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Roy Sparrow was a likable hustler, huckster, and self-promoter who throughout his life appeared to be in perpetual motion. While living in Pittsburgh, Sparrow juggled multiple occupations. He was a shoe salesman, worked for two newspapers, and developed a reputation for local sports promotions. He was a determined, albeit unsuccessful, entrepreneur who opened and closed […]

Frank Bowerman’s major-league career spanned 15 seasons, from 1895 through 1909. It included stops with the Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Giants, and Boston Doves. Bowerman was a sturdy, robust player who stood 6-feet-2 and weighed approximately 190 pounds. Although known mainly as a catcher, the righty could play almost any position. Bowerman logged […]

Considering how dreadful his first full professional season was, it’s a wonder Mike Cvengros made it to the major leagues at all. Yet make it he eventually did, and he went on to win 25 major-league games over parts of six seasons, plus 177 in the minors. Over the course of his career, two themes […]

Like many New York Yankees from their late 1960s and early 1970s nadir, Jerry Kenney suffered from the curse of expectations that media and fans had for the once dominant franchise. Winning 29 pennants and 20 World Series in 44 years, from 1921 to 1964 inclusive, was proof to many fans that winning was an […]

Over a 50-year career in baseball, a man is likely to pick up a few nicknames, and for Jack Onslow this was no exception. He liked to call himself “The Travelling Man,” and the logic to that will become obvious. He also was referred to as “Happy Jack” and “Honest John,” names that could have […]

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 […]

Jack Knight was a ballplayer who could recite any of Rudyard Kipling’s poems and also enjoyed watching surgeons perform operations. John Wesley Knight was his proper name and he was born in Philadelphia on October 6, 1885. One of his brothers was a doctor and he told at least one writer that if he could […]

One of the most remarkable characteristics of Goodwin “Goody” Rosen is that the diminutive former National League All-Star spent the entirety of his career drawing strength from his identity as “the other” in baseball. On the one hand, Rosen was a Jew, one of only 25 Jews to play in the major leagues during the […]

Behind the scenes maneuvering resulted in Bud Lally being added to the National League’s staff of umpires for the second half of the 1896 season. In an era of rough and tumble baseball, Lally’s experience as a professional boxer was thought to be an asset. But his lack of knowledge and experience soon became apparent, […]

Frank Whitney was a reserve outfielder for Boston in 1876, the first year of the National League. Playing in only 34 games in his career, Whitney was better known in the Boston area for playing on the popular Lowell, Massachusetts, amateur team. His name rarely appears in newspaper accounts of the time, other than to […]

Josh Kinney was an unlikely candidate to become a major-league ballplayer. He grew up in rural Pennsylvania and spent most of his time dreaming not of baseball, but of hunting turkeys and deer. He attended a high school that lacked a baseball program, forcing him to commute each afternoon to a neighboring school to play. […]

Henry Schafer was the first major-league player to spend a career spanning eight or more seasons entirely with the same franchise. He was called Harry, probably from early childhood, but had two more colorful baseball-related nicknames. One was Silk Stockings, but he was known best to fellow players as Dexter, the name of the most […]

Standing a tad under 5’8″ and weighing just 145 lbs., Bobby Byrne was a scrappy, pint-sized third baseman for the Pittsburgh Pirates towards the end of their reign as one of the National League’s top teams. “Byrne is always a dangerous man for the reason that at all times he is cool, nervy and smart,” […]

Played out before the empty seats of Washington’s Griffith and D.C. Stadiums in the early 1960s, the “breath-takingly impressive”1 launch of Ken Retzer’s career was nearly “invisible to the [national sports]writers … [to the point that he was] mistakenly identified as Dick Retzer” in a Sporting News article about the rich crop class of rookie […]

From manager Don Heffner’s perspective, hurler John Tsitouris drew favorable comparisons to Hall of Famer Red Ruffing because “when you sent him out to the mound, you knew he was going to give you a good job.”1 Splendid likeness for a pitcher with a lifetime 34-38 record. Tsitouris’s tantalizing ability caused teams to continually try […]

Two firsts were combined into one event in 1987 as the first Most Valuable Player Award won by a member of a Canadian team also happened to be the first MVP won by a player of Dominican descent. The player in question, George Bell, played in 12 seasons from 1981 through 1993 for three major-league […]

He had a hard time hitting major-league pitching, but his stellar fielding helped the Cincinnati Reds win two consecutive National League pennants. There were several ups and downs in Harry Craft’s career. His catch of a fly ball for the final out of a 1938 game enabled a teammate to complete one of the most […]

Reggie Smith was a rookie in 1967 when the Boston Red Sox came back from a ninth-place finish to craft an extraordinary pennant-winning season. The All-Star caliber major-league career he completed in 1982 was a great success that has been muddied by other people’s expectations (too high) and Smith’s media profile (too low). Smith batted […]

Former Boston Red Sox right-handed pitcher Gordon McNaughton, working as a postal clerk in Chicago, was enjoying the company of Mrs. Dorothy Moos in a hotel room when his jilted girlfriend, Mrs. Eleanor Williams, entered and shot and killed him. Williams used the service pistol of policeman Barney Towey, who was left sleeping in the […]

As 32,977 patrons filed into PNC Park on Saturday, July 28, 2001, some knew that they were going to be part of a notable day for the Pittsburgh Pirates, but no one expected the real reason why the day would be unforgettable.1 Most knowledgeable fans thought it was because the Pirates were about to play […]

“The record books recognize only those no-hitters that go nine innings or longer,” wrote The Sporting News, “but [this] feat nevertheless deserves high recommendation.”1 Less than two months after tossing a no-hitter against the Brooklyn Dodgers, Boston Braves knuckleballer Jim Tobin held the Philadelphia Phillies hitless in the second game of a doubleheader that was […]

The 1929 season was expected to be the latest installment of the New York Yankees’ ongoing dynasty. Gamblers and sportswriters alike agreed that the team would win its fourth straight American League pennant, and very likely its third consecutive World Series title.1 The real debate was over who would be runners-up, with the favorites being […]

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 […]