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Southpaw Paul Minner overcame serious injuries to his wrist and neck to transform himself from a hard thrower to a soft-tossing junkballer relying on location and control, and fashion a 10-year career in the big leagues (1946, 1948-1956). Traded by the Brooklyn Dodgers to the Chicago Cubs before the 1950 season, Minner averaged 10 wins […]

Early in his career Lou Bierbauer’s surname appeared in box scores in abbreviated form as “Bauer,” as did that of his younger brother Charlie, a marginal minor league infielder in the early 1890s. In 1883 Lou began serving as the principal catcher for the top semipro team in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he was born on […]

Becoming a major-league baseball player if you were born in Rhode Island is a difficult task for a number of reasons, among them the lack of outdoor playing time as a result of the fickle New England climate. Despite the odds, Jim Siwy, a native Rhode Islander, who pitched for the only high school in […]

Scott Cooper was born the day after the St. Louis Cardinals beat the Boston Red Sox in Game Seven of the 1967 World Series. In 1986 he was drafted by the Red Sox and was a two-time All-Star for them. Prior to the 1995 season he was traded to the Cardinals where he played for […]

War was raging in Europe as the 1941 baseball season came to a close. News of the fighting kept fans justifiably preoccupied, while the pennant races served as a badly needed diversion. The New York Yankees captured the American League flag, and then defeated the National League champion Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series. A […]

Frank O. Mancuso was the younger brother of a better-known big league catcher, August “Gus” Mancuso, a two-time All-Star who enjoyed a 17-year major league career and produced his best seasons with the New York Giants from 1932 through 1938. Gus spent more than 40 years in baseball, serving as a minor league manager, a […]

Carlos May was called “Tank” for his burly stature. At 5-feet-11 and 200 pounds, he had the physique of someone who carried a pigskin on a football field. However, May was also a talented baseball player, adept at hitting the horsehide. He reached the big leagues in 1968 at the age of 20. His career […]

When manager John McGraw needed a clutch win for his New York Giants during their four-year run as National League champions (1921-1924), he often relied on ace southpaw Art Nehf, winner of 184 games for four teams in his 15-year career (1915-1929). Described as a “money pitcher” by sportswriter Frederick G. Lieb, Nehf won the […]

Despite not having the longest of careers and being only slightly above average in talent, James Joseph “General” Stafford made more of his baseball-playing mileage than almost any other player who played mostly in the nineteenth century. He loved being on the field and kept at it no matter the number of times he was […]

The 1980 season was a banner year for Steve Carlton. Lefty, as he was universally known around the league, led all National League pitchers with 24 wins. He was the major-league leader in strikeouts with 286. He struck out 10 or more batters in 11 games. Carlton led all pitchers in WAR (Wins Above Replacement) […]

In 1896, the Des Moines Prohibitionists were dismantled in the middle of a season while cruising to the Western Association pennant after having won 25 straight games.1 Their utter domination had drained fan support in competing cities, prompting league officials to slash salaries in a failed attempt to keep the league afloat. The ace of […]

“A pitcher can make great use of his tallness when he is as big as me, because when he gets on the hill he can zip ’em through there so fast it’s like tryin’ to hit a ball thrown off the top of the Washington Monument, and you have got a fine chance of hitting […]

Walter Paul Gautreau was born on July 26, 1901 in Cambridge, MA. His parents, Henri and Bibienne Gautreau, came to the United States from Sorel, Quebec, Canada after having lived earlier in New Brunswick. The Gautreau brood consisted of Walter, three other brothers and a sister. His first words as a child were spoken in French and he […]

Luis Clemente Tiant y Vega, a charismatic right-handed pitcher whom Reggie Jackson called “the Fred Astaire of baseball,” won 229 games over parts of 19 seasons in the major leagues.1 His midcareer comeback, dramatic family reunion, and World Series heroics inspired a region, likely leaving him one of the most beloved men ever to play […]

“That young man was in baseball in the wrong era. In the ’90s he would have been a second Willie Keeler, but he entered the majors when baseball was home run mad. If an outfielder could not hit the wall or drive the ball out of the park in the Ruthian manner he never had […]

“I led the American League in ERA that year [1979]. That’s what I tell everybody.”1 That was Jeff Rineer talking to the Baltimore Sun in 2006, nearly 27 years after his lone appearance in the major leagues. Rineer was the pitcher of record on the winning side in the last game of the ’79 season, […]

During the first 25 years of the club’s existence, the public face of major league baseball in Brooklyn proceeded from team president Charles H. Byrne to pennant-winning field manager Ned Hanlon to front office functionary-turned-club boss Charles H. Ebbets. Throughout that period, the club’s chronically depleted treasury was regularly replenished by a far less visible […]

In 1886, John “Jocko” Flynn was 22 years old and the toast of Chicago, a formidable starting pitcher on a pennant-winning team. In 1887 he was 23 years old and forgotten with a sore arm and a troubling taste for liquor. In 1907 Flynn was dead at 42. Who was this man? John A. Flynn […]

Through an extremely unlikely, almost unbelievable set of circumstances, a twenty-year-old college junior with virtually no baseball experience and little athletic ability found himself on the pitcher’s mound one bright, sunny Saturday afternoon facing the World Champion Philadelphia Athletics. The date was May 18, 1912–surely one of the most bizarre days in major league history–and […]

“The base ball fever was never more contagious than it is at the present time.” — Philadelphia Times, August 27, 1887   Among the Philadelphians who attended Phillies1 games in 1887 were magistrates, hotel proprietors, and city councilmen. Stockbroker Benjamin Johnson never missed a game; he “waves his hat and shouts himself hoarse” at the […]

Chris Hartje got his first taste of the major leagues as the Brooklyn Dodgers’ backup catcher during the final weeks of the 1939 campaign. In his major-league debut, he delivered as a pinch-hitter in what would prove to be the high point of his brief big-league tenure. Seven years later, Hartje was attempting to reignite […]

A crowd of 18,884 showed up for the first game of a Memorial Day doubleheader at Ebbets Field. It was chilly when the day started but things heated up as the day progressed. At stake was the top spot in the National League. The Phillies had arrived in Flatbush with a one-game lead over Brooklyn. […]

It was a new season, the Pirates opening against the 1952 National League champion Brooklyn Dodgers. Pittsburgh had finished last (42-112-1) in 1952, 54½ games behind Brooklyn. Fred Haney had been brought in as manager. They’d played Opening Day at Ebbets Field the day before and taken a 4-0 lead in the top of the […]