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Few rookies ever made a bigger splash in their debut than Chicago White Sox first baseman Art Shires.1 Most of the fanfare came from Shires, who nicknamed himself “The Great” and was also known by the sobriquet “Whataman.” The native of Italy, Texas, starred for Waco of the Class A Texas League, where he batted […]

With the start of the 1954 season, beer magnate August A. Busch Jr. finally had the full attention of baseball fans in St. Louis. Having purchased the National League’s Cardinals as well as its ballpark in the past year, Busch no longer had to deal with the previous landlords of Sportsman’s Park – the Browns […]

As the 1924 season progressed, fans of the Negro National League and the Eastern Colored League began wondering why the two leagues didn’t have an end-of-season playoff, or as the press referred to it, a “Negro World Series.” (The Black press alternated between calling the proposed competition a Negro World Series and a Colored World […]

Brothers Charles “C.I.” Taylor, Ben Taylor, James “Candy Jim” Taylor, and Johnny Taylor of Anderson, South Carolina, constitute one of the most accomplished families in baseball history. Johnny pitched for various teams from 1903 to 1921. Candy Jim played and managed from 1903 to 1948 and was manager of three Negro National League champions.1 Ben […]

The score of this game is not a misprint. It was a 29-0 game played between two major-league championship teams. The two biggest reasons for the lopsided score were that the Atlantics made 30 errors and that they were facing one of the best pitchers of the time, Albert Spalding. In a bit of understatement, […]

Trailing the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League standings in July 1921, the New York Giants bolstered their lineup by trading for star outfielder Irish Meusel. In his second game after the controversial deal, Meusel sparked New York to an early lead over the Pirates, but the Giants also needed Phil Douglas’s shutdown relief pitching […]

Game Four of the 1915 World Series was the second home game in the Series for the American League champion Boston Red Sox – but it was not played on their own home field. A year earlier, the National League-pennant-winning Boston Braves had “borrowed” Fenway Park from the Red Sox for the World Series because […]

On May 25, 1961, the same day President John F. Kennedy set a goal for the United States of landing a man on the moon before the end of the decade, two future Hall of Famers beginning their ascents to stardom showcased the prodigious talents that would dominate National League hitters throughout the 1960s. Entering […]

Outside the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, a statue depicting southpaw Johnny Podres after a pitch release stands 60 feet, six inches from a statue of catcher Roy Campanella. They commemorate the Brooklyn Dodgers winning the 1955 World Series over the New York Yankees, their traditional autumn foe at […]

Negro Leagues encyclopedist/historian James A. Riley summarized outfielder Pete Washington’s skill set as one of a “very fast outfielder with exceptional range afield … got a great jump on the ball and was one of the best defensive outfielders in the East during the ’20s and ’30s. However, his offensive punch was not equal to […]

From the hot corner, Milt Stock made vital contributions towards the Philadelphia Phillies’ first two pennants. As a second-year player in 1915, he took over third base responsibilities when Bobby Byrne suffered a serious injury during the home stretch, and helped the Phillies capture their first NL flag. For another decade, with several teams, he […]

Susan Fornoff’s childhood influenced her career choice; the location left an imprint on a particular part of that career. Fornoff was born February 4, 1958 and grew up in Baltimore, the oldest of four children (the others were boys) to Bill Fornoff, a factory foreman at Domino Sugar, and Romaine Fornoff, a homemaker and teacher’s […]

In one of the Bill James books, contributor Jim Baker has some fun at the expense of an obscure late-19th-century pitcher named Carlton Molesworth. Combing his faintly humorous name with historically dubious statistical entries that list Molesworth as 5-feet-6 and 200 pounds, Baker presents a vignette that casts Molesworth as the portly butler of a […]

Blessed with speed and quickness, Bill Bruton was arguably the fastest man in professional baseball in the 1950s. While prowling center field, he could race back for well-hit long balls and charge in to scoop up potential Texas Leaguers. When batting, he used his speed to intimidate opponents into making throwing and fielding mistakes. He […]

Throughout his 12-year major-league career, Ted Sizemore was known for his versatility and competitiveness, as well as for his love of baseball. When he was playing youth sports, some skeptics told him he was too short to be a major leaguer (sources would later claim he was either 5-feet-9”1 or 5-feet-10”; but in high school, […]

In the 1940s radio drama The Diary of Fate, a character’s life would take an ominous turn as the result of a seemingly harmless event. In one episode for example, a sportswriter in need of money accidentally forgot his pipe in a telephone booth, and when he went back to retrieve it, he overheard a […]

On the evening of September 21, 1964, the Philadelphia Phillies’ Art Mahaffey was pitching a gem of a baseball game. In the top of the sixth inning it was a scoreless duel in between Mahaffey and the Cincinnati Reds’ John Tsitouris at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. With two outs, 25-year-old Reds rookie Chico Ruiz […]

Gene “Stick” Michael is the only person to serve, at one time or another, as player, scout, manager, and general manager for the New York Yankees. His exceptional work as their general manager from 1990-1995 led to four world championships. However, throughout his life he lamented not pursuing professional basketball. He was loved by his […]

Some players have a lifetime, while others earn only a brief moment in the spotlight. For Harry Joseph Hulihan, the record falls somewhere in between. His own time for baseball glory came and went in a short burst. Yet he also played a crucial role in determining the last world championship for a Hall of […]

In 1915, the Baltimore Sun said Bill Kay is “unquestionably the greatest hitter of his time in minor league baseball.”1 A “line-drive slasher”2 in the Deadball Era, he averaged .335 in his minor-league career.3 He won four batting titles in the New York State League and peaked at .378 with Binghamton in 1915. Considered a […]

In many situations, an injury or a trade can end up being a setback to a player’s career. Hal McRae turned both of them into an opportunity. After being traded to the Kansas City Royals when an injury reduced his defensive skills, he became one of the best designated hitters of all time. Harold Abraham […]

Right-handed pitcher Howie “Spud” Krist overcame a series of ailments and potentially career-threatening injuries to post an undefeated season (10-0) for the Cardinals in 1941 after a three-year absence from the major leagues. As an important member of the Cardinals’ World Series teams in 1942 and 1943, Krist sported a 37-11 lifetime record before a […]

This multi-purpose facility has been called “The Madison Square Garden of Puerto Rico.”1 Its use in boxing and basketball is a big reason, but the parallel extends to track and field, as well as political conventions. Baseball, however, forms an especially rich chapter in the history of Estadio Sixto Escobar (as it is known to […]

This article appears in SABR’s “Whales, Terriers, and Terrapins: The Federal League 1914-15” (2020), edited by Steve West and Bill Nowlin.   Only three umpires seem to have worked both years of the Federal League: Bill Brennan – worked 155 games in 1914 (113 at HP) and 166 games in 1915 (130 at HP) Barry […]