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It was not an ideal night for a ballgame. There were no warm-up drills, after a rainstorm delayed the start of the uncovering of the field until 8:20 P.M.1 Once the game started, however, Jackie Robinson wasted no time in making an impact on this damp evening game at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field. Robinson homered in […]

Keith Hernandez of the New York Mets had three five-hit games from August 8 to October 3, 1985.1 The third game in this stretch occurred in the finale of a three-game set with the St. Louis Cardinals, whom the Mets were battling for first place in the National League East. After winning the first game […]

At a time when the St. Louis Browns were sorely lacking for talent and ticket sales, club executives saw a two-in-one solution to address both problems. Three days after drawing a mere 478 fans to Sportsman’s Park for a Monday afternoon game against the Washington Senators,1 the Browns made a surprising announcement on July 17, […]

“His homers were terrific clouts,” gushed sportswriter Harold C. Burr in the Brooklyn Eagle about Roy Campanella’s three round-trippers accounting for six RBIs in the Dodgers’ 7-5 victory over the Cincinnati Reds in the Queen City.1  The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Lou Smith seemed in awe of Campy’s “Ruthian” blasts, each of which targeted the laundry beyond […]

Babe Ruth got a huge cheer when he stepped onto the field at Yankee Stadium on June 1, 1925 — a well-deserved ovation considering that just a few months ago he was dead. The announcement of his demise was wildly inaccurate, of course, but it was right there in black and white in newspapers around […]

“Dave Roberts is a novice manager, but he seems born to the task,” longtime San Francisco sportswriter Bruce Jenkins wrote about the offseason Dodgers hire in mid-2016. “He took a disjointed clubhouse and made it whole, instilling a good-times brand of confidence and telling SI.com, ‘I put my hand on each player every single day […]

An aggressive right-hander who threw mostly fastballs, Roger Erickson pitched six years in the majors (1978-1983) for the Twins and Yankees. One of the top rookies of 1978, he bounced back from elbow surgery to enjoy another fine season, but threw his last big-league pitch at age 26 because of shoulder woes. Roger Farrell Erickson […]

Throughout the 20th century and to the present, numerous luminary figures have gained everlasting fame as members of the storied New York Yankee franchise. Starting with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the 1920s, icons like Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford became household names during their illustrious careers. Every decade produced […]

January 29, 1981, was one of the most impactful days in White Sox history. That was the day Jerry Reinsdorf assumed control of the club, getting a 14-to-0 vote from American League owners at the O’Hare Hilton. Reinsdorf would go on to become the longest-tenured owner in the major leagues. At age 88 in 2024, […]

Before the Wizard of Oz, the St. Louis Cardinals had Mr. Shortstop. Marty Marion never turned a backflip, but he was the National League’s premier defensive shortstop in the 1940s and is the only man to win a Most Valuable Player award with his glove. No Scooter or Rabbit or Pee Wee, he was a […]

When pitcher Steve Olin entered games at Cleveland Stadium, the organist would play the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” in recognition of the righty’s unusual low side-arm delivery.1 Indians general manager John Hart once described Olin as a 16th-round afterthought, a guy designated only to fill out a Class A roster. But Mike Hargrove, who managed Olin […]

Norm Cash would have loved it. The story drew upon metaphors including baseball, the Old West, and the camaraderie of friends. Its title, City Slickers, was evocative of the relationship between the burly cowboy and the legions of brewers, auto manufacturers, and teamsters who became his fans. The director, Billy Crystal, who also played the […]

Team pictures of the New York Mets in the 1960s and ’70s showed a shorter, older gentleman wearing glasses and business attire. His face could also be spotted deep within the Mets’ yearbooks. Near the Yoo-Hoo chocolate drink ads featuring Yogi Berra were head shots of club officials and other employees. Devoted Mets fans who […]

In 1947 Johnny Mize did something unmatched in baseball history. He became the first player to hit 50 or more home runs in a season while striking out fewer than 50 times, one of the game’s extraordinary records and a sole distinction Mize still held more than 65 years later. Few, if any hitters have […]

Swede Hollow was an immigrant settlement in Minnesota that squatted for a century in Phalen Creek ravine, south of Seventh Street on St. Paul’s Lower East Side. It has now receded into St. Paul’s often picturesque history, the site occupied by a city park. It was mostly a region of untold stories. Successive waves of […]

The Atlanta Braves’ three aces may be the greatest pitching combination in history: the artist Greg Maddux, the stylist Tom Glavine, and the electric John Smoltz. In seven seasons, from 1993 through 1999, the Braves won almost two-thirds of the games started by their Big Three. Maddux claimed four straight Cy Young Awards, Glavine two […]

Ralph Kiner was baseball’s leading home-run hitter for a few years after World War II. As a broadcaster for the New York Mets, he became famous for his verbal strikeouts. Although best remembered for his long career behind the mike, he still ranks as one of the premier sluggers in baseball history. Ralph McPherran Kiner […]

For decades, professional baseball players surnamed Weaver were routinely dubbed Buck by the sporting press. The game’s two most prominent Buck Weavers – the Black Sox third baseman and the late-19th-century outfielder also called Farmer Weaver – are already the subject of excellent BioProject portraits. The following is a biography of a lesser-known Buck Weaver, […]

San Francisco Giants general manager Brian Sabean speaks during the World Series parade on October 31, 2014. (SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS)   With their World Series triumphs in 2010, 2012, and 2014, the San Francisco Giants accomplished what no other National League team since the St. Louis Cardinals in 1946 had been able to do: win […]

Rarely is the first game of a major-league career the pinnacle of that career. But when New York Yankees manager Joe McCarthy handed Russ Van Atta the ball on April 25, 1933 against the Washington Nationals, it was. Van Atta masterfully blanked Washington, 16-0, retiring 14 of the last 16 batters as the Yankees unleashed […]

William Joseph Rohr was born on July 1, 1945, in San Diego, California, right in the middle of the baseball season. Rohr began playing baseball when he was 8, and despite weighing only 145 pounds in high school, he finished his career at Bellflower High with a 26-3 record, pitching four no-hitters for his varsity […]

The light-hitting, 5-foot-6 shortstop William Benjamin Fuller parlayed his excellent fielding into a nine-year career in the majors (1888-1896), beginning with a 49-game stint with the National League’s Washington Nationals. In 1889 he began a seven-year stretch as a starting shortstop, first with the American Association’s St. Louis Browns and then later back in the […]

A goal of every major leaguer is to play on a team destined for the World Series.  While individuals are in the game for money and personal achievement, being part of a team going to the fall classic is a treasured experience. Nearly 50 years after Minnesota took the 1965 championship, Jerry Fosnow – who […]

Across the decades, various New York Yankee, New York Giant, and Brooklyn Dodger baseball names have acted on-screen. Babe Ruth, for one, appeared in silent-era features; played himself in The Pride of the Yankees (1942), the Lou Gehrig biopic; and starred in various short subjects. Gehrig was toplined in Rawhide (1938), a B-Western. Jackie Robinson […]