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Baseball lifers Branch Rickey and Fred Haney described Cal Hogue’s knee-buckling curveball as one of baseball’s best — if he could control it. Seven years after signing his first professional contract, Hogue finally reached the majors in 1952, tossing a four-hitter in his first start. He never harnessed the potential of his breaking ball and […]

“Not getting booed at Ebbets Field was an amazing thing. Those fans knew their baseball, and Gil was the only player I can remember whom the fans never, I mean never, booed.”1 — Clem Labine “… epitomizes the courage, sportsmanship and integrity of America’s favorite pastime.” — back of a 1966 Topps baseball card “Gil […]

The last position player who played with a major-league club for an entire season and hit .400 was not Ted Williams, but it was a fellow Red Soxer: Roger LaFrancois. Roger used to go to Red Sox games as a kid. He signed with the Red Sox and came up in their system, even receiving […]

When Scott Williamson joined the Cincinnati Reds at spring training in 1999, he was a nonroster invitee with long odds of making the team. Before the year was over, however, the hard-throwing right-hander was an All-Star and the National League Rookie of the Year. Although injuries prevented Williamson from replicating the success of his rookie […]

Colombia has been sending more men than ever to the majors in the 21st century. But when shortstop Jackie Gutierrez made his debut with the Boston Red Sox in 1983, he was just the second man who learned the game in that nation to make it to the top level. Way back in 1902, Colombian-born […]

One of the most charismatic players of his era, Bill Monroe starred for several leading African-American professional teams from 1899 until his untimely death in 1915. In the field, he excelled at third, short, and second. At the plate, his speed and power enabled him to shine either as a lead-off man or in the […]

Baseball writers were intrigued by the unlikely story of a slightly built walk-on working his way up to play for the New York Yankees. As a result, Bernard Oliver Bengough was referred to as “the Peter Pan of baseball” during the early years of his professional career.1 The youngest child of James Bengough (1862-1930), a […]

Gary Gaetti did it all over 20 seasons (1981-2000) for five major-league teams. He spent the first decade of his career with the Minnesota Twins, where he was a two-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner at third base. In 1987, when the Twins won the first championship in franchise history, he was the MVP […]

In the autumn of 1956, slightly more than three years after his minor league debut helped break the color barrier in the Piedmont League, Charlie Peete’s life seemed full of promise. He had won the American Association batting crown for the just-completed season, hitting .350 for Omaha. Beyond that, his parent club, the St. Louis […]

Although he was a catcher in 527 of his 922 major league games, Mike Grady is best known as a third baseman who made a record number of errors on one ground ball, a play that never happened. At 5’ 11” and a muscular 190 pounds, Grady was a versatile player for the Phillies, Browns, Giants, […]

Starting pitcher Mark Lemongello spent parts of four seasons (1976-1979) with the Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays. An intense right-hander, he had good command of his sinker-slider repertoire, but a lack of control over his infamous temper contributed to his demise in professional baseball. Mark Limongello was born on July 21, 1955, in Jersey […]

The routine remains one of the enduring spectacles in modern baseball history: In a heavy downpour, with the infield covered by a tarpaulin and the fans huddled beneath umbrellas or hunched over in ponchos in an attempt to ward off the rain, the second coming of Babe Ruth approaches home plate with the same small, […]

“On a muggy, overcast night in Chavez Ravine,” the Pittsburgh Pirates defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 11-3, a game highlighted by Willie Stargell’s home run in the seventh inning that was the first ever hit out of Dodger Stadium. “It appeared to be Apollo 12,” one observer noted as the baseball landed in the parking […]

The Pittsburgh Pirates suffered through a miserable 1955 season, and entered the final weekend hosting the NL-leading Brooklyn Dodgers. Back in April, Pittsburgh GM Branch Rickey was optimistic heading into the season opener, citing outfield and pitching improvements, with third base as his major concern: “This 1955 club will be the best Pittsburgh has had […]

Hard-hitting first baseman Nate Colbert was the San Diego Padres’ first legitimate star. He was the team’s offensive leader for its first five seasons and a three-time All-Star (1971-73).1 After the 1973 season, general manager Peter Bavasi went to Colbert to get his blessing before he acquired 35-year-old Willie McCovey in a trade with the […]

The idea of Luis Tiant pitching at Chicago’s Wrigley Field doesn’t seem unusual. Perhaps that’s because Tiant pitched some of the most memorable seasons of his long career at Fenway Park – like Wrigley, a cherished remnant of the “jewel box” era – as a member of the Boston Red Sox from 1971 through 1978. […]

The Boston Red Sox hit nine grand slams during the 2013 regular season, five in the month of September alone.1 On September 25, the final Wednesday of the regular-season schedule, third baseman Will Middlebrooks hit the team’s fifth September grand slam. He also hit a three-run homer earlier in the game, doing enough damage all […]

Yogi Berra is credited with saying the baseball truism “It ain’t over till it’s over.”1 Until the final out is made, don’t count out any team. The Garden City (Kansas) Telegram aptly summed up the late-night heroics of the Kansas City Royals after they defeated the Milwaukee Brewers on June 15, 1979: “It was a […]

The unusual 1981 season, torn into halves by a players strike and lengthened by a specially added first round of playoffs, ended on a familiar note – a World Series featuring the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers. The former New York City neighbors were facing off for the 11th time. The Yankees had […]

In late February 1985, Pittsburgh Pirates general manager Pete Peterson signed veteran right-handed pitcher Rick Reuschel to a one-year deal with the Hawaii Islanders, Pittsburgh’s Triple-A affiliate in the Pacific Coast League. The contract provided Reuschel an opportunity to compete for a spot with the Pirates in spring training. In June 1982 he had been […]

On a miserably raw Wednesday afternoon in the first full year of the Great Depression, with two second-division ballclubs playing in front of a few thousand fans, a legendary pitching career reached an ignoble end. Grover Cleveland “Pete” Alexander was on his second stint with the Philadelphia Phillies, for whom he’d won 190 games in […]

The National League’s St. Louis Browns and Louisville Colonels faced each other on August 16, 1895, in what one newspaper described as “a somnolent game.”1 Even though the home team won and there were 13 total runs scored, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch told its readers that the two teams “put up a sleepy game,”2 while […]

At a news conference the evening before the 60th All-Star Game, National League President Bill White congratulated the leading vote-getters from each league, drawing a laugh from the crowd when he announced, “Will Clark of the National League and Bo Jackson of the Oakland Raiders.”1 Little did he know that Jackson would have the last […]

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in “Baseball Research Journal #33” in 2004. It has been republished at SABR.org in its original form. Click here for a list of upheld protests at Retrosheet.org.  It is well known that a manager may formally protest a game only if he claims an umpire has made a decision […]