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In March of 1935 Mickey Rocco boarded a train in his hometown of St. Paul, Minnesota, headed for Hot Springs, Arkansas, to start his career in professional baseball. The St. Paul Saints of the American Association had offered him a tryout and the opportunity to make the team as a 19-year-old rookie.  Sixteen years later, […]

In an issue published a few days after the grand opening of Forbes Field, Sporting Life extolled Pittsburgh team owner Barney Dreyfuss: “[he] had the mind to conceive and the courage to execute the plans which have given the world the grandest and most costly ball park in existence, deserves the greatest credit, highest praise, […]

Before the 1915 Army-Navy baseball game, 24-year-old Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower led his fellow Army cadets in the “Long Corps” yell: “Rah, Rah, Ray! Rah, Rah, Ray! West Point, West Point, AR-MAY!”1 Playing left field for the Army team was 22-year-old Omar Bradley. By a score of 6-5, Army defeated Navy for the seventh consecutive year […]

Rocky Nelson came to Cleveland in the spring of 1954 with an impressive pedigree. He had won the Most Valuable Player award in the International League in 1953 and followed it up with a fine performance in the Cuban Winter League, where he won the batting championship. The Indians expected Nelson to win the starting […]

Being enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown puts a player in an elite class among their peers. Achieving the required 75 percent of votes in their first year of eligibility is something only 60 players have done. Frank Thomas was one of those 60; he also did things in his career […]

Jordan Jankowski was a record-setting high-school power hitter in Western Pennsylvania, but a full-time turn to pitching in college opened his path to the pros. Taken by the Houston Astros in the 34th round of the June 2012 draft out of Catawba College, an NCAA Division II school in Salisbury, North Carolina, Jankowski reached the […]

“It’s a thankless job, this catching business,” sighed Charley Schmidt in 1908.1 The stocky Tiger was not one of the era’s more dexterous backstops, but instead demonstrated an often overlooked physical bravery in helping his team to three memorable American League pennants. Yet, more so than many of his Detroit teammates, Schmidt is better remembered […]

It was strawberry fields forever where Kenny Rogers grew up, on a 15-acre strawberry farm in Dover, Florida, in the heart of Hillsborough County, just a bit west of Plant City, home of the annual state Strawberry Festival. Plant City was also where the Cincinnati Reds held spring training for many years, so Rogers grew […]

In the course of three decades, Doc Moskiman went from medical school to retailing athletic goods. In between, he appeared in five major-league games with the 1910 Boston Red Sox, playing first base and right field. He hit safely once, drove in one run, and scored one run. He made no errors in 18 chances. […]

Before committing suicide under mysterious circumstances in the spring of 1907, Chick Stahl forged a reputation as one of the best center fielders in the game over the course of a 10-year major-league career. A lifetime .305 batter, the left-handed Stahl could also hit with power, and often ranked among the league leaders in extra-base […]

Fresco Thompson, the jester in Walter O’Malley’s court, ran baseball’s most productive scouting and player development factory during the 1950s and 1960s. With O’Malley providing the money, Thompson and his scouts providing the players, and vice president Buzzie Bavasi molding the roster, the Dodgers won eight pennants and four World Series between 1952 and 1966, […]

“I’ve done football for fun,” Lindsey Nelson once said. “I did baseball for a living.”1 He made an extravagant living as one of network television’s premier college and pro football broadcasters while following the New York Mets from worst to first and back for the first 17 years of their history. During three decades he […]

In 1935, The Sporting News captured in a few sentences the early (possibly entire) playing career of Joe Bowman: “[He] was something of a humpty-dumpty, with more ups and downs than [heavyweight boxer] Max Baer, when he started out to follow baseball as a profession. Indeed, at one time, the right-hander didn’t know from one […]

Babe Ruth feared the worst when he played right field in Washington’s Griffith Stadium. The unsightly concrete barrier that separated the playing field from the seats and spectators seemed especially menacing and dangerous. “Babe says he’s been afraid that he was going to bump into that wall in the Washington Park ever since he began […]

“This Sabbath soiree was a great and festive occasion for the baseball fans of Flatbush.”1 Indeed! The Chicago Cubs came to town for the first Sunday doubleheader at Ebbets Field since September 15, 1946. The Dodgers hosted the Cubs in that one, too, and split the two games. The growth and eventual decline of Sunday […]

The Dodgers were in a hole after losing the first two games of the World Series to their crosstown rivals the Yankees. But now the Series was headed to Ebbets Field and the Dodger faithful were confident that their team could bounce back. “Now that we’ve got the Yanks in our own backyard, they can’t […]

With nearly 35,000 fans on hand on the day set aside to honor him at Wrigley Field, veteran Chicago Cubs third baseman Ron Santo publicly confirmed that he was a diabetic. “I didn’t want anyone else to know about this originally. I’m a diabetic and had a full career in the major leagues and a […]

The 1959 Indians had finished in second place, five games behind the Chicago White Sox, despite significant weaknesses at second base and third base. Cleveland general manager Frank Lane sought to strengthen the team’s infield before the 1960 season, even if it meant sacrificing some pitching. On December 15, 1959, Lane traded 19-game winner Cal […]

San Diego Padres fans had already witnessed three extra-inning games of 13 or more innings (including one for 22 innings) during the first seven weeks of the 2008 season, so when the game on May 25 against Cincinnati was tied after nine innings, it really wasn’t a big surprise. What the 36,508 Petco Park fans […]

April 16 is an important date in Cleveland Indians and major-league history. On that date in 1940, Bob Feller hurled the first-ever Opening Day no-hitter.1 On a cold, raw day at Comiskey Park, Feller accomplished the rarest of feats against Chicago’s South Side club. Feller struck out eight White Sox batters but also surrendered five […]

Los Angeles’s Wrigley Field in was built and opened in 1925 as the finest minor-league park in the country. Some called it the best park in the country — majors or minors. From its earliest years Wrigley Field was home to multiple baseball teams, many other sports and community events. The history of Wrigley Field […]

East Field as pictured in 2021.   Over the course of a month and a half in March and April 1980, East Field in Glens Falls, New York, went from an unremarkable city-owned baseball field notable mainly for its swampiness to a showcase for some of the Chicago White Sox’ top prospects.1 It happened this […]

Many minor leagues folded after Pearl Harbor. Most of the rest went under during or after the 1942 season. By 1943, the American Association, the Eastern, International and Pacific Coast leagues and the Southern Association were still operating, providing a reserve source of talent for the major leagues. Below those levels there was a problem. […]