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Baseball’s modern business model has turned major league benefit games into relics. Formal corporate support to assist carefully screened causes is the norm today. From at least the inception of the National League-American League coalition in 1901 through the immediate post-World War II period, however, major league benefit games were common; wherever needs that attracted […]

Fenway Park’s iconic left-field wall, the Green Monster, has served as the canvas for many memorable home runs. The game-winner that Carlton Fisk waved fair in Game Six of the 1975 World Series cleared that 37-foot-tall left-field barrier, as did Bucky Dent’s go-ahead homer in the 1978 American League East tiebreaking playoff and the first […]

After a one-year hiatus because of the COVID-19 pandemic, MLB All-Star Week returned in July 2021. The site was Denver’s Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies.1 Alongside the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby, one of the biggest attractions was the All-Star Futures Game, a seven-inning contest that showcases the most highly touted prospects […]

William Rumler and Eddie Plank roomed together when the 1917 St. Louis Browns traveled for road games.1 It seems like an odd pairing. Rumler was 26 years old, nearly anonymous, and a bench warmer; Plank was 41, well known to sports fans across the country, and – although past his prime – one of the […]

The Homestead Grays were a dynasty in Negro League baseball in the 1940s. They had won back-to-back world championships in 1943-1944 and seven Negro National League pennants in eight years. Their roster was full of a who’s who of Negro League stars, several of whom would one day be recognized for their greatness in the […]

The first journey of the Washington Nationals into postseason baseball, the 2012 National League Division Series, began on December 5, 2010, when they signed free-agent outfielder Jayson Werth to a seven-year, $126 million contract. Werth was an important contributor to the Philadelphia Phillies’ 2007-10 postseason runs, including the World Series crown in 2008. He brought […]

“Sock” and “Socko” were nicknames given to Ken Szotkiewicz, but they weren’t tributes to his hitting skill.1 In 98 plate appearances with the 1970 Detroit Tigers, shortstop Szotkiewicz hit just .107. If he’d come to the plate twice more without a hit, he would have posted the lowest career batting average of any twentieth-century position […]

As dominant as the Detroit Tigers were during the 1984 season, the Toronto Blue Jays stayed within reach until the final month. For much of the year, the Blue Jays were the second best team in baseball, and the biggest threat to spoil the Tigers’ historic 35-5 start. When the two teams first met, in […]

It was a recipe for disaster. Houston’s Mike Cuellar, a native of Cuba, was a fiery, intensely competitive pitcher. The Phillies skipper, Gene Mauch, was known for his abrasive and combative personality. Factor in a tight game in the ninth inning, underachieving teams needing to prove something, and a good dose of bench jockeying, and […]

If you had to guess, you would say that Warren Cromartie’s lucky number was 3. After all, he played baseball, a game that has three strikes, three outs, and three bases. And he played in three countries (the United States, Canada, and Japan) where the people speak three languages (English, French, and Japanese). Warren Livingston […]

When it comes to players who pitched for both the New York Yankees and the New York Mets, Vito Valentinetti’s name is seldom mentioned. Yet he took the mound for the Mets from 1962-1982 and for the Yankees from 1967-1986. He was paid $20 a day, working roughly 15 minutes. The retired major-leaguer – 108 […]

“Good field no hit” is a label that can doom any player. When that player is pushed through the system, it can stunt his natural growth into a position. And when he’s competing against several others for the same spot – people who have much more support from the team – the opportunities may just […]

In a poll of National League sportswriters conducted in April 1964, Larry Bearnarth was tabbed as the New York Mets’ best young pitcher.1 The franchise’s first bonus player and the first hurler to win four consecutive major league decisions, the tall blond right-hander established a club record with 58 appearances during his rookie season. Bearnarth’s […]

“As wild as Ishi”1 Trilingual gold and gravel miner Luke Glavenich’s major-league pitching career lasted but one erratic inning on April 12, 1913. It started with eight straight balls and got much worse from there. Small wonder that he’d drawn prior comparisons to a minor celebrity of the day: the “wild Indian” Ishi, the last […]

George Winn had one win and two losses in his dozen major-league games, and he hit .300 as a batter. Winn had first become known to baseball fans in Boston when secretary Larry Graver of the Boston Red Sox announced on March 3, 1919, that “Pitcher Winn had signed with the Red Sox. Winn comes […]

A lefty reliever with a devastating curveball, Tippy Martinez pitched for 14 major league seasons from 1974 to 1988. Between starting his career with the New York Yankees and ending it with the Minnesota Twins, he spent 11 years with the Baltimore Orioles, where he was an All-Star and World Series champion in 1983. That […]

A run-scoring-machine leadoff hitter with great speed (408 career steals) and good power (235 homers), Johnny Damon had “good range defensively but … one of the worst outfield arms in the big leagues.” 1 Offensively, Damon had his best years with Kansas City in 2000 and Boston in 2004, and won World Series titles with […]

“Good field, no hit” has been a tag line for many ballplayers over the decades. George Dunlop certainly deserved that label. Shag Shaughnessy, his manager in 1916, said he was “one of the greatest fielding shortstops in the minor leagues and if he could only hit, he would be in the big show.”1 Dunlop batted […]

Born into poverty, raised by a single mother, and dead of cholera at age 33, Harry McCormick led a short but eventful life. Some of his accomplishments will endure in baseball lore forever. Baseball historian Lloyd Johnson wrote, “Rarely would a star shine so brightly and burn out so quickly.”1 Patrick Henry McCormick was born […]

Casey Stengel, an eccentric man himself, called Moe Berg “the strangest man ever to play baseball.” Dark, handsome, erudite, fluent in many languages, charming and shadowy-just who was this man who was a professional baseball player and a so-called master spy? Who is the real Moe Berg? He epitomizes frustration for any biographer. Moe Berg […]

At 30 years of age and the last man signed by Connie Mack for his newly organized 1901 Philadelphia team, Ralph “Socks” Seybold proved to be a durable and valuable player during the Athletics’ first seven seasons, becoming one of the junior circuit’s top sluggers. In spite of being somewhat maligned by the Philadelphia press […]

Whenever the subject of best baseball names comes up, Scipio Spinks is sure to be on the short list. A classic wild flamethrower, Spinks was breaking through to success in 1972. If he hadn’t torn up his knee in a collision with Johnny Bench, he would have more to show than a career record of […]

Entertaining and irritating by turns, outfielder Chuck Carr was known for his speed and cocky personality. Carr’s running ability was what made him fun to watch. He made many circus catches and stole a lot of bases. That made him a fan favorite in Miami, where he enjoyed his best year in 1993 for the […]

The huge Brooklyn Dodgers farm system grew infield prospects like weeds after World War II. With Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, and Jim Gilliam impossible to dislodge, most of the prospects wound up on other teams: Chico Carrasquel, Bobby Morgan, Chico Fernandez, Bob Lillis, and Billy Hunter, among others. Charlie Neal was a keeper. But […]