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Willie Mays hit 20 home runs and won NL Rookie of the Year honors in 1951. Promoted May 24, he batted .274 with 68 RBIs for New York. (1951 Bowman card, courtesy of Topps)   If you begin your National League career going hitless in three road games, you may as well go for broke and […]

On July 18, 1923, the Philadelphia Phillies rallied in the bottom of the ninth inning to win a see-saw battle with the Chicago Cubs at the Baker Bowl. The win pulled the Phillies out of last place, but had little impact on the fortunes of either team that season. Philadelphia sank back into the National […]

The 1951 National League season is usually remembered most for the legendary “Shot Heard ’Round the World” capping the New York Giants’ September pursuit that plucked the pennant from the Brooklyn Dodgers. But a May game in Boston matching the Braves, then in pennant contention, with the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates featured an odd pitching performance […]

As shortstop Tim Foli caught Dave Winfield’s popup to secure Bruce Kison’s sparkling one-hit shutout against the San Diego Padres, the rail-thin right-handed hurler with a wicked slider raised his hand in what might have looked like a sign of accomplishment or relief. But it wasn’t. Kison was angrily pointing to the press box, where […]

“It’s show time in the National League East,” wrote Charley Feeney of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after the Pirates downed the Chicago Cubs in a “must-win” game to stay hot on the trail of the division-leading Montreal Expos.1 The season was coming down to the wire with nine more games to play. While the Pirates were […]

“It’s really a dream come true – the happiest moment of my life. To get a chance to play before my home town.” – Don O’Riley The classic dream of kids who love baseball is that they will be good enough to play professionally and make the major leagues. If that can be done with […]

A longtime utility infielder who played a dozen years for three National League teams, Mike Mordecai made more appearances for the Montreal Expos than for any other club, but had his most memorable moments with key postseason hits that helped the Atlanta Braves and the Florida Marlins win World Series titles. An Alabama native who […]

In the world of 1880s baseball, where Baldwin made an often tumultuous career, newspaper writers occasionally referred to him as “Clarence G.” in jest, but no one ever really though of him by any name other than Kid Baldwin. “Kid” was a nickname given in the nineteenth century to scrappy, feisty little athletes, and Kid […]

Like many successful owners, longtime Kansas City Royals magnate Ewing Kauffman could be highly demanding, both publicly and privately. Yet he was one of the few also celebrated by the community and his players for his generosity and obvious caring for their wellbeing. Kauffman made his fortune as a pharmaceutical entrepreneur in the decades after […]

Corner outfielder Phil Plantier spent most of the 1990s playing major-league baseball, for five different teams. He played 383 games in left field and 126 in right; he was also deployed occasionally as a designated hitter and pinch-hitter. Plantier’s best year by far was in 1993, when he homered 34 times and drove in 100 […]

“I have never seen a recruit pitcher with a more deceptive hook,” gushed syndicated sportswriter (and AL umpire) Billy Evans about rookie right-hander Sam Gray of the Philadelphia A’s in 1924.1 Gray rode his impressive curveball to a 10-year career, the final six with the St. Louis Browns. Three years after winning 20 games for […]

A Pawtucket native, left-hander Henry John LaRose was first called on in relief against the Tigers, as the Red Sox and Yankees battled to the wire in September 1978. He’d been brought up to the big leagues to pitch for Boston just a few days earlier. With just 11 games on the schedule, and the […]

Unlike Leo Durocher, the man he replaced as Brooklyn Dodgers manager for the 1947 season, Burt Shotton was no gruff, umpire-baiting field general. He was instead a calm, serious baseball lifer who, like the more illustrious Connie Mack, wore his street clothes in the dugout during his tenure in Brooklyn. His quiet demeanor did not […]

In 1964 the Philadelphia Phillies found themselves mired in the throes of one of the greatest collapses known to our national pastime. Many fans blamed manager Gene Mauch for over-using starting pitchers Jim Bunning and Chris Short down the stretch. Others blamed the loss of Frank Thomas to injury. In addition, there were rumors of […]

Of the two pitching Bennett brothers, briefly teammates on the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies, Dave was the tall one (6-feet-5), the young one (by six years), the right-handed one, the reserved one, and the most sought-after one, having received a $70,000 bonus upon signing in 1963. They briefly drew comparisons to Dizzy and Paul Dean, the […]

With the last name of Roenicke, you’d think he’d be a “baseball first” kind of guy. Righty pitcher Josh Roenicke’s father, Gary Roenicke, was a major-league outfielder, as was his uncle, Ron Roenicke. So, it seems strange that Josh was a “recruited walk-on”1 at UCLA as a quarterback but walked on to the baseball team […]

Outfielder Frank Welch played 723 major-league games for the Philadelphia Athletics from 1919 through 1926, before spending part of one final season (and only 15 games) with the 1927 Boston Red Sox as the coda to his time in the big leagues. He played in the minors into the 1935 season. Welch was a 5-foot-9, […]

Former major league player and scout Lenny Yochim once said in a New Orleans Times-Picayune interview, “I had a good life doing something I love.”1 From his teenage days in the Crescent City in the 1940s until his retirement in 2002, Yochim spent practically every summer participating in some aspect of the sport to which […]

When 19-year-old John Cavanaugh took the field in the opener of a July 7, 1919 doubleheader at Philadelphia’s Baker Bowl, he became the first player born in the 1900s to appear in a major-league game.1 A late-inning defensive replacement for the last-place Philadelphia Phillies, Cavanaugh struck out in his only at-bat, then watched as his […]

This is the resume: He was the first National League rookie to hit .300 with 30 homers, 100 RBIs, and 100 runs scored. He was the youngest player with back-to-back 50-double seasons. He was the third major-leaguer to drive in 500 runs in his first four seasons.1 He was the major-league leader in runs scored […]

The Los Angeles Dodgers moved to the West Coast in 1958, but the franchise was established in Brooklyn, New York, in 1884. Although the team has produced some of the most renowned pitchers in baseball history, the franchise has also had its share of power hitters. Matt Kemp and Adrián Beltré both led the National […]

This article was originally published in SABR’s The National Pastime, Vol. 15 (1995).   The 25th Infantry Regiment baseball team, c. 1918. (JERRY MALLOY)   The 25th Regiment of United States Infantry was one of four African-American Regular Army units cre­ated after the Civil War, the others being the 24th Infantry, and the 9th and […]

Editor’s note: This article was selected as a winner of the 2014 McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award.   The Montreal Expos played 36 seasons (1969-2004). For the last 28, their home was Olympic Stadium – a cavernous concrete edifice built for the 1976 Summer Olympic Games. From the outset, “The Big O” was notorious: hailed as […]