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After an eight-year apprenticeship in the minor leagues, from 1959 to 1966, Norm Gigon played one year of major-league baseball in 1967 as a utility infielder-outfielder with the Chicago Cubs. Following his retirement as a player, Gigon coached the baseball team at Lafayette College, where he most famously nurtured Joe Maddon, a future major-league manager, […]

Frank E. Bradley, a fireballing right-handed pitcher who played in six seasons for the Kansas City Monarchs before suffering a career-ending wound in World War II, was born on February 3, 1918, in Benton, Bossier Parish, Louisiana. He was the son of June and Adline (Gates) Bradley. If Frank had any siblings, no mention of […]

With one extraordinary season Roger Maris secured his place in baseball history. And yet his establishment of the major league home run record in 1961 proved to be more of a personal curse than a professional triumph. It also overshadowed, indeed overwhelmed, the totality of a career characterized at least as much by his consistent […]

A GPS search for “middle of nowhere” might lead you to Tovar, Venezuela, a town of roughly 42,000 people located more than a mile up in the Andes. It is an unlikely birthplace for a Cy Young Award winner, but in a ballpark in Tovar there is a proud sign that says, “Welcome to the […]

George Crowe was Indiana’s first Mr. Basketball and became a “Big Daddy” to early black players in major league baseball. “Crowe was the most articulate and far-sighted Negro then in the majors,” Jackie Robinson wrote. “Young Negroes turned to him for advice.”1 Yet this splendid athlete and respected leader chose to spend one-third of his […]

During a playing career that spanned a remarkable six decades, Jim O’Rourke did much to advance baseball as our national pastime. A key member of championship teams in both the National Association and the National League, O’Rourke was a versatile performer in the field and a reliable .300 hitter at the plate. Thereafter, as his […]

When the expansion Kansas City Royals hired Cedric Tallis as the team’s GM, he assumed an almost impossible task. Before the first expansion season was even half over in 1969, Kansas City owner Ewing Kauffman was proclaiming that a glorious future was not far away. A hard-driving yet generous pharmaceutical entrepreneur, Kauffman publicly stated that […]

“One day you’re skipping school to watch the Giants play in the ’62 Series against the Yankees. … (Two years later), you’re pitching against Mickey Mantle.” — Wally Bunker1 The youngest athlete to garner Most Valuable Player consideration, in 1964 Wally Bunker tied the American League record for most wins by a rookie. Through 2015 […]

All right up there, drop down the ladder from your clubhouse. A new member is joining you. Henry, show him the secret handshake. Willie, educate him on the secret password. Babe, don’t hog all those s’mores. Junior, slide over a bit. Gentlemen, please welcome Jim Thome to the 600 Home Run Club. It may seem […]

Few players in the history of major-league baseball have displayed each of the prized “five tools,” meaning the ability to hit for average and for power, to run, to field, and to throw. On that  short list belongs the name of Ellis Burks, who began his major-league career as a 22-year-old rookie for the Boston […]

Pitcher Paul Zahniser played for three teams but never had a winning year in the majors. He played for 13 teams in Organized Baseball and was once traded for Bubbles. In 14 minor-league seasons, he did win more than he lost (147-140) with a career 3.78 earned run average over 2,627 innings. During his five […]

When Phil Rizzuto went to his first Major League tryout, a New York Giants coach told him he was too small to play in the big leagues and suggested he should make a living by shining shoes.1 But in a later tryout with the Yankees, Rizzuto impressed scout Paul Krichell, who recommended they sign the […]

If, like beauty, the assessment of baseball talent lies in the eye of the beholder, the wide divergence of opinion on the abilities of Deadball Era outfielder Bert Daniels can be rationalized. Opinions, naturally, may differ. With our subject, whether it was his batting, defense, or base running, Daniels was both praised and derided — […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers franchise had no more loyal foot soldier than Joseph Julius “Babe” Hamberger. The lifelong Brooklynite began working for the Dodgers in 1921 as a 14-year-old batboy. He held numerous other jobs with the club, ending up as superintendent of Ebbets Field in 1958 after the Dodgers left for Los Angeles. Hamberger’s heart […]

“What is one to say about June — the time of perfect young summer, the fulfillment of the promise of the earlier months, and with as yet no sign to remind one that its fresh young beauty will ever fade?” — Gertrude Jekyll1   On the afternoon of June 23, 1984, at Wrigley Field, the hometown Chicago […]

Mike Cuellar was a four-time 20-game winner for the Baltimore Orioles, and the winner of 185 major-league games. He could also lay claim to being the one of the most superstitious players in baseball. “He had a routine and please don’t interfere with it,” remembered a teammate, Paul Blair. “He would walk to the mound […]

“I like to think of the world’s greatest athlete coming up to bat against me – Tiger Woods, Wayne Gretzky, I don’t care who it is – and I’m looking at him thinking, ‘You have no chance.’ “1 There was a moment in the third game of the 1996 World Series that felt eerily familiar […]

The first four men inducted into the Boston Braves Hall of Fame after its formation by fans of the long-defunct National League club were Warren Spahn, John Sain, Tommy Holmes, and Sebastian “Sibby” Sisti. In order, that’s one Hall of Famer, two All-Stars, and one .244 hitter who lasted for 14-plus years in the majors […]

Like Babe Ruth, he was a savior for the major leagues when the game was at risk of losing fans. Like Jackie Robinson, he was a courageous pioneer who blazed a trail and opened new doors of opportunity for others to follow. Like Fernando Valenzuela, he was the pride of a specific ethnic community, yet […]

When Joe Nathan graduated from high school, he seemed destined for great things. Just not necessarily on the baseball diamond. “He was one smart dude,” recalled Tom Walraven, his baseball coach at Pine Bush (New York) High School, describing Nathan as a “thin little kid who batted .230” while playing shortstop his senior year.1 “I […]

It is the rare man whose co-ownership of the New York Yankees would go unmentioned in his obituary. Yet such was the case for Bill Devery.1 Largely a silent partner in the club from its founding in 1903 until its sale a dozen years later, Devery had a negligible effect on franchise history, having left […]

It was a dreary, overcast day in Brooklyn on April 15, 1954. The visiting Pirates were at Ebbets Field to face the Dodgers. The home team had jumped out to a 7-1 lead courtesy of home runs by Roy Campanella, Jim Gilliam and Jackie Robinson. Tex Ricard, the Dodger PA announcer announced a pitching change […]

In Wisconsin during the mid- and late 1950s, the most recognizable voices in the entire baseball-crazy state belonged to Earl Gillespie and Blaine Walsh, the Milwaukee Braves’ tandem of radio broadcasters. In stores, on front porches, in open convertibles at stoplights, their descriptions and accounts of the games was unavoidable. Love-struck residents of the Badger […]

The End of the Beginning When the Boston Braves left the field at the South End Grounds on Tuesday, August 11, 1914, the glorious opening chapter of professional baseball in Boston passed into history without notice. After a frustrating 13-inning, 0-0 tie with the Cincinnati Reds, all that mattered that day was that the Braves […]