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“If you pitch the second game, Newk, I’ll give you tomorrow off to go fishing.” – Brooklyn Dodgers manager Burt Shotton1   With less than four weeks remaining in the 1950 regular season, the Brooklyn Dodgers boarded the train bound for Philadelphia to open a four-game series with the National League’s first-place Phillies. The Dodgers […]

“It’s too hot for a sermon today. Go home, keep the commandments, and say a prayer for Gil Hodges. — Father Herbert Redmond1 Every baseball game has a story. This one has several. Sometimes the story just centers on the action and statistics generated inside the ballpark. This one stretches well beyond. And sometimes the […]

Baseball’s distinctive aspects – the most scheduled games of all team sports, greatest amenability to playing two games in one day, and highest likelihood of suspended games getting completed at a later date – have produced more than a few chronological oddities. On May 30, 1922, Max Flack and Cliff Heathcote swapped teams between games […]

Baseball fans often hear of researchers uncovering records set by current and former players which sometimes lead to discussions about which records are most likely never to be broken. Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak, Cy Young’s career win total, and Cal Ripken’s consecutive games streak are often put up as examples of records that will stand […]

In 1887, future Hall of Fame hurler Tim Keefe was interviewed and praised pitcher Charlie Sweeney. He regarded him as the “greatest twirler that ever lived, and that his equal does not now exist, and … never will.”1 Keefe was referring specifically to Sweeney’s 1884 performance, in which he won a combined 41 games with […]

Countless Illinois high-school basketball players knew Bob Freels as “Mr. Steps,” the hawkeyed referee who made sure no traveling penalty went uncalled.1 Freels apparently became so fond of the nickname that he carries it for eternity: It’s etched into his gravestone in his hometown of Mascoutah, Illinois, in the southern part of the state, about […]

Johnny Antonelli, somewhat unfairly, is remembered by the incidents he was part of, instead of as an individual who had an impressive pitching career. Labels abound and, of the memories attached to them, controversies. He was, in the minds of many, a “bonus baby” who never paid his dues in the minors. A player on […]

Throughout baseball history, careers have often been defined by a specific play or events. Joe DiMaggio is recalled for his 56-game hitting streak; Willie Mays for his catch in the 1954 World Series. Likewise, players can be maligned for ineptitude, real or perceived. Fred Merkle’s race-altering baserunning gaffe in 1908 and Bill Buckner’s inability to […]

In March 1956, New York Yankees manager Casey Stengel watched in “amazement” as Rod Kanehl, the club’s versatile 22-year-old prospect, “scaled the fence in a do-or-die effort to catch” a home run ball during a meaningless practice game.1 The effort left a lasting impression on Casey that when the New York Mets hired the future […]

Not unlike the lead character in Winston Groom’s 1986 novel Forrest Gump, Raymond Floyd Sanders (through happy coincidence or, less likely, adroit planning) was able to build a reservoir of memories in baseball, both delightful and unfortunate, that other ballplayers with much longer careers could only envy. In fact, Sanders’ appearance in four World Series […]

Six-foot-seven right-handed pitcher Rich Gale joined Tim Stoddard of Baltimore as the tallest players in the American League when he debuted with an excellent rookie season for the Kansas City Royals in 1978. For a team that would win a third straight division title, he earned 13 of his 14 victories by the first week […]

Robert Lee “Bob” Oliver played baseball with the Kansas City Royals in 1969, their inaugural season, getting his first real opportunity to show off his baseball skills at the age of 26. He toiled in the minor-league systems of the Pittsburgh Pirates and Minnesota from 1963 to 1968, receiving a cup of coffee with the […]

“I know I’ve been a chump for a long time,” said Frank Grube on the verge of making the St. Louis Browns in April 1941, “and I know I’ve got some good baseball left in me. You don’t know how tough it is,” Grube continued, looking back on the past four years he had spent […]

Ron Hassey is the only catcher to have been behind the plate for two perfect games in the major leagues. Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Mike Piazza, Mickey Cochrane, Carlton Fisk, Gary Carter, and Roy Campanella did not catch any. Buster Posey, Yogi Berra, and Iván Rodríguez have “only” one to their name. In fact, […]

During Michael Cuddyer’s 15-year major league career, he was an All-Star in both leagues, helped lead the Mets to the World Series, won a batting championship for the Rockies, and was the longtime heart and soul of the Minnesota Twins. Marked for stardom at a young age, Cuddyer battled to establish himself in the big […]

Stan Williams worked in professional baseball for more than 50 years. The Dodgers signed the big, tall, right-handed fireballer after he completed high school in the 1950s, and he was still on a major-league payroll as a scout as late as 2010. Williams had a knack for contributing to winning teams. In just his second […]

“Only 56 more and I’ll catch Babe Ruth,”1 quipped Chuck Hiller after accomplishing what the Sultan of Swat never could. On October 8, 1962, this singles hitter made history by striking the seventh World Series grand slam – and the first by a National Leaguer – in leading the San Francisco Giants to a 7-3 […]

Once a promising right-hander blessed with a blazing fastball and hard overhand curve, Joe Sparma seemed destined to become a mainstay of the Detroit Tigers’ starting rotation when he joined the team in 1964. Though he showed flashes of brilliance over his seven-year career, a frustrating lack of control and a perceived inability to remain […]

One of baseball’s charms is its lack of timekeeping. Though in most games it can be enjoyable, this charm is a potential source of frustration if a team is losing badly and (since there is no “mercy rule” in the majors) might rather run out a clock than go the full nine innings. One such […]

Roy White was a quiet, graceful leader on the New York Yankees during a transitional period in the club’s history. His strength of character and remarkable versatility enabled him to survive, and even excel, in the shark tank that is so often New York Yankee baseball. At a time when the great careers of Mickey […]

With his poor eyesight, and notoriously poor control, flame-throwing pitcher Ryne Duren’s fastball put the fear of God into opposing hitters in the late 1950s and early 1960s. “Duren was the standard by how we ranked hard throwers,” All-Star pitcher and pitching coach Jim Kaat said. “We’d say [so-and-so] can throw almost as hard as […]

With a major-league career that comprised only 39 games, Herbert Harrison Hunter still managed to play in baseball’s four biggest markets: New York, Chicago, Boston, and St. Louis. After 1920, in which he played in four games for the Boston Red Sox, Hunter became a baseball tour impresario of sorts, leading a group of major […]

Like the hotel wallpaper, Ashley Lloyd was little noticed at the National League meetings that he regularly attended as a front-office executive and minority-interest baseball club owner. Now a century later, Lloyd is virtually forgotten, with his name mentioned only in passing, if at all, in most histories of the Cincinnati Reds and New York […]

A sturdy right-handed pitcher from Puerto Rico, Eduardo Rodríguez Reyes is not to be confused with Venezuelan lefty Eduardo Rodriguez Hernández. Rodríguez Reyes spent seven years in the major leagues (1973-79) and compiled a 42-36 record with a 3.89 ERA. His sterling yet limited batting line (one plate appearance, one triple) carries historical relevance: it […]