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Born May 25, 1845, Lipman Emanuel Pike was the first great Jewish baseball player, playing professionally from 1866 to 1881. While no comparable statistical records exist for his career through 1870, from 1871 through 1881 Pike appeared in 425 National Association and National League games, hitting .322 with a slugging average of .468. Despite being […]

Stefan Wever’s “ticket to ride” was a fastball clocked at 95 miles per hour. The 6-foot-8, 245-pound right-hander dominated the minor leagues and became the tallest player in New York Yankees history1 when he took the mound against the eventual American League champions, the Milwaukee Brewers, on September 17, 1982. His dream-come-true quickly turned into […]

First baseman Billy Jo Robidoux tore up the Texas League in 1985. At age 21, he was in his fourth year of pro baseball, playing for the Double-A El Paso Diablos in the Milwaukee Brewers system. He led the league in batting average (.342), base hits (176), runs batted in (132), and runs scored (111).1 […]

With the possible exception of Sandy Koufax, no Dodger pitcher ever threw harder than Rex Barney. Throughout the late 1940s, Barney’s fastball was the talk of baseball. In 1947, at the age of twenty-two, he struck out Joe DiMaggio with the bases loaded in a World Series game. On a rainy night at the Polo […]

Ron Jackson was a tall, impressive slugger who debuted in the major leagues the day he was signed. The 6-foot-6¾-inch, 225-pound right-handed hitter held the interest of a number of ballclubs because of the gaudy numbers he put up in the minor leagues, but he never truly stuck in major league ball. Ronald Harris Jackson […]

“No one, and I mean no one, knows the game better than Jimy,” said Hall of Fame executive Pat Gillick.1   Jimy Williams became a baseball lifer, signed to his first professional contract by the Boston Red Sox. After a brief big-league playing career, he won a world championship ring as the third-base coach for […]

Patience and power made Ken Singleton one of baseball’s premier switch-hitters. After beginning his 15-year career (1970-1984) with the Mets and Expos, he was a three-time All-Star right fielder for the Orioles and the designated hitter for Baltimore’s 1983 World Series champions. After retiring, Singleton became a popular Yankees broadcaster. Kenneth Wayne Singleton was born […]

“Dino Restelli is a rawboned young man with powerful arms, bushy eyebrows, and a sunny disposition. Like baseball’s famed DiMaggio brothers, he comes from San Francisco’s sandlots. A fortnight ago, upped to the majors from San Francisco of the Pacific Coast League, Dino pulled on a Pittsburgh Pirate uniform, got into the lineup as an outfielder and […]

It was Ted Williams who dubbed Bobby Doerr “the silent captain of the Red Sox” and a more down-to-earth Hall of Famer might be hard to find. A career Red Sox player, Doerr’s fame enjoyed a resurgence in 2004 with the publication of David Halberstam’s book about him and his famous teammates.1  Born in the city of […]

The leading member of the 1947 Yankees’ catchers-by-committee group, Aaron Robinson was behind the plate in seventy-four games, more than any of his fellow backstops. But perhaps his most important role that season was helping groom his eventual successor, future Hall of Famer Yogi Berra. Aaron Andrew Robinson was born on June 23, 1915, in […]

On February 2, 1958, in Hamilton, Ohio, Mrs. Marian H. Tabler introduced newborn Patrick to his dad, siblings, and the world. Patrick was born into a family of German heritage on both paternal and maternal sides. Sometime after the families were connected, it was discovered that, in fact, both sides immigrated from Alsace-Lorraine, a predominantly […]

Imagine you’re playing word association with a baseball nut. Mention Commerce, Oklahoma, and the fan will respond, “Mickey Mantle!” Shout out Donora, Pennsylvania, and the fan will bellow out, “Stan Musial.” And if your next term is Puerto Armuelles, the fan is likely to shout … “Say that again?” Small though it may be, Puerto […]

Throughout nine years of professional baseball, Bill Lyons established his reputation as a versatile utilityman, capable of playing in the infield and outfield. He played in 88 games in parts of two seasons (1983-1984) with the St. Louis Cardinals, serving as the 26th man on a 25-man big-league roster and an insurance policy against injury. […]

Hard-throwing southpaw Dave Koslo was touted as Carl Hubbell’s successor when he debuted for the New York Giants in 1941.Though he never developed into the dominant ace many predicted, he won ten or more games in six of seven seasons (1946-1952) and finished with 92 wins in 12 big-league seasons. His career, however, is defined […]

In 1945, The Sporting News reckoned Eddie Mayo as “an excellent example of the Salvation Army adage, ‘A man may be down, but he is never out.’”1 Acquired by the Detroit Tigers a year earlier after he had failed in several attempts to stick in the big leagues, the 34-year-old infielder helped pace the club […]

In 1954 Gus Triandos, a powerfully built catcher who hit a lot of home runs, was languishing in the New York Yankees’ farm system. To the one-year-old Baltimore Orioles, a team that had a severe shortage of talent, Triandos seemed plenty good enough. And he was: After being sent to the Orioles in a blockbuster […]

Paul Bunyan has nothing on Rich Rowland. Bunyan was a mythical giant lumberjack and folk hero in American and Canadian folklore. He had a pet blue ox named Babe, but never played in the major leagues.1 Rowland – who was “strong like an ox”2 – worked as a lumberjack and heavy equipment operator in the […]

Ruggedly handsome with dark wavy hair, an engaging smile and a boyish grin, the 1934 St. Louis Cardinals’ first baseman was equally capable of leading the league in both home runs and pranks. General manager Branch Rickey suspiciously called him the instigator, to which James Anthony Collins remarked: “Rickey always accused me of being the […]

Back in the Deadball Era, when sassafrass was the primary ingredient used to flavor root beer, just as ginger provided the flavoring for ginger ale, a baseball player who displayed “sassafrass” or “ginger” was a lively player who put forth extraordinary effort, sometimes compensating for a perceived lack of natural ability. Several players have been […]

When baseball fans think about the national pastime and Rhode Island during the Deadball Era, Napoleon Lajoie stands out as the premier sports personality from “Little Rhody.” However, Joseph Connolly, despite just a four-year major-league career (1913-1916), may have had a greater impact on the social, cultural, and baseball fabric of Rhode Island than any […]

When Shufflin’ Phil Douglas arrived on the baseball scene in 1910 at the tender age of 20, he brought with him size and a fastball impressive enough to draw comparisons to Walter Johnson’s. Douglas, a product of Cedartown, Georgia, was a big man, especially for that era, standing 6-feet-3 and weighing 190 pounds, who threw […]

He neither slugged like Aaron nor pitched like Spahn, but Lou Perini made his own indelible mark on baseball history. In fact, one can argue that few men ever made a greater impact on the game without playing professionally than the construction giant who moved the Braves from Boston to Milwaukee. For a half-century from […]

After a slow start for the first four weeks of the 1944 season, the Detroit Tigers jelled as a club, climbed into pennant contention, and finally fell one game short of winning the American League flag. In the end, the pitching of a tall recruit right-hander, James Ruffus Gentry, helped fuel Detroit’s pennant run. Speaking […]

The last home game of the 1952 season at Braves Field was played before 8,882 fans and nearly 32,000 empty seats on a Sunday afternoon in late September. Under the circumstances, this wasn’t much of a surprise. There are plenty of numbers one can use to describe the ’52 Braves, most of them bad. Boston’s […]