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The St. Louis Cardinals were back in Busch Stadium, back home after losing the first two games of the 2004 World Series to the Boston Red Sox. They were hoping that the proverbial “home cooking” might help even things up. Their home and away splits hadn’t been appreciably different; they’d won 53 regular-season games at […]

In Game Two of the 1951 World Series, Eddie Lopat of the New York Yankees bested Larry Jansen of the New York Giants in a 3-1 complete-game triumph at Yankee Stadium, knotting the series after the Giants’ Game One win. But Mickey Mantle’s knee injury, which sidelined the talented rookie for the rest of the […]

The Rangers’ May 17 game against the Royals in Kansas City was their 11th consecutive road game and the eighth in eight days. The team was already fatigued from their travels, as was evidenced by their four-game losing streak, and had not planned on playing the equivalent of a doubleheader on this evening, but they […]

The Yankees were cruising to their fifth straight AL pennant in 1953 when they took on the Senators in New York for a three-game series beginning on August 18. The Nats1 had just split a doubleheader in Boston with the Red Sox, while the Yankees had won four straight after pummeling the sixth-place A’s in […]

After a 40-year drought, the Chicago White Sox clinched the American League pennant on September 22, 1959, with a 4-2 victory in Cleveland. Sirens were activated in Chicago to announce the significant baseball happening. The long-wailing scream pierced the night and frightened many sleepy residents who thought the city was under nuclear attack. Mayor Richard […]

On April 7, 1989, the movie Major League was released across America. The movie told the fictional tale about a losing baseball team with a recent history of ineptitude and incompetence. The appealing characters and the farcical storyline made for great comedy. Unfortunately, the team that was integral to the plot was an imaginary version […]

The Mets have an unusual affinity for finding themselves in notable marathons. Take that late May 1964 game at Shea Stadium, for instance — a nightcap of a doubleheader that went on for 23 innings and nearly 7½ hours and ended in a San Francisco Giants victory behind Gaylord Perry’s 10 frames of relief. Fast-forward […]

Joel Hanrahan excelled as a closer with the Pittsburgh Pirates in a playing career ended by two Tommy John surgeries. In 2011 and 2012, he compiled the best two-year saves total in Pirates history with 76. From the spring of 2011 to the 2012 All-Star Game, he allowed just 23 earned runs in 102 2/3 […]

Violent crimes have been charged to professional athletes long before the days of O.J. Simpson. In fact, these cases go back almost to the beginning of professional sports. During the latter part of the nineteenth century, at least three major league baseball players committed murder. Edgar McNabb and Marty Bergen killed themselves before they could […]

“No more pitiful case exists in the annals of base ball than that of Arnold Hauser,” stated The Sporting News on April 9, 1914.1 Hauser, since debuting with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1910, had emerged as one of the game’s finest young shortstops. By 1913, however, injuries and personal tragedy began to derail both […]

John A. (Johnny) Gee, Jr. drew national attention in August 1939 when the Pittsburgh Pirates purchased him for cash and four players from the Syracuse Chiefs of the International League. A front-page story in the September 21 issue of The Sporting News stated that the $75,000 price was the “biggest independent deal since 192[4], when […]

Bill Faul is “kind of a pitching prestidigitator who practices screwball sorcery by hypnotizing himself if not the batter,” a sportswriter said in 1965.1 Although Faul had a modest six-year major-league career with the Detroit Tigers, Chicago Cubs, and San Francisco Giants, he gave the country’s baseball scribes plenty to write about. “Since the midseason […]

Geoff Blum’s baseball life has featured many highlights, but he will always be best remembered for one dramatic at-bat. In Game Three of the 2005 World Series between Blum’s Chicago White Sox and the Houston Astros, he belted a home run in the top of the 14th inning to break a 5-5 tie and propel […]

“Pressure-tested.” The label suited José Contreras, the ace of the formidable Cuban national team of the 1990s that dominated international competition. Fidel Castro himself had deemed the pitcher “el titán de bronce” (the bronze titan), a nickname first bestowed upon Cuban Revolutionary hero Antonio Maceo, one of the country’s founding fathers. How could José Contreras […]

After being stuck in the New York Yankees minor-league system for seven seasons, Lee Thomas spent 1961 through 1968 as a big-league player. The first baseman/outfielder was an All-Star in his best year, 1962 – but his finest day came in the final month of his rookie season. On September 5, 1961, Thomas (then with […]

In 1894 a sportswriter at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, most likely Abe Yager, coined the nickname “Deacon” for pitcher Dan Daub. Daub conducted himself in a calm and educated manner, possessed good judgment and did not flinch in tough times. In the writer’s mind, he was the quintessential churchman. On July 1, 1894, the Brooklyn […]

The major league baseball record book entry for pitcher Ernie Hickman consists of a two-month tour of duty with a lousy ballclub in the short-lived Union Association. Yet Hickman’s life and career are not without interest. In June 1884, he posted the first victory ever recorded for a big-league team that called Kansas City home; […]

Rene Descartes: “I think; therefore, I am.” Steve Stone stepped off the mound, mopped his brow, and took a long look at the crowd in the stands. “This is nice,” he said to himself. But it wasn’t always this way for Stone. For some time, he had struggled to find himself as a pitcher and […]

The 1974 Oakland Athletics pitching staff was a dominant bunch. Led by the trio of starters Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue, and Ken Holtzman, and the brilliant relief work of Rollie Fingers, the A’s led the majors in six pitching categories, won 90 games, and claimed their third consecutive world championship. They were not without good […]

Joe Schultz Sr. – known as “Germany” for his ancestry – played in 11 major-league seasons from 1912 through 1925. By the end of that time, he had played for every National League team then in existence except for the Giants. His primary position was right field, but he was frequently used as a pinch-hitter […]

The Southern Tier Expressway does not lend itself to reflection or nostalgia. The six-lane divided highway breaks off from Interstate 81 in Binghamton, New York, and heads west, offering drivers — when construction allows — the fastest possible route to Elmira, Corning, the Finger Lakes, and other destinations in the Empire State’s southern and western […]

This article appears in SABR’s “The Base Ball Palace of the World: Comiskey Park” (2019), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. “It makes no difference if the nation is in the midst of a major depression or riding the wave of prosperity, the East-West game is always a rousing success. It is the biggest sporting event […]

Members of the Buck O’Neil/North Florida SABR Chapter gathered in the private room at the Tally Fish House for their monthly meeting on July 20, 2022, in Tallahassee, Florida. In attendance were: Matt Keelean, Chapter President Jim Wolf Rick Swain Brent Kallestad Frank Alarcon Renee Watters Glenn Robertson Matt Hudson Steve Lastowski Members gathered at […]