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Team captain Sal Bando was the glue that held the volatile Oakland A’s together during their three-year run as World Series champions (1972-1974). Respected by teammates, peers, and his managers, Bando was Oakland’s unequivocal leader, a durable, rough-and-tumble third baseman who averaged 23 home runs and 90 runs batted in over an eight-year span in […]

He was born in Ireland during the Potato Famine, named for an American president, and crossed the ocean as an infant to become a star in a game that was unknown in his native land at the time. Eventually, baseball came to flourish in Ireland. In the present Irish Baseball League the most outstanding player […]

From the Class D Southeastern League to a perfect inning in the National League over a three-game five-day span, 20-year-old Harrie “Jack” Reis was a tiny bright September footnote from a lackluster 1911 St. Louis Cardinals season. It marked the beginning and end of his major league career. Harrie C. Reis was born on June […]

A catcher who always seemed to be trying to win a starting spot, Barry Lyons showed occasional signs of power and a solid presence behind the plate. Described once by reporters as “quiet, conservative and even contemplative in appearance,” Lyons often found himself overlooked but still had a major-league career that spanned seven years between […]

His was an improbable glory. On October 2, 1978, baseball’s fates codified heroism for a hitter with four home runs in the season. He wore Yankee pinstripes, looked like a GQ model, and, quietly, on and off the field, projected likability balancing the controversy surrounding the Yankees of the late 1970s. Bucky Dent remains known […]

Elmer Leifer played in only nine major-league games, being called up to the Chicago White Sox by team owner Charlie Comiskey at the end of the 1921 season. The most remarkable feature of Leifer’s baseball career, and maybe of his entire life, was his comeback from a near-fatal injury on the ballfield that occurred a […]

One night at Toots Shor’s restaurant, Edward Bennett Williams was asked what he wanted to do when he grew up — an odd question for a man in his mid-30s who’d already gained a reputation as a distinguished trial lawyer. “I want to own a ball club and be president,” said Williams,1 who as a […]

Behind the scenes maneuvering resulted in Bud Lally being added to the National League’s staff of umpires for the second half of the 1896 season. In an era of rough and tumble baseball, Lally’s experience as a professional boxer was thought to be an asset. But his lack of knowledge and experience soon became apparent, […]

Pack your bags. Frank Lane’s in town. The compulsive trader known as Frantic Frank shuffled at least 690 players in 414 transactions with five teams.1 Wherever Lane went, turmoil followed. He traded one manager for another. He traded a home run champion for a batting champ. He traded local heroes and future Hall of Famers. […]

One of the best pitchers of the 1970s, Dock Ellis feared success nearly as much as he feared failure. He both angered and amused. His antics cut across racial and cultural lines, as he challenged old prejudices and “normal” ways of doing things. Ellis pitched a no-hitter in 1970 and the next year led the […]

The tale is familiar to followers of baseball legend: Young boy growing up in rough-and-tumble circumstances, running roughshod over parents and teachers, unrepentantly scoffing at law and decency, finally ends up in front of the local magistrate who has him declared incorrigible and packed off to the nearest reformatory. There, the lad discovers an outlet […]

Outfielder Carroll Hardy played for four major-league baseball teams between 1958 and 1967. Over time he has come to be known largely for one at-bat, in which he hit the ball back to the pitcher in the first inning of a late September game of almost no consequence in the standings, but most of his […]

Rollie Fingers was clearly excited as he caught a leaping Ted Simmons, his catcher, after Fingers struck out Detroit’s Lou Whitaker to nail down the victory and the second-half American League East title for his Milwaukee Brewers in 1981. (The unprecedented split season was devised after the players’ two-month strike was settled.) The Brewers were […]

In 1971 The Sporting News contributor Wayne Minshew submitted a report on the Atlanta Braves’ “bona-fide future ace . . . the pitcher visiting scouts like most when they visit Atlanta Stadium.”1 Minshew was not referring to Phil Niekro, who at the time was just one-third of the way along his path to Hall of […]

Dave “Beauty” Bancroft was Honus Wagner‘s successor as the National League’s premier shortstop. A brainy on-field leader with tremendous defensive range, Bancroft was especially adept at scooping up bad-hop grounders and cutting off outfield throws to hang up runners between bases. He believed that “the business of batting and fielding is a contention between minds,” […]

Bob Gilks devoted more than 40 years to professional baseball, as a player, manager, and scout. As a player, his greatest strengths were his versatility and fielding ability. As a minor-league manager, he schooled youngsters in the right way to play the game. And as a scout, he recognized the potential of future stars like […]

In late June of 1978 baseball historian Eugene Converse Murdock traveled to Albany, Oregon, to interview an old-time baseball player named Wes Schulmerich. During his chat with Schulmerich, the retired player asked Murdock if he was going to meet with any other baseball retirees from Oregon. Wes reminded the historian that his old friend and […]

A season after dropping its first All-Star Game since 1971, the National League returned to its winning ways by beating the American League, 3-1, in the 1984 midsummer classic at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, in a game featuring record-breaking strikeout pitching. Eighty-one-year-old Carl Hubbell, ace of the Giants in their New York incarnation who fanned […]

On May 23, 1976, Minnesota pitcher Bert Blyleven beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-1, and won his 99th career game, all with the Twins, for whom he debuted as a 19-year-old on June 5, 1970. He had a solid rookie season, going 10-9 with a 3.18 earned-run average in 27 games, all but two as […]

The champagne was ready in the Astrodome. With a two-games-to-one lead in the best-of-five National League Championship Series, the Astros were one win away from their first trip to the World Series. Considering the obstacles that both they and their opponents, the Phillies, had overcome, no one was apt to be counting on an easy […]

The 1918 season did not start well for either the Philadelphia Athletics or the Detroit Tigers. After a month the two teams found themselves at the bottom of the American League standings. On May 20 they met for the first time to play a four-game series.1 For the A’s, the games provided an opportunity to […]

“They’ve called Ty Cobb the Georgia Peach for the last 15 years,” wrote Dean Snyder, nationally syndicated columnist and sporting editor of the Newspaper Enterprise Association, “but at this point in the drama enters Peachy George. It now remains for the world to start calling the Brown star the Great George Sisler.”1 With Cobb temporarily […]

The Chicago Cubs opened 1982 with rookie Ryne Sandberg at third base, months after acquiring him in an offseason trade with the Philadelphia Phillies. Held to one hit in his first 32 at-bats, the 22-year-old Sandberg entered the Cubs’ April 23 game with the Pittsburgh Pirates batting just .140. On a windy day at Wrigley […]