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Chicago White Sox relief pitcher Cliff Politte, practically floating on adrenaline, jogged off the mound after the eighth inning of Game Two in the 2005 World Series. He faced the Houston Astros’ top hitters – two-three-four in the lineup – and got each of them out, holding the White Sox’ slim lead. Nearing the dugout, […]

For 34 years TV broadcaster Jerry Remy was a familiar presence in the living rooms of Red Sox Nation. Genial and relaxed, Remy (rhymes with “hemi”) conveyed his professional expertise without arrogance – the ideal companion for watching baseball. As team chairman Tom Werner described him, “He’s the guy you’d like to have a beer […]

“Dave Roberts is a novice manager, but he seems born to the task,” longtime San Francisco sportswriter Bruce Jenkins wrote about the offseason Dodgers hire in mid-2016. “He took a disjointed clubhouse and made it whole, instilling a good-times brand of confidence and telling SI.com, ‘I put my hand on each player every single day […]

Red Barrett made a solid contribution to the 1948 Braves pitching staff, as both a spot starter and reliever. He appeared in 34 games with a 7-8 record and an impressive ERA of 3.65 (although he did not qualify for the ERA title), besting both ace hurler Warren Spahn’s earned run average of 3.73 and […]

Joseph Rodger Roa pitched in 120 major-league games over six seasons between 1995 and 2004.  The 6-foot-1 right-hander played 16 seasons of professional baseball between 1989 and 2005. Nicknamed “The Roa Constrictor,” he moved frequently from one franchise to another. Roa was traded on five occasions during his career and played for 12 organizations. He […]

Robert Lee “Bob” Oliver played baseball with the Kansas City Royals in 1969, their inaugural season, getting his first real opportunity to show off his baseball skills at the age of 26. He toiled in the minor-league systems of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Minnesota from 1963 to 1968, receiving a cup of coffee with the […]

The date was May 27, 1944, and as left-handed starter Stan Partenheimer toed the mound and prepared to deliver his first major-league pitch, he might have paused for a moment to consider his surroundings.  Only 1,408 fans dotted the stands of St. Louis’s Sportsman’s Park that Saturday afternoon, as Partenheimer’s fifth-place Red Sox faced the […]

A long-time left-handed pitching ace for one of baseball history’s best staffs, Dave McNally was also a legend and hero in his native Billings, Montana, where he lived his entire life outside of baseball. Though a World Series pitching (and hitting) star, he might be best known in some circles for the role he played […]

Born to a prominent family doctor in central Michigan, this one-game major league pitcher later became more noted as an umpire, thanks to a run-in with a star ballplayer. One of the few men to play and umpire in the major leagues, Charles Ferguson traveled the across the country playing baseball, and after retiring from […]

In a 16-year career marked by steady production, Todd Zeile was literally all over the place. He was traded five times, released once, and signed five separate free-agent contracts, toiling for 11 different organizations: Cardinals, Cubs, Phillies, Orioles, Dodgers, Marlins, Rangers, Mets, Rockies, Yankees, Expos, and Mets again. Ironically it was Zeile’s very dependability — […]

William Orange Forman, who pitched briefly for Washington in 1909 and 1910, was born on October 10, 1886, in Venango, Pennsylvania, the youngest of William (Billy) and Almira (Myra) Forman’s three children. The elder Forman came to northwestern Pennsylvania during its oil rush, and made a living drilling wells and refining their product. Young Will […]

“In spring, a young woman’s fancy turns to baseball.”1 For Ann Cindric and the other talented women who played in the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL), springtime meant oiling the glove and returning to the field to play the game they loved. Cindric was a right-handed pitcher who was active in the AAGPBL from […]

“I can play this game,” said Lee Lacy confidently. “For hustle and determination, I won’t take a back seat to anyone.”1 An All-Star at three different infield positions in the minors, the right-handed-hitting Lacy broke in with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1972 and fashioned a 16-year big-league career spent primarily as a versatile utilityman […]

With a major-league career that comprised only 39 games, Herbert Harrison Hunter still managed to play in baseball’s four biggest markets: New York, Chicago, Boston, and St. Louis. After 1920, in which he played in four games for the Boston Red Sox, Hunter became a baseball tour impresario of sorts, leading a group of major […]

Known for his big wad of chewing tobacco, Red Munger was a hard-throwing Texan with a mean fastball and a knee-buckling curveball. After paying his dues for six years in the St. Cardinals’ deep farm system, Red debuted in 1943 for the world champions. Before entering the US Army in mid-1944, he was arguably the […]

When the Baltimore Orioles announced their 2015 Hall of Fame class, it seemed fitting that Gary Roenicke and John Lowenstein would be inducted together. The two previously shared left field duties for the Orioles in the late 1970s and early 1980s, not an ideal situation for Roenicke – a former first-round pick still in the […]

The Texas Rangers won 89 games in 2004 – their first winning season since 1999 – but finished third, three games back of the Anaheim Angels, in the four-team American League West.1 They looked to continue the improvement the following season and perhaps capture the AL West crown, a feat the franchise had achieved three […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates looked forward to a late-May double-header with the Chicago Cubs as an opportunity to not only improve their 20-22 record and reach .500, but to also bring fans back to PNC Park. The 25-20 Cubs – who had lost their last two games and won only three of their previous eight – […]

The Washington Nationals had seen their season go south after a 50-31 start propelled them to first place in the NL East, where they remained as late as July 25. About to send John Halama, a reclamation project, to face 23-year-old Dontrelle Willis on a Wednesday night, the Nats were five games over .500 at […]

The Los Angeles Dodgers were having a weird week. Two nights earlier they had forfeited a game to the St. Louis Cardinals when their fans threw souvenir baseballs onto the field to protest the umpire’s strike calls.1 It had been 16 years since a major-league game had been forfeited (the infamous Disco Demolition Night game). […]

The New York Mets announced in advance that this would be a bullpen game. The scheduled pitcher, Jason Vargas, went on the DL with a calf injury two days earlier. Chris Flexen was called up from the minors, but he arrived from Las Vegas at 7 that morning after some travel snafus. The teams’ mutual […]

Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau started the 2006 campaign – his second full season in the majors – with a .248 career batting average. After going 1-for-12 in the season-opening series in Toronto, Morneau decided to ditch his 35-inch, 33-ounce cudgel for one of teammate Joe Mauer’s 34-inch, 31-ounce bats.1 The decision paid immediate […]

As a kid growing up in Pasco across the river, being able to stand on the mound at Sanders Field was as big for me as going to Yankee Stadium. — Bruce Kison1 Sanders Field, circa 1953 (Photos courtesy of the Eastern Benton County Historical Society)   Sanders-Jacobs Memorial Field, originally known as Sanders Field, […]

This article appears in SABR’s “Wrigley Field: The Friendly Confines at Clark and Addison” (2019), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. “[T]oo many parks aren’t situated where they should be – and that is, preferably, not just in a city but in a neighborhood.” — Travis Sawchik1 Sawchik is not alone in praising Wrigleyville. Kevin Kaduk […]