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“Was just telling you that boy could hit that long ball this year and he just did it.” – Al Helfer1 The baseball season is about to burst into bloom. Examine the Opening Day starting lineups closely. You may recall stories of favorite players or the memories of visits to the ballpark. Perhaps a rivalry […]
This article was published in “The Stars Shone on Philadelphia: The 1934 Negro National League Champions” (SABR, 2023), edited by Frederick C. Bush and Bill Nowlin. The 1934 Negro National League Championship Series between the Philadelphia Stars and the Chicago American Giants was a closely contested, contentious nailbiter of a series. Not only did […]
On April 15, 2013, Mike Napoli’s bat and Dustin Pedroia’s hustle gave the Boston Red Sox a 3-2 win in their traditional late-morning home game on Patriots Day and Marathon Monday, the Red Sox’ second walk-off in three days over the Tampa Bay Rays. Just minutes after this game ended, the day’s significance was forever […]
“Night baseball will never happen in Washington,” said Clark Griffith, the president of the Washington Senators and owner of the team’s ballpark. In 1930, Des Moines, Iowa, had hosted the first professional night baseball game. This failed to impress Griffith, who said, “You can make it as strong as you want that I’m opposed to […]
Jackie Robinson‘s debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers was more than just the first step in righting a historical wrong. It was a crucial event in the history of the American civil rights movement, the importance of which went far beyond the insular world of baseball. The Dodgers signed Robinson to a major-league contract just five […]
“National Disgrace! Worst. Loss. Ever!” — Headlines on the back pages of the New York Daily News and New York Post on September 4, 2019.1 Who won the ballgame last night? In the 1950s, that question was often answered by New Yorkers after a quick stop at one of the 1,500 newsstands that dotted […]
In the 1926 Negro World Series, pitcher Claude “Red” Grier threw a no-hitter for the Atlantic City Bacharach Giants, setting a Negro League milestone that one would have thought would last for a long time. But almost exactly a year later, another Bacharach, Luther “Red” Farrell, again hurling for the team in a World Series, […]
“He’s a heck of a guy. He’s enthusiastic and great for the (University of Hartford) program. He’s the reason why a lot of us are here. He is a man with big dreams. His dreams became our dreams. We believed in him.” — University of Hartford player Brian Crowley in the aftermath of Bill Denehy’s […]
On a sunny but windy and cool September Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia, Bob Trice toed the pitching rubber at Connie Mack Stadium and peered in to the catcher for his signs. With the release of his first pitch, Trice made history. He was the first person of color to play for the Philadelphia Athletics; in […]
One of the most influential figures in the history of the sport, Charles Comiskey had a 55-year odyssey through professional baseball that ran the gamut: captain of one of the greatest teams of the nineteenth century; league-jumper during the 1890 players’ rebellion; one of the chief architects of the American League’s emergence in 1901 as […]
Les Moss was introduced to sports page readers as the “greatest find in professional baseball,” according to his enthusiastic manager Jerry Tiemann, skipper of the Americus Pioneers in the Class D Georgia-Florida League. Moss was 17 years old at the time. He’d been signed by St. Louis Browns scout Jack Fournier in October 1941, when […]
Rob Picciolo sat in the Milwaukee Brewers dugout in the early summer of 1982, watching Robin Yount and Jim Gantner execute another double play. The smooth coordination of the two fielders told Picciolo what he already knew: Barring an injury, he wouldn’t be needed in the Brewers’ middle infield any time soon. Picciolo (pronounced \PEACH-uh-lo\) […]
When he died in 1979, Charlie Deal was the last surviving member of the 1914 Miracle Braves. A third baseman, he played in 89 games for the 1913 and 1914 squads, and jumped to the Federal League in 1915 after a salary dispute. It wasn’t the first time Deal and the baseball establishment clashed over […]
Going from convicted felon and star athlete at Sing Sing Prison to Albany Senators center fielder, Alabama Pitts ventured into a firestorm of controversy, provoking a spirited national debate on the merits of prison rehabilitation in 1935. Allowing the ex-convict Pitts to play professionally set a precedent whose influence continues to pervade professional sports, with […]
“Judy Johnson was the smartest baseball player I ever came across.” — Ted Page1 Despite his father’s aspirations for William “Judy” Johnson to become a boxer, Judy never entered the ring. Instead, Johnson took his game to the diamond. For that, baseball owes him a debt of gratitude. In the Negro Leagues, if Satchel […]
Two days in the major leagues – back to back. Swede Carlstrom’s big-league career began on September 12, 1911. He wrapped up his career on September 13. He didn’t enjoy an auspicious debut with the Boston Red Sox. The Boston Globe noted that Carlstrom, “late of the Lawrence [Massachusetts] club,” had a difficult game at shortstop. “The young […]
A right-handed slugger and sure-handed infielder, George Scales starred in the Negro Leagues in the 1920s and 1930s. He achieved a .323 career batting average, according to Seamheads.com, and he ranks ninth in career slugging percentage among Negro Leaguers with at least 3,000 plate appearances. The eight players ahead of him are in the Hall […]
Roy Campanella was the sixth acknowledged Black player to appear in the major leagues in the twentieth century, debuting with the Brooklyn Dodgers a year after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Campanella went on to become the second Black player, after Robinson, to win a major-league Most Valuable Player award, and eventually became […]
Right-handed pitcher Lev Shreve was a nineteenth-century baseball rarity: an affluent young man descended from a distinguished and prosperous family whose American roots dated from the late 1630s.1 Early generations included settlement founders, Revolutionary War heroes, judges, lawyers (including a reputed law partner of Thomas Jefferson), civic leaders, and the founders of Shreveport, Louisiana. Lev’s […]
In December 2020, the Negro Leagues were recognized as major leagues. The Amaro family might thus have retroactively become the first to send three generations of players to the top level,1 ahead of the Boones, the Bells, the Hairstons, and the Colemans.2 Their worthy heritage started with their big Cuban patriarch, Santos Amaro, who had […]
Few one-game major leaguers led a baseball life as rich as pitcher Ernie Lindemann’s. From 1903 through 1915, he was a dominant force in the New York City area’s thriving semipro scene. He routinely faced, and often succeeded against, major-league teams and elite African-American independents. Indeed, Lindemann’s sole major-league appearance, with the Boston Doves in […]
In the summer of 1952 the Eau Claire Bears, the Boston Braves’ affiliate in the Class C Northern League, featured two young African-American outfielders who would go on to have long careers in the major leagues. One was Hank Aaron; the other was Wes Covington. Aaron went on to become one of baseball’s all-time greats […]
Verdell “Lefty” Mathis, a pitcher for the Memphis Red Sox, was the premier southpaw in the Negro Leagues during the 1940s. His ability and popularity were such that he pitched in three East-West All Star Games, starting the 1944 and 1945 games for the West, and made the all-star roster a total of six times. […]
By age 17, in the summer of 1885, William Moffat “Billy” Earle was already handling the swift slants of fellow Philadelphian Charles “Tod” Brynan with the local Somersets, among the strongest amateur clubs in the East. Earle and Brynan would eventually team as battery mates with no fewer than four professional clubs, but Brynan’s arm, […]