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Right-handed reliever Mike Timlin pitched in more than 1,000 major-league games and has four World Championship rings. His 1,058 games rank him eighth all-time among pitchers. He played postseason baseball with 11 teams during his 18 years in the major leagues.1 The World Series wins were with the Toronto Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993 and […]

Known as one of the feistiest players in baseball history, Edd Roush channeled that energy into a Hall of Fame career. An old-timer was quoted in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 1919 saying that Roush was more like the fiery old Baltimore Orioles of the 1890’s than any other player in the National League. The […]

Canadian shortstop Brian Ostrosser spent two weeks in the major leagues with the New York Mets in August 1973. A good glove man, he provided depth while starter Bud Harrelson was on the disabled list. He went 0-for-5 in four games as a Met; in 14 2/3 innings in the field, he cleanly handled all […]

Chick Hafey was one of the first position players in the major leagues to wear eyeglasses. Problems with his eyesight did not prevent him from winning a National League batting title and being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.   Hafey broke into the major leagues with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1924, and most […]

Good size/Above-average stuff/Poor attitude. This familiar micro-profile would have neatly summarized Frank Schneiberg, a right-handed pitching prospect in the early 1900s. Innate talent afforded Schneiberg a fair degree of success in the minor leagues, particularly while he was hurling for clubs situated in his native Wisconsin. But a lack of self-discipline and other temperament problems […]

In 1908 John Donaldson was a tall, slender young man from small-town America with a strong left arm and the hand/eye coordination required to squarely hit a round ball with a round bat, yet there was no place for him in Organized Baseball. Because he was a black man. But using his talent and personality, […]

Joe Gibbon fulfilled his dream when he made the Opening Day roster of the 1960 Pittsburgh Pirates, the World Series champion that season. Joe pitched 12 full big-league seasons plus part of a 13th before retiring in 1972. He was talented enough in basketball to be drafted by the NBA champion Boston Celtics in 1957, […]

Juan Samuel was a player of many talents. He was also a player who did not quite fit any specific role. Samuel had tremendous talent but was a challenge to put to any kind of real use wherever he played. He had a low batting average, good power, and good speed on the bases so […]

In his second big-league season, young Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Jimmy Viox hit .317, good for third place in the 1913 National League batting race. In the eyes of many observers, including Sporting Life, Viox had supplanted Johnny Evers as the senior circuit’s top second baseman, and great things were expected of Viox in coming seasons. […]

In Detroit’s Briggs Stadium on April 17, 1951, Opening Day, 43,470 fans braved 39-degree weather to watch the Detroit Tigers host the Cleveland Indians. For the Tigers, veteran third baseman George Kell was out with an injury. Indians first baseman Luke Easter, also was injured but started and played five innings (two singles) before being […]

Sam Moffet was one of four Moffet family members involved in professional baseball in the 1880s. In addition to Sam, his brother Joe played shortstop for the Toledo Blue Stockings, another brother, Link (Abraham Lincoln), played for the Nashville Blues and the Wheeling Nailers, and a first cousin, Robert McNichol (1852-1901), was an umpire first […]

His induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1983, not to mention his inclusion in 1996 on the list of the 50 greatest players in National Basketball Association history, is clear evidence that Dave DeBusschere did not err in choosing basketball over baseball in 1964. At the same time, the 1963 decision by the White […]

A flaky southpaw from California with a deep repertoire of pitches, Frank Bertaina spent parts of seven major league seasons (1964-1970) with the Orioles, Senators and Cardinals. Primarily a starter, he was in Baltimore’s bullpen for the 1966 World Series but did not see action. Frank Louis Bertaina was born on April 14, 1944, in […]

It is well known among baseball fans that Pete Rose is the major leagues’ “hit king,” with 4,256 hits in 24 seasons.1 But few can name the minor-league hit leader, Spencer Harris. In 26 minor-league seasons from 1921 to 1948, Harris accumulated 3,617 hits. He collected 94 more hits in limited major-league action. If viewed […]

The story of a hometown boy making good is firmly entrenched in baseball lore. Lloyd Merritt was born and raised in St. Louis, guided his American Legion team to the national championship game, and led the Cardinals in appearances in 1957, the crafty sinkerball reliever’s only season in the big leagues during his nine-year professional […]

Although pitcher Jim Panther never appeared on a Topps baseball card, he nonetheless was able to stake a claim in baseball history as one of the original members of the Texas Rangers. After his relatively brief big-league career came to an unceremonious end, a new career in baseball began for Panther as a decorated high-school […]

“Hi everybody. Glad to have you aboard for today’s game.” Miami Marlins fans will recognize these words as the greeting that Dave Van Horne has used before every game since he began broadcasting major-league games in 1969 with the Montreal Expos. These words are also an invitation to sit down and listen to the smooth […]

Amid the stalemate over a new ballpark between Mayor Robert Wagner of New York City, Brooklyn Dodgers President Walter F. O’Malley, and New York Giants owner Horace Stoneham, during which The Sporting News reported that “Wagner had nothing to offer, and O’Malley and Stoneham had nothing to accept or reject,”1 the games continued at Ebbets […]

Ottawa’s Art “Doc” Hillebrand was a force to be reckoned with in what would be his final season before an arm injury cut short his career. Appearing in all 34 games, he posted an estimated 1.74 ERA and a 10-6 record, tying for the league lead in wins. His contributions extended beyond the mound, as […]

Dick Fowler (left) and Phil Marchildon (right) at Philadelphia Athletics spring training in the late 1940s. (Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum)   It was no coincidence that the Philadelphia Athletics’ two best pitchers in the 1940s were from the province of Ontario.1 There was a simple reason for it: Connie Mack’s Athletics had […]

The honor roll of great Fenway Park pitching performances would fill a rich leather-bound antique book. It includes rookie Hugh Bedient outdueling the legendary Christy Mathewson in Game Five of the 1912 World Series; Joe Dobson giving the St. Louis Cardinals just two hits in Game Five in 1946; Earl Wilson pitching the first American […]

If you needed to check some baseball oddities off your lifetime list, this was your game. Inside-the-park home run? Intentional balk? “Little League”1 grand slam? A 41-year-old slugger scrambling around the bases—three times? All that, and more! The 26,512 fans at Fenway Park on Labor Day 2021 saw a five-hour2 slugfest—26 position players with 33 […]

The last baseball game ever played at the Polo Grounds was the one and only Latin American major league players’ game. The charity benefit match wasn’t close — the National League defeated the American League 5-2, and the AL scored only in the ninth inning. Nor did it have any official status. Nonetheless, it gained […]

In early 2007 major league baseball marked the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson’s first season with the Dodgers, bringing an end to a sixty-year ban on black players in the major leagues. The story of Robinson and the brave men who followed his lead and helped change the game has been told often and well over […]