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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, […]

Frank “Lefty” Hoerst was one of Philadelphia’s best high-school and college basketball players of the 1930s at a time when there was no viable national basketball league. Upon graduating from LaSalle in 1939 he turned to his second best sport, baseball, and signed with the local Phillies. A year later, he debuted with the lowly […]

“Mystique” is a word often linked with Sandy Koufax. He was dubbed “The Left Arm of God” for his pitching feats – especially over the five years from 1962 to 1966. A long litany of statistics attests to his brilliance during this period, but perhaps the most salient points are these. Koufax became the first […]

Steve Barr pitched parts of 24 games in the major leagues. Though he was unable to carve out a longer career, he was nonetheless able to achieve more at this game than most of the rest of us. Born in St. Louis on September 8, 1951, Barr, a left-handed pitcher, was signed fresh out of Carson […]

Bert Thiel pitched four games for the 1952 Boston Braves, the extent of his major-league career. He had a long minor-league pitching career with 145 wins. He pitched two seasons of winter ball with Caguas, in Puerto Rico; managed in the minors; and scouted. His baseball mentors were George Selkirk, his manager with the 1953-55 […]

Though Mose YellowHorse toed the rubber for two underachieving Pittsburgh Pirates teams in 1921 and 1922, he left an indelible mark on the club and its fanbase. Because of his off-the-field antics and on-the-field accomplishments, YellowHorse was a longtime fan favorite. Those in executive and administrative positions with the Pirates were not so quick to […]

Sam Crane was tagged early in his career as a good-field, no-hit shortstop. It’s true that he didn’t hit well in the majors after he was brought up at age 19, but as no less an authority than Connie Mack noted, few shortstops of the Deadball Era were “knocking down fences.” He fielded well enough […]

Dan Gooley was the head baseball coach at the University of Hartford for Jeff Bagwell’s sophomore and junior seasons. He coached at the U of H for five years. The well-seasoned coach had a long stint helming the Quinnipiac University nine, too. In Hartford, Gooley took the program to new heights and aided in Bagwell’s […]

Craig Swan pitched in 12 seasons for the New York Mets, starting with their pennant-winning 1973 club and ending in May 1984. He got little offensive support while playing on some of the worst teams in Mets history. Nonetheless, he managed some strong performances during that time – most notably in 1978, when he won […]

After winning the American League pennant by 12 games in 1946, the Boston Red Sox had slipped to third in 1947, finishing 14 games behind the champion New York Yankees and two games back of the second-place Detroit Tigers. In an attempt to improve their hitting and pitching, the Red Sox pulled the trigger on […]

On June 6, 1897, King Bailey of the Evansville Brewers and Pete Dowling faced each other in Central League action at Paducah, Kentucky. “The game was the finest ever witnessed. … Bailey was wholly invincible and was not once hit safe,” an Evansville paper reported. Dowling allowed only one hit in Evansville’s 1-0 win.1 Dowling […]

An 11-year major-league infielder, Darrel Chaney stayed in the game due largely to his versatility and positive attitude. After a career that included appearances in three World Series, Chaney became a successful announcer, businessman, and motivational speaker. Darrel Lee Chaney was born on March 9, 1948, in Hammond, Indiana, the second of Carlos and Eleanore […]

“It exceeded all proportion, It could not be contained, It bloomed round like a dark sunrise, It glistened in the rain. The little boys with crew cuts Or blond locks oh so fair Would look and cheer with wonder At Oscar Gamble’s hair.” —Roy Peter Clark1   Oscar Gamble made his big-league debut in 1969 […]

Walter Anton (“Wally”) Berger, whose hitting for power and average and steady center field play sparkled for 1930s Boston Braves clubs that had few other bright spots, set rookie home run and runs batted in standards that stood for decades. Until it was broken twice in the 2010s decade, Berger and Frank Robinson (1956) shared […]

Since its opening in 1965, the Houston Astrodome, known as the “Eighth Wonder of the World,” had seen many epic and varied events that included sports, concerts, political conventions, and daredevil displays. It was big, like Texas, and the events were big as well. In fact, there wasn’t much that couldn’t be done there. What […]

Pumpsie Green’s successful Millers debut was nearly set back when the car in which he was riding in a morning parade down Nicollet Avenue in downtown Minneapolis ran out of gas.1 The parade was the idea of the Minneapolis Chamber of Commerce as a way to introduce fans to an entirely new 1958 Millers team. […]

As 6,000 faithful fans filed into Braves Field for a 2:30 P.M. game the day before the Fourth of July, they were, according to one Chicago baseball pundit, “downright giddy over their three game sweep over the Cards last weekend.” The fans would have fireworks a day early but not in the format they might […]

Game Two of the NLCS was another extra-inning nail-biter, with the Pirates again prevailing in extra innings by a narrow margin. Only for drama, this game outdid its predecessor on several counts. Clutch hitting, controversy, terrible baserunning, heroics: it had it all. Chuck Tanner selected Jim Bibby, a strapping, intimidating right-hander, as his starter. The […]

The Boston Bees and the Brooklyn Dodgers raced the sun for 23 innings, over 5 hours and 15 minutes, on June 27, 1939, at the Beehive in Allston, and the sun won. Despite 179 plate appearances and 33 base hits,1 the two second-division teams ended tied 2-2 when plate umpire Babe Pinelli called the game […]

It was early in the 1961 season; the Red Sox were 9-12 and the Senators (having played five more games) were 10-16. There was no reason to think either team was going anywhere.1 It was a Friday night in Washington and the 1961 Senators were a brand-new team, the Angels and Senators having joined the […]

Motivated by the unusual antics of opposing rookie pitcher Mike Loynd, Kansas City Royals second baseman Frank White took a frenzied game into his own hands and powered the Royals to a come-from-behind win over Texas on August 19, 1986. However, White’s record-setting game would be squandered by the Royals in a disheartening season. Mired […]

“I used to go to a game in Indianapolis once in a while, and also in Chicago, and I always enjoyed it,” said Benjamin Harrison, the newly elected U.S. president, in 1889. “I find a good deal of pleasure in watching a good game of ball.”1 On Monday, June 6, 1892, Harrison became the first […]

The seventh game of the 1926 World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and the New York Yankees was played on a cold, damp day in New York City. Rain had fallen during the night and a steady drizzle continued throughout the morning threatening a postponement. However, about noon the rain stopped and conditions improved […]

It was the last week of the regular season and the last night to enjoy a ballgame at Nationals Park. The grind of the 2018 season was about to reach an ending that no one, team and fans alike, expected to see. The Nationals had been the odds-on favorite to win the National League East […]