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Right-handed pitcher Vallie Eaves had an undistinguished major-league career, appearing in just 24 games spread over five seasons with three different teams. Alcoholism and erratic behavior plagued him throughout his career. In 1945 The Sporting News wrote “… More than once firewater got him into trouble, but Eaves loved baseball and he could pitch … […]

George Tsamis, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound former left-handed pitcher, made his mark on the diamond managing in the independent leagues. Tsamis described himself as a “players manager” who asks “players to give 100 percent and run out every ground ball, and hustle, show up on time. If you don’t, you’ll be disciplined; but if you can’t […]

The obituary published in The Sporting News when Gene Moore died centered on his having made his only World Series appearance because of “a weird circumstance.”1  Although accurate, the article overlooked the fact that Moore was a player of All-Star caliber, the type of player any manager would want on his team.  Statistics did not […]

In an era when poetry commonly appeared in sports pages, and these pages themselves were the sole media for sports, few chronicled baseball as William F. Kirk did. Beginning in 1905, his poems, game accounts, and comic pieces graced the New York American. Satire, whimsy, and empathy characterized his work. John McGraw’s Giants and raucous […]

Paul Lehner grew up in a coal-mining family and likely was headed for a life in the mines, but a talent for baseball brought him to the big leagues and gave him the opportunity to play for five different teams over the course of seven seasons. He was a left-handed outfielder and occasional first baseman […]

Bill Stoneman started out as a Vandal and ended up as an Angel. No, Stoney, as he was known, was not a wayward soul who found redemption. Rather, he has had a long, successful career in baseball and business, during which he took some Lip, put a franchise that was barely out of diapers on […]

Do we call him Junior or Gene? Was Junior his given name or a nickname? Could it be both? No matter. As a fresh-faced youngster Junior Thompson helped the Cincinnati Reds win two consecutive National League pennants. As a mature veteran Gene Thompson impacted the game of baseball for half a century. Junior Eugene Thompson […]

In the time when Giants walked the earth and roamed the Polo Grounds, none was more honored than Christy Mathewson. Delivering all four of his pitches, including his famous “fadeaway” (now called a screwball), with impeccable control and an easy motion, the right-handed Mathewson was the greatest pitcher of the Deadball Era’s first decade, compiling […]

With a weak heart that would eventually fail prematurely and a 4-F designation that allowed him to play wartime ball at the highest level,  Ben Cardoni failed to record a win in 36 appearances for the Boston Braves from 1943 to 1945 but did manage a quartet of single milestones with exactly one career complete […]

Though contemporary newspaper reports typically referred to Hall of Fame outfielder Hazen Cuyler by his given name, the right-hander is more easily recognized by one of the most unique, yet most often mispronounced nicknames in baseball history: Kiki.  “It came from shortening my name,” Cuyler explained about acquiring the moniker (which rhymes with “eye-eye”) as […]

Joe Astroth was a model of consistency for 10 years with an Athletics franchise that moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City, an area of the Midwest that had not enjoyed major league baseball since the nineteenth century. As a catcher, he was a solid defensive player who regularly threw out opposing baserunners and was an […]

By the close of the 1905 season, first baseman Joe Nealon was the most highly coveted minor league prospect on the West Coast. Young (not yet 21), large (at least 6-foot-2, 200-plus pounds),1 and athletically gifted, his services became the object of an intense bidding war among major league clubs ultimately won by the Pittsburgh […]

In 2002, in his sixth major-league season and 12th season of professional baseball, Damian Miller was named to the National League All-Star team. His manager was happy his catcher received the recognition. “I definitely have a soft spot for guys like Miller,” Arizona Diamondbacks manager Bob Brenly said. “They’re the guys who weren’t drafted high […]

At first glance, the 16-year baseball career of Floyd Vernie Speer doesn’t seem to amount to much. Appearing briefly in only three major-league contests, he could barely qualify as having a cup of coffee in the bigs. Even his major-league debut was inauspicious. It came on Sunday, April 25, 1943, with the Chicago White Sox […]

For years after his major-league debut in 1898, Bert Conn was known throughout the Philadelphia area as the “schoolboy twirler” despite having hurt his arm and moved from a pitcher in the major leagues to an everyday player in the minors. But Conn’s rapid rise from Philadelphia high-school pitcher to Philadelphia Phillies starter at the […]

Right-handed knuckleball pitcher Al Papai earned many more accolades serving four years in the United States Army during World War II than he did in four years of appearances in major-league baseball. He was one of the 11 children of Illinois coal miner Victor Papai and his wife, Mary, the former Marie Pongracz. Both were […]

Lou Brissie still has the wristwatch he was wearing when a 170mm German artillery shell exploded near him, breaking the watch and both his feet and also shattering Lou’s left tibia and shinbone in 30 places. Shrapnel also pierced his right shoulder, both hands, and both thighs. And, one might assume, crushed Corporal Brissie’s hopes […]

In art, a painter may create masterpieces on canvas. In baseball the verb “paint” applies to a craft no less skillful. The Dickson Baseball Dictionary defines the verb as “… To throw pitches over the edges of the plate, which appear to be dark or black because of the contrast of the white rubber plate […]

Paul Blair is considered one of the premier defensive center fielders of his era. He made his major league debut on September 9, 1964, and played in 1947 games over a seventeen-year major league career, with his final game coming on June 20, 1980. He batted and threw right-handed but tried switch-hitting for a brief […]

Lew Fonseca was a batting champion, a versatile fielder who played multiple positions, a manager, and a batting instructor. Off the field, he was an accomplished singer, radio announcer, and a film director and producer. But most of all, he was a promoter of and educator for the game of baseball, taking the technical resources […]

Second-generation big-leaguer David Segui1 debuted in 1990 and batted .291 over all or parts of 15 seasons. A switch-hitter with moderate power, he started and ended his career with the Baltimore Orioles around stints with six other teams. Segui was briefly the majors’ all-time fielding percentage leader among first basemen with at least 1,000 appearances […]

A combination of accountant, impresario, and American success story, Russian-born Leonard Koppett wrote with verve and understanding about the personalities, games, and statistics of the national pastime and other major sports for over half a century. Today, he is honored from Israel to Cooperstown. Born Leonard Kopeliovitch in an apartment near Red Square in post-revolutionary […]

Lexington Park served as the home of the St. Paul Saints from 1897 through 1956, opening one year later and closing one year after its counterpart in Minneapolis, Nicollet Park. It was built by Edward B. Smith, who operated a St. Paul real estate company (and had been a part-owner of a National League team […]

“This is a cursed team,” starting shortstop Gary DiSarcina said of the 1992 California Angels. His fatalism, in retrospect, is easy to understand. The team’s travails included the death from cancer of coach Deron Johnson, a life-threatening spring-training injury to pitcher Matt Keough,1 a May accident involving a team bus that seriously injured manager Buck […]