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“It’s a shame … he would have been a helluva player if he hadn’t gotten hurt. Ron Jones was a hitting machine.” — Lee Thomas, general manager, Philadelphia Phillies (1988-1997) 1   Ron Jones was a stocky outfielder from Seguin, Texas. Shortly after he reached the majors, in September 1988, the Philadelphia Daily News wrote, “Jones, […]

Should the National League permanently adopt the designated hitter, Puerto Rican infielder Mario Ramirez’s big league career from 1980 through 1985 will serve as a time capsule of forgotten strategy. A lifetime .192 hitter in just 184 games, known primarily for his glove, he was nevertheless used as a pinch hitter on 39 occasions and […]

Bill “Wee Willie” Sherdel was a durable, rubber-armed starter and reliever who frustrated batters with a mesmerizing slowball during his 15-year big-league career from 1918 through 1932, most notably with the St. Louis Cardinals. Described by a contemporary as “one of the great left-handers” in baseball, Sherdel’s career is defined by a seven-year stretch (1922-1928) […]

Frank O. Mancuso was the younger brother of a better-known big league catcher, August “Gus” Mancuso, a two-time All-Star who enjoyed a 17-year major league career and produced his best seasons with the New York Giants from 1932 through 1938. Gus spent more than 40 years in baseball, serving as a minor league manager, a […]

Solid left fielder Joe Rudi was a core member of the Oakland A’s 1972-74 dynasty. He was the runner-up for the American League Most Valuable Player twice during this period, and he also won three straight Gold Gloves (1974 through 1976). Rudi’s numbers with the bat don’t look dazzling today, but he did lead the […]

Bill Campbell could be excused for deeming life as unlucky as a crooked draw. His mother died giving birth to him on September 7, 1923, in Atlantic City. Dad kept the secret from him till Bill was 11. He lived with his father, a traveling paint salesman, then aunts, then Dad again, changing schools six […]

Back in an era when a manager’s responsibilities often included both the duties of a modern skipper plus those of today’s general manager, Pat Moran excelled at each role. In a span of six years Moran took over two mediocre franchises with little history of winning, rebuilt and reassembled their players, and managed each to […]

Fate can sometimes be cruel. After working his way through the Philadelphia Phillies farm system for three years, hard-throwing right-hander Dwight Siebler injured his elbow pitching to the first batter in his first major-league spring-training game, in 1962.  Robbed of his heater, Siebler relied on ball movement, a hard curve, and command when he made […]

Bubba Morton spent parts of seven major-league seasons between 1961 and 1969 as a platoon outfielder and pinch-hitter with the Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Braves, and California Angels. He was a spray hitter with occasional pop, had a penchant for getting on base, and played excellent defense. Don Mincher once called him “the perfect teammate.”1 Morton […]

Dave Eiland holds a unique baseball record: He is the only major-league player to give up a home run to the first batter he faced, and to hit a home run off the first pitcher he faced. But his contributions to the game go beyond that unusual historical footnote. A “pitch to contact”1 right-handed pitcher […]

In his youth, Will McEnaney was a mischief-maker. In his adulthood, mischief became roistering, somewhat to the detriment of McEnaney’s career as a National League pitcher. Still, he posted a few achievements, including sterling performances as a reliever for the Reds in the 1975 and 1976 World Series. William Henry McEnaney was born, with twin […]

“The best defensive centerfielder I have seen here in a long time. I think one of the highest compliments you can pay him is that he’s as good as Garry Maddox.” — Richie Ashburn1   On the evening of July 20, 1969, families across the globe gathered in front of their television sets to watch […]

In the summer of 1922, a young Frank Reiber would make trips to Navin Field from his home in Detroit. At the ballpark he would go on the field and make himself useful to the Tigers by shagging fly balls and cleaning up. One day coach Dan Howley gave him a catcher’s mitt and asked […]

Daryl Alan Patterson was born on November 21, 1943, in Coalinga, California. He graduated from Coalinga High School in 1962 and entered the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, California, that fall. At 6-foot-4, he entered college intending to play basketball as a point guard, but switched to baseball after pitching for an amateur team […]

Venezuelan catcher Bo Díaz played for all or part of 13 seasons in the majors, plus 14 more in his homeland’s winter league. He helped the Philadelphia Phillies win a National League pennant in 1983 and was part of six champion teams with the Leones del Caracas. Díaz made it to the majors on the […]

He made his big-league debut on a day when Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. addressed thousands of civil rights marchers on the Boston Common, and flourished as a pitcher during the Summer of Love. As he struggled with injuries, Americans grappled with the strain of assassinations, racial riots, and the escalating Vietnam War. Jim Lonborg’s […]

John Fowler was one of the true pioneers of American baseball, one overlooked by the National Baseball Hall of Fame for more than a century after his death until he was elected in 2022 to Cooperstown — the same village where he had grown up as a teenager. In Black baseball history, he is the […]

Bobby Mathews, nearly forgotten today, was one of the top pitchers of the early professional era despite his small stature (5-feet-5½-inches tall, weight about 140 pounds). Between 1871 and 1887, he won nearly 300 games, 297 to be exact – more than any other pitcher not inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. His […]

“He’s too young to throw a no-hitter!”1 With the words of Cincinnati Redlegs manager Birdie Tebbetts still ringing in his ears, 17-year-old southpaw Dave Skaugstad took the mound on September 29, 1957 at Milwaukee’s County Stadium. Appearing in his second major-league game, he relieved 20-year-old rookie Jay Hook, who’d held the National League pennant-winning Milwaukee […]

A light-hitting, rifle-armed shortstop who played a key role in baseball’s biggest scandal, Swede Risberg was a rising young player in the American League when he was banned from the game at age 25. The youngest member of the Black Sox, he always found his home state of California and the Pacific Coast League preferable […]

Canadian Rhéal Cormier had two distinct major-league careers. Through most of the 1990s he was a middle-of-the-rotation starter for the St. Louis Cardinals and Montreal Expos. After Tommy John surgery, however, he reinvented himself as a successful late-inning, short stint, relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, Philadelphia Phillies, and Cincinnati Reds. Along the way […]

Bill Harvey was a left-handed pitcher and outfielder who played parts of up to 21 years in the Negro Leagues, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Though unimposing both physically (5-feet-8, 175 pounds) and statistically (31-52, 5.68 ERA in 140 official Negro League games), Harvey had a long and colorful career that was not without its share […]

Days after celebrating his 36th birthday on August 18, 1970 – and hours after his five hits and go-ahead run helped the Pittsburgh Pirates maintain their National League East lead with a Saturday-night extra-inning win over the Los Angeles Dodgers – Roberto Clemente seized a spot in baseball’s record books on August 23 at Dodger […]

The American Association’s decision in the summer of 1882 to hire umpires brought an end to the practice of Association teams providing their own arbiters – almost.1 Games of that era were regulated by a single umpire, so when the league-provided umpire suddenly became unavailable, the home team shouldered the burden of finding a replacement. […]