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More than any other military conflict, World War II took its toll on major-league baseball and its players. And it was while fighting overseas during the Battle of the Bulge that Corporal Ernie White “was pinned down in icy water for a day” and — perhaps as a result — ultimately reported to have lost […]

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 […]

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 […]

Right-handed-hitting catcher Dewey Williams played in parts of five major-league seasons, including 59 games with the Chicago Cubs’ last World Series team, in 1945. He had a reputation as an outstanding defensive catcher. When he was signed by the Cubs in 1944, a newspaper reported, “Dewey Williams throws so swiftly and accurately from a squat […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

“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 […]

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. […]

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 […]

Teammates remembered his hands — “bear claws for hands,” one said.1 Those powerful hands could pat you on the back or clamp you so hard your knees buckled. No formula can explain leadership, but Terry Moore knew the secret. As center fielder and captain of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1940s, Moore earned the […]

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 […]

What makes a memorable night at the ballpark? How about a game featuring some of the major leagues’ biggest stars, an exciting come-from-behind win by the home team, five home runs, and a heartfelt tribute to a local baseball legend? Oh, yeah, and let’s not forget the announcement over the public-address system that the president […]

As students of physics know, a spinning baseball traveling through the air experiences three forces: gravity, drag, and lift. If baseball were played in a vacuum, that ball would experience only gravity and its destination would be uniquely determined by its initial conditions off the bat: speed, launch angle, and direction.1 Better carry of the […]

“The baseball rule makers made sweeping changes in the playing code of the national game today, and heaped so much additional duty and authority on the shoulders of the umpires that next season the officials will all have to take a rest cure before the season is half over.” – New York Times, February 10, […]

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 […]

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 […]

Over its first five decades, the Kansas City Royals have had only three ownership regimes. Pharmaceutical entrepreneur Ewing Kauffman landed the Royals expansion franchise for the 1969 season and believed that the team could and should be competitive in a previously unprecedented time frame. He was willing to innovate and spend to boost the Royals […]