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Bob Messenger, Bates College Class of 1908, is an enigma. Like a meteor, he blazed a trail across the school’s Garcelon Field, then vanished in a flash. Five years later, reunited with classmate Harry Lord, he reappeared with the Chicago White Sox. But what a life he lived — before, between and after. Messenger played […]

Despite 100-plus big-league victories, a half-dozen straight workhorse campaigns of 200-plus innings tossed, and a crucial role in a historic mid-’60s American League pennant drive, Pedro Ramos’s small degree of diamond immortality will likely always rest upon two individual pitches tossed in the midst of an erratic 15-season sojourn. Both fateful deliveries came while he […]

A rookie at the age of 34, he beat the Chicago White Stockings 10 consecutive times in the heart of their dynasty, struck out 483 batters in a single-season, and earned the reputation as one of the first power pitchers in the history of baseball. Hugh Ignatius “One-Arm” Daily did all that with the greatest […]

On September 12, 1972, Bill Gogolewski, a 24-year-old right-hander who had struggled thus far in his second full season in the big leagues, was pitching the game of his life against fireballer Nolan Ryan and the California Angels. While the Ryan Express was racking up 15 strikeouts, Gogolewski held the Halos hitless through 7⅔ innings. […]

The tall, lanky, left-handed pitcher George Mogridge is best remembered today as the answer to a trivia question: Who pitched the first no-hitter in New York Yankees history? Yes, the answer is George Mogridge, on April 24, 1917, against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. During his time in the major leagues from 1911 […]

Jay Bell stepped into the batter’s box in Minneapolis wearing his Cleveland uniform for the first time. The date was September 29, 1986, the place the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, and not only was this Bell’s first major-league game as a player, it was also the first major-league game he ever attended. The Cleveland Indians […]

Although forgotten today, Frank McQuade was a figure well-known to New Yorkers of the Jazz Age. Among other things, McQuade was a highly visible Manhattan magistrate, an influential Tammany Hall operative, and widely regarded as “the father of Sunday baseball in New York.”1 He was also a peripheral target and/or government witness in various municipal […]

He’s been termed a “reluctant pioneer.” All Pumpsie Green wanted to do was play professional baseball. He didn’t even aspire to the major leagues at first, and would have been content playing for his hometown Oakland Oaks in the Pacific Coast League. That said, Pumpsie Green took pride in the fact that he helped accomplish […]

In professional baseball from 1937 to 1950, Lou Novikoff batted .337 in the minors and .282 in parts of five major-league seasons. Ted Williams called him “a great natural hitter.”1 Novikoff also excelled in fast-pitch softball, as a hitter and a pitcher. A softball promoter gave him a colorful nickname, “The Mad Russian.” Novikoff was […]

“[He] is what every boy wants to become and every mother dreams their daughter will bring home,” gushed sportswriter Phil Musick. “Tall, blond, handsome. Bright, articulate and personable. … He is Everyman’s vision of himself if he had been a little stronger, taller, handsomer, luckier, whatever.”1 Add to that list big-league pitcher and surgeon, too. […]

Known as “Gentleman Jim” and the “Ice Man,” Tennessee native Jim Hickman toiled for six years in the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization before the newly formed New York Mets selected him in the 1962 expansion draft. While the Mets compiled a 260-547 record under managers Casey Stengel and Wes Westrum, Hickman had his share of […]

Curt Flood, Gene Conley, and Danny Ainge had nothing on Baltimore native Peck Lerian, who challenged the reserve clause and earned fame on both the basketball court and the baseball diamond. Showing great promise as the leading member of the Philadelphia Phillies’ young receiving corps at the close of the 1920s, he also stood out […]

Pitching isn’t just about throwing hard. It’s about contrast and ball movement, and Enrique Romo kept hitters off stride and guessing. He had a broad repertoire, featuring a screwball, which he delivered from various arm angles while constantly changing speeds. “He’s the kind of pitcher you don’t want to face even once in a game,” […]

“What if?” It is a perennial question and in baseball, the “what if?” usually pertains to injury. What would have a team accomplished had not half of its players been on the DL at one point or another during a season? What if a pitcher’s promising career had not been torpedoed by a line drive […]

Shortstop Jackie Hernandez glided behind second base, smoothly picked up Merv Rettenmund’s ground ball and with one easy motion flipped it across the diamond to first baseman Bob Robertson for the final out of the 1971 World Series. “[The] catcher is running toward the camera at full speed, his upraised arms spread wide. His body […]

Becoming the third woman to own a major-league baseball club, Joan Whitney Payson marked history by heavily investing in the expansion New York Mets of 1962. The club’s first majority stockholder, she was also the first of her gender to purchase such an enterprise with her own funds. Born into considerable wealth, she used much […]

On a cold, rainy Valentine’s Day in 1962, several newspaper reporters brazenly walked through the open driveway gates of a mansion on Maryland’s Eastern Shore looking for the United States spy-plane pilot Francis Gary Powers. Powers, who had been shot down over Russia in 1960, had been recently returned to the U.S. in a prisoner […]

If you’ve seen Frank Zupo’s 1958 Topps baseball card, you probably remember him. The lefty-hitting catcher appeared in only 16 major-league games for Baltimore between 1957 and 1961 — but Zupo’s pronounced unibrow and “Noodles” nickname have gained him longer-lasting fame than his on-field accomplishments. Nonetheless, at 17 years, 11 months, and 13 days, he […]

For two years, 5-foot, 9-inch Bob Saverine teamed with 6-foot, 7-inch Frank Howard on the Washington Senators. But, that’s not all. The talented pair, along with several other Senators players, formed a basketball team.1 Prior to the 1968 season, newly named manager Jim Lemon watched as they played an exhibition game and defeated a team […]

A journeyman outfielder during his 12 major-league seasons, Dave May was called by The Sporting News “a good man to have on a team.”1 The stocky 5-foot-10½, 186-pound left-handed hitter played in 1,252 games for Baltimore, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Texas, and Pittsburgh, posting a .251 average with 96 home runs and 422 runs batted in. Best […]

A tall, rangy, 6-feet-4 Don Demeter played major-league baseball for 11 seasons, mostly patrolling the outfield grass, while also spending time at the infield corners. A man of deep abiding faith, he was a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and a pastor in his hometown, Oklahoma City.1 A very highly regarded player during […]

When he arrived upon the major league scene in early 1906, the attribute of left-handed pitcher Carl Druhot that most intrigued big city sportswriters was his diminutive size. Press reports and game accounts so regularly identified him as “Little Druhot” that baseball fans might well have supposed that the descriptive was the newcomer’s first name. […]

Cleveland Indians General Manager and Hall of Fame outfielder Hank Greenberg once said of Bobby Avila, “He has that something extra that makes a great hitter. Call it competitive instinct. … He’s always fighting the pitcher, never choking up and never giving an inch. … In a tough spot, I’m always glad to see Bobby […]

New York Giants manager John McGraw, left, and team owner Charles Stoneham in the early 1920s. (NATIONAL BASEBALL HALL OF FAME LIBRARY)   INTRODUCTION The New York-San Francisco Giants baseball club is among the most storied franchises in the annals of professional sport. To fans, mention of the club’s name promptly evokes images of Willie […]