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For years, the major-league baseball season began in mid-April. The leagues expanded to a 162-game schedule beginning in 1961, but it wasn’t until 1984 that the Boston Red Sox started the season before April 5. They opened that year on April 2 in Anaheim against the California Angels. You win some; you lose some. So […]

Well after midnight, as July 21 turned to July 22, Mike Napoli’s solo home run with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning allowed those remaining from the Sunday night crowd of 38,138 who had packed Fenway Park to head home after seeing the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees, 8-7. […]

St. Louis third baseman Tommy Glaviano was having a solid start to the 1950 baseball season. Slotted in as the Cardinals’ leadoff hitter, he was hitting .342 with an on-base percentage of .464. He’d made four errors in his 20 games at the hot corner, but no one could have foreseen the disastrous defensive inning […]

The World Series headed into a seventh game for the third year in a row. Brooklyn’s come-from-behind victory in the sixth game gave Dodgers fans hope that this might be their year. The team had never won the championship in three previous appearances. The last time they appeared in the postseason classic, the Dodgers lost […]

Emerging as one of the American League’s top young pitching talents in his first full major-league season, 20-year-old Boston Red Sox left-hander George Herman “Babe” Ruth matched up against one of the greatest pitchers in baseball, Walter “The Big Train” Johnson of the Washington Senators, for the first time in August 1915. Ruth, who had […]

If the last word on the 1986 World Series was “unforgettable,” the first word was “freezing.” The heaters were on full blast in both dugouts at Shea Stadium, pitchers were allowed to blow on their hands, and bats were wrapped in towels. The fall classic felt like winter, but both teams would rather be in […]

Like Three-Fingered Brown after him, Hugh “One-Arm” Daily was saddled with a sobriquet more fanciful than factual. For, as sure as Mordecai Peter Brown had digits enough to count to four on his right hand, so Hugh Ignatius Daily was possessed of a full complement of brachial appendages: the left one, owing to an accident […]

Game Four of the 2012 World Series was about to begin with the San Francisco Giants leading the Detroit Tigers three games to none.1 No team had ever come back from this position to win a World Series. With Detroit’s back to the wall, the Tigers’ faithful were in a state of disbelief. In Game […]

For the Washington Nationals and their fans, the opening of the 2008 season at brand-new Nationals Park on a Sunday night with a national television audience was an exhilarating experience. Baseball at RFK Stadium seemed like a distant memory.1 RFK, home of the Nationals since 2005, was best described as “leaky and creaky with plenty of […]

During a five-season career (1963-1967) spent mostly with the Washington Senators, right-hander Buster Narum tossed shutouts at Yankee Stadium and White Sox Park, and he struck out six future Hall of Famers.1 But Narum, owner of a .059 career batting average, is perhaps better remembered for homering in his first major-league at-bat. He was just […]

Roger Moret (born Rogelio Moret Torres) streaked across the skies of Red Sox Nation during the early 1970s like a comet with a stutter step: often brilliant but sometimes wild. Although he possessed obvious talent, he had some difficulty in harnessing it. Once established with the Boston Red Sox in 1973, he alternated two excellent […]

Gambling posed a serious threat to baseball in 1919. Rumors of a “fixed” World Series were widespread. Owners of major- and minor-league teams were anxious to get control of the situation and restore the public’s confidence in the sport. “The very life of baseball depends upon keeping it above suspicion of any sort,” said Dr. […]

Baseball defined the essence of Ethan Allen. The game was his life’s work. A true student athlete who earned two degrees, Allen went from the University of Cincinnati to his hometown Cincinnati Reds in 1926 and remained in the majors for 13 seasons, never playing in the minors. He also played for the New York […]

On a summer afternoon in 1935, 17-year-old Ed Head was on a bus to Mer Rouge, Louisiana. Head, a left-handed pitcher for the semipro Pioneer (Louisiana) team, was on his way to play a game against the Mer Rouge team. He and his girlfriend were seated on the left side of the bus (facing forward), […]

There have been countless cosmetic changes in how baseball has been played during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, but the tools and rules of the game — and of the professional sport — have not been radically altered. A spectator from 1901 would recognize the game in 2021. The revolutionary advances occurred in the 19th […]

As of the end of the 2020 season, 789 players born in the Dominican Republic had played major-league baseball. Of the 363 who were primarily nonpitchers, 57 made All-Star teams and 35 appeared in a World Series for the eventual champions, but only 12 completed their careers with exactly one hit.1 Before Orioles rookie Carlos […]

Nellie Fox was the heart of the 1959 Go-Go White Sox, the team that brought Chicago’s South Side its first pennant since the tarnished Black Sox season 40 years earlier. The image of Little Nel in his batting stance has become iconic — a choked-up grip on his bottle bat with a wad of chewing […]

In an era filled with pitching stars, many of them working for the Baltimore Orioles, it took Jim Palmer a few years to rise to the top of the heap. Once he did, he became the greatest pitcher in his league for a number of seasons, and one of the best pitchers who ever lived. […]

Bill Harman was a shy country boy who became a leader. He was a star basketball and baseball player at the University of Virginia. As the basketball team’s captain, he led the Cavaliers into the 1941 National Invitational Tournament. And then he played one summer for the Philadelphia Phillies, collecting exactly one base hit. He […]

Right-handed reliever Larry Sherry captured the 1959 World Series Most Valuable Player award after he appeared in all of the Los Angeles Dodgers’ four post-season wins, receiving credit for the last two. Four years previously, the then 19-year-old considered quitting after a miserable season in the Piedmont League (Class B). He was talked out of […]

Pat Corrales spent more than 50 years in professional baseball as a player, coach, and manager. Although he will never be confused with a slugging catcher like Mike Piazza, Corrales was an excellent defensive catcher and a student of the game who parlayed his knowledge and experience into a long and successful career as a […]

Haywood Cooper Sullivan was many things during his life: passing record holder at Dothan High School (Alabama), college All-SEC quarterback and baseball standout (Florida), bonus baby, American League catcher, manager, general manager, and major-league ballclub owner, and to top it off, a self-made millionaire. Sullivan was born in Donalsonville, Georgia on December 15, 1930, and […]

Mike Rochford pitched in eight games over parts of three very good seasons — 1988-1990 — for the Boston Red Sox. The team finished in first place in 1988 and again in 1990, and in third place in the year in between. It was a tough time for the left-handed native New Englander to try […]

This article was published in the SABR Black Sox Scandal Research Committee’s December 2025 newsletter.   A 1919 Chicago White Sox team photo includes three young boys without baseball uniforms: two batboys at the far left and a clubhouse boy called “Sharkey” sitting on the ground with Eddie Collins’s hands on his shoulders. The two […]