Search Results

Biff Maloy was a “new find from the wilds of Michigan” who joined the reigning world champion Boston Red Sox in mid-1913 and pitched the bottom of the eighth inning on July 11 in St. Louis with Boston down 5-1 to the Browns. The right-hander hit the first batter, but retired the next three, each […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

Earl Randolph Ashby Powbett led a fascinating baseball life. He was a backup catcher for the 1945 Negro champion Cleveland Buckeyes. He was given a chance to replace Josh Gibson as Homestead Grays catcher in 1947. He played in Canada, Mexico, Cuba, and the United States and perhaps other lands as well.  But he also […]

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 […]

Right-handed pitcher Rube Schauer had one of the most rapid ascents to the major leagues in baseball history. In 1912 he was playing for his hometown semi-pro team in rural North Dakota, and by the end of 1913, his first season in professional baseball, he was a member of the pennant-winning New York Giants. His […]

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 […]

One must wonder just how good Gary Geiger would have been if he hadn’t had so many physical ailments and mishaps. Frank Lane, who was Geiger’s first major-league general manager and knew his abilities as well as anyone, summarized it best: “If God had given Gary a sound body, he might have been one of the […]

Dennis Bennett, a member of the Phillies’ pitching rotation in 1964 and a fun-loving character on baseball’s stage for much of the 1960s, was blessed with a great left arm and a thirst for the good life. He also overcame several reckless brushes with danger, including a tragic accident, to forge a seven-year big-league career, […]

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, […]

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 […]

Howard Ehmke is best remembered as the 35-year-old right-hander of the Philadelphia Athletics who unexpectedly started Game One of the 1929 World Series against the slugging Chicago Cubs and struck out a then record 13 en route to a surprising triumph in one of Connie Mack’s most famous tactical decisions. But it would be an […]

For the first half of the 1970 season, Cincinnati rookie pitcher Wayne Simpson had the National League by the tail. He won 13 of his first 14 decisions in the majors, making the All-Star team. “He was tough,” remembered Al Oliver, then an opponent with the Pittsburgh Pirates. “Outstanding. I’d have to rate him right […]

The largest Opening Day crowd in 1965 poured into cavernous Municipal Stadium on April 21, 1965, to see the return of Rocky Colavito in what the Cleveland Press dubbed “Welcome Back Rocky Day.” After a five-year absence, Colavito, one of the franchise’s most popular players and greatest home run hitters, was back in a Cleveland […]

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 […]

Three times over a four-week span in June and July of 1970, the New York Yankees entered the ninth inning of a game on the wrong end of the score and hitless. Each time, second baseman Horace Clarke delivered a hit, saving the Yankees from the ignominy of getting no-hit. The 31-year-old Clarke first played […]

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 […]

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 […]

This is the online appendix to Herm Krabbenhoft’s article “James Bentley vs. William Henry, John Joseph, and Edward James: An Irresistible Force vs. Three Immovable Objects,” which was published in the Spring 2025 edition of the Nineteenth Century Committee newsletter. Click on a link below to scroll down to that appendix: Appendix A: Game-By-Game Pitching […]

Fort Wayne, Indiana, has hosted only 12 major-league games in its long association with professional baseball, including the final game of a ten-game postseason series between Chicago and Providence of the National League in 1882. However, one of those 12 contests was the very first major-league game, played in 1871 at the Kekionga Ball Grounds.1 […]