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Tom Vandergriff was the central figure in bringing major-league baseball to North Texas, but that was just one of many significant achievements during his 26 years serving as mayor of Arlington. Under his leadership, the city of Arlington grew from a small rural town of about 7,500 people to a large city of 125,000 with […]

A bit contributor behind the plate for the Cleveland Indians in the pennant chase of 1921, a perpetually upbeat and jovial teammate, and a tragic tuberculosis victim in his 30s — Ginger Shinault is a flamboyant figure from the Roaring Twenties. Enoch Erskine Shinault (pronounced shi-NALT) was born on September 6, 1893, in Saline City, […]

Baseball fans know the stories of superstars like Ted Williams and Bob Feller who lost some valuable years of baseball during World War II. But one pitcher actually gained from those years in the service. Before being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1942, Vern Bickford scuffled for the Class D Welch Miners in the […]

By most lights, Adolfo Phillips, a 22-year-old rookie who was a September call-up with the 1964 Phillies, owned the physical talents of a major-league star. It’s almost as apparent that Phillips was not temperamentally suited for long-term success in the major leagues. At least not in the 1960s, his prime years. Phillips was born and […]

Chris Welsh was a prodigal son who returned as a journeyman southpaw pitcher for his hometown club. When his days on the mound ended, he ventured into the booth and gradually transformed himself into a broadcast fixture in Cincinnati. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, on April 14, 1955, Welsh was the third of four children and […]

Prior to 1923, the largest attendance at a baseball game was 47,373 at Game 2 of the 1916 World Series. This record was shattered on Opening Day, April 18, 1923, when 74,200 fans filled the brand-new Yankee Stadium to see the New York Yankees play the Boston Red Sox. The Seventh Regiment Band, led by […]

Down two games to none to the Minnesota Twins in the 1965 World Series, the Los Angeles Dodgers found themselves in a precarious situation after Don Drysdale lost Game One, 8-2, and Sandy Koufax, who refused to pitch the opening game because it fell on Yom Kippur, lost Game Two, 5-1. Left-hander Claude Osteen, scheduled […]

When Elvis Presley died, Mark Clark didn’t cry. He cried when Bake McBride was traded. “Can you believe that? Elvis meant absolutely nothing to Mark?” his mother, Marjorie Clark, said. “He didn’t cry for Elvis, but he cried for Bake.”1 When the king of rock ‘n’ roll died in August of 1977, the 9-year-old Clark […]

Describing his philosophy of building pitching staffs, Sparky Anderson once remarked, “To get the real top-flight pitchers, you have to strip yourself of so much talent that if you make such a deal, you find you don’t have enough left to win. So you try to obtain a pitcher who has pitched well against your […]

“Pretty as the first flush of a June morn and as shapely as a peachblow vase filled with violets and many-hued pansies.” That’s how the Chicago Tribune described a tall, blond, and strikingly handsome 21-year-old Harley Parker in his 1893 debut for the Chicago Colts.1 Thirteen years later, when the right arm of the less […]

Charles Krehmeyer joined his first professional team in June 1883, signing with the Terre Haute (Indiana) Blues. When he made his major-league debut the following season, he joined a select club that even today numbers fewer than two dozen – catchers who threw left-handed and played more than one game in the majors. With only […]

Bobby Jones certainly meets the qualities of a baseball lifer. He spent much of his time on the playing field and in dugouts for more than 40 years after playing in Little League, crossing the country frequently during that odyssey. Jones’s dedication to the game eventually led to his appointment to the front office of […]

Considering that his professional career almost ended before it started, Joe Sambito made the most of his opportunity. His future in the game teetered several times, but for a period of five years, 1977-1981, the left-hander from Long Island, New York, with a good fastball and a nasty slider was arguably one of the best […]

The 1991 Atlanta Braves were a team on the rise. Despite, or perhaps as a result of, their moribund performance in the late 1980s, when the team won no more than 72 games in a season and finished no higher than fifth place in the National League West Division, owner Ted Turner overhauled the club’s […]

Though he didn’t invent the pitch, Eddie “Knuckles” Cicotte was perhaps the first major-league pitcher to master the knuckleball. According to one description, Cicotte gripped the knuckler by holding the ball “on the three fingers of a closed hand, with his thumb and forefinger to guide it, throwing it with an overhand motion, and sending […]

Who was the last player to bat for the Washington Senators in the franchise’s final game and also the last active player from that team? Who played both complete games of a doubleheader at shortstop without handling a single chance? Who became one-half of the first set of American League teammates – and only the […]

During a fifteen-year major-league career that spanned the Deadball and Lively Ball Eras, Jack Fournier was one of the premier power hitters in baseball. His batting accomplishments were impressive: While compiling a lifetime .313 batting average, he led the National League in home runs once; led the American League in slugging percentage once; hit three […]

In 1997 Todd Helton was one of baseball’s most prominent prospects – and a subject of controversy in the Colorado Rockies’ struggle to sustain their early-expansion success. Mundane matters triggered his big-league debut that summer: one player’s looming disciplinary action, another’s batting slump, and a calf injury to a third. But Helton’s takeover of the […]

On occasion, broadcasters have announced breaking news during live game telecasts. During Monday Night Football on December 8, 1980, ABC’s Howard Cosell announced an “unspeakable tragedy”: the shooting death of musician John Lennon. During the NBA Finals on June 17, 1994, NBC anchor Tom Brokaw showed viewers live footage of football legend O. J. Simpson […]

As the 2001 season progressed, first-year Pittsburgh Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon’s sources of frustration multiplied: injured pitchers, underperforming free agents, and the National League’s worst record. It all erupted in the seventh inning of a tie game with the Milwaukee Brewers on June 26 at PNC Park. Ejected for arguing an out call at first […]

At the end of the 2003 season, his ninth with the Houston Astros, Hall of Fame-bound reliever Billy Wagner publicly questioned management’s commitment to winning after the Astros missed the postseason by one game. He was swiftly traded to the Philadelphia Phillies, who were in search of an upgrade at closer. In the Phillies’ second […]

A data scientist for Google by day, Chris Thoms lives in California’s Bay Area while overseeing official scorers in the Cape Cod League in Massachusetts. From the other end of the continent, he monitors games on choppy video and internet radio (even scoring a game off YouTube while on his honeymoon in Tokyo), and goes […]

This Labor Day evening game at Oakland’s Network Associates Coliseum matched two surging teams seeking to return to the postseason in 2004. The Oakland A’s, winners of three American League West Division titles in four seasons, had won 16 of 19 games and taken a three-game lead over the second-place Anaheim Angels. The Boston Red […]

Who needs Casey? Cubs fans will forever more repeat the tale of “Lester at the Bat.” In its century of hosting Chicago Cubs games, Wrigley Field has seen some unorthodox tilts. In 1917, Cubs pitcher Hippo Vaughn no-hit the Cincinnati Reds for nine innings only to lose the game in the 10th. Sixty-two years later, […]