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In 1952, a panel of 31 Negro baseball experts selected the greatest Negro ballplayers of all time. The catchers chosen for the first team were Josh Gibson and Biz Mackey. The second-team catchers were Roy Campanella and Bruce Petway.1 In the words of historian James A. Riley, Petway was “the first great receiver in black […]

After starting four different players in right field during the first two months of the 1959 season, the Chicago White Sox recalled 22-year-old Jim McAnany, who was batting .315 at Indianapolis, in hope of providing an offensive spark. To make room for McAnany, 19-year-old outfielder Johnny Callison, hitting .163, was sent down to Indianapolis. “Mac” […]

James Elbert Greene, who went by the first name Joe, was one of the iconic catchers of the Negro Leagues. Greene was born on October 17, 1911, in Stone Mountain, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb. The 5-foot-11, 190-pound Greene was a durable and solid receiver who caught Satchel Paige and the balance of the elite pitching […]

A weighmaster at the tobacco market in the offseasons, a veteran of the Army Reserve, a farmer, and honored by being named a Kentucky Colonel. And a right-handed pitcher who was a veteran of 17 seasons in minor-league baseball, with a 147-131 record and a 3.87 earned-run average. Eleven of Herb Moford’s seasons were spent […]

Crank: a baseball fan in the late 19th century. “The real, simon-pure baseball crank … thinks baseball, talks baseball, dreams baseball and, does all but play it. It is generally a fact that the real baseball crank cannot play right-field in even a ‘scrub nine.’” — Milwaukee Sentinel, October 12, 1884   They were there […]

A weak-armed washout from two other American League teams, catcher Ira Thomas was purchased by Connie Mack prior to the 1909 season. Thomas immediately prospered with Philadelphia’s “inside” game, and was the Athletics’ primary backstop as they captured World Series victories in 1910 and 1911. He then transitioned to coaching and team captaincy as his […]

“He was the greatest manager I ever played for, perhaps the greatest manager who ever lived, and that includes managers in the big leagues. I’ve never played for a guy who could get more out of every ballplayer than he could. He knew how to communicate with everybody and to treat every player as an […]

Right-hander Paul Stuffel had a reputation as one of the hardest-throwing pitchers of his generation. As a Philadelphia Phillies prospect in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Stuffel overpowered batters in several low- and mid-level minor leagues, but also struggled controlling his heater. While pitching for the Schenectady (New York) Blue Jays in the Class-A […]

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 […]

The stage was the fifth game of the World Series, on October 15, 1970. The Baltimore Orioles had taken a three games to one Series lead over the Cincinnati Reds. Brooks Robinson had already delivered a game-winning home run in the opener, robbed Tony Perez and Johnny Bench of base hits with a pair of […]

Charlie Walters says there were two things he always wanted to do: “Be a newspaper guy and a major-league ball player.” He got to do both. Now a sports columnist for the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Walters also had a seven-year career in professional baseball that included six games at the major-league level, with the […]

Fred Caligiuri’s career as a major league pitcher was brief, just seven starts and 11 other mound appearances over a little more than a calendar year. But for a day, at the end of the 1941 American League season, he was center-stage as events left baseball with one of its most enduring statistics: .406. And […]

Most of the former ballplayers we read about were well known, or at least regulars, on their respective big league clubs. But since ball clubs usually have 25-man rosters, the majority of players were neither stars nor regulars. Instead, they played backup roles, riding the bench and waiting for their turn while the starters played […]

Nolan Ryan has more strikeouts and no-hitters than any other pitcher in history. Despite never winning a Cy Young Award, he started more games than anyone except Cy Young. Though he played mostly for mediocre teams, his 324 wins are as many as contemporary Don Sutton, who pitched for four pennant winners and just missed […]

Doug DeCinces spent the first part of his major-league career shaking off comparisons to a Baltimore Orioles legend. Then, before he could make his mark in Baltimore, he was traded to make room for another Oriole icon. DeCinces essentially bridged a path between two Hall of Fame infielders, Brooks Robinson and Cal Ripken Jr.   […]

It is the coldest of cold cases – a 104-year-old homicide with no suspects, no eyewitnesses, no incriminating admissions, no police informant information, and scant physical evidence. About all investigators from the Indianapolis Police Department had to go on was a brief account of the crime supplied by the mortally wounded victim before he lapsed […]

As he had done many times in recent years, Jimmie Foxx chose to spend the afternoon of July 21, 1967, with his younger brother, Sam. The two men lived close by one another in Miami, and often got together to reminisce about the elder Foxx’s legendary baseball career, in which he slugged 534 home runs, […]

Corner outfielder Phil Plantier spent most of the 1990s playing major-league baseball, for five different teams. He played 383 games in left field and 126 in right; he was also deployed occasionally as a designated hitter and pinch-hitter. Plantier’s best year by far was in 1993, when he homered 34 times and drove in 100 […]

Tom Monaghan has accomplished a great many things in his yet-unfinished life. The billionaire entrepreneur? Certainly. Successful businessman? Sure. Collector? Formerly, but not in any defining sense. Conservative Catholic leader? Definitely. Visionary? Maybe. Twenty-first century evangelist and savior of Western civilization? Possibly, if you talk to him. However you label the owner of the Detroit […]

The Sporting News cover for March 5, 1977, featured a picture that was worth a thousand words: Joe Rudi, Don Baylor, and Bobby Grich, all clad in their new California Angels uniforms, were posed reaching into a pair of leather saddlebags, a metaphor for team owner Gene Autry’s wallet. With the 1975 Messersmith decision having […]

When fireworks launched on America’s 196th birthday, the nighttime celebration was an afterthought for Mets fans. Earlier in the day, Tom Seaver gave them another reason to rejoice when he took a no-hitter into the ninth inning against the San Diego Padres; Leron Lee’s one-out, broken-bat single prevented the Mets ace from getting his first […]

“Figure to repeat on youth and depth of pitching and long ball power. Gaps may appear in line-up. Robinson is about through. Reese can’t go much longer. But if Campanella holds up and staff stays reasonable sound, should breeze. Morale received boost in first World Series triumph and Alston established leadership.” — 1956 Dell Baseball […]

Who could have foreseen that the Friday evening matchup between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Cleveland Indians would be such a historic game? Certainly not the 7,290 who sat through a misty, wet game that began with a first-pitch temperature of 47 degrees, which fell to the 30s by the time the final out […]

Astronaut L. Gordon Cooper Jr. had a wonderful day on Wednesday, May 22, 1963. He was feted to a ticker-tape parade in New York City and an audience with President and First Lady John and Jacqueline Kennedy.1 A week earlier, Cooper had commanded the Faith 7 spacecraft and orbited Earth 22 times in the last […]