Search Results

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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) […]

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 […]

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 […]

In nine years of major-league baseball, left-hander Dick Littlefield pitched for nine different major-league clubs – though it wasn’t as neat as each season being with another team. One could even argue that he played for 10 clubs, in that he was with the St. Louis Browns in 1952 and 1953 and then with the […]

Lancelot “Yank” Terry played his entire MLB career as a member of the Boston Red Sox. A right-handed hurler, Terry pitched in the big leagues for five seasons (1940, 1942-1945). He’s listed as 6-feet-1 and weighing 180 pounds. Terry was born in Huron, Indiana, on February 11, 1911, to George and Edna (Kirk) Terry. George […]

In 1939, Yankee Stadium hosted the seventh All-Star Game between the American and National Leagues. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   The New York Yankees did not have an auspicious beginning as a franchise. Starting as the New York Highlanders, they played their home games at Hilltop Park in upper Manhattan from 1903 to 1912. In 1913 the […]