Search Results

On July 17, 1904, future Hall of Famer Clark Griffith pitched the homestanding New York Highlanders to a 3-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers in a contest that was atypical for the era in several respects. First, the game, a makeup of an earlier rainout between the clubs, was played on a Sunday. Avoidance of […]

Ponchatoula, Louisiana, in the 1930s was a small town that had suffered a number of lumber mills closing in the previous decade. By the 1930s, it was known primarily as a strawberry farming region. It was into this area that on October 2, 1934, Earl Lawrence Wilson was born. He later changed his name to […]

Cuban entrepreneur Roberto “Bobby” Maduro was a singular baseball man. When he passed away in 1986, the news made the front page of El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish newspaper of Miami, where he and so many of his countrymen made their home after Fidel Castro took power. In that story, Fausto Miranda (the dean of […]

A jazz pianist and songwriter who is known to kids for his contributions to the “Schoolhouse Rock!” series, Dave Frishberg is equally prominent with baseball fans for incorporating his boyhood love of the sport into his music, most notably with the song “Van Lingle Mungo.” David Lee Frishberg was born on March 23, 1933, in […]

The headline in the Cleveland Press read, “Scout Doyle is dispatched to see mysterious southpaw schoolmaster pitching phenom perform.” Nowhere in the article is the “phenom” mentioned by name, nor do they divulge where scout Billy Doyle was headed. The article does state that a telegram was received stating “Will pitch Saturday…”1 The mystery was […]

At age 25, Bob Elson had the ideal attributes to appeal to a fledgling radio industry. With a clear voice, an engaging personality, and the innate skill to immediately convert the action before him into words, he was able to parlay a radio contest in St. Louis into a broadcasting career in Chicago covering more […]

At spring training in 1921, Branch Rickey, vice president of the St. Louis Cardinals as well as the club’s field manager, was looking over the rookies in camp at Orange, Texas. Turning to veteran shortstop Doc Lavan, he said, “Tell that bat boy to get out of the infield.” Advised that the “bat boy” was […]

Drafted out of high school as a 17-year-old left-handed pitcher, Andy Hassler enjoyed a 14-year career in the major leagues for the California Angels and five other big-league clubs. The Palo Verde High School (Tucson, Arizona) graduate, selected in the 25th round of the June 1979 draft, was scouted and signed by Jack Paepke and […]

A slick fielder in the days before gloves, Ed Somerville was the top defensive second basemen in the inaugural season of the National League of 1876. A year later his death in Canada marked the first passing of a National League ballplayer. Edward G. Somerville was born in Philadelphia on March 1, 1853, as the […]

After playing regularly for the Pittsburgh Pirates at second base for three seasons and first base for two, Dots Miller became the quintessential utility man, spending time at every infield position for the Cardinals and Phillies during the last seven years of his 12-year career in the majors. In 1915 Ring Lardner picked Miller as […]

He never had a hit, never made an error, and pitched only 32 2/3 innings in 13 major league games, but he was a member of the World Champion 1918 Red Sox. Standard reference books show Vincent Leo Molyneaux as born near Niagara Falls, in Lewiston, New York, on August 17, 1888, although August 17, […]

Homer Peel played five seasons in the major leagues, earned a World Series ring with the New York Giants in 1933, and was once traded for Grover Cleveland Alexander. He is more widely known, perhaps, as the “Ty Cobb of the Texas League.” His consistent hitting over 14 seasons in the Texas League resulted in […]

In the early spring of 1912, it seemed possible that Ralph Capron’s future would take him to Chicago for the United States Olympic Trials, then maybe to Stockholm, Sweden for the Summer Games as a member of the sprint team. However, rumors of professionalism cast a shadow over those aspirations. After three years without making […]

“I certainly had no idea of ever being a pitcher. I had never pitched as a kid,” said 13-year big-league veteran Big Jim Hearn, who won 109 games for the St. Louis Cardinals, New York Giants, and Philadelphia Phillies from 1947 through 1959.1 A college basketball player, Hearn was signed by the Cardinals as a […]

In the sizzling summer heat of the 1957 National League pennant race, Fred Hutchinson turned philosophical. “Baseball doesn’t have many naturals, a lot less than you might imagine,” said the Seattle-born-and-bred skipper of the St. Louis Cardinals. “The ones who work the hardest are the ones who make it, the ones who win. Sometimes that’’s […]

The second of three Boyle family members to catch in the majors,1 Eddie Boyle followed his older brother Jack Boyle as a catcher into the National League after a promising minor-league career. Touted as potentially superior behind the plate to his well-respected older brother, Boyle suffered a serious ankle injury during the offseason before his […]

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in SABR’s “The National Pastime,” Vol. 6, No. 1, Winter 1987. To read more from the TNP archives, click here.   Conceived and nurtured by Information Concepts Incorporated (ICI), a systems company, and published by The Macmillan Company, The Baseball Encyclopedia: The Complete and Official Record of Major League […]

The crowd at Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, assembled early and eagerly on September 28, 1865, under sunny skies to watch a baseball game between the Mutuals of New York and the Eckfords of Brooklyn. Although the Eckfords and Mutuals were both considered to be among the premier clubs of the time, on this day the Mutuals were favored. Elysian […]

Polled in the April 30, 1957, issue of the Minneapolis Tribune1 about the Minneapolis Millers’ prospects for the season, six fans split down the middle: Three were optimistic, two pessimistic, and one said it was too early to tell. (The Millers had played 13 games at the time, winning six.) The optimists were more correct, […]

Major League Baseball dates its inception to 1876, but nearly all of the men who played in the newly formed National League had played in its predecessor circuit, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Clubs, which operated from 1871 through 1875. The 1871 pennant race went down to the final day amid improbable and […]

It was the weakest arm in the Red Sox outfield against the fastest runner on the basepaths for the Chicago White Sox, but in this wild and wacky season, the Cardiac Kids found yet another way to pull out an improbable victory. Gimpy-armed right fielder Jose Tartabull became the instant hero when his throw from […]

Bunker Hill Day, commemorating the Revolutionary War battle, arrived in Boston on Monday, June 18, 1894. For those in search of sporting entertainment as the calendar crept toward the first day of summer, two National League contenders would play a morning-afternoon doubleheader at the Congress Street Grounds. The host Boston Beaneaters, winners of the previous […]

What a difference a year makes. In 1979 the California Angels were flying high, winning the AL West Division with an 88-74 record. The Oakland A’s had finished last in the AL West at 54-108. Notwithstanding the records, in spring training Billy Martin declared that his A’s would beat the Angels and win the division. […]

As a founding franchise of the American League, at least in its major-league incarnation, the Boston club has had its share of colorful and fascinating owners. Though the club enjoyed considerable on-field success at the beginning of each century, it is perhaps most famous for its 86-year championship drought, a period dominated by its most […]