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John Lyston was a hard-throwing right-handed pitcher from Baltimore, Maryland, who played professionally in the late 19th century. The talented tosser possessed an outstanding curveball that complemented his powerful fastball. Early on, John was a standout hurler in the amateur and semi-pro ranks in and around the Baltimore area. Word of his pitching prowess soon […]

“Hit in the air . . . Yount . . . makes a GREAT CATCH! Juan Nieves has thrown the first no-hitter in Milwaukee Brewer history!” That was broadcaster Jim Paschke’s call on April 15, 1987. More than 30 years later, the masterpiece by Nieves remained the only no-hitter in franchise history, and only one […]

Edsall Elliott Walker learned to love baseball as a child growing up in Catskill, New York. That love and a sinking fastball led him to the Negro Leagues, where he starred for nearly a decade. When his arm wore out he returned to the city where his career began: Albany, New York. After a brief […]

The picture is familiar. From a very young age, a father and son throw a ball back and forth in the backyard or the playground or the street. A bond is formed and with it, the dream emerges. “I was hoping just to get to the Show and stayed 14 years.” So it was that […]

Often referred to as the Pittsburgh Crawfords’ “normal fall back man” to Satchel Paige,1 Bertrum Hunter was among the many supporting stars who helped make the 1935 Crawfords the greatest Negro League baseball team of all time. For five years, from 1932 to 1936, the Crawfords were considered the “Yankees of the Negro Leagues” as […]

The numbers for Nippy Jones in the 1957 World Series don’t look like much: three games, three plate appearances, two at-bats, no runs, no hits, one hit-by-pitch. But the “shoe-polish incident” in the tenth inning of Game Four, when Jones was able to confirm that a pitch from Tommy Byrne had struck his foot by […]

On August 2, 1912, Harry Niles of the Toledo Mud Hens led off the first inning by drawing a walk from pitcher Bill Lelivelt of the Minneapolis Millers, but Niles was quickly erased by a double play. That walk was the only blemish on Lelivelt’s performance, as he pitched a no-hitter and faced 27 batters […]

David Alexander Liddell is the only New York Mets position player to bat a perfect 1.000 for his career.1 Born on June 15, 1966, in Los Angeles,2 Liddell had the proverbial “cup of coffee” in the major leagues, getting a pinch-hit single in what turned out to be his only at-bat in the major leagues. […]

George Webb Yantz was a bricklayer, journeyman catcher, and tough negotiator who reached the major leagues for one game and retired with a 1.000 career batting average. Yantz was born on July 27, 1886, in Louisville, Kentucky, the second oldest of five children born to Josephine and Charles Yantz. Charles worked as a bricklayer and […]

Bobby Mathews, nearly forgotten today, was one of the top pitchers of the early professional era despite his small stature (5-feet-5½-inches tall, weight about 140 pounds). Between 1871 and 1887, he won nearly 300 games, 297 to be exact – more than any other pitcher not inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. His […]

One of baseball’s charms is its lack of timekeeping. Though in most games it can be enjoyable, this charm is a potential source of frustration if a team is losing badly and (since there is no “mercy rule” in the majors) might rather run out a clock than go the full nine innings. One such […]

On a chilly October night, Marquis Grissom gracefully glided to his right from his position in center field at Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium and gloved the final out of the 1995 World Series. After three tries, the Atlanta Braves were the champions of professional baseball. The man who gloved that final out was the only […]

What’s in a name? Jacob Walter Miller’s nickname was Jake,1 but contemporary sportswriters preferred to call him J. Walter or Lefty. He pitched for the Cleveland Indians from 1924 to 1931. Cleveland Plain Dealer writer Gordon Cobbledick referred to him as Jake on only two occasions, once in 1929 and again in 1931. Miller, a […]

Hustling isn’t just for ballplayers. It’s for novelty salesmen, too. Danny Goodman wasn’t just a guy to crank out caps and keychains, but one who was always looking for a fresh opportunity to transfer money from the customer’s pocket to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ cash registers. For 25 years he presided over an operation that […]

He had just 11 big-league at-bats in 1990, but Brian Traxler was still a cult figure. Over 13 years as a pro, the first baseman delighted fans across the minors, the Caribbean winter leagues, Asia, and independent circuits. His immediate appeal was visual. “Trax” was rotund — leniently listed at 5-feet-10 and 200 pounds, he […]

James Bernard Driscoll was born in the midst of World War II on May 14, 1944, in the town of Medford, Massachusetts, about three miles northwest of downtown Boston. He was the second-born of Joseph and Kathleen (O’Keefe) Driscoll, longtime residents of the Boston area. Joseph and Kathleen would ultimately produce a family of nine […]

Editor’s note: This article was published in SABR’s 1994 Baseball Research Journal (Vol. 23).   As major league baseball continues to deliver self­-inflicted wounds to itself in the form of a players strike, the issue of baseball’s long-standing exemption from federal antitrust laws has resurfaced. While today’s ballplayers and owners recently scrapped in conference rooms […]

The Boston Red Sox celebrated the 100th birthday of Fenway Park on April 20, 2012. Fenway had already become the oldest park in major-league baseball, and coming off a decade of offseason renovations was envisioned to last for at least another 30 or 40 years past 2012. Fenway has hosted more than 8,000 big-league baseball […]

Springfield Sallies hurler Erma “Bergie” Bergmann looked in for the sign from her catcher, Sonia Vialat,1 wound up, and delivered the first pitch of the 1948 All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) season.2 It’s not known whether the pitch was a ball or a strike, or if it was put in play by Helen Callaghan […]

Three-quarters of the Federal League schedule for Wednesday, May 12, 1915, was rained out, and the fans in Buffalo, New York, might have regretted that nature didn’t make it a clean sweep.1 A two-run fourth-inning home run by Pittsburgh Rebels cleanup hitter Ed Konetchy gave the Rebels a lead they never surrendered, and the Buffalo […]

Three-quarters of the Federal League schedule for Wednesday, May 12, 1915, was rained out, and the fans in Buffalo, New York, might have regretted that nature didn’t make it a clean sweep.1 A two-run fourth-inning home run by Pittsburgh Rebels cleanup hitter Ed Konetchy gave the Rebels a lead they never surrendered, and the Buffalo […]

The citizens of St. Louis had seen a lot of baseball played in the ballpark that stood at the intersection of Dodier Street and Grand Avenue. They had never seen it like this, though. After a single season in the upstart American League, the Milwaukee Brewers franchise was relocated to the “Gateway to the West” […]

Here are The SABR Bookshelf listings for Summer 2012. To get your NEW book listed on The SABR Bookshelf, make sure a review copy is sent to: SABR, 4455 E. Camelback Rd., Ste. D-140, Phoenix, AZ 85018. To ensure a listing in The Baseball Index — SABR’s online catalog of baseball research materials at www.baseballindex.org […]

  High and Inside The Newsletter of the BioProject Committee Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) May 2016, Volume 1, Number 5 Past newsletters Editor: Stew Thornley SABR 46 committee meeting From the Editor From the Director Guest Columns: Rory Costello and Warren Corbett Interview with Bill Nowlin Project Profile: Tom Schott Project Poobahs   […]