Search Results

Denied in his first four tries at notching career win number 300, the New York Yankees’ Phil Niekro decided to try something different. Rather than relying on his signature knuckleball, a pitch that had brought him five All-Star nods and three 20-win seasons, Niekro threw everything else he had in the first 8 2/3 innings […]

On May 25, 1951, the New York Giants were in the final stop of a five-city road trip, and although they were in fifth place with a 17-19 record, they were only 4½ games behind the first-place Brooklyn Dodgers. On the previous day they had held a press conference in New York, announcing that the […]

Despite successful stints pitching for town teams and Gettysburg College in, Pennsylvania, Eddie Plank never drew much attention from professional scouts and managers.1 There are various theories on how Connie Mack eventually discovered the future Hall of Famer at Gettysburg College.2 But no matter how the “Tall Tactician” received word about the blossoming pitcher, it is […]

Federal League Park in Indianapolis, looking in from the right-field fence. (Indianapolis News, January 27, 1917)   The city of Indianapolis has been home to four short-lived major-league franchises. The first two — the 1878 Indianapolis Blues of the National League and the 1884 Indianapolis Hoosiers of the American Association — were noncompetitive and disbanded […]

This article appears in SABR’s “Harvey’s Wallbangers: The 1982 Milwaukee Brewers” (2020), edited by Gregory H. Wolf.   On June 2, 1982, general manager Harry Dalton’s firing of second-year manager Buck Rodgers and appointing longtime hitting coach Harvey Keunn as the interim manager was the final piece in the Milwaukee Brewers’ only World Series appearance. […]

Instead of being the good-hitting second baseman and field leader that the Milwaukee Braves expected him to be – the player who would make enough of a difference to help lead them to the National League pennant in 1954, Danny O’Connell turned out to be a disappointment, compiling just a .248 batting average in four […]

After nine years in the major leagues, Tommy Dowd’s tenth and last season of big-league baseball was with the Boston Americans in the very first year of the new franchise, 1901. This was the team that became the Red Sox. Dowd was, in fact, the first player to ever play for the team, the leadoff […]

Khalil Greene’s performance in youth and collegiate ball was a showcase of abundant talent. The shortstop’s senior year at Clemson University in 2002 bespoke Hall of Fame ability. Less than two years later, Greene ascended to the majors. He had apparently begun to fully realize his huge promise at the top level in 2007. Yet […]

Gloria Elliott (nee Cordes) was born on September 21, 1931.1 Most girls her age came to womanhood during the post-World War II economic boom and taught or were secretaries; however, Cordes took a drastically different route. She became a bona-fide professional baseball player. Growing up during World War II in blue-collar Staten Island, New York, […]

One year removed from a Class D league, Chicago White Sox right-hander Les Tietje made his major-league debut in the “House that Ruth Built” on September 18, 1933. Unfazed by the taller-than-life figures of the Babe and Lou Gehrig, the 22-year-old outdueled Red Ruffing and defeated the New York Yankees, 4-3. Playing for perennial also-rans, […]

It was about a bad a brief outing as a pitcher could have, but at least it was mercifully short. Fortunately, there are other things in life that might have greater meaning than a bad outing on the mound. It was at Comiskey Park, and the Boston Red Sox were already down, 6-2, after 7½ […]

“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 […]

If you had to guess, you would say that Warren Cromartie’s lucky number was 3. After all, he played baseball, a game that has three strikes, three outs, and three bases. And he played in three countries (the United States, Canada, and Japan) where the people speak three languages (English, French, and Japanese). Warren Livingston […]

At the time of his death in 1969, Lee Allen had been the historian at the Hall of Fame’s National Baseball Library for ten years. He was widely celebrated for his encyclopedic recall of persons famous and obscure, events large and small. “I care very little for statistics as such,” he always said. “My concern […]

Casey Stengel is best remembered for his managerial accomplishments with the juggernaut New York Yankees of the 1950s and the bumbling, beloved New York Mets of the early ’60s, but decades earlier he was a hard-hitting outfielder who compiled a .284 batting average over 14 seasons in the National League. Planting his right foot closer […]

“It is difficult to muster up much sympathy these days for the young men who make their livings in professional baseball, but I submit for your consideration a possible exception,” Toronto sportswriter Marty York commented in 1993.1 He was referring to Domingo Martínez. Players have complained for decades about lacking chances to prove their worth, […]

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 […]

Kevin Gryboski pitched parts of five seasons (2002-2006) in the major leagues. The big right-handed reliever with an excellent sinker spent the bulk of his time with the Atlanta Braves. As of 2021, he owned the distinction of being the only player to twice pitch in all five games of a League Division Series, having […]

Dave Cole, a gregarious right-hander who spent six seasons in the big leagues with the Braves, Cubs, and Phillies, was the kind of pitcher who has been frustrating scouts and managers for over a century: he couldn’t control the lively fastball and sharp curve that he possessed. Cole pitched only 237 2/3 innings in the […]

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 […]

José Cardenal, one of the last Cuban baseball players to leave that island before the Castro regime clamped down, played for 18 seasons in the US major leagues for nine teams. But that information only scratches the surface of a talented, yet complicated man who was once compared to Willie Mays as a young player. […]

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 […]

Adonis Terry debuted in the first major- league game played by the franchise that became the Dodgers and saw the start of his last game delayed by an electrical fire in a doomed grandstand. During the 13 years in between, the tall, mustachioed right-hander threw two no-hitters, earned two pennant-clinching victories, won three World Series […]

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 […]