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“Jiquí” Moreno was not big (5’8” and 165 pounds) — but he threw hard. How hard is jiquí wood? In Cuba, Moreno’s native land, linemen could not sink their spurs into telephone poles made from this tree — they had to use ladders. Brick stair steps wore down, yet their jiquí binding was simply polished. […]

Right-hander Bud Tinning emerged as an effective reliever and spot starter in the last two months of his rookie season with the Chicago Cubs in 1932 as the North Siders captured their second pennant in four years. He won 13 games and led the NL with a .684 winning percentage the next season but battled […]

As a rookie with the 1964 Philadelphia Phillies, Danny Cater said that “hollering or making noise” just didn’t fit into his style on the field. “If I told you I let my bat do my talking – that would sound corny,” he added.1 Corny or not, over the course of his 12-year major-league career, Cater […]

Harold Baines played 22 years in the majors (1980-2001), mostly with the Chicago White Sox. In 2019, following years of brisk and at times vociferous debate, Baines was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Though he led the league just once in any offensive category, he was a major threat at the plate. […]

Leroy Stanton overcame many obstacles on his path to a major-league baseball career. He grew up poor in an area overlooked by scouts, suffered a serious injury from an early-career beaning, and missed two seasons after being drafted into the Army. After cups of coffee with the New York Mets in 1970 and 1971, Stanton […]

In Game Four of the 1932 World Series — the last major league game of his 14-year career — he struck out Babe Ruth two consecutive times. A decade earlier, he won 35 games in one (very long) minor league season. Later a tobacco farmer and the best player to ever hail from Wendell, North […]

Rare is the player in major-league history who, after being part of a World Series winner, joins an equally great team in another profession in his post-baseball life. Pitcher Byron Houck provides such an example. He was part of the Philadelphia Athletics’ championship staff in 1913, but his major-league career soon faded away. A decade […]

Kenneth William Penner was a baseball lifer. From the time he broke into organized ball as a 17-year-old pitcher in 1913, until his final pitch, thrown at the age of 47, Penner spent parts of 28 seasons in the minor leagues, pitching for 17 teams in 11 leagues and four classifications. In between, the right-hander […]

Fred Goldsmith, one of baseball’s earliest curveball pitchers, was a burly right-hander whose mastery of the tricky delivery made him an important contributor to three pennant-winning teams during his six seasons in the National League (1879-1884). Later in life, long after most of his contemporaries had passed on, the elderly Goldsmith mounted a campaign to prove […]

A weak-armed washout from two other American League teams, catcher Ira Thomas was purchased by Connie Mack prior to the 1909 season. Thomas immediately prospered with Philadelphia’s “inside” game, and was the Athletics’ primary backstop as they captured World Series victories in 1910 and 1911. He then transitioned to coaching and team captaincy as his […]

Right-handed pitcher Steve Arlin always knew there was more than baseball. After leading the Ohio State University to two consecutive berths in the College World Series and a national title in 1966, he brokered an unusual professional baseball contract that permitted him to pursue a degree in dentistry in the spring and early summer. Dr. […]

James Thomas “Jim” Northrup, who was born and raised in a small town in Michigan, starred in several sports, including baseball and football, at Alma College, also in Michigan. Later, he made it to the major leagues and enjoyed a fine career as an outfielder with the Detroit Tigers. Highlighting his fourth full season with […]

Although his tenure in Baltimore was limited to two good seasons and a comeback year, both of the nicknames for which Don Stanhouse became famous were earned while wearing an Orioles uniform. Manager Earl Weaver, overly apprehensive every time Stanhouse was retrieved from the bullpen, called him “Full Pack” after the number of cigarettes he […]

A two-month stretch during the summer of 1955 elevated Billy Klaus from a cup-of-coffee nobody to a Boston civic hero before he settled into a journeyman role. He played four seasons with the Red Sox and seven more with four other teams before retiring as a major-league player in 1963. At 5-feet-9 and 165 pounds, […]

Right-hander Chuck Rainey was a first-round draft pick of the Boston Red Sox, the 19th pick overall in the January 1974 draft. A little more than five years later, he broke into the big leagues with Boston, pitching for the Red Sox, Cubs, and Oakland Athletics in a major-league career that lasted six seasons. Red […]

Good things come to those who wait. Patience is a virtue. Those aphorisms were more than just empty clichés to right-hander Orie Arntzen, who debuted as a 33-year-old for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1943. Nicknamed “Old Folks” for obvious reasons, Arntzen won only four of 17 decisions for one of the worst teams of the […]

Infielder Mickey McGuire appeared in a total of 16 games for the Baltimore Orioles in 1962 and 1967. Originally a shortstop, he played nearly an equal number of games at that position, second base and third base in his 15-year professional career. A right-handed contact hitter, he spent his final two seasons in Japan. M.C. […]

Frank Castillo was a right-handed pitcher who played 13 solid seasons in the major leagues, mostly as a starting pitcher, while recording over 1,100 strikeouts and 82 wins. In love with the game and his family, Frank had his best years with the Chicago Cubs in the early 1990s, close to making Cubs history in […]

Like Three-Fingered Brown after him, Hugh “One-Arm” Daily was saddled with a sobriquet more fanciful than factual. For, as sure as Mordecai Peter Brown had digits enough to count to four on his right hand, so Hugh Ignatius Daily was possessed of a full complement of brachial appendages: the left one, owing to an accident […]

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the Statistical Analysis Committee’s February 2010 newsletter, “By the Numbers”. By Paul Scott and Phil Birnbaum A recent academic study suggested that players who are hitting close to.300 late in the season subsequently hit much better than expected, as a result of expending extra effort in an effort […]

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in SABR’s “Baseball Research Journal,” No. 25, in 1996 and is reprinted here in its original format. By Mark Simon With the growth of television and everything that comes with it (cable, satellite dishes, etc.), there seems to be less appreciation for baseball on the radio than there used […]

“You Called That a What . . . ?”The Newsletter of the Official Scoring Committee Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) June 2018, Volume 3, Number 2 Past newsletters   Editor: Stew Thornley Committee Meeting at Convention to Feature Real Live Official Scorers New Minor League Rule Raising Questions (and Answers) Conundrum of the Month […]

High and Inside The Newsletter of the BioProject Committee Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) June 2017, Volume 2, Number 1 Past newsletters Editor: Stew Thornley From the Directors From the Editor Guest Columnist: Andrea Long Project Profile: Norm King Project Poobahs   From the Directors The BioProject Committee will be meeting at the SABR […]