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“I think I was playing third base at the time, and he hit a ground ball by me…. It dug a hole about a foot deep on its way to left eld. … In those days Torriente was a hell of a ballplayer. Christ, I’d like to whitewash him and bring him up.” — Frankie […]

A member of the three-time American League champions, Ed “Farmer” Willett was a fixture in the Detroit Tigers rotation from 1908 to 1913. During that six-year period, the 6-foot, 183-pound right-hander won at least 13 games in each season, topping out with a career-high 21 victories in 1909 when the Tigers captured their third consecutive […]

With the dog days of August 1904 having descended on St. Louis and the Browns well back in the American League standings, manager Jimmy McAleer was looking for something to maintain fan interest in his club. To that end, he placed two local favorites from the semipro St. Louis Trolley League on the Browns roster: […]

Right-hander Ray Kremer can lay a legitimate claim as being the best pitcher in big-league history to debut in his 30s. After failing in a spring-training tryout with the New York Giants in 1916, Kremer logged more than 2,100 innings and won over 100 games in the Pacific Coast League in the late 1910s and […]

There have been many brother combinations in baseball, including the Nixons (Otis and Donell), the Fords (Gene and Russ), the Sherlocks (Monk and Vince), and the Moriartys (Bill and George). Rene Lachemann was part of a rare brother combination (with his brother Marcel) that both played and managed in the majors.1 Rene Lachemann was born […]

We often read or hear about pitchers developing arm strength and accuracy in their youth by throwing rocks at a target. Hal Gregg’s missile of choice was citrus—specifically an orange. Born in Anaheim, California, on July 11, 1921, Harold Dana Gregg grew up on an orange farm. His parents, Calvin and Margaret Smylmo Gregg, were […]

Speedy outfielder Quinton McCracken played 12 years in the majors (1995-2006). He was one of the few men from Duke University to reach the top level after the 21 who played under coach Jack Coombs from 1929 to 1952. As he noted in an interview, his physical stature — 5-foot-7 and 170 pounds — led […]

 “If you do stink it up today, you get to come out the next day and get another shot,” said Scott Radinsky. “That’s why I love being a reliever.”1 A hard-throwing left-hander, Radinsky was never afraid of failure, or a challenge. He made a big jump from Single A to the majors, debuting with the […]

Benny McCoy was the talk of every town in 1940 when the obscure rookie became baseball’s first big-money free agent. He failed to live up to the hype — who could? — and crumpled under the weight of great expectations. “Benny’s problem was too much attention,” Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Cy Peterman wrote.1 We’ll never know […]

“Whenever he would pull off one of those grand, unexpected plays that were so dazzlingly surprising as to dumfound his opponents, his prominent teeth would gleam and glisten in an array of white molars that would put our own Teddy Roosevelt and his famed dentistry establishment far in the shadow.” — Sam Crane1 Who was […]

Playing in the majors for one’s hometown team is the dream of many American boys, and Lou Sleater achieved it two times over. Born in St. Louis, but a Baltimore resident by his high school years, Sleater started his big-league career with the Browns and finished it with the Orioles. Primarily a reliever, the left-hander […]

Explorer Juan Ponce de León was way off. More than five centuries before Global Positioning Systems became commonplace, his obsession with the mythical fountain of youth took him from the Spanish Caribbean colonies to the still unexplored Floridian peninsula, where he met his demise when the natives did not take kindly to his quest. In […]

Boileryard Clarke was known throughout the major leagues for his booming voice that could be heard clearly all over the field. It served him well as both a catcher – a coach on the field – and as a college coach from the dugout. Clarke spent 55 years in baseball as both a professional player […]

With almost a century having passed since the end of his fitful professional career, right-handed pitcher Hi Jasper is an elusive subject, a hard man to pin down. But two Jasper characteristics are unmistakable. He had ability — such astute talent evaluators as Jimmy Callahan, Frank Chance, and Pants Rowland recognized his merits. Yet Jasper’s […]

August 27, 1968. Yankee Stadium. Bottom of the sixth. Angels 1, Yankees 0. Bases loaded, two out.  The crowd of 21,419 lets out a tremendous roar as Mickey Mantle is called upon to pinch hit. Although it was the last year of The Mick’s career, he’d already hit 16 homers and was still a threat […]

Fate: “The supposed force, principle, or power that predetermines events.”[1] Some people believe in it, some do not, though no one can be certain of its existence. But Fred Clarke was a believer in fate. In an interview with a reporter from the New York Herald in 1911, Clarke admitted, “I attribute my success to […]

He pitched 18 seasons in the major leagues but for Grant Jackson, it all came down to one inning in the final game ever played in the 1970s. It was familiar territory for the left-hander. Eight years before, the Baltimore Orioles took a lead over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1971 World Series, which culminated with […]

A major-league ballplayer gets called a lot of things during his career, and a manager probably more so. In the case of Edgar Frederick Yost III, some of those things include taxidermist, catcher, grinder, idiot, app developer, survivor, twitter hashtag (#yosted), clothier, pot scrubber, and hunter. Oh, and one more thing — World Series champion […]

Soon after the 1967 World Series ended, Fleetwood Recording Co. released a long-playing phonograph record, The Impossible Dream, a reprise of the Boston Red Sox magical same-year pennant. Narrating, Sox announcer Ken Coleman hailed “an affair twixt a town and a team,” telling how the Boston American League Baseball Company used wonderwork to wave 1967’s […]

Ebbets Field has been gone for more than half a century, but the place still has a remarkable grip on our consciousness. At least three books have been devoted to the lovable old ballpark in Crown Heights.1 Yet even these in-depth works don’t shine much light on what happened after the Dodgers left Brooklyn. They […]

Imagine two strangers stranded on a South Sea island from Taos, New Mexico, and Butte, Montana. They differ in age, race, income, and religion. Their common denominator is the Colorado Rockies major-league baseball club that did not exist until a quarter-century ago. For a long time, however, the prospect of such a team in the […]

The Polo Grounds, an odd name for an odd stadium, was home to several baseball teams, most notably the New York Giants until the team moved to San Francisco following the 1957 season. Its horseshoe-shaped grandstand and elongated playing area provided for ridiculously short distances down the foul lines and equally ridiculous long distances to […]

Some baseball records may never be broken: Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, Rickey Henderson’s 1,406 career stolen bases, the career triples mark of 309 by Sam Crawford, Cal Ripken Jr.’s 2,632 straight games played, and Cy Young’s 511 career wins are frequently cited examples. Another record some considered unassailable was the consecutive scoreless innings mark […]