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The Boston Red Sox concluded their only visit to Seattle during 2013, a four-game series at Safeco Field, on Thursday afternoon, July 11. On the second stop of a three-city West Coast trip heading into the All-Star break, Boston had lost 11-4 to the Mariners on July 8, but then scored 11 runs themselves in […]

Ballplayers are trained to always know the count, but perhaps it was Dallas Braden’s blissful ignorance of the balls and strikes on May 9, 2010, that helped him finalize a coveted spot on the perfect-game list alongside Hall of Famers Cy Young, Sandy Koufax, and Randy Johnson. The Oakland Athletics southpaw retired the first 26 […]

A confrontation for the ages: Bruce Sutter vs. Mike Schmidt. Two future Hall of Famers with first place on the line. Let’s set the stage: It’s September 14, 1982, and the Philadelphia Phillies, winners of the National League East Division four of the last six seasons, are in their familiar position atop the standings with […]

On a Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park, Boston Red Sox right-hander Pedro Martínez shut out the visiting Chicago White Sox, 1-0, his third shutout of the 2000 season. The White Sox (61-36) were leading the American League Central Division by 11½ games over the second-place Cleveland Indians. They had the best record in baseball and […]

Typically, baseball ground rules require the public-address system of a ballpark to be silenced during a game. But when the leader of the free world is resigning from office, exceptions can apparently be made. The Syracuse (New York) Post-Standard reported that a portion of President Richard Nixon’s resignation speech on the night of August 8, […]

Opened to baseball on April 19, 1984, Pfitzner Stadium is plopped in the heart of the McCourt Government Center in Woodbridge, Virginia, seating 6,000.1 The “Pfitz” has been the home of several incarnations of a Class-A franchise, the Potomac Nationals, under the ownership of Art Silber. The field has never drained well. On the evening […]

Like most forces of nature, Paul Lo Duca’s twin eruptions in June 2007 were remarkable for both their spontaneity and the havoc they left behind. Frustrated with his team’s recent struggles and what he considered undue expectations from the press, on June 23 the New York Mets catcher littered the diamond with his equipment after […]

An early advocate for player’s rights, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis was a staunch supporter of minor league baseball. However, he never believed in the farm team concept. He felt the major-league magnates took advantage of the system by owning multiple ballclubs. Landis would have preferred that every minor-league franchise remain autonomous, telling the United […]

Undersized pitcher Roy Radebaugh won 74 games for the Columbus (Georgia) Foxes of the Class C South Atlantic League over the three years from 1909 through 1911. Then aged 30, he earned a two-game tryout with the St. Louis Cardinals towards the end of the 1911 season. After pitching on in the minors through 1917, […]

For a player who endured nicknames such as Twiggy Mini-Hawk, and Mighty Mouse for his light weight and short stature, Bud Harrelson is perhaps best known to the casual baseball fan getting into a fight. There’s no doubt that Pete Rose got the better of him in their brawl at second base during Game Three […]

Of the Jefferson brothers who briefly constituted one of the most formidable one-two punches in any Negro League pitching rotation, Willie “Bill” Jefferson was the more accomplished. Yet unlike his brother, Willie was a late bloomer, not reaching his prime until he was approaching his 40s. Also unlike his brother, who had a well-documented and […]

Delos Daniel “Del” Drake was born on December 3, 1886, in Girard, Ohio, to William H. Drake, a dentist, and Mary E. (Schuck) Drake. A younger brother, William, died in infancy. Dr. Drake was credited for his son’s athletic prowess, and one article discovered by the author makes the claim, which the author has been […]

Outfielder George Leidy is “as fine a fielder as ever went after a ball, as well as a splendid hitter.” – Birmingham News, 19011 “I owe George Leidy more than any other man in baseball for training given me when I needed it most.” – Ty Cobb, 19212   A career minor-leaguer, George Leidy was […]

When San Francisco Giants skipper Wes Westrum signaled for Johnnie LeMaster to get into the game, the 21-year-old rookie couldn’t find his glove. He had joined the team only a few hours before the afternoon contest on September 2, 1975, in Candlestick Park against the Dodgers. “A couple of veteran players hid my glove on […]

For Stan Palys playing baseball wasn’t just a career, it was an odyssey. An odyssey that began in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, in 1950 and — with MLB stops in Philadelphia and Cincinnati in between — took him to Schenectady, Syracuse and Terre Haute; to Charleston, Birmingham and Nashville; to Corpus Christi, Puerto Rico and Panama; to […]

Just five lefty pitchers born and raised in Hawaii have made it to the majors.1 Carlos Diaz was the third. In December 1983, coming off his best season, the wiry reliever was part of a unique trade involving Hawaiian lefty #4, Sid Fernandez. That deal paid off for the New York Mets. Fernandez was a […]

A steady, left-handed pitcher can always find employment in baseball. Bob McClure was armed with a tremendous competitive spirit and a deceptive curveball. He turned his talent into 19 major-league seasons. “Bob Uecker told me that if I were right-handed I would have been digging ditches 10 years ago,” McClure said.1 After his playing days, […]

Although he became a star for the most famous team in baseball, for whom he helped win three pennants and a World Series, Jim Bouton’s most lasting contribution to the sport would come a few years later, after he lost his fastball and returned to the major leagues as a struggling knuckleballer for an expansion […]

The Cleveland Naps met the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on July 11, 1914. The pitching matchup was intriguing: The Naps started Willie Mitchell, a 24-year-old left-hander with a biting curveball, and the Red Sox sent a 19-year-old lefty, Babe Ruth, to the mound for his major league debut. The Naps were anxious to […]

Mike Paul, a veteran of a half-century in professional baseball, was born on April 18, 1945, in Detroit. Michael George Paul was the oldest of seven children born to George and Theresa Paul. George Paul was a police officer in Detroit, but thought it was becoming too dangerous there and moved the family to Compton, […]

“Whoosh … budap … snap … whoosh … budap … snap.” Vern Duncan’s earliest memory of baseball was of throwing a ball against the brick wall of a neighboring store in his back yard.1 His childhood efforts led him on a long baseball career highlighted by three seasons at the highest professional level, one in […]

Twelve seasons in the major leagues. That’s quite a run at that level of baseball. Let’s face it, how many people get to live their dream of being a major-league baseball player? Looking back throughout the history of major-league baseball, Fred Kendall will be looked at as an average catcher who had a less than […]

With high-school graduation behind them, it was time for the Cates twins to decide upon a career course. Neither wanted the stable but strenuous future of life on the Cates family farm. For Levi, a painter’s job at the local cement factory beckoned. This is the bio of Eli, the brother who chose to pursue […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2022 as part of SABR’s Jackie Robinson 75th Anniversary Project. When Jackie Robinson trotted out to first base on April 15, 1947, his steps were no less historic than those of Neil Armstrong just over two decades later. Baseball’s senseless and shameful color barrier had at last […]