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Harold Baines played 22 years in the majors (1980-2001), mostly with the Chicago White Sox. In 2019, following years of brisk and at times vociferous debate, Baines was enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Though he led the league just once in any offensive category, he was a major threat at the plate. […]

During his two stints as a broadcaster for the Athletics, Monte Moore covered some of the best teams in their history, and some of the worst.  Beginning his major-league broadcasting career in the final years of the A’s time in Kansas City, he followed the team to the West Coast and broadcast six American League […]

Don Gile was a catcher and first baseman for the Boston Red Sox who, almost exactly two years to the day after Ted Williams did it, hit a home run in his final at-bat in the major leagues. Unlike Williams’ home run, Gile’s won the game in a walkoff. The date was September 30, 1962, […]

Sometimes the best deals are those that aren’t made. In the spring of 1908, Boston was so impressed by a pitcher they faced in an exhibition game at Toledo they offered the Mud Hens $5,000 for him. Toledo Manager Bill Armour asked a reported $7,000 for the contract of Jack Bushelman – so he remained […]

A major-league umpire for 35 seasons, Joseph Norbert Brinkman was born on April 9, 1944, in Little Falls, Minnesota. His parents, Henry and Rose Brinkman, lived in nearby Holdingford and ran a dairy farm with about 80 to 90 head of cattle. Brinkman was the seventh of nine children, having seven sisters and one brother. The family was […]

After the Seattle Mariners joined the American League as an expansion team in 1977, the team and its fans endured 14 consecutive losing seasons. However, one player from this era emerged having made such an impact that he earned the nickname “Mr. Mariner.” Alvin Davis was the franchise’s first homegrown star and won the Rookie […]

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 […]

“There are ballplayers who can’t remember the last town they were in, much less the first fellow to ever help them, but Woody Woodward remembers both and also has a habit of remembering to be right there any time someone needs his help. He sees nothing strange about that. ‘That’s the only way to do […]

He won the second-most games of any pitcher in the 1980s, was a seven-time All-Star, and helped transform the Toronto Blue Jays from expansion basement-dwellers to world champions. But Dave Stieb may be best known for his terrible luck in attempting to close out no-hitters. Four times in five years, Stieb reached the ninth inning […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

“…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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

The Chicago White Sox (13-11) were looking for a series win against the Detroit Tigers (9-12). The White Sox had taken the first two of the four-game series. It was a beautiful night in Chicago. At 73 degrees it was even a bit cool for August. Perhaps that would help the starting pitchers since both […]

George Earnshaw “gave an exhibition of pitching mastery that has been seldom equaled in [the] world series,” declared St. Louis sportswriter John E. Wray.1 Pitching on one day’s rest, the Philadelphia Athletics hurler tossed a complete game to win Game Six and capture the club’s second straight title. Lauded as the “the lionhearted leviathan of […]

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 […]