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Phil Seibel was a career minor leaguer, playing eight seasons with eight different teams in six leagues. He had one brief moment in the big leagues, playing two games for the 2004 curse-breaking World Series champion Boston Red Sox and that garnered him a World Series ring. Philip Matthew Seibel was born on January 28, […]

Khalil Greene’s performance in youth and collegiate ball was a showcase of abundant talent. The shortstop’s senior year at Clemson University in 2002 bespoke Hall of Fame ability. Less than two years later, Greene ascended to the majors. He had apparently begun to fully realize his huge promise at the top level in 2007. Yet […]

Charlie Small’s time in the major leagues consisted of 22 times he was asked to pinch-hit, twice he was asked to pinch-run, and once he was asked to play center field. He wasn’t particularly successful hitting–he sacrificed twice, walked twice, and hit safely three times in 18 at-bats. One of the hits was for extra […]

Gregory Winston McMichael was born on December 1, 1966, in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was the youngest of three children and a multisport athlete growing up. He always hanging around ballfields with his older brothers while they played. He enjoyed sports and competition and developed his skills as a ballplayer. McMichael’s father, Allen owned an insurance […]

The Hall of Fame second baseman is not the only significant figure in New York baseball history to have the name Joe Gordon. Decades before Flash was anchoring the infield of great World War II-era Yankees teams, an earlier Joe Gordon was helping to put the franchise on the map, serving as the first president […]

Lewis Henry Meacham’s place in baseball history is linked to that of his friend, Chicagoan William Hulbert (1832–82).1 In 1870, Hulbert purchased a share of stock in the city’s newly formed White Stockings organization (a team now known as the Chicago Cubs).2 Five years later he was elected president of the Chicago Base Ball Association, […]

Joe DiMaggio put his name on a book titled Lucky to Be a Yankee. His teammate Arndt Jorgens seconded the emotion. In 10 years as a backup catcher behind Hall of Famer Bill Dickey, Jorgens cashed five World Series checks totaling around $30,000 without appearing in a single Series game. As the Yankees’ second- or […]

William H. Conant, Arthur H. Soden, and James B. Billings were the majority owners of the Boston Nationals1 from its difficult early years, through its ascendancy to the position of one of the best teams in the National League, to its eclipse after the entry of the American League team in Boston in 1901. Held […]

“I take a great deal of pride in my background and my heritage.”1 That was Ruben Amaro Jr. in 2011, on being a third-generation Latino baseball man. Yet he has often spoken the same way about his maternal side. Altogether, his background is unique in major-league history: Cuban-Mexican/Jewish-American. From this start, a unique career path […]

Before Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders made “two-sport athletes” a vogue term in the 1980s and ’90s, there was Dick Groat. Groat lacked the power of Jackson or the speed of Sanders. But what he lacked in physical gifts he more than made up in guile and spirit. His collegiate career at Duke University earned […]

There are many quotes regarding the importance of living life. Just look it up on the internet; it’s a fact! One such quote is “It is not the years in your life but the life in your years that counts.” That quote is attributed to Abraham Lincoln … and Adlai Stevenson … and Dr. Edward […]

Sam Nahem was a so-so pitcher who logged a 10–8 won-loss record and a 4.69 ERA in four partial seasons with the Dodgers, Cardinals, and Phillies between 1938 and 1948. Despite this unremarkable record, Nahem was a remarkable major leaguer in many ways. He was the only Syrian and one of the few Jews in […]

Although Randy Myers had been just promoted from the minors and was but a bit player on the 1986 Mets, his subsequent baseball career was filled with numerous stellar achievements. He was a dominant closer for several teams, was selected for four All-Star teams, was a key contributor to a World Series champion team, and […]

“I never wanted to be a superstar, or the highest paid player,” Don Sutton said. “[A]ll I wanted was to be appreciated for the fact that I was consistent, dependable, and you could count on me.”1 By that measure, Sutton achieved his goal and more, as few pitchers in baseball history were as reliable, and […]

Baseball teams rely on their stars and regulars to make the greatest impact. Of course, backups also play important roles, giving starters a rest and filling in when injuries occur. Oscar Boone assumed the role of second-string catcher behind future Hall of Famer Roy Campanella for the Baltimore Elite Giants in 1939 after Biz Mackey […]

Nobody in Hollywood would have tried to produce a script that would end like this,” said New York Yankee manager Bob Lemon after his charges came back from a two-games to none deficit to defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1978 World Series. Having reached the Fall Classic on the broad shoulders of sluggers […]

Horace Wilds is pictured in the middle row, second from right, in a photo of the 1887-88 Oakland Tribunes baseball team published in the Oakland Tribune newspaper on September 6, 1908. (Courtesy of Stephen V. Rice)   Horace Wilds, an African American catcher, excelled on white semipro teams in Oakland and San Francisco from 1886 […]

“He’s that baseball dude who got banned for steroids or something, which makes him more than famous. He’s like infamous, and dangerous, and a kind of cool, a cross between Babe Ruth and Count Dracula.”1 – J.R. Moehringer, writing of Alex Rodríguez in 2015. What is fame? “I’m not too sure but I’ll know it […]

Two and a half years after Ernie Banks integrated the Chicago Cubs in September 1953, Banks and four other Black players played key roles in the Cubs’ 12-1 victory over the Cincinnati Redlegs in Chicago’s 1956 home opener.1  At a time when only 1 of 15 major-league players was Black,2 Cubs shortstop Banks, left fielder […]

Bob Moose’s strong pitching at two levels of the Pittsburgh Pirates’ minor-league system in 1967, punctuated by a pair of outstanding starts in the International League’s championship series, led to a September call-up that made him the Pirates’ first-ever amateur draft selection to reach the majors. On September 29, 10 days before his 20th birthday, […]

For two days in September 1921, four pitchers on two teams had no idea how to get Cleveland’s Elmer Smith out. Over the span of three games, beginning on Sunday September 4, the 28-year-old outfielder from Milan, Ohio,1 rapped out a record seven consecutive extra-base hits — four home runs and three doubles — while […]

In a 21-year career that was honored by his 2024 election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, Adrian Beltré spent one season – 2010 – with the Boston Red Sox. At age 31, it was one of Beltré’s best years, and it reignited the Dominican-born third baseman’s path […]

“Although Father Time has tried to mock the dean of pitchers in either major leagues,” opined a sportswriter poetically about 36-year-old Walter Johnson in 1924, “the old man with the scythe could not have the cunning and strength from that great arm today.”1 The Washington Senators hurler continued his season-long resurgence by holding the St. […]