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During the Deadball Era, physical size was considered a huge asset for a catcher. A big man was thought to be better able to withstand the physical demands of the position and thus be more durable than a smaller man. The success of Detroit’s Charlie “Boss” Schmidt (5’11”, 200 pounds) was probably one of the […]

“Former Well-Known Hamilton Ball Player Died in Chicago” headed the modest notice in the Hamilton (Ontario) Spectator on March 19, 1923. 1 The obituary briefly refers to careers in both baseball and medicine. What is not mentioned: Peter Burke Wood was a talented, intelligent, loyal, strong-willed, and troubled individual who, despite an intermittently brief major […]

“Pete Kilduff, by dipping dust whenever Burleigh Grimes was to pitch a spitter in the 1920 Brooklyn-Cleveland (World Series), tipped off the Indians when a spitter was coming, and they let it pass and clouted his fast one, winning the series by beating the Brooklyn spitball ace, simply because they got onto a spitball sign.” […]

On the very last ball he fielded as a major-league ballplayer, Pete Smith initiated a triple play. It happened in the seventh inning of the Red Sox game against the visiting Los Angeles Angels on September 28, 1963. It was a Saturday afternoon game at Fenway Park. There weren’t many fans in attendance – official […]

A switch-hitter with speed and the patience to draw walks, Pete Stanicek appeared to be an ideal leadoff hitter when he debuted with the Baltimore Orioles. A succession of injuries limited the second baseman/outfielder to parts of two big league seasons (1987-1988), however, and he played his final professional game at 27. Peter Louis Stanicek […]

He “gripped a bat so tight that when you shook hands with him, you shook hands with a callus.”1  The quote epitomizes Pete Fox, who was remembered as a “winning ballplayer, diligent and deadly serious…”2 Fox rose from the sandlots of Evansville, Indiana, to play 13 seasons in the big leagues. A lifetime .298 hitter, […]

Pete Knisely’s story is a familiar one: a player who excelled in the minors, could knock a ball over fences and walls in left field,1 but failed to make an impact in the majors over four seasons from 1912 through 1915. Knisley was known as “Pickleburg Pete”2 or “Pickle Bird.”3 (The origins of these nicknames […]

To be an everyday player for nearly every year of a 13-year career with just one team, a player must be doing something right. For Pete “Pecky” Suder, a career .249 hitter, a dependable glove and versatility were the keys to that longevity. Playing only for the Philadelphia/Kansas City Athletics from 1941-1955 (with 1944-45 spent […]

Pete Vuckovich was a menacing figure. He was big: 6-feet-4 and 220 pounds (or more). He glowered over a Fu Manchu mustache and often had a few days’ growth elsewhere to go with his long, unkempt hair. While pitching, he had “a streak of calculated weirdness.”1 Rasputin comparisons arose, and he encouraged them, applauding the […]

On the surface, it’s difficult to imagine a major-league ballplayer with more disappointing statistics — a pitcher with a career winning percentage of .000, a batting average of .000, and a fielding percentage of .500. But Pete Magrini had six very good seasons in minor-league baseball and, after all, attained a goal that most professional […]

Versatile Tom Underwood enjoyed an 11-year major-league career (1974-84) pitching for six teams. He was a quick worker with a smooth delivery, underrated fastball — Pete Rose called it “sneaky” — and “one of the best curves of any lefthander.”1 Officially listed at 5-feet-11 and 170 pounds, in his prospect years he was also identified as 5’9” […]

In the spring of 1960 few high-school athletes in the country were more highly sought after than Pete Cimino. As a 17-year-old senior pitcher at Bristol (Pennsylvania) High School, he followed up a 14-strikeout perfect game on May 16 with a no-hitter four days later. His exploits on the diamond were overshadowed only by the […]

On a cold, rainy Valentine’s Day in 1962, several newspaper reporters brazenly walked through the open driveway gates of a mansion on Maryland’s Eastern Shore looking for the United States spy-plane pilot Francis Gary Powers. Powers, who had been shot down over Russia in 1960, had been recently returned to the U.S. in a prisoner […]

Baseball is a difficult game to play well for those with two good arms but Pete Gray did it with one. Gray played only one season in the major leagues, 1945, but that was enough to have a lasting positive influence on people with disabilities. His accomplishment enlightened those of us who are perfectly formed, […]

Assumption High School in Windsor, Canada, must have had some pretty good ballplayers in 1956 and 1957. “I never made the baseball team. I was cut in both my junior and senior years,” said Pete Craig. “They had two really good pitchers and didn’t need a third. I could throw hard, but had no control.”1 […]

Even if Pete Varney had never strapped on a chest protector and shin guards for Harvard, he would have had a place in the hearts of the Crimson sports faithful forever from one momentous football game in 1968. But baseball was his game, as he gained All-American recognition and led Harvard into the 1971 College […]

Gary Carter had been The Sporting News’ National League Rookie Player of the Year in 1975.1 He was the Montreal Expos’ sole representative at the 1975 All-Star Game and the recipient of the team’s Player-of-the-Year Award.2 But despite all of the accolades, Carter went into spring training in 1976 battling for playing time at catcher […]

If the Boston Red Sox taking the 1975 World Series opener from the Big Red Machine was surprising, 95-win Boston taking a two-games-to-none lead over the 108-win Cincinnati Reds would have been a complete shock to the baseball system. And for the better part of Sunday afternoon, October 12, it seemed that the Red Sox […]

“I was gunning for it, all right,” said Ralph Kiner, the Pittsburgh Pirates star left fielder. “I was sure gunning for that fourth home run in the ninth inning yesterday against the Dodgers … You don’t get these chances too often.”1 Although another home run would have nudged Kiner deeper into rare historic company, the […]

Invented by Harvard College baseball nine captain Fred Thayer, the first catcher’s mask was a brass and leather contraption first worn by Crimson catcher Jim Tyng in the early spring of 1877.1 By mid-April, both Boston’s Wright Brothers store (owned in part by Red Stockings manager Harry Wright and his brother George) and Chicago’s A.G. […]

In the early morning hours of Sunday, July 23, 1967, Detroit police raided an after-hours “blind pig,” an unlicensed bar, at 12th Street and Clairmount Avenue in the center of the city’s oldest and poorest black neighborhood.1 A party at the bar was in progress to celebrate the return of two African-American servicemen from Vietnam. […]

The Louisville Colonels didn’t have many bright spots during their major-league-record 26-game losing streak1 in 1889, but Pete Browning’s cycle on June 7 was one of them. Browning’s feat came in Louisville’s 9-7, 11-inning road loss to the Philadelphia Athletics. The Colonels entered the game losers of 13 straight American Association games and followed it […]

The biggest story in baseball history was breaking in Chicago as the Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals took the field in the Windy City to kick off a three-game set to end the regular season. Three days earlier, star pitcher Eddie Cicotte of the Chicago White Sox had testified in a Cook County courthouse before […]

Among the top scouts, few have possessed as varied a background and perspective as John Joseph (Jack) Doyle. During his remarkable 71 years in the game, Doyle performed as a front-line player and captain, major- and minor-league player-manager, National League umpire, minor-league club owner, and as the head scout of the Chicago Cubs during their […]