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Growing up in the shadow of his father – a Los Angeles Dodgers star and the 1962 National League MVP – could be a challenge for Bump Wills. Often referred to as the “son of Maury Wills,” Bump did not let that sway his focus and competitiveness. He spent six seasons (1977-1982) of his own […]

Pedro Martínez, the Hall of Famer with three Cy Young Awards, is the most famous pitcher in the family, but older brother Ramón Martínez was outstanding in his own right. “What I know of baseball, and life off the field, I owe to Ramón,” said Pedro. “Everything I am I learned from Ramón.”1 Three years […]

The defending World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates were in need of another pitcher early in the 1910 season. They traded a pair of players to the Boston Doves for a 26-year-old right-hander with one of the best curve balls in the league. Early in the 1911 season, an arm injury ended Kirby White’s major league career. […]

As a devoted fan of major-league baseball in Boston for more than a quarter-century, Lolly Hopkins was widely known as the “Woman with the Megaphone.”1 Hopkins was one of the last bipartisan baseball fans in Boston, who followed the Braves and Red Sox with equal fervor until Boston ceased to be a two-team city in […]

Laurence Albert Pape played his entire major-league career – three seasons – for the Boston Red Sox. He pitched in a total of 51 games in 1909, 1911, and 1912. Twenty-four of his appearances were as a starting pitcher. He appeared in 13 games with the champion Red Sox of 1912 and did not play […]

Frank O’Rourke played professional baseball from the age of (perhaps) 18 to age 45, or even 47. A little more than half of his 1,131 major-league games were as a third baseman (598); he also played 289 games at shortstop and 220 at second. He was a career .254 batter, with 430 RBIs and 547 […]

It was 1925; the Brooklyn Robins (as the Dodgers were frequently referred to then) were assembled for spring training in Clearwater, Florida. They were a veteran team that had won 92 games the previous year and finished second in the National League, and hopes were high entering the spring that they could better that performance. […]

Many recognize Pop Dillon as merely a cousin of Hall of Famer Clark Griffith who happened to have a brief major league career. If he’s written about today, it’s usually in that context or in relation to his passing on a young fastballer named Walter Johnson. Dillon was in fact among the top names in […]

“He’s that baseball dude who got banned for steroids or something, which makes him more than famous. He’s like infamous, and dangerous, and a kind of cool, a cross between Babe Ruth and Count Dracula.”1 – J.R. Moehringer, writing of Alex Rodríguez in 2015. What is fame? “I’m not too sure but I’ll know it […]

“Yes, I knew him. He had huge hands with crooked fingers. He was a catcher, you know.” “Hell Yes, Babe was here. When? I don’t know, maybe on Ben Egan day? No! I don’t recall ever seeing him. No! I don’t know of anyone who did.” “Yes, I knew Ben. A great guy, everyone liked him. He […]

Day after day at Salt Lake City, Utah in 1925, Bill Essick, a scout for the New York Yankees, watched a young infielder named Tony Lazzeri. Essick reported to Ed Barrow, the Yankees’ business manager (general manager) that Lazzeri was hitting the ball exceptionally well, batting .355 and hitting 60 home runs. “But the air […]

He wasn’t flamboyant like his contemporary Dizzy Dean and didn’t have a signature pitch like Carl Hubbell’s screwball, but stout right-hander Bill Lee of the Chicago Cubs had a five-year run in the 1930s when he could lay a legitimate claim to be the best pitcher, or at least one of them, in baseball. From […]

When Rocco Baldelli emerged as a young star in the minor-league system of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, he drew comparisons to Joe DiMaggio. Though that association was almost certainly setting him up for failure, the speedy outfielder had been more earnestly compared to a young Andre Dawson or Dale Murphy. Within a few years, […]

Ensign Cottrell was a man who was successful at many things in life, but who never reached the level of achievement in the major leagues that some thought he might have. He was a gifted athlete and a scholar who was successful in college, in the minor leagues, and in his life after baseball. While […]

His team losers of seven straight between June 17 and June 24, New York Mets manager Terry Collins had a problem. With the Mets scoring only nine runs in those losses, it was obvious what that problem was: “We are not hitting, end of story that’s pretty much it. We’ve got to start hitting.”1 Missing […]

Given Satchel Paige’s reputation and talent, his assignment to pitch on Opening Day 1935 should come as no surprise. Unfortunately, racism and Paige’s skin color kept him from displaying his skills for any National League or American League club until 1948. Further, in 1935 a contract dispute was keeping Paige from gracing a roster in […]

In the spring of 1975, the Texas Rangers finally did with David Clyde what they should have done from the start: They sent the young pitcher to the minor leagues for seasoning. The Rangers, hungry for a box-office draw, had rushed the hard-throwing Houston-bred lefty to the big leagues just two weeks out of high […]

There are times when our humanity transcends decades-long sports rivalries because something, or someone, bigger than all of us is present. In the City by the Bay, the afternoon of October 2, 2016, was one of those times. The San Francisco Giants were hosting the Los Angeles Dodgers at AT&T Park on the last day […]

The 1959 season marked 57 years since the Minneapolis Millers became charter members of the American Association in 1902. The Millers had independent ownership until Mike Kelley sold the franchise to the New York Giants in 1946.1 They were a Triple-A farm team for the Giants from 1946 through 1957, then became a Boston Red […]

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 […]

The New York Mets lost Mike Piazza to a strained left hamstring in the first inning of their 4-3 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on April 23, 2002.1 Despite missing their slugging catcher, they won four of their next five games to move into a first-place tie with the Montreal Expos in the National […]

It was a hot, humid Independence Day in Bloomington, Minnesota. Early-morning thunderstorms were a concern but by game time the skies had cleared. The announced crowd of 30,654 was the largest yet recorded for a Fourth of July game in Minnesota. The Oakland Athletics and the Minnesota Twins, who were fighting for first place in […]

SABR BioProject Newsletter – Winter 2015-2016 The Newsletter of the BioProject Committee Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)   Winter 2015-2016, Volume 1, Number 1 Editor: Stew Thornley Howdy Project Profile: Warren Corbett Project Poobahs Howdy This is the newsletter of the Society for American Baseball Research Biography Project (BioProject) Committee. I’m told there have […]