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Our younger readers might not realize there was a time when the baseball owners intentionally scheduled doubleheaders and fans could see two games for the price of one. More amazing to 21st century fans is that in those doubleheaders both starting pitchers might toss complete games. On rare occasions a pitcher might even start and […]

As a young amateur pitcher, the sky seemed the limit for right-hander Jason Middlebrook. He was Mr. Baseball in the state of Michigan as a senior in high school; he threw a no-hitter against UCLA as a freshman at Stanford; he was so successful for Team USA in many international tournaments that he was in […]

Quietly dependable though seldom spectacular for most of his five full major-league seasons as an infielder, Steve Yerkes grasped immortality when he played a central role in one of baseball’s legendary episodes. In the bottom of the 10th inning of the deciding game of the epic 1912 World Series, Yerkes raced home with the winning […]

Who was Andy Rudolph? Not much more than an especially rabid fan, really. Or so everyone thought until this fixture at early twentieth-century Detroit baseball games suddenly wasn’t there any longer. Then people realized local games would never be quite the same without him. Little is known about Andrew Rudolph’s early life. His obituaries indicated […]

Rubén Gómez was the second pitcher from Puerto Rico to reach the majors — and the first to start and win a World Series Game. He led the New York Giants to a 6-2 win in Game Three at Cleveland on October 1, 1954. A limber 6 feet even and 170-175 pounds, Gómez was amazingly […]

On Thursday, June 29, 1905, New York Giants rookie outfielder Archie Graham made his major league debut, playing the last two innings of a one-sided 11-1 victory over the Brooklyn Superbas. The twenty-five-year-old was the next to bat when the last out was recorded in the top of the ninth inning. After playing right field […]

Any ballplayer named Durham is bound to attract the nickname “Bull” – even if he was a fairly average 170-pounder, standing 5-feet-11. Edward Fant Durham was a right-handed pitcher, who batted from the left side. He pitched for the two Sox teams – for the Boston Red Sox from 1929 through 1932 and for the […]

“The Washington public went enthusiastically, almost insanely, baseball mad” on the day of Hack Eibel’s debut. So wrote the Washington Post.  This happened when “Clark Griffith’s ambitious climbers batted the ‘13’ hoodoo all to pieces.”[1]  It was the 13th of the month of June and the Nationals had 13 hits, adding another win to a 13-game winning […]

Whenever American League President Joe Cronin was asked to rank big-league third basemen, he always gave the same answer: “Well, you start with Bluege.”1 Of course shortstop Cronin was referring to his old partner on the right side of the Washington Senators teams of the 1920s and ’30s, Ossie Bluege. At the 1970 World Series, […]

Right-handed pitcher Jason Johnson overcame a diagnosis of insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus as a youth to forge an 11-year major-league career during which he became the first ballplayer to wear an insulin pump on the field of play. Jason Michael Johnson was born on October 27, 1973, in Santa Barbara, California, to John and Deanna Johnson. […]

Being enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown puts a player in an elite class among their peers. Achieving the required 75 percent of votes in their first year of eligibility is something only 60 players have done. Frank Thomas was one of those 60; he also did things in his career […]

June 14, 1908, South Side Park, Chicago. The White Sox had won 10 straight games. Manager Fielder Jones might well have uttered what would become a Hawk Harrelson catchphrase more than a century later: “Don‘t stop now, boys!”1 But Jones could see win 11 slipping away. After four innings, the New York Highlanders led 4-1. […]

Some said that baseball owners found Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis on the federal bench, but Leo Durocher got it right when he said, “They got him right out of Dickens.”1 Ruth put the fans back in the parks, but Landis made sure what they witnessed was honest. The Sultan and the Czar worked different sides […]

Billy Sorrell was the type of player scouts coveted: a 6-foot, 190-pound left-handed hitter with power and speed who could play both infield and outfield. Legendary scout Tony Lucadello tracked and signed Sorrell for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1959. Sorrell was a good batsman, often clutch, who played 14 professional seasons from 1960 until 1973, […]

Baseball brought Jim Neidlinger across the country from Napa, California, where he was named to the high school All-County team in two consecutive years, to Burlington, Vermont, where, as of 2024, he was the head baseball coach at Saint Michael’s College. In between, he pitched professionally for 11 seasons from 1984 to 1994. In August […]

After completing the rough draft of his Hall of Fame acceptance speech during the summer of 1993, Reggie Jackson asked legendary New York Yankees public address announcer Bob Sheppard to critique it. “Now, I want you to be honest with me,” the verbose slugger known as Mr. October told the man he had dubbed “The […]

The Cleveland Indians hosted the Cincinnati Reds on the afternoon of July 10, 1999, before a packed house of 43,127 fans at Jacobs Field for the second of three mid-July games in the annual Battle of Ohio. The Indians were the best team in baseball at 55-30. Even though they had won only half of […]

In January 1949, the St. Louis Cardinals sold right-hander Murry Dickson, a mainstay since their glory years earlier in the 1940s, to the Pittsburgh Pirates for $125,000. Dickson defeated his former club five times in eight decisions that season, with one victory especially harmful to St. Louis’s championship aspirations. His complete-game 7-2 win at Pittsburgh’s […]

With only two days left on the Cleveland Indians’ 1916 schedule, Jack Graney already had a season to remember. The 30-year-old St. Thomas, Ontario, native,1 a member of Cleveland’s American League franchise since his 1908 major-league debut, had piled up career-high totals in runs, doubles, triples, and home runs, rated among the best defensive left […]

On May 20, 1993, Boston found itself in the national spotlight. Cheers, NBC’s popular Thursday night TV show set in Boston and featuring a fictional retired Red Sox reliever and his friends, was about to air for the final time, ending an 11-year run. To mark the occasion, the show’s stars traveled to Boston for […]

During the sophomore season of the Houston Colt .45s in 1963, there were a few bright spots for the Colt Stadium community suffering humidity, mosquitoes, and a ninth-place baseball team. Left fielder Al Spangler hit .281; right-hander Don Nottebart threw a no-hitter; rookie outfielder Rusty Staub showed flashes of promise; and Johnny Temple offered solace, […]

“I was gunning for it, all right,” said Ralph Kiner, the Pittsburgh Pirates star left fielder. “I was sure gunning for that fourth home run in the ninth inning yesterday against the Dodgers … You don’t get these chances too often.”1 Although another home run would have nudged Kiner deeper into rare historic company, the […]

Game Five of the 1917 World Series was back in Chicago and the winner would be on the cusp of a championship. Skipper Pants Rowland’s White Sox had taken the first two games of the fall classic in the Windy City, but John McGraw’s Giants came back to take Games Three and Four at the […]

The Chicago White Sox celebrate on the pitcher’s mound at Minute Maid Park in Houston after winning Game Four of the 2005 World Series. (Courtesy of Ken Smoller)   People kept talking about the history. Eighty-eight years since the White Sox last won the World Series in 1917. Eighty-six since the Black Sox Scandal “cursed” […]