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Walter “Red” Barber was one of the pioneers of radio and television broadcasting in baseball. Among the firsts in his career was serving as the announcer for the first Brooklyn Dodgers radio broadcast, on April 18, 1939, when the Dodgers hosted the New York Giants at Ebbets Field to open the 1939 season. By 1938, […]

Surely, preparation would not be an issue for Pittsburgh’s 1891 National League campaign. The club spent two months training in the South, getting in shape for the new season. The new manager was also familiar to the squad. Still an active player, Ned Hanlon was in the nascent stages of a managerial career that would […]

In the aftermath of the 1967 Detroit riots, Detroiters desperately needed something positive to take their minds off their torn city. Many sought solace in the Detroit Tigers, who emerged that summer as bona-fide pennant contenders. An entire generation of Tigers fans had witnessed mostly mediocre baseball since the team last won the pennant in […]

As the 1957 season was in its final week, there was still time for Ted Williams to squeeze in one final home run and for that home run to win one more game for the Boston Red Sox. Of the 38 homers he hit in 1957, eight were game-deciding home runs.1   This one came […]

With only five games to play in the 1956 season, the Boston Red Sox were in fourth place but just two games ahead of the fifth-place Detroit Tigers. Finishing fourth in the eight-team American League placed a team in the “first division” and thus earned a share of postseason money, but finishing fifth left a […]

“It shall be unlawful for a negro and a white person to play together, or in company with each other in any game of cards, dice, dominoes, checkers, baseball, softball, football, basketball, or similar game.” – Birmingham City Code (Section 597, Ordinance 798-F)1 The rule was no longer Theophilus Eugene “Bull” Connor’s to enforce. The […]

Seventh place in the eight-club National League in 1946 and 1947, the Pittsburgh Pirates challenged for the pennant in 1948. The team’s success – and left fielder Ralph Kiner’s league-best home-run stroke – pushed total home attendance toward 39-year-old Forbes Field’s all-time high with a month left in the season. On August 31, before a […]

Rookie knuckleballer Tim Wakefield boosted the Pittsburgh Pirates to their third consecutive National League East Division crown in 1992 after getting called up in July to fortify a shorthanded starting rotation. With the Pirates trailing the Atlanta Braves two games to none in the NL Championship Series, Wakefield continued his late-season infusion, tossing a five-hit […]

When the 1892 season ended, the Boston Beaneaters had prevailed again and taken the pennant. The Brooklyn Bridegrooms – sixth-place finishers in 1891 – gave them a battle for the flag in 1892, finishing just 2½ games behind Boston for the first half of the season. At the close of play on August 4, however, […]

Tommy Brown first gained notoriety as a 16-year-old for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1944. His unique opportunity to reach the big leagues at such a young age came about because most of baseball’s regular players were serving in the military during World War II. He would be a part-time player during his entire nine-year major-league […]

 Joe Oeschger, the ace of the Boston Braves pitching staff, cruised through the first eight innings of the opening game of a Thursday afternoon doubleheader at Braves Field. He gave up just three hits to the last-place Philadelphia Phillies, as he propelled the fourth-place Braves to a comfortable 6-0 lead going into the top of […]

San Diego Padres hurler Steve Arlin could hardly be classified as a headhunter. Coming into his August 17, 1971, start against the Montreal Expos, he had hit only four batters in 197 big-league innings. That didn’t stop the pugnacious Ron Hunt, who was usually fine with reaching base on a hit-by-pitch, from grumbling when Arlin […]

“I guess if you can’t win ballgames, you gotta try to win fights,” Yankees owner George Steinbrenner jokingly taunted after witnessing one of the uglier brawls in baseball history. “If I hadn’t been upstairs, I would’ve tried to get [Armando Benitez], too.”1 Despite having baseball’s biggest payroll, the 20-23 Baltimore Orioles came into Yankee Stadium […]

On September 23, 1942 – a little more than nine months after the United States’ entry into the Second World War – the Brooklyn Dodgers offered free admission to anyone bringing 10 pounds of scrap metal to its afternoon game against the Philadelphia Phillies.1 The patriotic promotion was a success: About 150 tons of metal […]

The 1967 Boston Red Sox captured the attention of the baseball world by going from ninth place to the World Series in one season’s time. The so-called “Impossible Dream” season rejuvenated a franchise that hadn’t made the Series since 1946 and had come to be viewed as a going-nowhere “country club” team.1 Some of that […]

These days, a man coming from Gayville might be taunted in some circles, feted in others. There appear to be two Gayvilles in South Dakota, one an unincorporated place on the western edge of the state and the other a town in Yankton County in southeastern South Dakota. In 2010, the population was 407. In […]

“Jiquí” Moreno was not big (5’8” and 165 pounds) — but he threw hard. How hard is jiquí wood? In Cuba, Moreno’s native land, linemen could not sink their spurs into telephone poles made from this tree — they had to use ladders. Brick stair steps wore down, yet their jiquí binding was simply polished. […]

“This guy is a natural. He’s got ideas about what he wants to do and does it. He amazes me.” — Carl Hubbell “No pitcher has made such magnificent use of his God-given equipment.” — Branch Rickey “If you placed all the pitchers in the history of the game behind a transparent curtain, where only […]

“As a reliever, you’ve got to have amnesia. Not only with the bad days, but with the good days. You may get them out one, two, three today, but you’ve got to forget about it immediately, because that may not happen tomorrow.” — Roberto Hernandez, 20071 “(In the 1989 Instructional League), Roberto (Hernandez) and (pitching […]

Richard Leo Gedman fulfilled his childhood dream in his tenure in the major leagues, suiting up for over a decade for the team he grew up rooting for. Gedman, a native of Worcester, Massachusetts, spent parts of 11 seasons (1980-1990) as a catcher for the Boston Red Sox. The two-time All-Star also played for the […]

The first year the Red Sox wore uniform numbers was 1931. The first man to wear #1 was Bill Sweeney. It was his last year in the majors. Sweeney lived out the rest of his life in baseball, twice managing the Pacific Coast League Los Angeles Angels to pennants, in two stints eight years apart […]

Bedrock (n): Unbroken solid rock; any firm foundation.1 That dictionary definition explains why “Bedrock” was an apt nickname for Steve Bedrosian. In his prime, he was a rock-solid relief pitcher and the foundation on which his teams built a bullpen. Stephen Wayne Bedrosian was born in Methuen, Massachusetts, on December 6, 1957, to Michael (a […]

As the clean-up hitter on one of the strongest offensive teams of his day, Bobby Veach was one of the truly great RBI men of the late Deadball Era, easily leading the major leagues in runs driven in over the twelve years, 1913 to 1924, that he was a full time player. Veach drove in […]

In 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates rookie catcher Steve Nicosia watched the 6’1”, 220 lb. right-handed power hitter crowd the batter’s box and wondered, “How are we ever going to get a pitch by him?”1 Nicosia was hardly alone in these thoughts. For much of his 15-year major-league career Greg Luzinski – whose large bat appeared toothpick-like […]