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Throughout time superstars in baseball perform extraordinary feats on the diamond. Walter Johnson was one of those superstars. Throwing 110 shutouts, winning 30 games in a season twice, winning 20 or more games for 10 consecutive seasons (1910-1919). All these accomplishments were based on a fastball. The great Ty Cobb once said, “His fastball looked […]

What spices up a late-season pennant chase quite like a no-hitter? Try two of them on the same night, involving the league’s top two teams. Fans of the Class A Eastern League1 witnessed those fireworks on Saturday, September 1, 1956, when the first-place Schenectady Blue Jays entered the day 2½ games ahead of the second-place […]

Vida Blue set the baseball world ablaze during the first half of the 1971 season. The 21-year-old Oakland Athletics left-hander from Louisiana was playing in his third big-league season. Blue debuted in 1969 but pitched less than 50 innings in the 1969 and 1970 campaigns. After a 1971 Opening Day loss to the Washington Senators, […]

In many ways, it was a typical Coors Field contest. On September 20, 2000, the San Diego Padres jumped out to a 14-3 lead after 4½ innings in the Colorado Rockies’ hitter-friendly ballpark.1 In classic Coors Field fashion, the 11-run lead nearly disappeared, and the Padres were forced to use their closer in the bottom […]

It was the Deadball Era, where home runs were few and far between until the coming of George Herman “Babe” Ruth. Arthur Earl Wilson hit just seven home runs in 12 major-league seasons, mostly with the New York Giants and Chicago Cubs. When Wilson joined the Federal League’s Chicago Chi-Feds in 1914, he became a […]

The saying “Lightning never strikes twice in the same place” may not be true, but few of the record 67,550 spectators at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum would have expected it to strike for a third time when the 1959 World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers opened their 1960 season at home against the Chicago Cubs.1 […]

In reviewing the previous day’s game at Ebbets Field against the Brooklyn Dodgers, Bob Broeg had much to say of the St. Louis Cardinals’ skipper in the July 19, 1957, edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: “Red-necked Fred Hutchinson lost the National League lead and his temper. Whether he’ll regain either soon is a question […]

The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the New York Giants, 3-1, in the first game of a doubleheader on Wednesday afternoon, July 21, 1943, at Sportsman’s Park III in St. Louis. Martin J. Haley of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat noted the attendance: “The day’s activities were attended by 5,755 paid customers, 668 military men, 165 blood […]

Clarence “Lefty” Russell was the most sought-after pitcher in the minor leagues during the summer of 1910. The Baltimore Oriole southpaw was the sensation of the Eastern League, baffling hitters with his crackling fastball, roundhouse curve, and elusive spitball. Russell’s domination of opposing batters quickly drew the attention of quite a few major league teams, […]

A big, hulking 6-foot-3, 215-pound outfielder named Baby Doll?  There has to be a story behind that nickname.  More than one, as it happens, though they overlap. The story out of Jacobson’s own mouth is probably the right one. In his obituary, The Sporting News quoted him: “Everybody called me Bill until that day in […]

For 11 years Tim Flannery was an infielder for the San Diego Padres. During his childhood, he sang and played guitar with other family members. He took his guitar with him on the road while playing for the Padres and after retiring from his playing days, decided to take his musical career seriously. While coaching […]

He played in only forty-one games in his Major League career, but took home two World Series rings. During his ten years playing professional baseball, he earned such nicknames as Iron Man, Buster, and Butch. No matter what they called Charley Wensloff, one thing was certain: He knew how to pitch. His fastball, curve, and […]

Hardrock Johnson: it’s one of the great tough-guy names. Roy Johnson got the monicker as a minor-league manager in Arizona, circa the late 1920s, because “he was a stickler for hard playing.”1 Johnson, a righty pitcher, was in the majors for part of just one season, 1918. He posted a 1-5 record in 10 games […]

For a Red Sox team suddenly lacking Babe Ruth in 1920, having Tim Hendryx for that year helped soften the blow. He didn’t hit many home runs; in fact, he didn’t hit any. But he did drive in 73 runs, and he hit .328 with a .400 on-base percentage. It was, by far, his best […]

From calling baserunners safe to keeping schoolchildren safe, Luther Derr Sahm had a long and eventful life – much of it spent under a professional alias. He called himself Doll Derr,1 and it is under that distinctive name that he appears in major-league records as an umpire in the National League for 28 games in […]

He was a hardnosed player whose blue-collar work ethic maximized his talent and inspired his teammates. His red hair and true grit made him the most recognizable Blue Jay as their starting third baseman for nearly four years. Josh Donaldson? No, Roy Howell, whose career included stops with the Texas Rangers and the Milwaukee Brewers […]

Ted Wilks burst on the national scene as a 28-year-old rookie pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1944 by winning a league-best 11 games in a row en route to a 17-4 record and helping lead the Redbirds to their second World Series title in three years. When the hard-throwing right-hander developed career-threatening chronic […]

Rob Picciolo sat in the Milwaukee Brewers dugout in the early summer of 1982, watching Robin Yount and Jim Gantner execute another double play. The smooth coordination of the two fielders told Picciolo what he already knew: Barring an injury, he wouldn’t be needed in the Brewers’ middle infield any time soon. Picciolo (pronounced \PEACH-uh-lo\) […]

We’ve all had job evaluations, those nerve-racking meetings with the boss where he tells you how well, or poorly, you have done and what to work on to reach the next level. Bobby Winkles found out where he stood one day in 1958 from Walker Cooper, his manager with the Indianapolis Indians of the Triple-A […]

“That was the best play I’ve ever seen in my life.” — Happy Chandler, soon-to-be commissioner of baseball, September 18, 1945, reportedly commenting on a sparkling play by Johnnie Cowan in the 1945 Negro World Series1 From his Stockham Valves and Fittings industrial league team in Birmingham, Johnnie Cowan moved in 1940 to the Birmingham […]

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 […]

[With research assistance from John Leidy] Ray Fisher has been justly honored for his 38 seasons as head baseball coach at the University of Michigan. He was elected to Michigan’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1959, the American Association of College Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1966, and the University of Michigan Hall of […]

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, […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2021 as part of the SABR Century 1921 Project. Federal judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis was hired as baseball’s first commissioner in November 1920. He served in that role for nearly a quarter-century until his death in 1944. (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)   Only in the face of extreme […]