If you are not happy with the results below please do another search
On Independence Day of 1833, two groups of town ball players from Philadelphia met in Camden, New Jersey.1 One group was a loose collection of friends who had been playing together in Camden for two years. The other, bearing the classical name Olympic, was formed to hold Fourth of July games. The 1833 game was […]
By the time the 1933 National League season was winding down on September 16, the St. Louis Cardinals had joined the Brooklyn Dodgers — their guests that day in Sportsman’s Park — in battling for little more than pride. The Cardinals had been mathematically eliminated from the pennant race the previous afternoon and stood 10½ […]
Two weeks before the 1976 All-Star Game, the New York Mets were in a slump. They had opened the season with 18 wins in their first 27 games, occupying first place briefly in late April and early May. A 15-28 slide from May 9 through June 22, however, had dropped them to a distant third […]
When Game Seven of the American League Championship Series began, the temperature at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto was 44 degrees and rapidly dropping as a brisk wind blew across the outfield from left to right. The fading Blue Jays, in the postseason for the first time ever, handed the ball to ace Dave Stieb, the […]
“GAMER 1. A player who approaches the game with a tenacious, spirited attack and continues to play even when hurt; a competitor; a player who doesn’t make excuses. The term is a compliment, most especially when it comes from another player.”1 Bill Buckner was a gamer. He played the game of baseball as hard as […]
On August 15, 1940, the York Bees defeated the Trenton Senators 3-2 in a Class B Interstate League game. What made this contest noteworthy was that the winning pitcher for York was a 54-year-old former major leaguer by the name of Lefty George. After the game George told the Associated Press, “I’m feeling fine. I’m […]
“Pinkey Whitney is the greatest third baseman in baseball,” said Grover Cleveland Alexander in 1930. During a 12-year career, Whitney played for two National League doormats, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Boston Braves. “It’s a shame he couldn’t have gotten with a winning club,” Alexander said. “That boy is a wonderful fielder and one of […]
But for a bucket kick, Bill Werber might reside in the Hall of Fame rather than be remembered as a good major-league ballplayer of the 1930s who helped lead the Cincinnati Reds to National League pennants in 1939 and 1940 and to the world’s championship in 1940. It happened in 1934, toward the end of […]
Long Tom Hughes mixed a happy-go-lucky lifestyle with a Chicago-tough pitching moxie. Tall for his time at 6-foot-1, he stayed at about 175 pounds throughout his career. A heavy smoker and drinker, he took no particular care of his body, yet managed to stay in the major leagues until nearly age 35, and in the […]
In the course of a major league baseball season, players assume certain important roles on their teams. Apart from whether they start or sit on the bench, intangible qualities such as being a team player or being a positive clubhouse presence can be essential to a team’s success on the field. Throughout his major league […]
In a region noted for its rich baseball history, one of the Philadelphia area’s most precious treasures was surely a man named Whitey Witt, a big leaguer whose career began with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1916. The quiet country street that bears his name provides the only conspicuous testimony to Witt’s his former presence there. […]
Few players have had to overcome more adversity during their major league careers than Lee “Jeep’’ Handley. The 5-foot-7, 160-pound infielder played in 968 games in a 10-year career punctuated by several major injuries, a couple of which nearly cost him his life. Best known for his hustle and defensive acumen, Handley hit only 15 […]
For decades, professional baseball players surnamed Weaver were routinely dubbed Buck by the sporting press. The game’s two most prominent Buck Weavers – the Black Sox third baseman and the late-19th-century outfielder also called Farmer Weaver – are already the subject of excellent BioProject portraits. The following is a biography of a lesser-known Buck Weaver, […]
When the expansion Kansas City Royals hired Cedric Tallis as the team’s GM, he assumed an almost impossible task. Before the first expansion season was even half over in 1969, Kansas City owner Ewing Kauffman was proclaiming that a glorious future was not far away. A hard-driving yet generous pharmaceutical entrepreneur, Kauffman publicly stated that […]
The telegram was brash and a bit disrespectful. Simply stated, it read “DEAR MOOSE: TOLD YOU SO. JOE PEP.”1 The New York Yankees needed pitching help—specifically a boost to their rotation—following the 1962 season. They set their sights on Stan Williams, a right-handed twirler for the Los Angeles Dodgers who had won 14, 15, and […]
The best curve ball that Babe Ruth ever saw came not from Walter Johnson, Dazzy Vance, or Firpo Marberry. It was from Walter Beall, a DC sandlot baseball legend who was a teammate and hunting buddy of Ruth’s — the pair used a West Virginia cabin owned by Beall’s paternal grandfather.1 “His curve broke down, […]
Where the nickname Tony came from is unclear, other than a likely play on his last name. In all the research done for this biography, the nickname never came up once. When any nickname was employed, he was universally called Charley. We’ll call him Charles Tonneman here. He was a right-handed catcher. He had a […]
“Can you suggest a single reason why all the baseball umpires should not be women? Of course you can’t. I mean just what I say, seriously, that all the official baseball umpires of the country should be women.”1 A statement that the baseball world has long disagreed with but was stated in 1906 by a […]
Once described as the “best losing pitcher in baseball,”1 Jose DeLeon was an enigma for most of his major-league career. As a starting pitcher, he showed promise, including periods of brilliance, but he usually ended up frustrating his teams, which eventually gave up on him because he had a difficult time winning games. The first […]
Howard Ehmke is best remembered as the 35-year-old right-hander of the Philadelphia Athletics who unexpectedly started Game One of the 1929 World Series against the slugging Chicago Cubs and struck out a then record 13 en route to a surprising triumph in one of Connie Mack’s most famous tactical decisions. But it would be an […]
Bill Weir pitched portions of four seasons with Boston of the National League, compiling a 6-4 lifetime record during 1936-1939, before embarking on a 25-year career as a telephone company employee. Moving straight from the campus of the University of New Hampshire in June 1936 to pitch for Boston Bees, as they were known then […]
Baseball has had its share of memorable nicknames, particularly in a bygone era. The moniker ‘Cuddles’ bestowed on Clarence Marshall is certainly one of these. Marshall pitched for the New York Yankees and St. Louis Browns in parts of four seasons between 1946 to 1950. He was a tall righty with a lively fastball but […]
Although the home grounds of the Baltimore Orioles of the nineteenth century occupied several locations, the team found a permanent setting at Union Park between 1891 and 1899. Baseball in Baltimore began around 1855. In 1882, as a charter member of the American Association, they were known as the Lord Baltimores. They won only 19 […]