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Right-handed pitcher Bill Harris won 24 major-league games in a career that spanned 18 seasons, from his debut in April 1923 to his final game in October 1938. He won 257 games in the minor leagues, in the years 1921 to 1945. His parents were Ed Harris and Minnie (Ragsdale) Harris. William Milton Harris was […]

The idiosyncratic Ralph Works produced a memorable, if not very successful, baseball career. After a promising major-league debut with Detroit in 1909, he proved a “persistent in-and-outer” with the Tigers over the next several seasons, never consistently successful and often clashing with manager Hughie Jennings.1 A long, restless denouement followed, with Works on the move […]

He was a leadoff man. He played all through the eclipse of baseball’s greatest franchise. So, mainly for worse he came to symbolize an era. Alas, Horace Meredith Clarke was never a star, but he was a pesky hitter with speed and a good glove. Perverse as it may be, his durability and visibility made […]

Outfielder Joe “Pop” Durham played parts of three major league seasons for the Baltimore Orioles (87 games in 1954 and 1957) and St. Louis Cardinals (six games in 1959). He also played 10 years in the minors with a total of five teams. In 1954, Durham hit the first home run by an African American […]

In his first full season in the majors, Dan Griner lost a big-league-most 22 games with the moribund St. Louis Cardinals in 1913. But few probably gave him a hard time for that dubious feat because “Big Dan,” a chiseled 200-pound former football player, didn’t take kindly to insults. He KO’d three teammates the following […]

Jimmy Jones ended his major-league career with one sweep of his arm. The last-place New York Giants were struggling on August 6, 1902, having lost three straight to Pittsburgh and facing Jack Chesbro, who was on the way to a 28-win season. The Giants were in a foul mood and complained about umpire Bob Emslie […]

The New York Yankees won three straight American League pennants from 1976 to 1978, becoming World Series champions in the latter two years. Yet even devoted fans might have trouble recalling which pitcher got the most victories for the Bronx Bombers over this period. It wasn’t Catfish Hunter or Ron Guidry — it was Ed […]

A goal of every major leaguer is to play on a team destined for the World Series.  While individuals are in the game for money and personal achievement, being part of a team going to the fall classic is a treasured experience. Nearly 50 years after Minnesota took the 1965 championship, Jerry Fosnow – who […]

Jerry Moses aspired to become a major-league ballplayer, and declined football scholarships at Southeastern Conference (SEC) universities to pursue his dream. A 1970 American League All-Star, Jerry became the youngest Red Sox to hit a home run, at age 18 and 289 days, with a pinch-hit rocket off Jim “Mudcat” Grant on May 25, 1965. […]

Two rookies made their major league debuts for the Providence Grays at St. Louis’s Union Grounds on September 18, 1885. One of them, 19-year-old third baseman Denny Lyons, went on to compile a .310 batting average in 1,121 games over 13 seasons. The other, a 27-year-old southpaw named John Foley, pitched a complete game that […]

During the first decade of the Deadball Era, the Chicago Cubs boasted eight different pitchers who posted 20-win seasons for the club.1 Perhaps the least known of them is Bob Wicker, a strapping 26-year-old right-hander who went 20-9 in 1903. Unhappily for Wicker, he was traded to Cincinnati early in the 1906 campaign, thus missing […]

Born with a celebrated baseball surname1 but with only a modicum of playing ability, catcher Tom O’Rourke was largely a nonentity on the 19th-century major league ballclubs that he played for. But on occasion, he provided useful service. O’Rourke’s post-baseball life followed a similar pattern – but for an altogether different organization: Tammany Hall, the […]

Jim Mutrie managed in the major leagues for nine seasons, two seasons in the American Association (1883-1884, New York Metropolitans) and seven seasons in the National League (1885-1891, New York Giants). As a big-league manager Mutrie achieved a .611 winning percentage, the second highest career percentage among major-league managers, trailing only Hall of Fame inductee […]

Walter Hackett spent his major-league career with two Boston teams in 1884-1885, the first with the short-lived Union Association, and the second with the National League. He was a solid defensive shortstop in his day, but it didn’t lead him to a lengthy career. We don’t know which side Walter batted or threw from, or […]

Pitcher Gordon Zabasky winds up on the mound at Montgomery Field, April 1957, in Carlsbad, New Mexico.   In the spring of 1984, the decaying remains of Montgomery Field – a former minor-league ballpark in Carlsbad, New Mexico – were removed to make way for a multi-field youth soccer complex.1 It symbolized the way America’s […]

The California Angels’ best player of 1979, Don Baylor, came to Toronto in a bad mood. In an interview for the Orange County Register, Baylor criticized the Angels front office for not acquiring enough pitching help for the team.1 By the end of this game at Exhibition Stadium, Baylor had a 3-for-7 day with 8 […]

As the 1940 season began, the Cardinals were sputtering in the early going. Losers of their first three games and eight of their first 13, the runners-up to the Cincinnati Reds for the 1939 pennant were limping along a game and a half ahead of the miserable Boston Braves at the bottom of the standings. […]

As many baseball fans know, Cleveland Indians shortstop Ray Chapman is the only player to die from an injury sustained during a major-league baseball game. But 27 years after Chapman was struck and killed by a pitch, a Brooklyn Dodgers outfielder came frighteningly close to becoming the second. Long before 1947, Pete Reiser had a […]

New York Giants fans loved Willie Mays, the exciting young outfielder who could do it all. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   Willie Mays Sprinted deep into the Polo Grounds outfield to make his memorable over-the-shoulder catch of a Vic Wertz fly ball in Game One of the 1954 World Series. As soon as the ball settled into […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers take batting practice in an empty Ebbets Field. The Dodgers led or co-led the NL in home runs in every season from 1949 through 1955. (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)   The Brooklyn Dodgers were as hot as the steamy weather that had ruled New York City boroughs for five days.1 The talented first-place […]

Chicago Tribune  sportswriter  I.E. Sanborn confidently predicted that barring injuries to key players, the White Sox would capture the 1917 AL pennant.1 One of the team’s strengths, he opined, was its “great” and “well-balanced” pitching staff, led by Red Faber; however, Sanborn conceded that it lacked a star like Walter Johnson or Eddie Walsh. The […]

The Boston Americans ran away with the American League pennant in 1903, finishing the season by winning the first World Series between AL and National League champions. The Cleveland Naps spent much of the season in the middle of the AL standings, but a stretch of 13 wins in 14 games in August enabled them […]

Editor’s note: This article continues from Part 1, on the New York Giants team ownership from 1883 to 1957.   Stoneham the Younger The narrative of Giants ownership had changed abruptly and dramatically on January 6, 1936, when Charles A. Stoneham died of symptoms associated with Bright’s disease. The franchise immediately passed into the hands […]