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The history of professional baseball abounds with feats performed on the diamond as well as instances of ballplayers protesting management handiwork by refusing to take the field. A 1972 strike over pension benefits and cost-of-living adjustments wiped out 86 regular-season major-league games, and a walkout in the summer of 1981 over free-agent compensation led to […]

For the second season in a row, the Chicago Cubs claimed the World Series title in 1908 by besting the Detroit Tigers in five games. Cubs pitcher Orval Overall dominated the Tigers, allowing three hits in a complete-game, 2-0 victory. Overall became just the second post-1900 pitcher to strike out four batters in an inning, […]

Nino Espinosa was a right-handed pitcher with good control whose career ended prematurely because of a shoulder injury. After that, he became a scout in his native Dominican Republic until his tragic death from a heart attack at age 34. Arnulfo Acevedo Espinosa was born on August 15, 1953, in Villa Altagracia, about 30 miles […]

The Brattleboro, Vermont, newspaper read, “The death of Dr. O’Connor removes a capable physician…a man whose warm personality made friends of all his acquaintances, a husband who manifested a strong affection for his wife.”1 Dr. F. H. O’Connor had played briefly in the major leagues, making the comments reminiscent of Minnesota doctor Archibald “Moonlight” Graham, […]

For many people, Steve Rogers is the guy who gave up the game-winning home run to Rick Monday in the 1981 National League Championship Series. However, to think of him for just that one pitch does a disservice to a player who was a five-time All-Star, an ERA leader, and the ace of the excellent […]

Hub Pruett was an unassuming lefty with a screwball so good that Babe Ruth once told him, “If all pitchers were like you, no one would have heard of me.”1 But Pruett’s peak was brief. It served merely as the prologue to a lengthy and remarkable career outside the game. Hubert Shelby Pruett was born […]

It was July 15, 1999. As the sold-out crowd of over 44,000 rose to their feet, clapping and whistling for the man walking toward the pitcher’s mound, Brad Adam looked on in mild shock. A sportscaster for KATU, the ABC affiliate in Portland, Oregon, he’d anticipated seeing Ken Griffey Jr. throw out the first pitch in […]

Sometimes nice guys finish first. Chuck Tanner, an eternal optimist who was known as baseball’s Mr. Sunshine, managed the Pittsburgh Pirates to a World Series title in 1979. He won more than 1,350 games as a manager of four teams between 1970 and 1988. Tanner also played for eight years in the majors, with the […]

Terry Hughes was a ballyhooed prospect. “I wanted to sign Hughes more than any boy I’ve ever seen,” said Boston Red Sox scout Mace Brown. “He’s got all the equipment.”1 After the Chicago Cubs made Hughes the second overall pick in the June 1967 draft, their manager, Leo Durocher, said, “All I know is that […]

Jerry Cram’s signature moment in the big leagues came on September 11, 1974. He threw eight scoreless innings in relief for the New York Mets — the 17th through the 24th of what became a 25-inning loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. If the Mets could only have scratched across a run, Cram would have […]

In 2020, SABR’s Baseball Cards Committee established the Jefferson Burdick Award, honoring individuals who have made significant contributions to the baseball card hobby. Eligible candidates include anyone who has made significant contributions to the hobby in such areas as baseball card research/scholarship; baseball card creation/production/innovation; developing/maintaining resources (e.g., publications, websites, communities, events) for collectors; and […]