brilliant in his work. He has great speed with fair control, and […]

He was equally as adept at coordinating pitchers and throwing out baserunners as he was as a leader and strategist in the dugout. However, Alfonso Ramon Lopez chose to credit his supporting cast of players for his successes rather than himself. Much like his mentor Casey Stengel, Lopez knew that he could not have won […]

An excellent place-hitter, slick fielder, and brainy baserunner, Eddie Collins epitomized the style of play that made the Deadball Era unique. At the plate, the 5-foot-9, 175-pound left-handed batter possessed a sharp batting eye, and aimed to hit outside pitches to the opposite field and trick deliveries back through the box. Once on base, Collins […]

Dusty Cooke’s father fought in the Confederate Army at Chancellorsville, which may partially explain why Cooke himself joined with the Phillies’ Ben Chapman in some of the most vicious racist taunting of Jackie Robinson in April 1947. Cooke was first-base coach for the Phillies at the time. He had also been a good ballplayer, though […]

It is known as “creative license” and in Hollywood it often becomes urban legend and, unfortunately, even fact to many. In the movie, The Winning Team, a biography of pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander, such a measure was employed. The film, starring Ronald Reagan as Alexander and Doris Day as his wife, Aimee, was released in […]

Jack Sanford got his start in baseball with a push from his big sister. Sanford was named National League Rookie of the Year, won sixteen straight games one season, and started three times in the World Series, but he never got over being labeled “no prospect” when he was a teenager. John Stanley Sanford was […]

Overcoming potentially career-ending shoulder injuries in the early 1950s to develop into one of the most feared sluggers of his era, Roy Sievers became just the 18th player to hit 300 home runs. With a powerful and graceful swing that Casey Stengel called “one of the sweetest,” 1 Sievers, known as Mr. Clutch for his […]

Beset by a chronic illness and often in pain, John T. Brush was not an obvious candidate for a leadership role in turn-of-the-century baseball. But Brush’s afflictions camouflaged a fiercely competitive spirit and a will of iron. For 25 years he was the most influential club owner in the National League, a champion of causes […]

Jesse Houston had a very impressive debut season in 1937 with the Cincinnati Tigers of the Negro American League (NAL). It was also the debut season for the Cincinnati franchise in the NAL, and Houston helped it secure the second-best record by contributing at least nine wins, including a no-hitter that wasn’t widely reported and […]

Al Sothoron was a spitball pitcher and a master of trick deliveries. When the moist pitch was outlawed, Sothoron was one of 17 practitioners of the art who were exempted from the ban under a grandfather clause. Whether he continued to use other trick pitches, some of which were now illegal, is a matter of […]

Ted Lyons is remembered as the “Sunday pitcher” who started only once a week for much of his career. He made the most of his workdays, finishing nearly three out of four starts with more complete games than any other contemporary pitcher. Forget won-lost record, Lyons said: “A good pitcher is a pitcher who has […]

A 6-foot-3, 220-pound right-hander with a prominent chaw of tobacco in his right cheek, Al Severinsen pitched parts of three major league seasons. In 1969 he relieved in a dozen games for the Orioles and earned one of Baltimore’s franchise-record 109 victories. Severinsen finished his career with the San Diego Padres, making a total of […]

Jimmy Burke, a coach for the 1929 Cubs, was the quintessential baseball lifer. A marginal ballplayer at best, he somehow managed to hang around in the game for 38 years. His long career as player, manager, coach, and scout began in 1896 with the Peoria Distillers of the Western Association, where he felt privileged to […]

It marked the pinnacle moment in Luke Sewell’s managerial career. According to author David Alan Heller in As Good as It Got: The 1944 St. Louis Browns, the club’s skipper intended to bench left fielder Chet Laabs during their last series of the 1944 season, only changing his mind at the last minute after watching […]

A competent multi-position defender, a swift and daring baserunner, and a natural team leader, Jimmy Manning1 should have enjoyed a lengthy 19th century major league career. However, a soft bat – Manning was one of the game’s early switch-hitters but under-productive from either side against top-flight pitching – confined him to a five-season turn in […]

In 1970, Tommy Harper became a member of what was once among the most exclusive “clubs” in baseball. That year, his first with the Milwaukee Brewers, he hit 31 homers and stole 38 bases, thereby joining the “30-30 Club.” At the time, the only other members of the club were Hank Aaron, Bobby Bonds, Willie […]

Sandy Koufax made a habit of holding teams scoreless in 1963. He did it for a record-breaking 11th time on September 17 against the St. Louis Cardinals. No left-handed pitcher had ever thrown that many shutouts in one season. Koufax eclipsed the mark set by New York Giants Hall of Famer Carl Hubbell in 1933. […]

Hopes were running high on this warm September night in 1944. In Western Europe, Allied forces crossed the Moselle River in northern France during the largest artillery exchange with the Nazis to date. For the first time, a redhead — 19-year-old Venus Ramey of Washington, D.C. — was crowned Miss America in Atlantic City.1 Even […]

As most baseball fans know, in 1988 the Chicago Cubs were the last team in the major leagues to install lights at their home ballpark – decades after every other team had turned on the switch from day to night. Across town, Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey was experimenting with night baseball at his […]

The Chicago Cubs opened 1982 with rookie Ryne Sandberg at third base, months after acquiring him in an offseason trade with the Philadelphia Phillies. Held to one hit in his first 32 at-bats, the 22-year-old Sandberg entered the Cubs’ April 23 game with the Pittsburgh Pirates batting just .140. On a windy day at Wrigley […]

Over the course of his 18-year major-league career, Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder Roberto Clemente recorded 4,514 putouts at the position.1 He earned 266 outfield assists, throwing out that number of baserunners – an average of a little more than 14 per year. As one looks through Clemente’s career, one comes across the occasional game in […]

Lifelong Oakland A’s fan Jeremy Goodrich had an idea. Sure, the A’s had not been playing well in 2023, or drawing well, and the owner was planning to move the team to Las Vegas. But what if the Oakland fans staged a reverse boycott – showing up en masse on a random weeknight to show […]