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From left, Sid Mercer of the New York Journal, Al Spink of The Sporting News, and G.W. Axelson of the Chicago Herald. (Photograph by Charles Martin Conlon of the Chicago Herald.)   The irony is clear to anyone who gives it even the slightest thought. At the time that baseball was entering the public consciousness […]

Several things are memorable about the career of pitcher Bill Bailey, but unfortunately, almost none of those things would be considered pleasant memories. Most notably, Bailey established a major-league record by experiencing 10 consecutive losing seasons in his 11-year career. Even among the group of pitchers known as 20-game losers, Bailey might be considered something […]

Every red-blooded American boy growing up during the Great Depression dreamed of playing in the World Series, preferably in Yankee Stadium. Philip Donald Haugstad came close twice, missing by one day in 1947 and by one pitch to Bobby Thomson in 1951. Phil entered the world on February 23, 1924, in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. […]

Cleveland manager Kerby Farrell rushed to the mound after pitcher Herb Score was struck in the face by a line drive off the bat of the Yankees’ Gil McDougald on May 7, 1957. “He was bleeding from his eyes, nose, mouth and ears. All we could think of doing was trying to save his life,” […]

The 1906 season opened for the Boston Beaneaters in Brooklyn on April 12. Making his major-league debut that day with Boston was outfielder Johnny Bates, a compact left-handed swinger (5-feet-7 inches and around 170 pounds). Batting fifth in the lineup, Bates strode to the plate to face Harry McIntire in the second inning. The 22-year-old […]

The New York Yankees of 1946 had many of the same stars who made them the dominant team of the pre-World War II years, but they finished in third place, seventeen games behind the Boston Red Sox, under three different managers. After the season, Bucky Harris, an experienced and well-traveled skipper, was brought in to […]

Artie Wilson’s career makes just the barest impression in the old Baseball Encyclopedia: 19 games and 24 plate appearances spread across five weeks in the spring of 1951. But both before and after that short stint with the famously fated ’51 Giants, Wilson ranked for years as one of the biggest stars in two big-time […]

The light-hitting, 5-foot-6 shortstop William Benjamin Fuller parlayed his excellent fielding into a nine-year career in the majors (1888-1896), beginning with a 49-game stint with the National League’s Washington Nationals. In 1889 he began a seven-year stretch as a starting shortstop, first with the American Association’s St. Louis Browns and then later back in the […]

John Milner idolized Hank Aaron, lockered next to Willie Mays, and on his best days could hit home runs with as much authority as either man. While injuries and inconsistency prevented Milner from becoming an elite slugger, he carved out a 12-year career for the Mets, Pirates, and Expos, helping each of those clubs reach […]

In Jim Bouton’s revelatory 1970 book Ball Four, he describes a late September 1969 scene at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park. “A group of terrorized pitchers stood around the batting cage watching Willie McCovey belt some tremendous line drives over the right-field fence. Every time a ball bounced into the seats we’d make little whimpering animal […]

George Grosart had a short and tragic baseball career. He played seven games with the Boston Beaneaters in 1901 before joining the Dayton Old Soldiers in the Western Association. He went to spring training with Toledo in 1902 even though he was suffering from typhoid fever, and died on April 18, 1902, just a week […]

Frank Bowerman’s major-league career spanned 15 seasons, from 1895 through 1909. It included stops with the Baltimore Orioles, Pittsburgh Pirates, New York Giants, and Boston Doves. Bowerman was a sturdy, robust player who stood 6-feet-2 and weighed approximately 190 pounds. Although known mainly as a catcher, the righty could play almost any position. Bowerman logged […]

Pitcher Charles Flint “Shad” Rhem is part of a notorious baseball species. While he put together 12 seasons in the majors, and had a 20-win season in 1926, most of the stories told about him revolve around alcohol. Some sportswriters, like Bob Broeg, go so far as to say that Rhem “boozed away the greatness […]

For most of pro baseball’s first century, when a “sore arm” sidelined a pitcher for an extended period, it began a descent in skill too often resulting in an untimely exit from the game. Frequently, these players were victims of whisper campaigns, having their courage and valor called into question. Surgeons were unable to repair […]

One might say that Jim Boyle went into the family business – recruited by no less than Hall-of-Fame manager John McGraw himself1 – but ultimately he chose his own path after being the first Boyle to attend college. Jim Boyle followed his uncles Jack Boyle and Eddie Boyle as a catcher into the major leagues. […]

Robert Ruliph Morgan Carpenter Jr. was born August 13, 1915 in Montchanin, a community in New Castle County, Delaware. A month later, in nearby Philadelphia, the Phillies captured the first National League pennant in the team’s 32-year history. There was no connection then between these two events, but in time the Carpenter name and the […]

Two and a half years after Ernie Banks integrated the Chicago Cubs in September 1953, Banks and four other Black players played key roles in the Cubs’ 12-1 victory over the Cincinnati Redlegs in Chicago’s 1956 home opener.1  At a time when only 1 of 15 major-league players was Black,2 Cubs shortstop Banks, left fielder […]

Jackie Robinson once said that Emil John “Dutch” Leonard’s knuckleball “comes up, makes a face at you, then runs away.”1 On May 28, 1946, the New York Yankees had trouble with the Washington Senators knuckler’s elusive pitch in a 2-1 loss. Leonard may have had a little help that night, though, because the Bronx Bombers […]

Twenty-four-year-old Ernie Banks exploded on the national baseball scene with the Chicago Cubs in 1955, his second full major-league season. Not only did his 44 home runs shatter the single-season record for homers by a shortstop, but his five grand slams set a new major-league record.1 A lighter 31-ounce bat that added as much as […]

“But coming down through that would heighten my sense because I could dig I would soon be standing in that line to get in, with my old man. But lines of all black people! Dressed up like they would for going to the game, in those bright lost summers. Full of noise and identification slapped […]

Eddie Plank had 287 major-league victories to his credit when he took the mound for the opening game of a doubleheader between the host St. Louis Terriers and the Brooklyn Tip-Tops on May 29, 1915. A native of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Plank had spent his previous 14 seasons with the Philadelphia Athletics, posting seven 20-win seasons […]

It was called the Ship of Dreams, and its presence thrilled the populace as it flew over New York City on the gloomy afternoon of May 6. But later that day, the excitement that had carried the day turned to shock and disbelief with the news that the famous Hindenburg exploded and crashed to the […]