If you are not happy with the results below please do another search
In a 15-year major-league career filled with great stories and accomplishments of various stripes, Earl Torgeson was well known for getting in brawls. Even before he reached the major leagues, in the winter before his rookie season, he had faced assault charges for decking two men on a Seattle street who had used vulgar language […]
How many big-leaguers since World War II have been born in England? How many have appeared on Topps “Rookie Stars” cards in three separate years? The answers (as of 2020): seven in each category.[1] Keith Lampard, who played 62 games for the Houston Astros in 1969-70, claimed both odd distinctions. Christopher Keith Lampard was born […]
It is an oft-told story that legendary manager John McGraw, who led the New York Giants for 30 eventful years, had photographs of only two former players on his office wall: Christy Mathewson and Ross Youngs, today an almost forgotten Hall of Fame outfielder.1 Youngs personified the type of all-out hustle and will-to-win ballplayer that […]
Venezuelan infielder Dámaso Blanco was 30 years old and in his 12th pro season when his dream finally came true with the San Francisco Giants. He told me the story in 2010. “The most important moment in my baseball career as an active player came on May 26, 1972. That day I played in my […]
A right-handed power-hitting outfielder, George Foster was a feared presence at bat and in the outfield for most of his 11-year run with the Cincinnati Reds. Once he mastered the mental aspect of his game, Foster became a key ingredient in manager Sparky Anderson’s Big Red Machine of the 1970s. But as powerful as he […]
On Opening Day 1998 the reigning World Series champion Florida Marlins took the field minus a dozen of their 1997 teammates, many of whom were, as The Sporting News put it, “victims … of a halved payroll,” adding, “The roll call of departed comrades read like a Memorial Day remembrance of war casualties” with the […]
Mike “King” Kelly was professional baseball’s first matinee idol: the first ballplayer to “author” an autobiography, the first to have a hit song written about him, and the first to have a successful acting career outside the game. A handsome man with a full mustache and a head of red hair, Kelly through his fame […]
As a young baseball player in rural Minnesota, Dick Stigman picked the perfect day to pitch a perfect game. Cy Slapnicka, the man who signed Cleveland greats Bob Feller, Bob Lemon, and Herb Score, was watching. In the spring of 1954, three days after graduating from Sebeka High School, Richard Lewis Stigman (born January 24, […]
Joe Mulligan began to make headlines in the Boston area while pitching for Holy Cross College in Worcester, Massachusetts. Throwing a six-hit shutout against Providence College on June 10, 1933, while striking out 11 and not walking a batter earned some attention. So did being driven off the mound when Boston College scored seven times […]
After seeing Nomar Garciaparra play, Red Sox great Ted Williams called Boston’s general manager Dan Duquette and said, “That shortstop you brought up reminds me of a player, but I can’t figure out who.”1 Exuberant upon remembering, Williams called back. Without saying hello, he yelled, “DiMaggio! That’s who he reminds me of, DiMaggio! The build, […]
José Galvez Oliva was born on March 3, 1971, in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. He was signed as a shortstop by the Texas Rangers on November 12, 1987 and was assigned to the Gulf Coast League Rangers where he spent the 1988 season. He appeared in 27 games and hit .214. He was […]
The rookie Carl Morton was tapped by manager Gene Mauch to start just the fourth game in the history of the Montreal Expos. The 25-year-old right-hander made his major-league debut on April 11, 1969, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. The expansion Expos, who had to fill a roster with rejects, castoffs, and hopefuls from older […]
With the Atlanta Braves’ unprecedented playoff run one defeat from expiration, 21-year-old left-hander Steve Avery’s second dominant start of the 1991 National League Championship Series kept the Pittsburgh Pirates scoreless through eight innings of Game Six on October 16 at Three Rivers Stadium. Clutch play by Ron Gant, Greg Olson, and Alejandro Peña then secured […]
Despite the loss to the Boston Red Sox in the 1946 World Series opener, Cardinals fans approached Game Two with enthusiasm. Thousands of unreserved seats were sold the morning of the game. Pregame entertainment — comprised Frank Miller’s 25-piece jazz band and a 77-year-old bricklayer from Ohio dancing behind home plate in a white linen […]
The 1934 season began with minimal fanfare for the Detroit Tigers outside of Corktown. The Washington Senators were projected to repeat as American League champions with the Bengals expected to come in behind the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox in fourth place. Despite this, new player-manager Mickey Cochrane was entirely optimistic. “We have […]
When Dodgers player-manager Leo Durocher had Frenchy Bordagaray pinch-hit for him in the bottom of the fifth, the 5,010 paying fans at Ebbets Field witnessed the Lip’s final game as a player. During the offseason, Durocher signed a player-manager contract under which he not only managed Dem Bums for the 1945 season, but promised to […]
The Philadelphia Phillies surged to 10 games over .500 with their 4-3 win over the Cincinnati Reds at Riverfront Stadium on July 17, 1984. With six wins in seven games, the Phillies were 2½ games behind the National League East-leading New York Mets. Philadelphia, which had won five division titles, two NL pennants, and one […]
The year after a last-place finish in 2012, the Boston Red Sox in 2013 were in position to win the World Series at Fenway Park in Game Six, having taken both Games Four and Five in St. Louis to seize a three-games-to-two lead. They had won it all in 2004 and 2007, but both clinchers […]
On Opening Night 1974 in St. Louis, Arnold “Bake” McBride, a 37th-round draft pick of the hometown Cardinals in the 1970 amateur draft, started in center field for St. Louis. In the bottom of the 10th inning, the Cardinals’ José Cruz, for the previous two years St. Louis’s starter at that position, entered the game […]
The explosive Tigers-Yankees matchup that took place at Tiger Stadium on June 17, 1961, was one of the high points of a season that served as a pivotal one for the Tigers in a number of ways. The team surprised baseball by improving from a 71-83 mark the year before, to battling the iconic yet […]
It was a money game. The 1970 baseball season had boiled down to a one-game contest with cash considerations on the last game of the season. Unfortunately for the teams involved, the Chicago Cubs and New York Mets, it was runner-up money. At stake in this National League East season finale was simply second-place dollars, […]
The Milwaukee Braves opened the 1953 season on April 13 with a 2-0 victory in Cincinnati at a time when the first game in the Queen City was a season-opening tradition for the major leagues. The founding of the first fully professional baseball team in Cincinnati during the 1869 season paved the way for baseball’s […]
Thousands of players have had short major-league careers. Comparatively few have enjoyed long major-league careers. Vernon Monroe “Monty” Swartz had one of the longest short careers on record. Swartz made his only major-league appearance on October 3, 1920, pitching for the Cincinnati Reds in a 6-3 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals. The game went […]
The inside-the-park home run is not only a gift to the swift. The hefty Prince Fielder hit two of them.1 Slow-footed catcher Gus Triandos, bulky first baseman Dick Stuart, and 40-year-old Bill Buckner did it too.2 The Toronto Blue Jays’ first inside-the-park home run came off the bat of Doug Rader, a 33-year-old veteran known […]