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The elder statesman of the Baby Birds staff that vaulted the Baltimore Orioles into pennant contention in the early 1960s was a mere 22-year-old. He is the only AL pitcher to lead the circuit in wins during a rookie campaign and the only one in either league to do so since Chicago Cubs righty Larry […]

An All-Star and 20-game winner in 1970, Jim Merritt was a crafty southpaw who went 81-86 during an 11-year big-league career spent most notably with the Minnesota Twins and the Cincinnati Reds. “Aggressiveness,” replied Merritt when asked about the key to his success. (He won 62 games over the four-year period 1967-70 before arm injuries […]

“I’m always the 11th man on a 10-man pitching staff,” left-hander Rob Gardner told The Sporting News in 1972.1 Gardner signed as an 18-year-old with the Minnesota Twins in 1963 and debuted with the New York Mets as a September call-up in 1965. In just his fourth big-league start, he dueled Chris Short of the […]

When John Hiller retired in 1980 after 15 seasons, all with Detroit, he was the last member of the 1968 world champion Tigers still playing in the majors. Best known, perhaps, for his work out of the bullpen, Hiller in fact started 43 games for the Tigers, 12 of them in the star-struck 1968 season. […]

On February 4, 1921, Carl “Babe” Holling was arrested for burglary of a San Francisco apartment … while holding his first major-league contract in his pocket.1 After charges were eventually dropped, the pitcher parlayed his two years with the Oakland Oaks of the Pacific Coast League into being one of a bumper crop of California […]

Although a member of a New York City family with deep roots in pioneer era baseball, Cornelius Van Cott had no great interest in the game. Neither a ballplayer during his youth nor much of a fan thereafter, Van Cott’s concerns were commerce, the city’s firefighting service, Republican Party politics, and the New York City […]

Gary Allenson is a baseball lifer. He began his baseball career as a Little Leaguer and spent his entire life involved in the game. He played baseball at every level and has managed or coached at every professional level. Allenson was an excellent player at Arizona State University and competed in two College World Series […]

“Santop hit the ball farther than anybody.”1 — Jesse Hubbard   If there is one player who stands out from the early days of the Negro League era—1900 to 1925—it is Louis Santop. He was talented, with the then-rare ability to hit the long ball in what was known as the dead-ball era. He was […]

Billy Hunter played shortstop with a flashy glove, great team spirit, and a zest for the game. The Brooklyn Dodgers thought he could someday succeed Pee Wee Reese. But as things turned out, they traded Hunter away before he reached the major leagues, and by the time Reese retired, Hunter was playing out the string. […]

Neil Allen enjoyed three good years as a closer with the New York Mets in the early 1980s. However, over the course of his 11 years in the majors (1979-1989), the righty bounced back and forth between starting and relieving. Yet despite a rocky road professionally and personally, Allen’s native enthusiasm remained intact. That made […]

Right-hander Ray Kremer can lay a legitimate claim as being the best pitcher in big-league history to debut in his 30s. After failing in a spring-training tryout with the New York Giants in 1916, Kremer logged more than 2,100 innings and won over 100 games in the Pacific Coast League in the late 1910s and […]

In April 1954, as Philadelphia Athletics third baseman Jim Finigan was launching his major-league career, The Sporting News contributor Art Morrow characterized him “as a fellow who could not miss major league stardom.”1 Earle Mack, a son of future Hall of Fame skipper Connie Mack, echoed the sentiment five months later: “[Finigan] played good, steady […]

Dennis Lamp was a right-handed pitcher who racked up 96 major-league wins over the course of a 16-year career that saw him work for six different ballclubs. Three of his first four wins were shutouts. He worked most of his last 10 seasons as a reliever, with exactly half (48) of his wins coming in […]

Paulino Casanova — known to English speakers simply as Paul — enjoyed his two best big-league seasons straight away. In 1966, the Cuban set a career high in homers with 13 and was named catcher on The Sporting News American League All-Star team. In 1967, he went to the midseason All-Star game for the AL. […]

He’s been termed a “reluctant pioneer.” All Pumpsie Green wanted to do was play professional baseball. He didn’t even aspire to the major leagues at first, and would have been content playing for his hometown Oakland Oaks in the Pacific Coast League. That said, Pumpsie Green took pride in the fact that he helped accomplish […]

“I wish I had my own baseball card,” Chris Singleton remembers Keith Foulke saying to him during a road trip in El Paso while they were playing together in the Giants’ minor-league system. “He wasn’t a guy who was highly touted, but I said, ‘You’re good, man. It’s just a matter of time.’ Now, here […]

Henry “Hank” Gehring wasn’t a household word around the neighborhoods of St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1900, but in the coming years the right-handed pitcher made a name for himself while leaving a distinctive mark or two upon baseball history. Gehring called St. Paul home during his entire career in organized ball. He made the climb […]

Dusty Baker has spent a lifetime in baseball. After a productive career as an outfielder for four teams over a 19-year career, Baker joined the managerial ranks. As a major league manager over most of the period since 1993, he developed a reputation for helping teams win, although it took him until 2022 to capture […]

“When he pitched, he looked like a spider doing aerobics,” one witness said.1 Lanky right-hander Pascual Pérez entertained fans and infuriated opponents with his spontaneous, emotional style over all or parts of 11 seasons (1980-1985, 1987-1991) with the Pirates, Braves, Expos and Yankees. Perhaps best known for getting lost on the way to his home […]

For generations, many American fathers have raised their sons with dreams of emulating their baseball hero, Mickey Mantle. Chipper Jones’s father was no different. From an early age, his son reminded him of The Mick: a small-town country boy with charming good looks, a Southern drawl, and a preternatural ability to hit a baseball from […]

Any list of the greatest players ever to don a Milwaukee Brewers uniform has to include Don Money. He is a four-time All-Star and a Brewers’ Walk of Fame member who holds major-league records as a third baseman. Money was an infield specialist who amassed a .975 fielding percentage over 16 seasons from 1968 to […]

He owned and operated the Kansas City and Oakland Athletics for 20 years. Nearly everyone, including fellow owners, players, the fans of his teams, the media, and the baseball commissioner, disliked or even despised him. When his team lost, he blamed everyone but himself. When they won, he was apt to call the radio booth […]

Outside the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York, a statue depicting southpaw Johnny Podres after a pitch release stands 60 feet, six inches from a statue of catcher Roy Campanella. They commemorate the Brooklyn Dodgers winning the 1955 World Series over the New York Yankees, their traditional autumn foe at […]

As a founding franchise of the American League, at least in its major-league incarnation, the Boston club has had its share of colorful and fascinating owners. Though the club enjoyed considerable on-field success at the beginning of each century, it is perhaps most famous for its 86-year championship drought, a period dominated by its most […]