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Popular broadcaster Al Michaels has informed and entertained American sports fans for over half a century. His intelligent commentary and friendly demeanor can make a viewer or listener feel part of a sporting event as much as, or even more than, being in actual attendance. Alan Richard Michaels (only his mother calls him “Alan”) was […]

This righty pitcher’s big-league career consisted of just one game with the 1968 Chicago Cubs. His baseball days ended after the following season because of a rotator cuff injury – but the Grambling alumnus then turned to an exciting new life as one of Hollywood’s top stuntmen. Jophery Clifford Brown was born on January 22, […]

Gustave “Gus” Getz was perhaps the personification of the “good field, no hit” player. Typical of the Deadball Era, Getz relied on his glove, his ability to make contact with the bat, and his speed on the base paths to make it in professional baseball. Though he never achieved outstanding baseball success, he possessed a […]

Craig Lefferts battled all his life to make it to the major leagues. Once he did, he stayed there for a decade, and became famous for running from the bullpen to the mound, showing his lifelong enthusiasm for the game. Craig Lindsay Lefferts was born on September 29, 1957, in Munich, West Germany.1 His father, […]

A hard-throwing, fast-living left-hander, Rube Benton pitched professionally for 24 years, compiling a 150-144 record and 3.09 ERA in his 15 seasons in the National League. Benton had a reputation for drinking, gambling, and driving too fast, all three of which combined in various ways to interrupt his major-league career. He eventually died at age […]

Baseball is a great family sport and father/son duos have been in the game since baseball’s early days, from George Sisler and sons Dave Sisler and Dick Sisler, to Yogi Berra and his son Dale Berra right up through the times of Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr., as well as Cal Ripken Sr. […]

Jason Davis, a 6-foot-6-inch right-handed fireballer, pitched in seven seasons from 2002 through 2008 for Cleveland Indians, Seattle Mariners, and Pittsburgh Pirates. Known for a high-velocity sinking fastball in the upper 90s, Davis in 2003 led all American League rookie pitchers in innings pitched (165⅓), his first full season. Indians pitching coach Mike Brown compared […]

Sportswriter/historian George V. Tuohey hastily put together his famous A History of the Boston Base Ball Club – 1871 to 1897 in mid-1897. It was published to help celebrate Boston’s National League Beaneaters capture of the 1897 pennant after three unsuccessful seasons. Though weighted toward teams and players from the 1890s, the book does have […]

Standing 6-feet-1 at 185 pounds with dark good looks, the young Charley Hall cut an imposing, often intimidating figure on the mound. Early in his baseball career, he combined his “swarthy” appearance with a blazing, high-voltage fast ball. Later, with diminished speed but more consistent control, he deftly packaged a wide array of pitches thrown […]

Steve Balboni played for the New York Yankees and the Kansas City Royals before he bookended brief stints with the Seattle Mariners and the Texas Rangers around a second tour with the Yankees. He owns four World Series rings, one as a player with the Royals and three as an advance scout with the San […]

Although twice a 20-game winner in the Federal League, lefthander Gene Packard lingers in baseball’s consciousness only because of a phrase once purportedly inscribed next to his name: 1918 Series fixer. The accusation, attributed to a diary maintained by Chicago White Sox club secretary Harry Grabiner, did not surface during Packard’s lifetime. Rather, it appeared […]

In June 1970 Ted Williams, then managing the Washington Senators, reminisced for a reporter about the first time Williams had ever seen Dick Hall pitch. Hall, Williams recalled, “was taking his warmup throws, having come in to relieve somebody. I was kneeling in the on-deck circle and I thought to myself, ‘Oh, boy, he’ll be […]

Over his career, Jim Fuller hit just 11 homers in the major leagues but amassed 170 in the minors, including many tape-measure blasts. The righty slugger stood 6 feet 3½ inches tall and weighed 215 pounds. As a rookie with the Baltimore Orioles in 1974, he drew this observation from team groundskeeper Pat Santarone: “Anybody […]

Twenty-one-year-old Mickey Mantle received the Art Griggs Memorial Award in 1953, as “the Oklahoma baseball player who has brought the state the most distinction with his past year’s performance.”1 Mantle may have wondered who was Art Griggs. A natural hitter, Griggs distinguished himself in the minor leagues as a slugging first baseman, and as an […]

When Ruthford Eduardo “Chico” Salmon stepped up as a pinch-hitter in the fifth inning of Game Two of the 1970 World Series, Baltimore was trailing Cincinnati, 4-1. Salmon was batting for Tom Phoebus, already the second pitcher used by Earl Weaver. “I got the greatest thrill of my life just walking up to the plate,” […]

In his first full season in the majors, Dan Griner lost a big-league-most 22 games with the moribund St. Louis Cardinals in 1913. But few probably gave him a hard time for that dubious feat because “Big Dan,” a chiseled 200-pound former football player, didn’t take kindly to insults. He KO’d three teammates the following […]

Russell J. “Russ” Cowans was known in Detroit as the “Dean of Black Sportswriters.”1 In fact, during the 1920s and 1930s, he was that city’s only full-time Black sports reporter. The Detroit Tribune, the newspaper for which he wrote during that era, was located on St. Antoine Street, and because he was so knowledgeable about […]

Eddie Kasko was a major-league infielder with four different teams from 1957 through 1966, an All-Star for the Cincinnati Reds in 1961, and he hit .318 in that year’s World Series. He managed the Boston Red Sox for four full years, 1970 through 1973, with a winning record each season and two third-place and two […]

Who was Curt Walker? With a career .304 batting average, he might be the best hitter you have never heard of. A consistent, productive outfielder throughout the 1920s, he might be one of the most overlooked players of his generation. And playing at a time when Babe Ruth dominated the baseball world, Walker also had […]

The New York City hosting the 1977 All-Star Game had drastically changed in the 13 years since the Mets hosted the 1964 Midsummer Classic. In the summer of ’77, Big Apple residents lived in fear of the “Son of Sam” serial killer stalking the outer boroughs, and on July 13, the entire city was plunged […]

The Chicago Cubs had a 32-19 record when they arrived in Boston on June 13, 1952. They beat the Braves, 5-0, in Friday evening’s series opener, with Bob Rush going the distance and giving up just three Boston hits. The Cubs were tied for second place with the New York Giants, 3½ games behind the […]

Olive Little wasn’t particularly interested in joining the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) for its inaugural 1943 season – at least initially.1 She had a good teaching job in Poplar Point, Manitoba, and had been recently married. “Then they offered me twice as much in a week as I had been making in a […]

In 1957, the fans, with some help from Commissioner Ford Frick, selected the starters for the All-Star Game. The folks of Cincinnati exercised their franchise by stuffing the ballot box and selecting Reds players at all but one position. Five Reds started the game, as Frick named outfielders Willie Mays and Henry Aaron to start […]