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Reliever Brad Lesley was big — 6-feet-6 and 230 pounds — and hyper-intense on the field. His good-natured screaming and stomping got him nicknamed “The Animal.” Lesley’s self-motivational antics, size, and power pitching drew many comparisons, namely with Mark Fidrych, Al “The Mad Hungarian” Hrabosky, Goose Gossage, and Dick “The Monster” Radatz. Yet as Lesley […]

Jay Tessmer pitched in parts of four seasons in his major-league career. Although he won only a single game, he was a member of three World Series championship teams, playing for the New York Yankees in 1998, 1999, and 2000. Appearing in 22 games during his major-league career, Tessmer pitched 23⅓ innings and finished with […]

Clara Díaz Chacón was a little girl who lived on a street in the fishing village of Puerto Caimito in Panama. A few houses up the road was an elementary school classmate. That boy’s studies ended in the ninth grade, but their paths crossed again when they were teenagers. They became boyfriend and girlfriend, and […]

On June 17, 1994, the nation was glued to the live broadcast of police chasing a white Ford Bronco on Los Angeles’ Interstate 405. In the home clubhouse 2,300 miles away, the Cleveland Indians were no less riveted as they prepared for a match against the Boston Red Sox. Never confused for an intellectual titan, […]

Ryan Lavarnway probably had more than 1,000 teammates across 27 teams during his 16 seasons in professional baseball. Primarily a catcher with seven games at first base and 28 as a designated hitter, he played for eight different major-league teams and has one World Series ring, from his time with the Boston Red Sox in […]

A standout on the sandlots of Detroit, Willie Horton became the first black superstar for his hometown Tigers and spent parts of 15 seasons with the team. A tremendously powerful right-handed slugger, Horton was one of the strongest men in the game and launched 325 homers in his career. Extremely popular in Detroit, Horton worked […]

John Perkins Luby was a right-handed pitcher and left-handed batter of the 19th century whose meteoric rise in 1890 was followed by a slow, steady decline until his death in 1899. [1] The second of three sons, Luby was born in Charleston, South Carolina, to James and Johanna Luby in either the last half of […]

Rick Reed was one of the replacement players during the players strike of 1994-95. Although he was ostracized by fellow players after crossing the picket line, Reed was eventually accepted by teammates after joining the New York Mets, with whom he spent most of his big-league career. When he finally earned his chance to pitch […]

Miguel Tejada was the dream. A kid born into extreme poverty in the Dominican Republic – geographically close to the United States and the means to achieve an entirely new life – but, in reality, light-years away. Tejada beat long odds to be plucked from his small town and placed under the bright lights of […]

No one was going to give Trot Nixon a speeding ticket. Not for the inspirational leader of the Boston Red Sox, the left-handed outfielder with the dirty uniform and the grinder spirit who became a fan favorite for wanting to win just a little bit more than most. His country was under attack, his wife […]

There are few players in the history of professional baseball who have made as strong an impact in their debut season as did Pat Zachry. Through the 2012 campaign, Zachry remains one of only three pitchers to secure Rookie of the Year honors while helping lead his team to a World Championship. Establishing other remarkable […]

Shortstop Joe Boley played for 11 pennant winners in his first 16 professional seasons. Contemporary observers considered him a key player on the Philadelphia Athletics teams that won three consecutive pennants and two consecutive World Series from 1929 through 1931. Throughout his career, sportswriters described him with superlatives like “brilliant,” “sensational,” “sparkling” and “great.” He […]

Talk of Don Mattingly’s worthiness for enshrinement in the Hall of Fame most often focuses on his offensive statistics. Perhaps not enough is said about his defense. Mattingly has one of the best career fielding percentages of any player – ever – at any position. His .9959 percentage means that every 1,000 times the ball […]

Dave Eiland holds a unique baseball record: He is the only major-league player to give up a home run to the first batter he faced, and to hit a home run off the first pitcher he faced. But his contributions to the game go beyond that unusual historical footnote. A “pitch to contact”1 right-handed pitcher […]

“And in no field of American endeavor is invention more rampant than in baseball, whose whole history is a lie from beginning to end. … The game’s epic feats and revered figures … all of it is bunk, tossed up with a wink and a nudge.” — John Thorn, Baseball in the Garden of Eden […]

Fans cheer on their favorite team on June 29, 2021, at Dodger Stadium. (Copyright: Steven Cukrov / dreamstime.com)   On October 8, 1957, the stockholders and directors of the Brooklyn Baseball Club announced that the franchise would move to Los Angeles for the 1958 season.1 A welcoming parade jammed downtown LA streets.2 On the steps […]

Cheney Stadium is known as the “100-Day Wonder.” In 1960, it went from drawing board to a finished ballpark in approximately 100 days, just in time for the Tacoma Giants’ inaugural season in the Pacific Coast League (PCL). Since then, the ballpark has continuously hosted Tacoma’s Triple-A ballclubs, and is the oldest continually operated Triple-A […]