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Probably the greatest rivalry in the history of baseball was the Brooklyn Dodgers versus the New York Giants, especially in the late 1940s and 1950s.1 During this period the rivalry escalated as a result of Jackie Robinson becoming a major leaguer in 1947 and Leo Durocher joining the Giants as manager. Durocher had been manager […]

When Mike Piazza was traded to the Florida Marlins on May 14, 1998, he had no idea how long his South Florida sojourn would last. The Los Angeles Dodgers, Piazza’s team since the 1992 season, may have been underachieving, just 19-21 when they traded Piazza and Todd Zeile to the Marlins for Gary Sheffield, Manuel […]

It was widely believed that Cole Hamels’ start on Saturday, July 25, 2015, against the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field could be his last in a Philadelphia Phillies uniform. If so, it would end his memorable 9½-year run with the team, capped by his 2008 World Series MVP Award. The Phillies were limping along sporting […]

In the twentieth century only two pitchers recorded 40 or more wins in a season. Jack Chesbro accomplished the feat for the 1904 New York Highlanders, finishing the year 41-12. Ed Walsh joined him on that plateau by tallying 40 wins for the Chicago White Sox in 1908. His 40th win was a 6-1 triumph […]

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a conclave of civil rights advocates arrived at Memphis Municipal Airport on the morning of April 3, 1968. Dr. King’s group made the trip to show solidarity with the city’s 1,300 striking Black sanitation workers.1 Later that day Dr. King gave his iconic “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” speech […]

It was a beautiful late-summer evening for a meeting between two teams that would not reach the postseason. The Nationals, losers of nine of their last ten games, sat at 63-73, 26 games behind division-leading Philadelphia. The Mets were not much better, 22 games out of first at 67-69. Perhaps attracted by the weather or […]

It was a “marvelous exhibition of skill and stamina,” gushed D.C. sportswriter Denman Thompson about the St. Louis Browns’ Dixie Davis’s 19-inning complete-game victory over the Washington Senators.1 Another capital city scribe, Jack Nye, suggested that “Davis appeared to gain strength as the game proceeded,” overcoming six initial shaky frames to settle down and hold […]

Baseball fans in the small-town New York-Penn League discovered an extra reason to go to games in the summer of 1975. On certain nights, there was a chance that beloved Hall of Famer Yogi Berra might join them in the stands at one of the short-season Class A loop’s modest ballparks. Yogi and his wife, […]

He was a leadoff man. He played all through the eclipse of baseball’s greatest franchise. So, mainly for worse he came to symbolize an era. Alas, Horace Meredith Clarke was never a star, but he was a pesky hitter with speed and a good glove. Perverse as it may be, his durability and visibility made […]

A celebrated base ball character” was A. G. Spalding’s succinct description of Bob Addy, who was his teammate on three separate clubs.1 Others who knew Addy well referred to him as a philosopher or as a wag or as the “Honorable Bob.” The reasons behind that last tag remain unknown, but it certainly sounds like the sort […]

Yankee Stadium, October 12, 1977, World Series, Game 2: The Yankees were trailing the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-1, but had runners on first and second with only one out. Yankees public address announcer Bob Sheppard, “the Voice of God,” surely intoned his usual introduction, “Now batting for the Yankees, pinch-hitter, number 25, George Zeber, number […]

“Baseball was his life,” said Gene Myatt of his father, George Myatt, who spent four decades in baseball (1933-1972) as a player, coach, and manager, and was the third-base coach for the 1964 Phillies1 Most of his playing career was as a second baseman, but he also played third base, shortstop, and the corner outfield […]

For an obscure two-season pitcher, mid-1880s left-hander Cyclone Miller had a disproportionate effect on the major league record book. For example, without Miller and his contribution to the troubles of the 1884 Providence Grays, it is improbable that teammate Hoss Radbourn would have won 60 games that year, the all-time major league single-season record. Nor […]

In 1949 Bantam Books published Joe DiMaggio’s autobiography Lucky To Be a Yankee.  It could be the title of Johnny Blanchard’s life story as well. “I was so lucky to have been a member of the best New York Yankee team ever,” Blanchard says, referring to the 1961 Bronx Bombers. “With any other organization, I […]

Neil Allen enjoyed three good years as a closer with the New York Mets in the early 1980s. However, over the course of his 11 years in the majors (1979-1989), the righty bounced back and forth between starting and relieving. Yet despite a rocky road professionally and personally, Allen’s native enthusiasm remained intact. That made […]

“Hoot, you’re on your way. Nothing can stop you now.” — From “Ghetto to Glory”   Prophetic words indeed. The 1964 World Series was a coming-out party for Bob “Hoot” Gibson. Pitching complete-game victories in Games Five and Seven, Gibson and his teammates on the 1964 St. Louis Cardinals had just disposed of the vaunted […]

George Scott’s professional baseball career spanned 41 years beginning in Class-D ball at Olean of the New York-Penn League in 1962. His travels were highlighted by his 14 seasons in the majors, starting with the Boston Red Sox in 1966. Scott also played for Milwaukee 1972-1976, Boston 1977-1978, and split his final year between Boston, […]

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 […]

“The tallest thing on spikes in this neck of the woods.”1 Clarence “Shovel” Hodge, who earned his nickname by working as a railroad fireman, stood 6-feet-4 – without spikes. In his major-league debut for the Chicago White Sox on September 6, 1920, the righty pitcher allowed no hits against Ty Cobb and the Detroit Tigers […]

Cotton Knaupp played 1,555 games in the Southern Association, more than any other player.1 The most memorable of those games came on August 8, 1916. On that afternoon he was at second base for New Orleans as the Pelicans hosted the Chattanooga Lookouts. With the bases loaded in the sixth inning, Knaupp snagged a line […]

It almost seems as if everyone is short-changing Bibb Falk. Many articles describe him as “the man who replaced Joe Jackson.” Author William A. Cook used that same description when he wrote Falk’s biography in 2015. There are very few players who could literally replace Shoeless Joe. Falk should be recalled as a player who […]

Baltimore native Tommy Thomas signed his first professional baseball contract while still in high school and later became a standout pitcher on one of the greatest minor league teams of all time. The talented tosser went on to flash occasional signs of brilliance during a 12-year stint in the majors. When his pitching career ended, […]

Few players have exited the major league stage with more unrealized potential than did Jeff Stone in 1990. Nine years before, the lightning-fast outfielder was being compared to future HOF base stealer Rickey Henderson after setting the professional single-season record for stolen bases with the Spartanburg (South Carolina) Phillies in the South Atlantic League. “Get ready […]

As a rookie with the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies, Danny Cater said that “hollering or making noise” just didn’t fit into his style on the field. “If I told you I let my bat do my talking – that would sound corny,” he added.1 Corny or not, over the course of his 12-year major-league career, Cater […]