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SABRcast
Biographies
Freddie Lindstrom
Someone once wrote that his rise to fame was meteoric, and like a meteor his flame burned out quickly. Certainly his rise was rapid. At 16 he was playing in the highest classification of minor league baseball. Two years later he became the youngest player ever to appear in the World Series, a distinction he […]
William Wheaton
William Rufus Wheaton was born in New York City on May 7, 1814. Part of his education was achieved at the Union Hall Academy, located on the corner of Madison Avenue and Oliver Street. After graduation, Wheaton read law with John Leveridge, a well-known East Side attorney. Wheaton was later admitted to practice by Chancellor Walworth […]
Chris Jelic
When Chris Jelic was traded from Kansas City to New York in 1987, the Mets picked up a future All-Star. It just wasn’t him. Jelic’s place in baseball history endures as the answer to two trivia questions: He was the other guy the Mets got when they traded for David Cone, and he remains the […]
Rafael Santana
Standing at 6-feet-1 and weighing only 165 pounds during his playing days, Rafael Santana may not have been a big man but he played big for the New York Mets when they needed him to. Santana did not carry a big bat but he fielded his shortstop position with flair at times. Some of Santana’s […]
Robert Cannon
Robert Cannon came to love baseball as a boy growing up in Milwaukee. His father, Ray Cannon, represented several of the accused Black Sox in salary disputes and took Charles Comiskey to court in 1924 on behalf of Joe Jackson. Ray Cannon also fought on behalf of all the players as head of a short-lived […]
Jules Kustus
After a standout season in Class B ball, outfielder Jules Kustus got the attention of various major league clubs and landed an extended tryout with the 1909 Brooklyn Superbas. Regrettably, he flunked the audition, batting an anemic .145 in 53 games. Remanded to the minors, Kustus played well in spots but found efforts to secure […]
Margaret Donahue
Baseball fans and historians have doubtless wondered about the mystery woman in Cubs team photos of the late 1920s that often show her sandwiched between Cubs owner William Wrigley, Jr. and Cubs president William L. Veeck. There was good reason why the woman was front-and-center in the team family. If Rogers Hornsby, Hack Wilson, Wrigley, and Veeck were the […]
Junior Félix
Speed and power made switch-hitting outfielder Junior Félix a top prospect, but his career was derailed by defensive deficiencies, injuries, and concerns about his real age. Félix was believed to be just 21 when he hit the first pitch that he faced in the majors for a home run in 1989. By 1994, however, when […]
Roy Hartsfield
In September 1976 Hall of Fame inductees Yogi Berra and Warren Spahn were only the two most prominent names among a large field of managerial candidates available to the expansion Toronto Blue Jays. But the Jays startled the baseball world by selecting the hardly-household-name Roy Hartsfield as the franchise’s first skipper. But the surprise may […]
Sam Rice
Sam Rice broke into the major leagues in August of 1915 as a 25-year-old pitcher with the Washington Nationals. After moving to the outfield midway through the following season, he became one of the leading hitters in the American League. Over the course of a 20-year career, most of which he spent in Washington, Rice […]
George Disch
A late-season addition by the Detroit Tigers in 1905, right-hander George Disch posted a 2.64 ERA in eight games. Initial reports were positive, and a bright future was predicted. However, he could not crack a Tiger rotation of George Mullin, Ed Killian, Bill Donovan, and Frank Kitson (116 complete games in 137 starts in 1905) […]
L. Robert Davids
Bob Davids, a career Federal government employee, never played professional baseball. However, he had a deep and lasting impact on the game by founding the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) in 1971. This organization has had a large effect on how baseball is quantified and discussed, and its existence is a logical extension of […]
Bill Rodgers
Bill Rodgers played for three major-league teams in his first year in the leagues, but he only played in four games in his second – and last – year. He played for Cleveland and the Boston Red Sox and the Cincinnati Reds in 1915, swiftly moving from one team to another, and then appeared in […]
Game Stories
September 24, 1984: Cubs clinch first postseason berth since 1945 behind Sandberg, Matthews, Sutcliffe
The 1984 Cubs drove to National League East glory after years of mediocrity and nearly four decades without a postseason appearance. Three Cubs integral to the upswing – second baseman Ryne Sandberg, left fielder Gary Matthews, and pitcher Rick Sutcliffe – placed capstones on their respective outstanding seasons in Chicago’s 4-1 division-clinching win in Pittsburgh […]
September 3, 2015: Harper scores four runs without an official at-bat
When Matt den Dekker replaced Bryce Harper in the Washington Nationals lineup in the sixth inning, Harper had walked four times, scored four times, and collected an RBI; all without swinging the bat at any of the 20 pitches he was offered. Only three other players since 1914 had scored four runs without registering an […]
October 24, 2004: Stitched up again, Boston’s Curt Schilling sticks it to St. Louis in Game 2
The Red Sox had won the first game of the 2004 World Series in something of a free-swinging affair, 11-9. The Cardinals had never led but they had twice come back from significant deficits to tie it. In the first game, Boston had jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning. In Game […]