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Some baseball fans of the 1970s and ’80s might say that pitcher Dan Boitano never unlocked his full potential. A three-time first-round draft pick,1 Boitano appeared in just 51 games over five big-league seasons, posting a 2-2 record and a 5.68 ERA. The members of the 1973 Elmira Pioneer-Red Sox2 would be unlikely to agree […]

Professional baseball leagues began in 1871 with the founding of the National Association, which many consider the first major league. Its demise in 1875 opened the door to the National League, and minor leagues then followed. Leagues rose and crumbled in those early days, franchises came and went (or switched home cities), but one thing […]

When Steve Finley came to bat with one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning on the afternoon of October 2, 2004, he had 35 home runs, tying a career high, and his Los Angeles Dodgers had just rallied to a 3-3 tie with their longtime rivals, the San Francisco […]

A mid-August matchup between two middle-of-the-pack teams is seldom abundant with high drama or deep significance. But in this case, fate braided the threads of multiple storylines to produce a singularly fascinating game, one that marked a milestone in the St. Louis Browns’ topsy-turvy 1921 season. St. Louis had not been over .500 since the […]

Mets manager Bobby Valentine and Yankees manager Joe Torre. (Courtesy of Jerry Coli / Dreamstime)   It was a once-in-a-century event for baseball fans in New York. The Mets and the Yankees were facing each other in two different ballparks on the same day.1 The Yankees started the day a half-game in front of Toronto […]

“You dream of things like this, but you never think of it happening to you. It’s something out of the movies.” — Mike Devereaux, October 15, 1995, after being named NLCS MVP1   Mike Devereaux became an instant hero on an Atlanta Braves team filled with future Hall of Famers. Having played with five different […]

Imagine being able to say you’d seen the big-league debuts of Ernie Banks, Roberto Clemente, Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, and Bill Mazeroski1 – not to mention an All-Star Game, a no-hitter, a four-homer game, and a batter hitting for the cycle. Some baseball lovers spend a lifetime hoping to see those kinds of milestones. Bill […]

Eleanor Callow was more than just the greatest power hitter in All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) history. On top of being the all-time leader in home runs and triples, Callow was perhaps the league’s best all-around position player. A speedy outfielder with a strong throwing arm, Callow ranks in the Top 10 in career […]

“He’s got that slow, easy delivery, and then – poof! – it’s on you. It’s very tough to hit. Very tough.” – Dave Winfield1 Winfield was far from the only hitter who found Tom Henke’s lively fastball problematic. Henke, a 6-foot-5, 215-pound right-hander, was one of the most dominant closers of his era. He debuted […]

Mookie Wilson stood at the plate in the bottom of the 10th inning, arcing his bat, focusing intently on Red Sox pitcher Bob Stanley. He realized that he represented the potential winning run in the most important game of his life and he was determined not to make the final out. Wilson had come a […]

Doc Gessler was also known as Brownie – a right fielder and left-handed first baseman who played in 880 major-league games over eight seasons for a total of five teams. He hit only 14 home runs in his career, but was the first man wearing a Boston Red Sox uniform to hit a homer in […]

Shawon Donnell Dunston was one of the most recognized shortstops in the game for a period in the mid-1980s. Known for his remarkable throwing arm, he played alongside Ryne Sandberg as a double-play combination on some of the best Cubs teams at that time. Injuries limited his playing time and Dunston eventually became a journeyman […]

On February 2, 1958, in Hamilton, Ohio, Mrs. Marian H. Tabler introduced newborn Patrick to his dad, siblings, and the world. Patrick was born into a family of German heritage on both paternal and maternal sides. Sometime after the families were connected, it was discovered that, in fact, both sides immigrated from Alsace-Lorraine, a predominantly […]

Day after day at Salt Lake City, Utah in 1925, Bill Essick, a scout for the New York Yankees, watched a young infielder named Tony Lazzeri. Essick reported to Ed Barrow, the Yankees’ business manager (general manager) that Lazzeri was hitting the ball exceptionally well, batting .355 and hitting 60 home runs. “But the air […]

Like the Cheesecake Factory menu, the 1979 baseball amateur draft had something for everyone. A total of 870 players were selected, including five future managers (Ron Gardenhire, Don Mattingly, Bob Geren, Bud Black, Bob Melvin); one World Series MVP (Orel Hershiser), the record-holder for most consecutive hits in one World Series (Billy Hatcher); one broadcaster […]

When introducing the Orioles’ new manager in 1968, general manager Harry Dalton said, “In short, I believe Earl Weaver is a winner.”1 Weaver was short. And he was a winner. For the next 14½ seasons the Orioles won more games than any other team, piling up six division titles, four pennants, and one World Series […]

On Opening Day 1998 the reigning World Series champion Florida Marlins took the field minus a dozen of their 1997 teammates, many of whom were, as The Sporting News put it, “victims … of a halved payroll,” adding, “The roll call of departed comrades read like a Memorial Day remembrance of war casualties” with the […]

Don Cardwell seemed the definition of a journeyman pitcher, but his career intertwined with the stuff of legend. He threw a no-hitter two days after being traded, he grabbed love beads off Ron Swoboda’s neck at the height of the 1960s culture clash, and Cardwell, who always liked to swing the bat, became the back […]

With Hall of Famers Waddell and Marquard at the top, the roster of major-league pitchers nicknamed Rube contains about 20 entries. Among the least-remembered of these is Rube Peters, a pre-World War I right-hander who had brief tours of duty with the Chicago White Sox and Brooklyn Tip-Tops. Like countless other aspiring hurlers, Peters lacked […]

Buzzie Bavasi had a ball running a ball club. In 18 years directing the baseball operations of the Dodgers in Brooklyn and Los Angeles, he assembled four World Series champions and eight pennant winners (and two more clubs that tied for first), more than any team except the Yankees. He had the benefit of owner […]

“Being a utility player wasn’t a pleasant way to spend your time in the major leagues,” said Ted Kubiak in 1987. “But it was a living.”1 Twenty years later, he said, “There’s no doubt in my mind that my ten-year major-league career was because of my defensive ability.”2 In 2011 he expanded further. “It took […]

In an era when the common impression of a baseball catcher was a sturdy player with bulging shoulders, a husky framework, and brute strength, the 5-foot-7 (many sources say 5-foot-9), 155-pound Ray Schalk did not convey an imposing figure behind the dish. But as John C. Ward wrote in Baseball Magazine in 1920, “Schalk is […]

Gary Waslewski woke in his Peabody, Massachusetts apartment on the morning of October 11, 1967 as the starting pitcher in Game Six of the World Series. “I was reading the papers that morning, and one guy wrote that Gary Waslewski has as much chance of winning as Custer had of beating the Indians,” Waslewski said. […]

Claude Jonnard, the lesser-known half of the Jonnard brothers battery, was a prominent right-handed relief pitcher in the 1920s, leading the National League in saves with the New York Giants in 1922 and 1923, and in pitching appearances with 45 in 1923.  By the end of the decade his skills had diminished, but he still […]