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The 1924 Cleveland Indians were mired in the second division and put out the call for talent. Eventually they looked at 43 players. Infielder Freddy Spurgeon was brought to town with seemingly no minor-league background. He had been a high-school and college multisport athlete in Michigan, but his name appeared nowhere in baseball annals in […]

A black first baseman who played portions of five seasons between 1938 and 1945 with the Newark Eagles in the segregated Negro National League, Fran Matthews began and ended his baseball career playing for teams in integrated amateur leagues in the Boston area. “Lefty would have made it to the majors in the 1930s as […]

Dave Ricketts was a bespectacled catcher who looked as much like a math teacher as he did a professional athlete. Indeed, he was a schoolteacher for several years and nearly gave up baseball to teach full-time. The statistics on the back of his baseball cards may give the impression that Ricketts had little impact on […]

From 1962 through 1968, right-hander Jack Lamabe pitched for seven different teams: the Pirates, Red Sox, Astros, White Sox, Mets, Cardinals, and Cubs. He won a world championship with the 1967 St. Louis Cardinals, helping them get through an August that was particularly challenging due to the loss of ace pitcher Bob Gibson to a […]

From 1922 to 1929 George Harper batted .314 with 91 home runs for five National League teams. Only six NL players hit more home runs during those years.1 He was a superb defensive outfielder with a cannon arm. In a career that spanned from 1913 to 1936, Harper amassed more than 2,500 hits with a […]

David Alexander Liddell is the only New York Mets position player to bat a perfect 1.000 for his career.1 Born on June 15, 1966, in Los Angeles,2 Liddell had the proverbial “cup of coffee” in the major leagues, getting a pinch-hit single in what turned out to be his only at-bat in the major leagues. […]

A child approached Baltimore Oriole third baseman Brooks Robinson seeking more than an autograph. The bold youngster peppered the Hall of Famer for fielding tips as well. “Keep [your] glove down, near the dirt [and always practice]”1 was the sage counsel, and the “Human Vacuum Cleaner’s” advice was heeded. By 1970, the former child, Jim […]

Vern Hoscheit’s career in professional baseball spanned six decades. Signed as a catcher by the New York Yankees in 1941, he had little hope of making the major-league roster with Bill Dickey and later Yogi Berra ensconced behind the plate. The Yankees front office took notice of Hoscheit’s leadership potential and made him a player-manager […]

Perseverance and a love for the game guided sure-handed utility infielder John Donaldson through a 12-year career in Organized Baseball (1963-1974), including parts of six seasons with the Kansas City/Oakland A’s and the Seattle Pilots. The hard-nosed North Carolinian played in 405 big-league games and weathered trades, demotions, promotions, and outright releases, but looked back […]

It is often said that no matter how many times a person may go to the ballpark, chances are good they might see something occur that they had not seen before. That experience is even more enhanced if the achievement or the play is of the record-setting variety. The 26,884 patrons who pushed through the […]

David LeFevre, who once tried to buy the Cleveland Indians, said it: “I want to stand next to Gabe Paul when they drop the atomic bomb.”1 Because Paul was a survivor. In his first 20 years as a major league general manager, he never won a pennant and only once came close. Then he sold […]

After a difficult childhood, a traumatic year in Vietnam, and replacing a legend in San Francisco, Garry Maddox came to Philadelphia in 1975. The “Secretary of Defense” proceeded to win eight consecutive Gold Gloves in center field. As a Phillie, he experienced great depths (an inexplicable error that ended Philadelphia’s 1978 pennant aspirations) and scaled […]

Throughout the 20th century and to the present, numerous luminary figures have gained everlasting fame as members of the storied New York Yankee franchise. Starting with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the 1920s, icons like Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford became household names during their illustrious careers. Every decade produced […]

To many who saw Al Luplow dive over the right-center field fence at Fenway Park on June 27, 1963 to glove a potential game-winning home run, it was the greatest catch they’d ever seen. An outfielder with the Cleveland Indians, Luplow was instinctively doing something he’d done as a Michigan State running back — launching […]

If the New York Yankees broadcaster Mel Allen were calling the action on May 20, 1922, he might have queried his listening audience with his signature line, “How about that?” Yes, the first matchup of the visiting St Louis Browns and the Yankees was certainly one that was not to be believed. But it also […]

There is nothing more exhilarating or more intoxicating in baseball than the seventh game of a best-of-seven championship series. It is an unforgiving arena where history is written of both the heroes who carry the day and their vanquished opponents. Winning pitchers in a game seven instantly become legends not only to their own team’s […]

All across the world, when it comes to moments in baseball there are various scenes that play out in the minds of boys and girls. Most will think of hitting a home run to win the World Series a la Bill Mazeroski off Ralph Terry or Joe Carter off Mitch Williams or even Warren Morris […]

Did outfielder Joe Riggert actually manage even before he began his 20 year career as a player? If nothing else, he seems to have managed in his first season. His career began started in 1909 with seven games for the Abilene Red Sox in the Central Kansas League; he hit .375 in the very small […]

When Sam Lacy was growing up in Washington, D.C., he dreamed of becoming a professional baseball player. But in segregated America, the options for talented Black athletes were limited. So, after playing and managing in semipro leagues, he found his calling as a sportswriter. Lacy’s career in journalism lasted more than seven decades. Along the […]

On July 13, 1953, officials from the Cotton States League and its eight teams were enjoying cocktails and dinner at the Willow Room in Hot Springs, Arkansas, prior to the annual all-star game scheduled for that evening. The festive occasion was interrupted when a United States marshal arrived to serve papers in a $50,000 civil […]

The Montreal Expos achieved all kinds of distinctions in their eventful first season. They beat the New York Mets 11-10 in the first game in franchise history, on April 8, 1969. On April 14 they beat St. Louis 8-7 in the first major-league game in Canada. Mack Jones hit the first big-league homer on Canadian […]

The New York Giants began the 1930 season with seven straight wins, including two in walk-off fashion, but followed with six losses in their next nine games. Entering play on May 8, John McGraw’s squad (10-6) had the best winning percentage in the National League (.625), yet they stood a half-game behind the Chicago Cubs […]

With 29 wins under his belt, Chicago White Sox ace Eddie Cicotte took the mound at Comiskey Park on September 24, 1919, just shy of a milestone victory — and with an opportunity to clinch the American League pennant. The White Sox’ march to the World Series was taking a little longer than they expected […]

Perhaps no player in the annals of baseball has had his reputation sullied more than Ty Cobb, thanks primarily to Al Stump, who served as the ghostwriter for Cobb’s autobiography and whose later magazine article and biography created a sensationalized portrait of Cobb as an outright fiend. Charles Leerhsen rehabilitated Cobb’s name to a great […]