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His professional playing career was brief, distinguished only by one of the most peculiar nicknames in major league baseball history. Otherwise, Mother Watson, a two-game pitcher for the 1887 Cincinnati Reds of the American Association, was a nonentity, a performer who left an impression on the game so indistinct that modern reference works cannot even […]

Jim Johnson may have second thoughts if he grew up in today’s era of millionaire ball players. However, the southpaw who pitched for one season with the 1970 San Francisco Giants, valued family and a desire to become an educator as more important values than remaining in the big leagues. Just as he did by […]

Unfortunately, Tim Wakefield just ran out of time. The knuckleballer spent 17 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, recording 186 of his 200 career victories with the franchise – just six short of the team record held by Cy Young and Roger Clemens. He was also a member of two World Series champions, including the […]

The angle of a bouncing baseball can often shape the course of one’s career. That such an occurrence came at a high school track meet and put Jeff Yurak on a path to the major leagues makes his success nothing short of remarkable. Jeff Yurak was born in Pasadena, California, along with a twin brother, […]

About one of every 200 high-school baseball players is drafted by a major-league team. Of those drafted, about 66 percent of first-round draft picks ever get to play in a major-league game, let alone make an Opening Day starting lineup.1 Of the 18,911 players who have donned a big-league uniform, only four have hit three […]

Joe Herr was a power-hitting shortstop in St. Louis in 1888, first for the minor league St. Louis Whites of the Western Association, and then for the St. Louis Browns in the major league American Association. Between the two clubs that year he hit seven home runs, three of which went over the left field […]

When even the most casual baseball fan envisions a first baseman, they conjure an image that looks a lot like Ryan Howard. In other words, a surprisingly athletic, imposing 6-foot-4, 250-pound frame that looks more natural at defensive tackle than on the baseball diamond. For a time, Howard’s production was the pinnacle of that prototypical […]

Rocky Bridges an All-Star? “They were close to launching an investigation,” he said after being named to the 1958 American League All-Star team.1 Bridges made the squad as the token representative of the last-place Washington Senators, but for most of his 11-year big-league career he was the designated comedian for seven teams, a utility infielder […]

“…for if ever a fellow rode to the top the hard way, it has been John Francis Wilson.” — Vic Stout, August 28, 1937 The story of Jack Wilson could be the story of so many players who have passed through professional baseball over the past century. Known for his determination as much as his […]

Garry Lewis Templeton was born on March 24, 1956, in Lockney, Texas, a small town in the state’s northern Panhandle. Templeton’s father, Spiavia, played in the Negro leagues, but Garry was not aware of his father’s history until he was 12 or 13. Spiavia was a backup infielder who played with Satchel Paige (who once […]

It is hard to reconcile Henry Chadwick’s world of gentleman baseball players with the portrayal of New York City in Martin Scorcese’s film The Gangs of New York. One link between these two worlds was John Morrissey; immigrant, “wharf rat”, heavyweight champion, gambler, businessman, congressman and state senator. Morrissey is tied to baseball through accounts […]

New York Yankees scout Joe Devine approached a young, struggling outfielder toiling in the lower minors with the following advice: “Frank, the closest you’ll ever come to center field in Yankee Stadium is in a postcard. But I think you could make the major leagues as a manager.”1 The right-handed-hitting youngster, who’d unsuccessfully tried switch-hitting […]

Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd starts his autobiography recalling back in 1964 when he was 5 years old, and his uncle Frank Boyd brought three civil-rights workers by the family home. Later that same year, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were discovered murdered. Dennis believes they were killed just after they left the Boyd […]

John Sullivan probably caught 10,000 to 100,000 baseballs during his professional baseball career, but none more significant than the last one he caught in the Toronto Blue Jays’ bullpen on October 23, 1993. It was Game Six of the 1993 World Series; the ninth inning. Sullivan, the Blue Jays bullpen coach from 1982 through 1993, […]

He was 22 years old and considered one of the wealthier men in the game.1 At 5-feet-11-inches tall and with looks that made the ladies swoon, he was described as “the alleged Adonis of the ball players.”2 Jack Remsen entered the National Association in 1872 and would remain in the game for 20 years. In […]

It was a dream come true for 23-year-old Stan Jefferson when he led off against San Diego lefty Dave LaPoint in the first game of a doubleheader at Shea Stadium on Sunday, September 7, 1986. He grew up in the Bronx, had been the Mets’ first-round choice in the 1983 amateur draft, and had just […]

In his heyday, Raymond Brown was on top of the Negro League baseball world. He was the Sunday pitcher for the Homestead Grays and played outfield when not on the hill. He was selected to tour with the Negro National League All Stars in 1936, a contingent that included five future Hall of Famers. Articles […]

Fred Koster’s major-league career consisted of only 76 games for the 1931 Philadelphia Phillies as a back-up outfielder. But for years any conversation around the greatest athletes from Louisville, Kentucky, often started with his name. Decades after Koster graduated from the University of Louisville he was still heralded as the best all-around athlete to come […]

Reflecting on the life and career of Pud Galvin, a writer commented that a proper accounting of Galvin’s achievements “would be a task of time and would … require a volume in size almost equal to the dictionary.”1 Galvin pitched for 16 years during a career that spanned three decades, four major leagues, and countless […]

In a period of volatility, heartbreak, and disaster for the New York Mets — including the death of owner Joan Payson, the trading of Tom Seaver to the Cincinnati Reds and Dave Kingman to the San Diego Padres on the same day, and last-place finishes from 1977-79 and 1982-83 — backup catcher Ron Hodges provided […]

Roy Campanella with a mighty swing during spring training with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the early 1950s. (SABR-Rucker Archive)   Baseball fans making their way to Ebbets Field for Game Five of the 1953 World Series were in a festive mood even while a weather prediction of overcast skies took shape.1 Police officers yearned for […]

After a three-season Negro National League liftoff, Minnie Miñoso’s career as integrated baseball’s first Afro-Latino star blazed almost entirely in the American League, from 1949 debut with the Cleveland Indians through late-season appearances with the Chicago White Sox more than a quarter-century later. Miñoso crossed over to the National League only once, in 1962, when […]

John Kruk was shirtless in the Philadelphia Phillies clubhouse. This was nothing new. What was new was the custom T-shirt in his hands. He held it high so teammate Darren Daulton could read its red-lettered inscription: “If I can’t play in the game, I’ll take my ball and go home.”1 It would take more than […]

What possible reason would there be to include a Celtic-influenced punk rock band from Boston on the SABR BioProject site? Just ask former Red Sox outfielder Johnny Damon or pitchers Bronson Arroyo and Lenny DiNardo, who sang backup for the band on a song called “Tessie” in 2004. The superstitious members of Sox Nation will […]