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When a batter steps into the box, his most important goal is to get on base – unless he’s been asked to sacrifice to advance a preceding baserunner. One talent in terms of getting on base is exercising the patience to work a walk. No one ever did that better than Ted Williams. His walks […]

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 […]

Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd starts his autobiography recalling back in 1964 when he was 5 years old, and his uncle Frank Boyd brought three civil-rights workers by the family home. Later that same year, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were discovered murdered. Dennis believes they were killed just after they left the Boyd […]

Being a member of the umpiring staff of the 1901 American League has earned Jack Haskell an entry in modern-day baseball reference works. But that one-season tour of duty represents only a short chapter in the life of an outsized character who embodied a species now vanished from the baseball landscape: the hometown minor league […]

Everyone knows about John Smoltz’s dominance as both a starter and as a reliever. Same with Dennis Eckersley. Little do people know they were hardly the first people to be widely praised at both spots in the pitching staff. Though he started his career as a highly touted starting-pitcher prospect, Jim Slaton eventually moved to […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

“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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

A starter with soft stuff who grew up in hard circumstances, Eddie Guardado improbably earned three postseason saves and made two All-Star teams as a reliever. Fans of the small-market Minnesota Twins embraced the underdog lefty with an alliterative nickname. “Everyday Eddie” – so called because he averaged more than 70 appearances per season from […]

“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 […]

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 […]

Joe Ross (1-0, 6.17 ERA) was on the hill for the Washington Nationals, who were trying to avoid a sweep at the hands of their division rivals, having lost the previous two games of the series 7-5 and 5-3. The Nationals led the National League East by 4 games over Philadelphia, while the Mets were […]

The Kansas City Star ran a headline on May 22, 1958, as the Boston Red Sox arrived in town for the opener of a three-game series with the Kansas City Athletics: “What’s Wrong with Ted?” Boston’s slugger Ted Williams had led the American League with a .388 batting average in 1957 – the year he […]

The Philadelphia Phillies and St. Louis entered the opening game of the three-game series, tied for the second-best record in the National League (40-28), 3½ games behind the NL Central-leading Chicago Cubs (43-24).1 The starting pitchers, Kyle Kendrick (Phillies) and Todd Wellemeyer (Cardinals), entered the game going in opposite directions.2 Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ bid for a fourth straight National League East Division title in 1973 remained alive, even though the Pirates trailed the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals when the schedule’s final day had concluded. With rainouts rescheduled for Monday, October 1 – a Mets-Chicago Cubs doubleheader and a single game between Pittsburgh […]

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 […]

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 […]