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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, […]
San Francisco Giants general manager Brian Sabean speaks during the World Series parade on October 31, 2014. (SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS) With their World Series triumphs in 2010, 2012, and 2014, the San Francisco Giants accomplished what no other National League team since the St. Louis Cardinals in 1946 had been able to do: win […]
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 […]
“There is virtually nothing he can’t do,” said Willie Stargell.1 “He’s the best player for his age I have ever seen or know,” said Reggie Jackson.2 “He’s going to be one hell of a player,” said Gene Tenace.3 These were sentiments shared by many of the teammates, coaches, and scouts who saw such promise in […]
Steve Barber was a wild left-handed pitcher with a cannonball sinker, a chip on his shoulder, and a pain in his elbow. Barber was anointed as the majors’ fastest pitcher before he appeared in a regular-season game. He was the first 20-game winner in the modern history of the Baltimore Orioles, but his arm went […]
A star in basketball and track, he never played high school baseball. He played one year in college and had a losing record in four years in the minor leagues before being promoted to the majors. Yet Bill Henry had a 16-year career in the big leagues, played in a National League All-Star Game, and […]
Juan Berenguer combined a high-90s fastball and a menacing appearance to become the first Panamanian-born pitcher to win a World Series ring, starting 27 games for the Detroit Tigers in their 1984 championship season. And he did it again three years later, earning the monikers “Señor Smoke” and “El Gasolino” for the 1987 Twins. Berenguer […]
A tall left-handed pitcher, Henry Keupper pitched seven years in professional baseball, but just one year in the majors — 1914, when he was 8-20 for the last-place St. Louis Terriers of the short-lived Federal League. Henry John Keupper was born on June 24, 1887, in Staunton, Illinois. Staunton, the second largest city in Macoupin […]
Jon Matlack was one of the most underrated and unappreciated New York Mets pitchers in their first half-century of existence. Matlack’s baseball records are one of the best examples of why won-lost records may not be the best way to measure a pitcher’s efforts. Jonathan Trumpbour Matlack was born on January 19, 1950, in West […]
Paul Doyle toiled in the minor-leagues for a decade before making his major league debut for the Atlanta Braves on May 28, 1969. He helped Atlanta win the 1969 National League West Division. Doyle’s stellar relief pitching for the 1969-70 Ponce Lions was a factor in that team winning the Puerto Rico Winter League title. […]
Name the winningest right-hander of the mid-1970s to early ’80s and most might guess Tom Seaver, Jim Palmer, Nolan Ryan, or Phil Niekro, but they’d be wrong. Over a seven-year stretch, from 1975 through the strike-shortened 1981 season, the Kansas City Royals’ Dennis Leonard led all right-handers with 120 victories, a figure that only southpaw […]
Until Rickey Henderson donned New York Yankee pinstripes in 1985, Fritz Maisel’s 74 stolen bases had been the franchise’s single-season record for 71 years. The diminutive Maisel, nicknamed “The Catonsville Flash” for his Maryland hometown, spent all or parts of six seasons (1913-1918) with the Yankees and St. Louis Browns. For 57 years he was […]
Earl Averill, a 5-foot-10 catcher and outfielder, compiled a career .242 batting average and had 44 home runs mostly in part time roles over seven major league seasons (1956, 1958-1963) with the Cleveland Indians, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Angels, and Philadelphia Phillies. Despite clutch performances, such as walk-off home runs and key […]
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” […]
Rod Carew debuted with the Minnesota Twins in 1967, was the American League Rookie of the Year, and had 12 productive years with the team. His best season was 1977, when he did it all, finishing with a batting average of .377 and earning the league’s Most Valuable Player Award. All was not well in […]
When fireworks launched on America’s 196th birthday, the nighttime celebration was an afterthought for Mets fans. Earlier in the day, Tom Seaver gave them another reason to rejoice when he took a no-hitter into the ninth inning against the San Diego Padres; Leron Lee’s one-out, broken-bat single prevented the Mets ace from getting his first […]
A single major-league baseball season spans … well, seasons … and for that reason alone both good stretches and bad can often seem never-ending. Just as players are prone to streaks and slumps, so too are teams as a whole or any component thereof. For the 2015 New York Mets, pitching and hitting were on […]
The National League West-leading Cincinnati Reds hosted division rival Atlanta for a three-game series starting on May 15, 1970. The Reds (24-10) had the NL’s best winning percentage (.706) and enjoyed a four-game lead over the second-place Braves. The Reds’ balanced attack was illustrated by their leading the league in runs scored (173) and fewest […]
A crowd of 6,000 turned out to Comiskey Park on September 26, 1943, at 2:30 P.M. for Game Four of the Negro League World Series between the Homestead Grays of the Negro National League and the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League. The previous three games had been played in Washington, D.C., Homestead’s […]
Boasting a three-games-to-one lead after four tilts, the Reds had all but started counting their share of the 1919 World Series take. “With three victories to our credit, nothing will stop the Reds now of winning the world’s championship,” Cincinnati skipper Pat Moran declared before they were to face the White Sox at Comiskey Park […]
After the Chicago White Sox lost the first two games of the 1919 World Series to the Cincinnati Reds in Cincinnati, the Series shifted to Chicago’s Comiskey Park for the next three tilts. Though Reds manager Pat Moran admitted his team was lucky to have beaten Lefty Williams in Game Two, he also insisted the […]
“You Called That a What . . . ?”The Newsletter of the Official Scoring Committee Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) June 2019, Volume 4, Number 2 Past newsletters Editor: Stew Thornley From the Chair Conundrum of the Month (or Quarter or Whatever) What’s a Cincinnati Base Hit? Profile: Allan Spear Bloops and Bobbles […]