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It almost seems as if everyone is short-changing Bibb Falk. Many articles describe him as “the man who replaced Joe Jackson.” Author William A. Cook used that same description when he wrote Falk’s biography in 2015. There are very few players who could literally replace Shoeless Joe. Falk should be recalled as a player who […]

From 1934 to 1951, the name Johnny Hayes appeared in newspaper sports pages and box scores for seven Negro baseball teams. His career, interrupted by service with the US Army during World War II, was split between the second Negro National League (NNL2), the Negro American League (NAL), and the short-lived United States League (USL). […]

Right-handed pitcher Rube Schauer had one of the most rapid ascents to the major leagues in baseball history. In 1912 he was playing for his hometown semi-pro team in rural North Dakota, and by the end of 1913, his first season in professional baseball, he was a member of the pennant-winning New York Giants. His […]

“Wish we had him. He is not colored.”1 Those were the words that Frank Bancroft, the Cincinnati Reds’ business manager, wrote to team president and National Commission Chairman Garry Herrmann in 1911 about Rafael Almeida. The Reds were in the midst of acquiring Almeida and fellow Cuban player Armando Marsans, and, as the first two […]

Through dedicated and honorable achievement, baseball executive John Heydler rose to the position of National League president, and the league became known as “the Heydler circuit.” He retired in 1934 after 32 distinguished years of service in the league office. J.G. Taylor Spink of The Sporting News called him “a veritable Rock of Gibraltar” who […]

John Kieran stands among the legends of baseball writing with his J.G. Taylor Spink Award and place of honor in the Scribes and Mikemen exhibit at the Baseball Hall of Fame.1 But baseball and even the broader realm of writing sports per se occupied only a part of Kieran’s career as a newspaperman, and he […]

The deep and talented farm system developed by General Manager Branch Rickey began to pay dividends when the St. Louis Cardinals won the National League pennant in 1930 and the following year won 101 games and captured the World Series. The team was expected to be even stronger in 1932 because the organization’s top three […]

For as long as he could, Fermín “Mike” Guerra kept playing baseball all year around, in his native Cuba and in the United States. The two lands obviously had quite different cultures, baseball and otherwise, and Guerra even told Roberto Gonzalez Echevarría that he had been initiated into santería, the particular syncretic Afro-Cuban religion.1 Fermín […]

Named after one president and toiling in the shadow of another pitcher named after the same president, Grover Cleveland “Slim” Lowdermilk had a career that spanned the second half of the Deadball Era. From 1909 to 1920 Lowdermilk was an adequate pitcher with occasional flashes of steadiness for six different teams. He closed out his […]

Native Philadelphian Monte Cross played short for the Phillies and Athletics during a particularly successful era in his city’s baseball history. After several earlier major-league stops, he manned the position for the slugging, first-division Phillies from 1898 to 1901. Then, jumping to the American League in 1902, Cross helped the Athletics to two pennants over […]

While Jackie Robinson and some of the other pioneers who helped break the odious color barrier now receive credit for their accomplishments, others who showed just as much courage have been forgotten. Jim Tugerson is one such player. Tugerson was born in Florence Villa, Polk County, Florida on March 7, 1923, and christened James Clerence […]

Pat Collins, back in the minors in 1925 after six frustrating seasons with the St. Louis Browns, found himself in the right place at the right time in 1926. Collins saw his playing time bottom out with the Browns in 1924 and the 28-year-old was relegated to the American Association. His response to playing more […]

Right-handed pitcher Charley Schanz worked 13 years in the minor leagues and four full seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1940s, followed a couple of years later by 14 games with the Boston Red Sox in 1950. His major-league record was 28-43 with a 4.34 earned run average. His best big-league season was his […]

Lee Quillin distinguished himself during 13 years in professional baseball in the early 20th century. He played for the 1906 World Series champion Chicago White Sox and the 1907 Sox team, contributing as a utility infielder. The right-hander also put together four minor-league seasons hitting over .300, plus another at .298; he helped his clubs […]

The huge Brooklyn Dodgers farm system grew infield prospects like weeds after World War II. With Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, and Jim Gilliam impossible to dislodge, most of the prospects wound up on other teams: Chico Carrasquel, Bobby Morgan, Chico Fernandez, Bob Lillis, and Billy Hunter, among others. Charlie Neal was a keeper. But […]

How did a ballplayer from Indiana whose entire major-league career saw him pitch for the Boston Americans come to be known as Tex? His given name was Charles Leroy Pruiett. It wasn’t his lanky stature; he was 5-feet-8 with a listed playing weight of 176 pounds. The answer is probably a simple one: It likely […]

On the morning of July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 spacecraft was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, bringing the United States one step closer to putting a human being on the moon. That evening in Montreal, Willie Stargell of the Pittsburgh Pirates nearly hit a baseball into orbit. The ball sailed over […]

In late January of 1901, American League President Ban Johnson convened a series of organizational meetings at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Chicago. The purpose of the gatherings was to iron out the final details in preparation for the launching of his new major league. Seven years earlier, Johnson, a Cincinnati sportswriter, had become president […]

The Chicago White Sox are pictured on April 12, 1918, before an exhibition game against a US Army team at Camp Funston, outside of Junction City, Kansas. Just weeks earlier, the first major outbreak of a global influenza pandemic killed 38 soldiers at the base. An estimated 50 million people around the world died from […]

The Minnesota Twins’ home opener on Tuesday night, July 28, 2020, was like many others in the major leagues. The delay in starting the 2020 season because of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID), meant an empty ballpark since no fans were allowed. Face masks were prevalent; procedures for distancing from one another were in place. The […]

“I’ll never pitch a no-hitter,” Paul Splittorff told reporters matter-of-factly in August 1975, and he was right.1 The bespectacled, high-kicking left-hander won 166 games and set enduring Kansas City Royals franchise records2 in his 15-season major-league career.3 But he never achieved a pitcher’s ultimate feat of skill and luck. Three complete-game one-hitters were as close […]

Nine games into his managerial career and Leo Durocher already had the Brooklyn Dodgers feeling, for the first time in years, relevant. General manager Larry MacPhail vowed that Durocher would instill some much-needed “up-and-at-’em fight” in the moribund Dodgers franchise, and people took him at his word.1 Preseason predictions were cautiously optimistic and early attendance […]

His manager did not initially approve of it. His catcher didn’t care for catching it. But the spitball transformed Jack Chesbro’s season in 1904, and New York Highlanders manager Clark Griffith eventually had to admit that Chesbro’s early-season embrace of the deceptive pitch made all the difference between his 4-3 won-lost record in the first […]