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Speedy outfielder Morris Nettles played parts of just two seasons in the majors: 1974 and 1975 with the California Angels. He was only 23 when he played his last big-league game, though he hung on through 1982 in Mexico. Yet several decades later his remarkable skills and rapid rise from obscurity to the big leagues […]

While he made one hit in his only major-league at-bat in 1963, Roy Gleason is better known for the unfortunate one hit of shrapnel he incurred in 1968 from an enemy bomb explosion while serving in the US Army during the Vietnam War. Gleason, who had played five years in the minor leagues before he […]

Center field at Yankee Stadium is hallowed ground. Once upon a time, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle patrolled this section of the House That Ruth Built. Now, granted, Bernie Williams — whose 16-season New York Yankees career lasted from 1991 to 2006 — may at best be a borderline Cooperstown inductee, but he is a […]

Darren Oliver grew up in a baseball family and pitched all or parts of 20 major-league seasons (1993-2004, 2006-2013). Although the lefty saw action for nine different major league teams, he made his biggest mark with the Texas Rangers, the club that drafted him out of high school. During his three stints with Texas, Oliver […]

Bob Locker threw 879 innings in the major leagues. His career earned-run average was 2.75. Pitching for the White Sox in the mid-1960s, he was an ace for a bullpen that led the league in ERA for four straight years. Oakland manager Dick Williams deployed him as his designated rally-killer in 1971, when the A’s […]

After six seasons in the minor leagues, Charlie Metro stepped to the plate at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis wearing for the first time in a regular-season game the uniform of the Detroit Tigers. It was May 4, 1943, a Tuesday afternoon as America approached its 18th month at war. The next day, the radio […]

Catchers may often disagree with the calls made by umpires, but it didn’t take Mickey Devine that long to get himself suspended for the depth or demeanor of his disagreement. On June 1, 1916, in his first year in Organized Baseball, the young New Haven catcher was “ordered from the field for disputing Umpire Stafford’s […]

We’ve all had job evaluations, those nerve-racking meetings with the boss where he tells you how well, or poorly, you have done and what to work on to reach the next level. Bobby Winkles found out where he stood one day in 1958 from Walker Cooper, his manager with the Indianapolis Indians of the Triple-A […]

From Babe Ruth in 1920, through Reggie Jackson in 1977, and down to Alex Rodriguez in 2004, when the New York Yankees announce a player transaction it usually involves a big-name player coming to New York, with large amounts of money going elsewhere. But it was quite the reverse on July 27, 1945, when the […]

He won 247 games in his 23 seasons in the major leagues, plus dozens more in the minors and as a semipro in a pitching career that spanned more than 30 years. Yet we do not know for certain when or where he was born, the national origin of his forebears, or even his birth […]

William Michael Stanton was born on June 2, 1967, in Houston, Texas. His sports path was trending toward football until a blindside block tore his knee cartilage at Midland High School. Stanton was committed to the University of Arkansas, but the school withdrew after the injury. Stanton switched to baseball and was a Texas All-State […]

When fans watched the Montreal Expos in the early 1980s, it was sometimes hard for them to determine if they were at a baseball game or a track meet. Players like Rodney Scott, Andre Dawson, and Jerry White ran roughshod over National League catchers. But no Expos player turned the tools of ignorance into tools […]

When considering Rhode Island natives who played major league baseball, you can’t get much closer to the heart of Rhode Island than with Ray Jarvis, who grew up playing baseball on the State House lawn. Ray was born in Providence on May 10, 1946 and grew up on Smith Hill. Most of the kids in the […]

In September 2002, 22-year-old right-hander Steve Bechler debuted for the Baltimore Orioles and pitched in three games. In spring training the following February. he collapsed during a running exercise and died shortly thereafter. Weight-loss supplements containing ephedrine alkaloids were blamed for his sudden death. Their subsequent ban by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration became […]

Wally Backman was perhaps the first major-league manager fired before his team played a game. His fiery personality may have cost him another chance at managing in the majors. Three times he spent short stints in jail. He declared bankruptcy. From this sordid interval in life, he emerged to become a successful minor-league manager. Walter […]

On September 27, 2004, the Boston Red Sox trailed the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 2-0 when Red Sox first baseman Dave McCarty led off the top of the fifth inning with a line-drive single to left-center field. He took second base on a walk and scored on a three-run home run by center fielder Johnny […]

It’s never been duplicated in the majors or minors and might be baseball’s most unbeatable record. In just his 21st big-league start, the Reds Johnny Vander Meer recorded his second consecutive no-hitter, holding the Dodgers hitless in the first major-league night game at Ebbets Field.1 New York sportswriter Hy Turkin hailed the accomplishment as the […]

On occasion over the years, some of Boston’s Green Cathedrals have served as venues for outdoor boxing programs. Fenway Park staged its first fight on October 9, 1920, and would continue to host fisticuffs within its confines through 1956. Braves Field got a later but more auspicious start. Just three days later, on October 12, […]

Montreal mayor Jean Drepeau with (from left) John Bateman, Jim “Mudcat” Grant, and Maury Wills on Opening Day in New York, April 8, 1969 (COURTESY OF THE McCORD MUSEUM, MONTREAL)   It somehow seemed inevitable when it all came to an end in 2004. Fate didn’t really smile on the ’Spos (Les Expos de Montreal) […]

Shortly before Christmas of 1889, about 20 men gathered at New York City’s luxurious Fifth Avenue Hotel. Although all were well dressed, there were two distinct groups. One group was youthful and in prime physical condition; the other was more mature and perhaps not so physically robust. Both were, however, there for the same purpose, […]