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Although he recorded a surprising six straight victories (and a 7-1 record) as a New York Giants rookie after his August 1931 debut, and was later a member of the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals’ champion Gas House Gang, Jim Mooney was much more than a professional baseball player. He was also a scholar, teacher, university […]

In an effort to lessen the fledgling United States’ dependence on manufacturing in other countries, Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s secretary of the treasury, created the Society for the Establishment of Useful Machines, whose aim was to harness the power of a 77-foot waterfall, the Great Falls of the Passaic River. That act led to the […]

To many baseball fans, especially those in St. Louis, Carl Warwick will be best remembered for being a hero off the bench in the 1964 World Series. After spending the regular season as a reserve outfielder and bat off the bench, Warwick excelled in the postseason and whacked a record-tying three pinch hits that played […]

A fine major league pitcher for several years, Jim Brosnan wrote the first honest portrayal of the life of a baseball player. The Long Season and subsequent works have earned him continued praise ever since. His writings paved the way for many other players’ “autobiographies,” usually written with considerable help, and filled with more tawdriness […]

Rubén Gómez was the second pitcher from Puerto Rico to reach the majors — and the first to start and win a World Series Game. He led the New York Giants to a 6-2 win in Game Three at Cleveland on October 1, 1954. A limber 6 feet even and 170-175 pounds, Gómez was amazingly […]

There have been few shorter major league careers, but minor league lifers would surrender a fortune to have had Walt Kellner’s cup-of-coffee experience. Kellner’s short stay in the majors was preceded by boundless expectations appended to the hard-throwing right-handed hurler. Most of those forecasts were rose-colored projections based on the 1949 rookie success of Walt’s […]

During a seven-year period from 1985 to 1991, Tom Browning was the most durable starting pitcher in major-league baseball. In a career that spanned 12 major-league seasons and just shy of 2,000 innings pitched, Browning was most notable for working the majority of his career as a sturdy, dependable starter who would take the ball […]

The US Soccer Hall of Fame credits Dick Spalding with scoring the first goal for America in an international soccer tournament, in 1916.1 Newspaper articles at the time indicated that it was John Heminsley, not Spalding.2 Regardless, Spalding was considered one of the best soccer players in America while at the same time honing baseball […]

Eddie Onslow could be described as a major-league baseball player, appearing in four different American League seasons; but he was really an International League star of the first magnitude. A brief sketch of Onslow’s major-league career shows a 15-year span (1912-1927), but a closer look reveals a log of a mere 224 plate appearances over […]

A key player for the successful Baltimore Orioles of the 1970s and ’80s, Al Bumbry provided speed and clutch hitting on four division-winning clubs, including the World Series champions of 1983. Bumbry was the spark at the top of the lineup for a team more generally known for hitting three-run homers. While “The Bee” was […]

It was almost unheard of; the notion of walking a batter to face Babe Ruth. Wanting to face the Great Bambino with two runners on the basepaths in the ninth inning? Was this mock heroism or someone eager to meet disaster? Certainly such a scene was never played out. Tris Speaker laughed. “Don’t be so […]

“Not getting booed at Ebbets Field was an amazing thing. Those fans knew their baseball, and Gil was the only player I can remember whom the fans never, I mean never, booed.”1 — Clem Labine “… epitomizes the courage, sportsmanship and integrity of America’s favorite pastime.” — back of a 1966 Topps baseball card “Gil […]

He enjoyed a 15-year career in the major leagues and today is well into his sixth decade working in baseball, but Jesús Alou is destined to be remembered as the third brother in an extraordinary baseball family. He might have accomplished less as a player than his two All-Star siblings, but those comparisons are unfair. […]

On October 15, 1946, the St. Louis Cardinals won their sixth world championship with a 4-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox. Enos Slaughter led off the bottom of the eighth inning with a single, and with two outs scored from first base on Harry Walker’s double to left-center field. The play, which later became […]

As a combination pitcher and outfielder in the nineteenth century, Scott Stratton appeared in 391 major-league games, 231 as a pitcher and another 160 games as an outfielder or first baseman. He is best remembered today for his religious scruples that limited his time on the baseball diamond during his eight-year career between 1888 and […]

In January 1983, NBC television debuted a new action series titled The A-Team. The show followed the exploits of a fictional group of former U.S. Army members with such colorful names as Face, Hannibal, and the brawling, straight-talking, ludicrously bejeweled B.A. Baracus, the fictional embodiment of the character’s actor, Mr. T. Within months of the […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2021 as part of the SABR Century 1921 Project.   1921 New York Giants team photo (SABR-RUCKER ARCHIVE)   The New York Giants and their manager, John J. McGraw, were optimistic that the 1921 season would result in a World Series triumph. Hopefully, this would end the […]

Michael Haupert was the keynote speaker at the 2024 SABR Frederick Ivor Campbell Nineteenth Century Baseball Conference at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Below are his prepared remarks, which were published in the committee’s October 2024 newsletter.   In the fall of 1870 the Boston Herald hurled what […]