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As a boy, he rooted for the New York Yankees. Before he became an adult, he was playing for them. Although he left the club for a time, it never left him, and when he got the chance he did not hesitate to return. For the past twenty-five years, in one way or another, he […]

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 […]

In 1986, Craig Shipley became the first player trained in Australia to reach the big leagues. In the ensuing decades, more than 20 other Aussies have made it to the top level – many encouraged by Shipley’s example. After four fractional seasons in the majors, the infielder established himself as a useful reserve over seven […]

David Wright, who possesses more team batting records than any New York Met,1 was arguably the team’s best position player ever. Wright finished in the top 10 in NL MVP voting four times, including 2007, when he finished fourth. He represented the Mets as a National League (NL) All-Star five consecutive years and seven times […]

Righthander Ray Burris spent parts of 15 seasons (1973-1987) with seven major-league teams and won 108 games with his sinker/slider repertoire. Twice the Opening Day pitcher during the first half of his career with the Chicago Cubs, he nearly pitched the Montreal Expos to a pennant in 1981 with two outstanding National League Championship Series […]

Quietly dependable though seldom spectacular for most of his five full major-league seasons as an infielder, Steve Yerkes grasped immortality when he played a central role in one of baseball’s legendary episodes. In the bottom of the 10th inning of the deciding game of the epic 1912 World Series, Yerkes raced home with the winning […]

When considering the life of Dick Armstrong, most contemporaries think only of his ample accomplishments in the theological world. This is for good reason. Armstrong spent six decades of his life as a noted Presbyterian minister, pastor, educator, author, and humanitarian. Yet he had more than one career, and there is so much more, from […]

Scooter Tucker was not unlike millions of boys who have aspired to play in the big leagues. It was a dream of his from an early age to play professional baseball. His influential mentors as a youth taught him how to play the game. His sports role models were former major leaguers from his hometown. […]

[A glue guy] is a guy who’s unselfish and who’s a good teammate… A guy who communicates well and who’s honest with his teammates and himself. Somebody the other guys can count on to offer advice or encouragement. He keeps everybody loose, but at the same time, focused… It’s a guy who — in baseball […]

It looked, at first glance, like a mistake. The Associated Press’s obituary for Ron Plaza, which ran in newspapers across the US in April 2012, noted that the Oakland Athletics’ roving minor-league instructor was entering his 61st season in professional baseball, but listed his age as only 77.1 There was no error. The prodigious infielder […]

It’s easy to find high praise about Frank White from members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, ranging from managers and executives for whom he worked (John Schuerholz and Whitey Herzog) to longtime players on opposing teams such as Reggie Jackson.1 Still, there may be no more significant comment about White than from Hall of […]

Pat Kelly played just three games in the majors as a catcher with the 1980 Toronto Blue Jays — but he has survived in professional baseball for 45 years. How has he done it? “He’s just a leader; he’s a player’s coach, which means he relates to the players like he’s a player,” said Zach […]

The late 1940s Boston Red Sox consisted of larger-than-life, highly paid, talented baseball men who could accomplish just about anything “except win pennants,” according to Al Hirshberg in a 1951 Saturday Evening Post article on Billy Goodman. Goodman had made his major-league debut in the spring of 1947 and was “not a glamorous slugger, not […]

Of all the many achievements that fill the Hall of Fame dossier of Walter Emmons Alston, perhaps the most impressive was the first, one that came with the final out of the seventh game of the 1955 World Series. That Brooklyn Dodger win in the final game of the season gave the city, and the […]

Infielder Bill Narleski may have lost some playing time due to serving more than three years in the infantry during the First World War, but he found that the Second World War gave him a couple of years he probably wouldn’t have otherwise had. His son Ray pitched for six seasons in the majors, winning […]

“How does it feel to be the smallest player in the majors,” a Houston reporter asked Fred Patek in 1968. “A heck of a lot better than being the tallest player in the minors,” countered the rookie shortstop.1 Patek’s quip matched his quickness on the field and the basepaths for 14 years in the major […]

Author’s note: Many a night, when I should’ve been doing my homework, I spent valuable time “studying” the encyclopedia of baseball. I especially became fascinated with obscure players having brief careers. I didn’t get far into the alphabet before coming across Buzz Arlett; how could someone with seemingly good numbers play only one season in […]

Harry David Brecheen (pronounced Bruh-KEEN) was born on October 14, 1914, in Broken Bow, Oklahoma. He was the first of three children born to Texans Tom and Lucy (Tyree) Brecheen, who had settled in the small town near the Texas border when Oklahoma was still a territory. By the time Harry was 10, his family […]

Few individuals saw more Astros history than Alan Ashby. An Astro for 20 of their first 50 seasons, he spent eleven on the Astrodome carpet, coordinating one of the more challenging pitching staffs of his time. After one year as their bullpen coach Ashby moved to the broadcast booth for another eight, culminating with Houston’s […]

Bert Thiel pitched four games for the 1952 Boston Braves, the extent of his major-league career. He had a long minor-league pitching career with 145 wins. He pitched two seasons of winter ball with Caguas, in Puerto Rico; managed in the minors; and scouted. His baseball mentors were George Selkirk, his manager with the 1953-55 […]

As the construction timeline for the new Yankee Stadium emerged, speculation that New York would host the 2008 All-Star Game ran rampant. Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Commissioner Bud Selig confirmed the rumors on January 31, 2007, at a press conference announcing that the 2008 midsummer classic would take place during the Stadium’s final season. Selig […]

On the night of June 4, 1990, Ramón Martínez pitched one of the greatest games ever at Dodger Stadium. The achievement lacks the notoriety of a perfect game or even a no-hitter, but Martínez’s masterful performance stands up well to almost any game pitched for or against the Dodgers. The 22-year-old right-hander struck out 18 […]

Fans line up for bleacher seats during the 1923 World Series. (Library of Congress)   In the early afternoon of Sunday, October 14, 1923, two old friends, Alice Wray Bush and Marie Aubrey Schang, found their way to their box seats in the six-month-old Yankee Stadium.1 The women had known each other for a decade […]

Index for Bill James’s Baseball Analyst Nos. 1-40, 1982-1989 Read Rob Neyer’s introduction of the Baseball Analyst archives “Baseball Analyst,” a Bill James creation that he self-published from 1982 to 1989, was one of the first publications to feature articles devoted to sabermetrics — a phrase he coined in part to honor SABR. “Baseball Analyst” […]