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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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Miller Huggins was the Hall of Fame manager who led the New York Yankees to their first six American League pennants and three world championships, in the 1920s. He forged unique relationships with both Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert and their star outfielder, Babe Ruth. One newspaperman wrote, “Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert saw in Huggins a […]

Apart from a lackluster stint with the 1910-1911 St. Louis Browns, first baseman Pat Newnam spent his long professional career in the minor leagues, mostly in his native Texas. His principal shortcoming as a player was a common one: marginal ability. The righty batting and throwing Newnam had good size (6-feet, 180 pounds), exceptional foot […]

Determined to make the major leagues since he was a young boy, Jim Umbricht paid his way to a minor-league tryout camp and, after making the team, was converted from shortstop to pitcher. After he returned from serving two years in the military, Umbricht worked his way up to the majors and then spent three […]

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 […]

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 […]

Hancock, New York, has made numerous contributions to baseball history. A mill operated there by the Hillerich & Bradsby Co. for more than eight decades provided Louisville Slugger bats to Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, and other hitting stars.1 Hancock was also the hometown of John “Honest Eddie” Murphy. Murphy was a […]

Although Ina Eloise Young was not the first female baseball writer, she was quite possibly the first female sports editor at a daily newspaper.1 She was also one of the earliest beat writers, covering both semipro and minor-league baseball for seven years. Ina began writing about a wide range of local sports for her hometown […]

Blond-headed Wee Willie Sudhoff, although short in stature, was a solid, if mostly unspectacular, pitcher who spent all or parts of 10 seasons in the major leagues. He was the first Missouri-born player to appear for both the National League’s St. Louis Cardinals and the American League’s St. Louis Browns. The bulk of his career […]

“I am proud of my two boys. Baseball is a clean, manly sport,” Amanda Cobb declared. “I cannot deny that I am prouder of Tyrus’ achievements than he ever is, and I know Paul will make good, too. He, some day, will be as great a ballplayer as his brother.”1 Whatever her other talents, Mrs. […]

Harold Treadwell wasn’t the best pitcher on the 1922 New York Bacharach Giants roster. The submarining right-hander’s 6-9 won-lost record and 4.35 ERA against Negro League competition wasn’t outstanding, but he was one of the two most-used Bacharach hurlers on a mediocre team.1 Dave Brown of the Chicago American Giants (13-3, 2.90) was among the […]

The 33,704 fans who packed Forbes Field for the woebegone Pittsburgh Pirates’ final game of 1947 were there, in part, to see whether slugging outfielder Ralph Kiner could hit his 52nd home run and claim the National League homer crown. They didn’t get to see that. Kiner and the Giants’ Johnny Mize were each blanked […]

The Homestead Grays were a dynasty in Negro League baseball in the 1940s. They had won back-to-back world championships in 1943-1944 and seven Negro National League pennants in eight years. Their roster was full of a who’s who of Negro League stars, several of whom would one day be recognized for their greatness in the […]

Billy Martin preferred to make points with his fists, but the weapon of choice in his home opener as a major-league manager was The Blade. Martin had prepped all his life to be a big-league manager. He’d been a major-league player and coach, a minor-league manager and a student ready to learn from an assortment […]

The Cincinnati Reds could be forgiven for celebrating too hard after beating the Chicago White Sox in four of the first five games of the 1919 World Series. After all, no one had expected them to dominate Chicago’s ace pitchers, Eddie Cicotte and Lefty Williams, in back-to-back starts — let alone to do it twice. […]

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 […]

Imagine setting a baseball record that has stood for over a hundred years and never even knowing you had set it. Such was the case for Oscar Ray Grimes, Sr. (You can call him Ray.)     It was 1922. In many ways, the game of baseball was the same as in the twenty-first century. The […]

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 […]

On Thursday, May 9, 1963, the cellar-dwelling Houston Colt .45’s faced the sixth-place Reds at Crosley Field in Cincinnati before a sparse ladies night crowd of 7,008 (5,870 paid). Though the game had little meaning in the standings at this early stage of the season, it would be a career day for future Triple Crown […]

Willie Mays topped the National League in slugging percentage five times. (Photo: National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)   In 1954, few teams needed a player to return from military service during the Korean War as much as the Giants needed Willie Mays. In 1951, though he had played in only 121 games, Mays was […]

The East Tennessee Chapter of SABR met on Saturday, October 7, 2017, at the Lawson McGhee branch of the Knox County Public Library in Knoxville, Tennessee. Five members were present: Marshall Adesman, Bryan Steverson, Joe Gallagher, George Aubrey, and Mark Aubrey. The meeting started with members filling out World Series Brackets.  At that time, Houston […]

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. […]