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“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 […]

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 […]

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 Juan wild night in an otherwise sad and dreary 2004 season at Olympic Stadium as the balls were flying out, even if the fans weren’t filing in. And it’s a game neither the Expos’ Juan Rivera nor the White Sox’ Juan Uribe was likely to forget. This was a weird one in many […]

The Philadelphia Athletics spent most of 1909 battling the Detroit Tigers for first place in the American League. They were in first as late as August 24 but faded and were mathematically eliminated on September 30. It was a huge jump in the win column for the Athletics, who moved from 68 wins in 1908 […]

The Cincinnati Reds had endured a rough winter. Confessions of game-fixing tarnished their long-coveted championship. Three key players were holdouts. A beloved team executive passed away. But the slings and arrows of baseball’s fortune could not diminish Cincinnati’s celebration of Opening Day. As a record crowd overflowed Redland Field, the Reds opened 1921 by surging […]

As future Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson approached Ty Cobb’s career runs-scored record of 2,244,1 he said that when the moment arrived, he “promised he would slide into home plate to officially mark his reign as baseball’s career runs leader.”2 In the 159th game of the 2001 season, before a home crowd of 21,606, Henderson, […]

Among trivia buffs, Houston Astros pitcher Larry Yount is often cited as having the shortest career in big-league history. Called into one game in 1971, he was injured while warming up, and was removed without facing a batter. About 1,000 players have reached the big leagues for only one game1 — including defensive substitutes who […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

By his second year in the majors in 1958, sweet-swinging Harry (The Horse) Anderson of the Philadelphia Phillies was one of the premier left-handed power hitters in the game. But after his fourth year, he was back in the minor leagues, struggling to regain the batting stroke that had abandoned him as quickly as it […]

John McNamara ran a big-league team six times, plus another as an interim skipper. He kept getting hired because he was well respected by everyone in the game, including general managers and players. “Any player with an ounce of decency in him will play his heart out for John,” said one of his San Diego […]

During the summer of 1954 the Cleveland Indians visited New York to play a three-game series against the Yankees with both teams in contention for the American League pennant. The story of the second game wasn’t the Yankees’ 4-1 victory, or Eddie Lopat outdueling Mike Garcia, but the 12-year-old batboy in the Cleveland dugout, Mike […]

James Lee “Jimmie” Newberry was a starting pitcher for the Birmingham Black Barons from 1942 to 1950. Most newspapers and historical sources refer to “Jimmy” as the diminutive of Newberry’s first name. However, the best evidence, which includes two autographs, signed “Jimmie Newberry,” is that he preferred to use the variant “Jimmie.”1 Newberry was born […]

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 […]

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 […]

Jerry Moses aspired to become a major-league ballplayer, and declined football scholarships at Southeastern Conference (SEC) universities to pursue his dream. A 1970 American League All-Star, Jerry became the youngest Red Sox to hit a home run, at age 18 and 289 days, with a pinch-hit rocket off Jim “Mudcat” Grant on May 25, 1965. […]

“Pembroke Finlayson” was surely a mouthful of a name for a 5-foot-6, 140-pound lad. Known as the “Midget Twirler,” young Mr. Finlayson made two very brief appearances in major-league baseball, pitching for the Brooklyn club, before reaching the age of 22. He might have worked his way back to the bigs if he’d only made […]

When he died in 1979, Charlie Deal was the last surviving member of the 1914 Miracle Braves. A third baseman, he played in 89 games for the 1913 and 1914 squads, and jumped to the Federal League in 1915 after a salary dispute. It wasn’t the first time Deal and the baseball establishment clashed over […]

Among the last generation of legendary ivory hunters who covered Southern California in the 1960s to 1980s, no name inspired more fear, trepidation, intimidation, antagonism, and grudging respect than that of Bob Zuk. The cigar-chomping son of Russian immigrants who fashioned a 46-year professional scouting career out of little more than energy, intellect, hustle, and […]