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A severe sinus condition kept Tommy Holmes out of the service during World War II, but the chances are that if he had been drafted and sent into harm’s way, several hundred fans from one particular portion of Braves Field would have been willing to follow him into action. Holmes was among the most popular […]

The 1967 season marked the return of Al “Moose” Lakeman to the major league coaching ranks for a final three years with the Boston Red Sox. He coached for Boston throughout the Dick Williams years, from 1967-1969. It was his second stint with the Sox. Lakeman had also coached under manager Johnny Pesky in 1963 […]

Nearly all of the nine major leaguers who attended Williams College had brief baseball careers; these scholar-athletes emphasized academics over sports. Five of the nine – Artie Clarke, Henry Clarke, George “Iron” Davis, Mark Filley, and Abbott P. “Jack” Mills – became attorneys. In fact, they all juggled law school and pro ball. Mills played […]

A hard-throwing, fast-living left-hander, Rube Benton pitched professionally for 24 years, compiling a 150-144 record and 3.09 ERA in his 15 seasons in the National League. Benton had a reputation for drinking, gambling, and driving too fast, all three of which combined in various ways to interrupt his major-league career. He eventually died at age […]

A preview of the pitching staff of the 1902 Chicago White Sox included a brief profile of right-hander “John Katoll, known to his teammates as ‘Big Jack’ … a blacksmith from Detroit … who has been a steady and reliable man if not brilliant in his work. He has great speed with fair control, and […]

Paul Gillespie was a high school second-team catcher at 17, a minor-league all-star outfielder at 19, and a major-league catcher at 21. In a career that spanned 89 games from 1942 to 1945, he became the first big-leaguer to hit a home run in both his first and last regular season at-bat. Only one other […]

Until age and arm miseries precipitated his release in May 1919, right-hander Joe Benz was a valuable member of the Chicago White Sox pitching corps. During the preceding eight seasons, Benz had alternated between the starting rotation, spot-starter duty, and long relief, never posting an ERA higher than 2.90. Usually overshadowed by mound mates like […]

Saves became an official major-league statistic in 1969. By the mid-1970s, closers had become firmly entrenched on big-league rosters. Pitchers such as Rollie Fingers, Bruce Sutter, Sparky Lyle, and Rich “Goose” Gossage were helping to define the role, often pitching multiple innings at the end of games. In 1976, the antacid maker Rolaids, whose motto […]

His parents, Thomas and Jennie, named him after the Irish nationalist revolutionary Robert Emmet, but added an extra “t.” Thomas came from Ireland. Thomas must have done well earlier in life, or inherited wealth, because he shows up in the United States census as without an occupation and with the designation “own income.” The couple […]

When the legendary University of Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant was growing up in Arkansas in the 1920s, he and his friends eagerly followed the exploits of quarterback Carey Selph of Ouachita Baptist College in Arkadelphia.1 Then called “the greatest football player in Arkansas,”2 Selph was a fierce competitor who “simply believed no team […]

Never possessed of an overpowering fastball or a devastating curve, Ed Lynch relied instead on his command, and his wits. The latter, it was said, were among the sharpest of their time, and led to a second act as a baseball executive. “I’m a competitive person and I have confidence in my abilities,” Lynch told […]

Ernie Nevers’ football career as a fullback and coach is well documented. While a full biography has yet to be written, much ink has been spilled in the telling of his gridiron glory. His baseball career has not been so well scoured in the near century since he pitched professionally. It is only natural that […]

We often read or hear about pitchers developing arm strength and accuracy in their youth by throwing rocks at a target. Hal Gregg’s missile of choice was citrus—specifically an orange. Born in Anaheim, California, on July 11, 1921, Harold Dana Gregg grew up on an orange farm. His parents, Calvin and Margaret Smylmo Gregg, were […]

Excepting some otherwise brief ventures as a young man, this 14-year-old runaway spent nearly 60 years in professional baseball as player, manager, owner, innovator and groundskeeper. In this latter capacity, Henry Fabian was considered “one of the great masters of his craft.”1 St. Louis Browns owner Bob Hedges tried to entice him from the Texas […]

If it were not for bad luck, Creepy Crespi may not have had any luck at all. The infielder with one of baseball’s great alliterative nicknames played parts of five seasons in the big leagues, all with his hometown Cardinals, including the World Series title club of 1942. An ankle fracture sustained while playing baseball […]

One day earlier, Rube Foster’s Chicago American Giants (CAG) had emerged from a tough Negro National League battle against Joe Green’s Chicago Giants with a 4-1 victory that ran their winning streak to 12 in a row.1 In that contest between the intracity rivals, Giants pitcher Walter Ball, coaching third base, had sent Henry Bauchman […]

Jimmy Zinn spent 1921 as a swingman on the Pittsburgh Pirates’ pitching staff, contributing occasional starts but more often working from the bullpen. One of his most valuable performances came on August 5 at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field. Tossing six innings of nearly spotless relief and adding two key hits, Zinn sparked the first-place Pirates to […]

Between 2008, when PitchF/X systems began measuring pitch speeds in every major-league ballpark, and the end of the 2023 season, nearly 11 million pitches were thrown in regular-season games.1 Roughly 0.2 percent of those (21,712) traveled at speeds of 100 mph or more. Only 10 – fewer than 1 in 1 million – touched 105 […]

The American Association’s decision in the summer of 1882 to hire umpires brought an end to the practice of Association teams providing their own arbiters – almost.1 Games of that era were regulated by a single umpire, so when the league-provided umpire suddenly became unavailable, the home team shouldered the burden of finding a replacement. […]

The New York City hosting the 1977 All-Star Game had drastically changed in the 13 years since the Mets hosted the 1964 Midsummer Classic. In the summer of ’77, Big Apple residents lived in fear of the “Son of Sam” serial killer stalking the outer boroughs, and on July 13, the entire city was plunged […]

There was no lack of fan interest in the pennant races in 1908. Baseball fans were immersed in two of the great pennant races in modern history. As the curtain came down on September, no fewer than six teams, three in each league, had a shot at the league pennant in 1908. In the NL, […]

On April 4, 1933, the morning sun shone across the streets of downtown Fairbury, Nebraska. It was Election Day with a new mayor to be announced, and the local Ministerial Association was haughtily (and successfully) lobbying city authorities to ban Sunday showings in local movie theaters. Insurance man Homer Yeakle had his daughter, Gwen, and […]

The story of the Ottawa Lynx baseball team begins in the late 1980s, when Ottawa Mayor Jim Durrell announced his plan to bring Triple-A baseball back to the city after a 34-year absence. He found a valuable ally in local entrepreneur Howard Darwin, who had previously been involved in bringing major junior hockey to Ottawa. […]

Set amid concrete parking lots and crisscrossing interstate highway overpasses, Louisville Slugger Field seems a bit out of place. The red brick facade and arched windows overlooking Main Street and Preston Street in downtown Louisville, Kentucky, hark back to a time when railroads, not long-haul trucking, fueled the local economy. In the context of baseball […]