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“It was a new pitching motion that did it for me,” explained Chicago White Sox right-hander Bob Keegan after tossing a no-hitter.1 Finally heeding the advice of skipper Al Lopez and pitching coach Ray Berres to slow down his preliminary motion before throwing the ball, Keegan baffled the Washington Senators, disrupting their timing and keeping […]

Pete Mackanin has spanned the Western Hemisphere as a player, coach, and manager from Canada to Venezuela. He may be best remembered as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies from 2015 to 2017, although Bob Fowler of the Minneapolis Star once referred to him as a “non-fiction Casey at the Bat” for a feat Mackanin performed […]

A sellout crowd packed Fenway Park and then waited 20 minutes for the rain to subside. Not a long wait to honor a man who had spent 23 years donning a Red Sox uniform. When he started in 1961, Carl Yastrzemski was just a kid charged with the unenviable task of replacing Ted Williams in […]

The Philadelphia Phillies had high hopes for the 1896 season. It was hoped that Billy Nash, acquired in a trade from Boston to be the new third baseman and manager-captain, could bring teamwork and playing fundamentals to the talent-laden team. The ballclub also signed Big Dan Brouthers to play first base. But after a good […]

Baseball fans throughout the country in 1976 had been hearing the scattered chatter, ever since mid-May. Talk of something new and exciting happening in Detroit. Some rookie pitcher with long hair. Didn’t they say he talked to the baseball? Got on his knees before each inning and groomed the mound? Stomped around the field like […]

At the end of the day on September 8, 1934, the Detroit Tigers, who had not been to the World Series since 1909, stood 4½ games ahead of the powerful New York Yankees. This lead had been constricting around the neck of the Tigers since September 5, when the lead stood at 6 games. Fans […]

Boston Braves fans had few reasons to be hopeful as the 1952 season opened at Braves Field on Tuesday, April 15. Only three seasons after winning the 1948 National League pennant, the Braves were coming off a 76-78 record and a fourth-place finish. Also, the American League’s Red Sox were winning the battle of Boston […]

The umpire was a fish. Some Yankees said so.1 The New York ballplayers believed their Thursday afternoon game in Detroit should have been called long before it reached the ninth inning. Rain, wind, and hail began their assault midway through the contest and grew stronger as the game progressed, dousing and endangering players and the […]

Occasionally, a player is taken out of the lineup due to personal misfortune. But in 1930 a scheduled pitcher didn’t take the mound (or ever pitch again) because he died an agonizing death on that very morning. Hal Carlson was a right-handed journeyman who pitched for three teams in the National League. He was a […]

Ferocious shortstop Bill Dahlen was ejected 65 times by umpires as a player and manager. This and other behavior earned him the nickname “Bad Bill.” Yet his rowdy character tended to overshadow his contributions—a reliable hitter; excellent, aggressive baserunner; and one of the finest fielders of his era (the 1890s and early 1900s). During his […]

E.P. “Cy” Twombly Jr. never took to sports. Despite owning a nickname that evoked major-league baseball’s all-time wins leader, and having a father who might have preferred him to become a left-handed pitcher, he became a (decidedly right-handed) artist of international renown.1 It was his father whose prowess on the mound had earned the moniker […]

The only St. Louis Cardinal to play on the first five National League pennant winners in franchise history (1926, 1928, 1930, 1931, 1934), Jesse “Pop” Haines was a 26-year-old “rookie” when he debuted for the Redbirds in 1920. He was a three-time 20-game winner and pitched for the Cardinals for 18 consecutive seasons before retiring […]

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 […]

Don Leppert signed his first professional contract shortly after his 23rd birthday, scouted on Korean War-era military-service teams in a sport he had not intended to play as a pro. He reached the majors a few months before his 30th birthday, when the defending World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates sought to strengthen their bench. He […]

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 […]

He stood only 5’8″ and weighed just 150 lbs., but Jesse Tannehill was one of the most versatile players during the Deadball Era. Not only did the black-haired left-hander compile a 197-117 lifetime record and 2.80 ERA, the switch-hitter also played in the outfield 87 times and pinch hit in 57 games. A former saloon […]

Northeastern Wisconsin’s growth followed on the heels of the Midwest’s economic hub, Chicago. Timber from the extensive white pine forests built the Windy City while the growing metropolis’ needs fueled the economies of small lumber boomtowns peppering the north—towns with names like Mountain, Soperton, Padus, Carter, and Wabeno. In a similar manner, baseball’s development depended […]

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 […]

Babe Ruth called him “Broadway” because Lyn Lary loved the theater in New York, and Lary’s obituary in The Sporting News said he “tried his best to live up to the nickname the Babe hung on him. He was one of the best dressers in the majors and drove a big eight-cylinder car that had […]

Stories about Art Quirk’s golden arm and Ivy League degree accompanied the left-handed pitcher on his rise to the major leagues. There were double-digit strikeout games and a no-hitter. Most newspaper profiles mentioned the rarified source of his college diploma. But the excitement of his 1962 debut was short-lived when he was bumped from the […]

The astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson estimates that the slowest pitch that could reach home plate on the fly would travel around 30 miles per hour.1 Stu Miller didn’t defy the laws of physics, but he challenged the equation that says Velocity = Success. “He’s got three speeds of pitches – slow, slower and reverse,” the sportswriter […]

Expectations for the 1977 San Diego baseball season ran high, due to trades and free agent signings that everyone believed would strengthen the team. “The Padres are much improved and this should be their finest season,” wrote Phil Collier of the San Diego Union. The biggest question facing the team was the middle infield, comprised […]

From its beginnings in the 1880s, the franchise now known as the Los Angeles Dodgers has provided a parade of well-known players and managers, 23 pennant winners, and six World Series victories. Off the field, it has been associated with some of the most recognized front-office talent in the game’s history. Names such as Charles […]