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The Chicago White Sox’ bespectacled 27-year-old right-hander Bill Dietrich’s five-year big-league career was at a crossroads when he took the mound against the St. Louis Browns on June 1, 1937, in the Windy City. In his last start, just two days earlier, Dietrich was “battered almost beyond recognition,” opined Chicago Tribune sportswriter Irving Vaughn, surrendering […]

“It was not a contest to contribute to the peace of mind and self-approval of pitchers.”1 In a game featuring an absence of pitching talent by the home team in the ninth inning, the New York Giants came from behind, scoring nine runs on 11 hits, nine of them in a row, in their last […]

The San Diego Padres and Colorado Rockies launched their 2005 seasons with vastly differing sets of expectations. The Padres were coming off of an 87-75 record during the previous season and had aspirations of winning the National League West championship and advancing to the playoffs for the first time since 1998. The Rockies, on the […]

Chick Gandil and Tris Speaker were cut from the same cloth. They were both intense, loud, hard-nosed players who weren’t interested in making friends on the baseball field. They also weren’t shy about expressing their opinions and, when challenged, neither backed down from a fight. So it seemed almost inevitable that the two veterans would […]

The Wingfoot Air Express lands at Grant Park in Chicago during its maiden voyage on July 21, 1919. (Photo: Chicagology.com)   It’s usually a thrill to see a Goodyear blimp flying over a sporting event. For nearly 100 years, the iconic silver airship has been observed flying over the World Series, the Super Bowl, the […]

For a brief period in the mid-1920s, Nip Winters was the best southpaw not just in the Negro Leagues, but perhaps in all of professional baseball. Armed with a bracing curveball, the lanky lefty baffled batters for 11 seasons before fading into seeming obscurity. James Henry “Nip” Winters Jr. was born on April 29, 1899, […]

At 15 Victor Rodriguez started playing competitive adult baseball against men twice his age. Before the season was over, he was a minor leaguer with the Baltimore Orioles. He spent parts of two seasons in the major leagues and played in Organized Baseball for 19 years. Victor Manuel Rodriguez was born on July 14, 1961, […]

Miller Huggins was the Hall of Fame manager who led the New York Yankees to their first six American League pennants and three world championships, in the 1920s. He forged unique relationships with both Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert and their star outfielder, Babe Ruth. One newspaperman wrote, “Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert saw in Huggins a […]

Monongahela Cemetery in North Braddock, Pennsylvania offers some of the most spectacular views in the Pittsburgh area. Overlooking the Monongahela River Valley, the cemetery has its origins in a charter issued on February 24, 1893, by “the Hon. John H. Barley, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the establishment of a cemetery in […]

Mike Balenti was often overshadowed by teammate Jim Thorpe on the powerful Carlisle Indian Industrial School football team. Playing quarterback in the backfield, he combined with Thorpe to give Carlisle a one-two punch that often overwhelmed opponents with their incredible speed. But it was Thorpe who captured most of the headlines with his staggering athleticism. […]

Although he was a catcher in 527 of his 922 major league games, Mike Grady is best known as a third baseman who made a record number of errors on one ground ball, a play that never happened. At 5’ 11” and a muscular 190 pounds, Grady was a versatile player for the Phillies, Browns, Giants, […]

“You can’t win ’em all.” It’s said with a shrug, a human acknowledgement that nobody goes undefeated, that nobody is perfect, that even if you do everything possible sometimes you will lose. The origin of this phrase could be Connie Mack after the 1916 Philadelphia A’s went 36-117. But it could also be from Cliff […]

Four-time All-Star Paul Lo Duca was a consistently productive hitter and reliable defensive catcher over parts of 11 seasons (1998 through 2008) with the Dodgers, Marlins, Mets, and Nationals. He caught 932 games and produced a lifetime .286 batting average, hitting as many as 25 homers in a single year. Paul Anthony Lo Duca Jr. […]

The flake – “an odd or eccentric player; a kidder or comic”1 – is an all-but-vanished species in major-league baseball these days. In 2003, writer Dave Joseph lamented, “Sadly, there are fewer creative thinkers these days in baseball. There are fewer flakes, if you will, who break up the monotony of an endless season played, […]

Gary Kroll, a hard-throwing right-hander who once pitched 20 consecutive hitless innings in the minors, made his big-league debut for the Philadelphia Phillies on July 26, 1964. Less than two weeks later, the 22-year-old pitcher was gone, traded to the New York Mets for 35-year-old slugger Frank Thomas. Kroll had been regarded as a tremendous […]

Outfielder Willie Tasby was one of the many major leaguers who graduated from Oakland’s McClymonds High School after playing for legendary coach George Powles. Robbie Henderson of probaseballscouting.com wrote, “Seventeen of Powles’ protégés made the major leagues. He coached and mentored so many athletes. I doubt any one scout coached/mentored the likes of Curt Roberts, Willie Tasby, […]

Patrick J. “Paddy” Bolan was probably born in 1869. The first I could find of Bolan was in a March 26, 1890, article in the Sporting Life about baseball in Toledo: “Amateur ball in this city has struck a snag. Price, a promising first base player, has signed with an Indiana club, and Picord and […]

Syd Smith got around. In 1915 alone he played for two minor league teams (the Atlanta Crackers and the Shreveport Gassers) and one major league team (the Pittsburgh Pirates), and coached the baseball team at the University of South Carolina. It was not uncommon for players to start out in the South’s textile leagues, and […]

The pride of Ashton, Rhode Island, stood 6 feet tall and was made of 190 pounds of rippled muscle. He was a blond-haired, freckle-faced boy with a good-natured smile. Behind his friendly face an above-average mind was at work. Coming from a home with no economic advantages, he rose to academic heights and professional success; he […]

Long-forgotten today, New York Giants right-hander Louis Drucke appeared on the verge of stardom at the close of the 1910 season. Although his 12-10 record was not particularly eye-catching, his pitching had been. The hard-throwing hurler had led National League pitchers in strikeouts per nine innings pitched, and placed in the league’s top ten in […]

The score stood at 11-1 when Tim Lollar left the mound and Wes Gardner took over in the seventh inning in the sixth game of the season at Chicago. With Boston’s comfortable lead, Gardner could relax a little for this, his first game in a Red Sox uniform and his debut in the American League.  […]