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When Duane Pillette took the mound for the woeful St. Louis Browns against the Chicago White Sox for the final game of the 1953 season there was little to cheer about for the home team’s fans. The Browns already had 99 losses and were reported to be leaving St. Louis for a new home in […]

Despite St. Louis’s last-inning heroics the previous day, the fact remained that New York had taken Game One of the 1942 World Series. Going into Game Two on October 1, the Cardinals faced a must-win situation — no team had ever come back to win a best-of-seven Series after dropping the first two contests.1 And […]

Baseball in the late 19th century was a rough-and-tumble, take-no-prisoners type of game. The National League Cleveland Spiders exemplified this brand of rowdy play. Aside from their aggressive tactics on the field, the Cleveland club had a well-deserved reputation for bullying umpires. On June 15, 1894, the visiting Cleveland Spiders (24-14) played the Brooklyn Grooms […]

The Boston-New York baseball rivalry did not originate with the Red Sox and the Yankees clashing in American League contests. Diamond hostilities between the two cities predate the birth of the junior circuit. Heading into play on this July 1894 day in Boston, the 12-team National League clearly had an upper quartile in a trio […]

Following the highs of a 1917 world championship and a 1919 American League pennant, the latter mitigated by a disappointing (to most) World Series loss to the Cincinnati Reds, the Chicago White Sox had played the 1920 season under the pall of allegations — as well as a grand-jury investigation in September — of game […]

Unlike most other sports, baseball has no clock, so a team never has to “beat the clock” as well as an opponent. There are very few times when actual minutes are measured instead of outs in baseball. When a relief pitcher is not yet ready to come into a game, a manager will come out […]

“The Expos exploded in startling fashion,” wrote Ian MacDonald in the Montreal Gazette.1 Trailing 5-1, the Montreal Expos put together the greatest two-inning outburst in teamhistory, scoring 15 runs and sending 21 batters to the plate in the seventh and eighth innings to crush the Cincinnati Reds, 16-6. “I’ve never been in a game where […]

The bleachers at Ebbets Field were filled two hours before the first pitch. The game was a sellout by noon, and many of the estimated 10,000 fans who were turned away continued to line the streets around the park. Young boys tumbled over a gate near the corner of McKeever Place and Montgomery; most were […]

On Friday, July 25, 1947, Crosley Field was packed with 24,430 spectators as the Cincinnati Reds hosted the Philadelphia Phillies. On the surface, that many showing up to watch a sixth-place team play the last-place Phils seemed curious during a season in which Cincinnati posted the lowest home attendance of all teams in the National […]

Player, coach, manager, scout – such was the lot of a baseball lifer in the first half of the twentieth century. Dutch Zwilling, with more than 60 years in baseball, filled all of those roles and many more. From the early days of the nascent American League to the cusp of free agency, Zwilling was […]

One of only a relative few major league players born in Nevada — perhaps fittingly given his surname — John Gamble had a very brief big-league career. Appearing in only 13 games, he still was nonetheless able to cement his legacy in the annals of baseball as a member of an exclusive club of players […]

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 […]

Frank Aloysius McCue had his cup of coffee in the majors, but his baseball life was more illustrative of the hopefuls who struggled in the bushes for years without much more than a sip. McCue’s statistical record is somewhat incomplete, but the infielder kept returning to the Class B leagues. In the nine seasons from […]

Like a host of other marginal talents, pitcher John Connor owes his place in major league player ranks largely to the profusion of clubs accorded major league status during the 1884 season. At one time or other that year, no fewer than 33 different organizations claimed a National League, American Association, or Union Association franchise. […]

To Washington Nationals fans, he was “Pony” for his youth and diminutive size. In his post-major-league playing days, he was “Kid.” To some in Washington’s first and second Irish-American community, he was “Tice,” from the Old English for “kid goat.” Everywhere else he was simply William J. Madigan. There’s no evidence that anyone ever called […]

Twenty-year-old Newton Halliday’s only major-league game came on August 19, 1916. He replaced injured star Honus Wagner and struck out in his only career at-bat for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Halliday, however, is better known for, less than two years later, being the first and youngest big-league baseball player to die while enlisted in military service […]

Sam Wise teamed with Jack Burdock to form the double-play combination for the Boston Red Stockings for seven years during the 1880s. An unusual shortstop,i Wise was a Jekyll-and-Hyde player,ii a free swinger (“When Sam Wise offers at a ball and misses it he takes a turn like a prize fighter landing the pivot blow”iii) […]

Holler “Holy Cow!” in the Eastern United States and people might think of Phil Rizzuto, the New York Yankees’ shortstop-turned-broadcaster, while a cry of “Holy Cow!” in Chicago brings Harry Caray to mind. In the Upper Midwest, though, “Holy Cow!” remains synonymous with Halsey Hall, who, if not the first to use the expression on […]

In the 1970s, three decades after his four-year major-league playing career had come to an end Johnny Welaj (pronounced “WELL-eye”) wrote to author Harrington E. Crissey Jr. to reminisce. “It was great to be associated with [Philadelphia Athletics manager] Connie Mack,” he said. “There are not enough good things that baseball can say of him. […]

From 1913 to 1976 there were only three seasons when Tom Sheehan didn’t earn a paycheck from a professional baseball team. “Every time I ever looked around, somebody wanted to hire me,” he told The Sporting News.1 But wrestling with teammate Rube Bressler in a hotel room nearly ended Sheehan’s career in 1917. “Something snapped,” […]

Known as “Gorgeous George” for his graceful play and blond locks, George Davis established himself as one of the game’s most well-rounded players during his 20 seasons in the major leagues. At the plate, the switch-hitting Davis was a model of consistency, batting better than .300 every year from 1893 to 1901. In the field, […]

There have been three Gooches in major-league history, and at least another eight in the minors. The Gooch considered here is John Beverley Gooch, who played 805 games over the course of 11 seasons (1921-30; 1933), batting .280 with just seven homers while driving in 293 runs. His younger first cousin Charlie appeared in 39 […]

A big-league career is often a product of fate, luck, and timing.  Bob Keely would attest to that.  In 1944 the St. Louis Cardinals signed the 34-year-old sandlot star as a third-string catcher. Six months later, Keely was a world champion. Keely was originally signed by the Redbirds in 1936, but a knee injury ended […]

Tod Sloan batted left-handed and earned the reputation in the minors of being able to handle lefty pitchers better than righties. He only played 143 major-league games, but his statistics bear out those beliefs. According to Baseball-Reference he batted .257 in games with a left-handed starter and .227 when a righty started.1 He was also […]