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Guy Morton reported to New Orleans for spring training in 1914 with Cleveland. After a few workouts his manager, Joe Birmingham, was unimpressed. “He doesn’t know how to stand on the rubber even. He doesn’t know how to hold the ball.” What he did have was a tremendous fastball and Birmingham declared, “[O]nly one pitcher […]

“I’m a damn good catcher, if I do have to say so myself,” Ed Bailey said.1 He wasn’t lying. Like other 1950s catchers, he was overshadowed by Yogi Berra and Roy Campanella, but Bailey was a five-time All-Star, a left-handed power hitter who threw out nearly half of would-be base stealers Besides his bat and […]

“He was a missionary extraordinary for the game itself. … Wherever he went … Barrett talked and preached baseball.” i He was referred to as the King of Weeds, a play on words about scouts who “beat the bushes” for prospects. He signed the second most major-league players in baseball history, second only to his […]

From Babe Ruth in 1920, through Reggie Jackson in 1977, and down to Alex Rodriguez in 2004, when the New York Yankees announce a player transaction it usually involves a big-name player coming to New York, with large amounts of money going elsewhere. But it was quite the reverse on July 27, 1945, when the […]

Irish Meusel was the starting left fielder on New York Giant teams that won four consecutive National League pennants from 1921 to 1924. He was one of the leading sluggers of the era, a clutch hitter known for his ability to drive in runs. In 1923 he struck out only 16 times while leading the […]

Thomas Michael McCarthy was a right-handed pitcher who battled his way through a considerable number of injuries and pitched in the major leagues for the Boston Red Sox (1985) and Chicago White Sox (1988 and 1989). He also toiled through 15 years of minor-league baseball, most of them at the Triple-A level. Though he never […]

Dale Alexander, the hard-hitting first baseman who was Boston’s first American League batting champion, began and ended his playing career in his hometown of Greeneville, Tennessee. David Dale Alexander was born and raised on a 117-acre farm in Greene County on April 26, 1903. He had four brothers and four sisters. His two sons, Don […]

In August 1953, as St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Ray Jablonski was putting the final touches on a brilliant rookie campaign, Gus Mancuso, the club’s broadcaster and a former longtime National League catcher, said, “The thing about Jabbo is that he’s got terrific potential as a hitter. Give him a year or so and he […]

On June 24, 1970, the Cleveland Indians were visiting New York to play a doubleheader against the Yankees. Tribe catcher Ray Fosse went 2-for-4 with one RBI, one run scored and one walk as Cleveland won the first game 7-2 behind Sam McDowell’s tenth win. Fosse was scheduled to sit out game two, but he […]

Harry Byrd Highway runs west from US 401 for about five miles along South Carolina Route 34/151, and past Darlington Raceway, NASCAR’s first paved superspeedway. The 1.25-mile egg-shaped oval, built in 1950, is a shrine for stock-car racing comparable to what Wrigley Field is for baseball. Many racing fans visiting the Darlington Raceway Stock Car […]

Frank Thomas played during an era when team owners looked upon their players as chattels. By their standards, Frank Joseph Thomas was considered a rebel. Much of his career was spent bickering with management over his worth to them. In his early career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Thomas’s adversary in such battles was the man […]

The son of a carpenter, Jim Henry appeared set for life as a textile worker in the cotton mill in Danville, Virginia. James Francis Henry was born there on June 26, 1910. His parents were James E. and Blanche Henry, both native Virginians. He was one of at least four children – Phyllis first, then […]

Ken Harvey was an NCAA Division I first-team All-American who was drafted by the Kansas City Royals in 1999 and rose to the majors in just two years. A first baseman by trade, he was selected to represent Kansas City in the 2004 All-Star Game. However, Harvey’s injuries and nine surgeries foiled a promising career […]

In September 2002, 22-year-old right-hander Steve Bechler debuted for the Baltimore Orioles and pitched in three games. In spring training the following February. he collapsed during a running exercise and died shortly thereafter. Weight-loss supplements containing ephedrine alkaloids were blamed for his sudden death. Their subsequent ban by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration became […]

In October 1919 Joe Jenkins found himself embroiled in the Black Sox Scandal, the fixing of that year’s World Series by eight of his Chicago White Sox teammates. It was the biggest black eye in baseball’s history. Yet Jenkins, who didn’t make an appearance in the World Series, couldn’t even claim bragging rights within his […]

Signed to a Triple-A contract at the age of 19, Illinois-born Glen Hobbie quickly discovered that he was overmatched at that level. He fared little better in Class C, then was sidelined by a muscle spasm in his back, which he cured by swimming in the Mississippi River. Two seasons later, he was in the […]

When the Washington Nationals last met the New York Yankees, it was March 12, 2020, at FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, the Nationals’ spring-training home since 2017. Just one day earlier, the World Health Organization assessed that the COVID-19 crisis warranted declaration of a global pandemic.1 The author was completing a weeklong trip to […]

The Detroit Tigers, led by player-manager Ty Cobb, got off to a slow start in the 1925 season. Going into St. Louis in early May for a four-game series against the Browns, the Tigers had a 4-13 record with one tie. The team was stuck in the American League cellar and had yet to win […]

John Candelaria, pitching in his second major-league season in 1976, recorded the Pirates’ first no-hitter in Pittsburgh in nearly seven decades, frustrating the Los Angeles Dodgers with fastballs and curves and retiring the final 19 batters he faced in a 2-0 victory on “Candy Night” at Three Rivers Stadium on August 9. In September 1907, […]

A season after leading the Chicago Cubs out of a 39-year postseason drought, Rick Sutcliffe was Chicago’s Opening Day starter in 1985. He continued his run of excellence on a chilly afternoon at Wrigley Field, pitching into the eighth inning before Lee Smith’s bullpen assist secured the Cubs’ 2-1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. Chicago […]

“But the first time Howard came to bat … he hit a ball that if it ever came down, would be one of the longest home runs in RFK Stadium. It did, and it was.” — Shirley Povich1   Nearly 50 years before Bryce Harper won the 2018 Home Run Derby2in front of the hometown fans […]

The Kansas City Royals entered Game Three of the 1985 American League Championship Series against the Toronto Blue Jays in a postseason slump. The Royals had lost 10 consecutive playoff games, including the first two games of the ALCS. The Royals lost Game One of the ALCS, 6-1. They then lost a sloppily played Game […]

A record-setting home-run barrage and a thrilling finish at Briggs Stadium left a big impression on even the most time-tested of baseball minds in June of 1950. Detroit Tigers manager Red Rolfe seemed amazed. “Did you ever see a game like last night’s? I never did,” he said.1 Will Harridge, president of the American League, […]

Who is the most valuable to a ball club – a star pitcher of the Walter Johnson type, a great infielder of the Napoleon Lajoie brand or a sensational outfielder of the Ty Cobb variety?1   At the outset of the 1911 season, Ty Cobb was considered one of the top players in baseball, coming […]