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The Dartmouth Street Grounds in Boston hosted major-league baseball in 1884 when the Boston team in the Union Association played its home games at this ballpark. During its five-year life (1884 to 1888), the ballpark was used to host not only baseball games but also a variety of other sporting activities. In the fall of […]

Pete Rose started there. Bernice Gera, professional baseball’s first female umpire, started and finished there. Television dramatist Rod Serling relaxed there. Kenny Shepard, general manager of the local baseball team, slept there. And a young player with a chance to make the majors could be taking the field there today. “There” is McDonough Park, a […]

The story of the Philadelphia Athletics’ 24-2 shellacking of the Detroit Tigers on May 18, 1912, actually started three days earlier with an incident involving Ty Cobb and a spectator during the Detroit Tigers’ 8-4 victory over the New York Highlanders at Hilltop Park in New York. The succession of events that followed produced an […]

An early advocate for player’s rights, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis was a staunch supporter of minor league baseball. However, he never believed in the farm team concept. He felt the major-league magnates took advantage of the system by owning multiple ballclubs. Landis would have preferred that every minor-league franchise remain autonomous, telling the United […]

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a conclave of civil rights advocates arrived at Memphis Municipal Airport on the morning of April 3, 1968. Dr. King’s group made the trip to show solidarity with the city’s 1,300 striking Black sanitation workers.1 Later that day Dr. King gave his iconic “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” speech […]

Smoky Joe Wood was truly beginning to blossom as a Boston Red Sox pitcher in 1911. After reaching double-digits in wins in both 1909 (11-7) and 1910 (12-13, but with a 1.69 ERA), the 21-year-old right-hander came into his July 29 start in the first game of a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns with […]

Sportsman’s Park was home of the St. Louis Browns from 1902 to 1953. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library.)   Introduction Achieving on-field success has often proved elusive to owners of the Baltimore Orioles and its predecessor teams, the St. Louis Browns and Milwaukee Brewers. The franchise, dating back to the inception of the American […]

Romeo had Juliet, Anthony had Cleopatra, and the borough of Brooklyn had their Dodgers. Theirs was a love affair that included the likes of Duke, Campy, Pee Wee, Newk and Jackie. But the name of only one of the Boys of Summer was translated into Brooklynese. The 5-foot-10, 165-pound right-hander, with the large number 17 […]

Popular wherever he played, Bud Sharpe showed great promise on the field and later as a manager, only to die in his prime. A tall and energetic man, the slender Sharpe stood 6′ 1″ and weighed 170 pounds. A right-hander, he was a minor figure in his 165-game major league career, posting a .222 average […]

The 1948 Negro National League season was played on the cusp of a tectonic shift in the structure of Organized Baseball, as many black players were signed by clubs in the major and minor leagues. The 1948 iteration of the Homestead Grays, after two years of sub-.500 play and with a roster that no longer […]

On July 30, 1948, the New York Giants were within one out of a franchise-record four consecutive shutouts when Chicago Cubs lefty swinger Bill Nicholson connected for a drive into shallow right field. Les Layton, inserted in the game as a defensive replacement in right, raced to the ball. He seemingly secured the out as […]

Eugene Joseph Bremer Sr., sometimes known as Gene, was born in New Orleans on July 18, 1916. He grew up in the city with his parents, three sisters, and grandmother. His father, Joseph, worked as a driver and his mother, Amanda, as a washerwoman. As a youngster he loved all sports and that led to […]

Reliever Brad Lesley was big — 6-feet-6 and 230 pounds — and hyper-intense on the field. His good-natured screaming and stomping got him nicknamed “The Animal.” Lesley’s self-motivational antics, size, and power pitching drew many comparisons, namely with Mark Fidrych, Al “The Mad Hungarian” Hrabosky, Goose Gossage, and Dick “The Monster” Radatz. Yet as Lesley […]

Goro Mikami, aka Jap Mikado, was the first known Japanese national to play professional baseball in the United States. He first played in the US in 1911 when Tokyo’s Waseda University club barnstormed the country. Two years later, Mikami returned to the U.S. as a graduate student at Knox College in Illinois. He starred at […]

In his one and only year of professional baseball, Bob Lawrence pitched for a pair of minor-league teams before hurling one and only one inning for the 1924 Chicago White Sox. After spending a month back in the minors, Lawrence finished the year playing semipro ball in Brooklyn. He declined to sign a White Sox […]

“I think I was playing third base at the time, and he hit a ground ball by me…. It dug a hole about a foot deep on its way to left eld. … In those days Torriente was a hell of a ballplayer. Christ, I’d like to whitewash him and bring him up.” — Frankie […]

As baseball grew more popular, people wanted to keep up with a sport in which half of the season was spent on the road away from the hometown. Also, people had to work, and since games were played in the afternoon, many could not attend. Enter the baseball writer. Henry Chadwick was the one of […]

Controversy and contrast defined Scott Perry’s brief major-league career. In 1918, his first full season, the Boston Braves and Philadelphia Athletics battled for his services, exposing the increasing inability of Organized Baseball to govern itself in the pre-commissioner era. Philadelphia retained Perry, and he produced a memorable rookie effort, becoming one of only seven pitchers […]

Walt Tragesser’s career could be defined by the things he missed out on. A Boston Brave in 1913 and 1915, Tragesser did not play for the 1914 “Miracle Braves” that upset the heavily favored Philadelphia Athletics to win the World Series and enter baseball legend. And he missed the chance to catch a no-hitter thrown […]

Although “Rube” Kroh played only six years in the major leagues (1906-12), his baseball history spans his entire lifetime. He played for numerous minor league teams and pitched some outstanding baseball. A list of his teammates as well as the players he pitched against would include many of the greats of the Deadball Era. Floyd […]

Jim Gantner played 17 years in the big leagues, all with the Milwaukee Brewers. In many ways, he was considered the “heart and soul” of the 1982 Brewers, bringing a competitive spirit and hard-nosed approach to the game. The image of Gantner and Charlie Moore embracing each other at home plate in County Stadium after […]

Some major league players are blessed with good fortune. Their talents are discovered early, they remain relatively healthy throughout their careers, and they always seem to be in the right place at the right time. Bob Ramazzotti was not one of those guys. His career began late, was interrupted by war, and was stifled by […]

From his birth in 1905, in West Springfield, Massachusetts, to his death in 1991, in Palm Springs, California, Leo Durocher witnessed a great deal of social, political, and international change, some of which he helped bring about. Durocher played an important supporting role in the integration of major-league baseball. His frank assessment of African American […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2021 as part of the SABR Century 1921 Project. Eddie Collins, left, and manager Kid Gleason were left to pick up the pieces after the Chicago White Sox lost most of their championship core following the Black Sox Scandal. (LIBRARY OF CONGRESS)   The 1921 Chicago White […]