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From 1942 to 1944, when World War II deprived major-league baseball of many of its top players, Al Javery was considered by some to be among the better pitchers left playing in the United States. At the very least he was one of the better players on the mediocre Boston Braves of the time. But […]

He arrived on the big-league scene like a bolt of lightning through the evening sky. Fred Lynn played in his first game on September 5, 1974, and proceeded to smash major-league pitching to the tune of a .419 batting average and a .698 slugging percentage over his first 15 games. He followed that up with […]

Stan Pawloski spent his entire career in the minor leagues save for two games with the Cleveland Indians in 1955. His journey to the majors wound through half-a-dozen minor-league towns. Along the way, he earned the distinction of being called a “can’t-miss” prospect and voted to three All-Star teams. That made him among the last […]

In 1972 Hank Morgenweck achieved a long-held dream—a full-time umpiring job in the major leagues. Four seasons later, in bitter and disputed circumstances, he lost it. An experienced minor-league ump with a National League playoff game on his résumé, Morgenweck was named to the American League’s umpiring staff in spring 1972. But his contract was […]

Pearce Nuget Chiles was a ne’er-do-well, a scoundrel. A decent enough ballplayer, but a scoundrel. In two partial seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies (1899-1900), he was a late-inning pinch hitter whose lifetime at-bats to runs-batted-in ratio rivals that of Joe DiMaggio (22.04 to Joe’s 22.53) and a thoroughly disruptive baserunning coach, known for his devilishly […]

He batted .400 for his major-league career, never committed an error, but was 0-1 as a pitcher. He appeared in four games — one in 1950 and three in 1952. His name was James Curtis Atkins, a big 6-foot-3, 205-pouind Alabaman who batted left-handed and threw right-handed. He pitched for 13 years in the minor […]

Perhaps the greatest example of the old baseball cliché “good field, no hit,” Raymond Francis Oyler was the regular shortstop for two late-1960s Detroit Tigers teams, including the world champion 1968 squad, as well as the original Seattle Pilots the following season. Ray compiled a sub-”Mendoza line” .175 career batting average—the lowest of any player […]

In 1927, the Chicago Cubs signed local sandlot hurler Roy Hansen. Skipper Joe McCarthy thought highly enough of the 20-year-old to extend him an invitation to spring training for the first of three successive years. Hansen was surely overwhelmed by the team’s picturesque training facility on Catalina Island, club owner William Wrigley’s private sanctuary located […]

Ray Hayworth intended to go into the upholstery trade, but was talked out of it by a friend, and the result was an 18-season career as a catcher, 15 of them in the major leagues. Hayworth was prized for his defensive ability, but swung an effective bat for a catcher, with a .265 career batting […]

When Baltimore Orioles shortstop Bobby Floyd fielded the final out to preserve Jim Palmer’s no-hitter on August 13, 1969, it was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the little-used Floyd’s career. His was not a household name. The quintessential good-field, no-hit utility infielder who usually played only when a starter was hurt or needed a […]

Steve Macko died from cancer ten weeks after his 27th birthday, leaving behind a sparse record of 25 games over two seasons with the Chicago Cubs. But the cold cadences of baseball’s official ledger misrepresent his life’s true measure. Macko continued a distinguished family lineage in the game, spearheaded an improbable College World Series bid, […]

Dave Schmidt was a catcher with the Boston Red Sox in 1981. He played for them in 15 games at the start of the season and acquitted himself well. But the Sox had two other solid catchers — Rich Gedman and Gary Allenson, who filled most of the team’s needs for the next several years. […]

A glorious, romantic, and competitive era of Cuban amateur baseball was the early 1940s.1 During that time, there was a quartet of star pitchers: Conrado Marrero, Julio Moreno, Rogelio Martínez, and Sandalio Consuegra. All four entered the big leagues in 1950 with the Washington Senators. Consuegra – often known as Sandy in the U.S. – […]

“Ben was a fine hitter. He could have starred on any team in the major [leagues] except the Yankees. He wound up playing behind Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel in the Yankee outfield.” — Hall of Famer Joe Sewell1   One wonders what might have become of a player like Benjamin Edwin Paschal had he […]

Here are the final SABR Defensive Index™ rankings for the 2023 season among positional qualifiers for the Rawlings Gold Glove Award. For the 11th consecutive season, the SDI will be used to help select the winners of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award and Rawlings Platinum Glove Award™, presented by SABR. The SABR Defensive Index accounts […]

Had he achieved his dream of becoming New York mayor, Abe Stark would probably be best remembered for that. Instead, most people remember Stark because of his iconic sign at Ebbets Field. This article is #2 in a series of three about the Brooklyn clothier-turned-politician and that sign. It focuses in detail on the sign […]

SABR Bibliography Committee Research Guide No. 10: Baseball in History Journals (1980-88) Editor’s note: This guide was first published by the SABR Bibliography Committee in 1989. To download the original in PDF form, click here. By Jim SumnerApril 1989 This guide consists of all the articles I could find on baseball history published in history […]

In the mid-1960s, noted artist Norman Rockwell lived and painted in the Berkshires region of Western Massachusetts.1 The baseball-related events that took place there on Thursday, May 13, 1965, seem perfectly suited to his brush—wholesome, all-American, small-townish, and, to a twenty-first-century eye, vanishingly obsolete. Schools in the small city of North Adams let out at […]

The Pirates, back home at Exposition Park, took a three-games-to-one lead in the World Series with a 5-4 win over the Boston Americans. Sunday had been a travel day, and on Monday it rained. Deacon Phillippe had an extra day of rest, and was ready to go yet again – his third start in four […]

A small crowd headed to Wrigley Field in Chicago on Monday, July 28, 1969, to see their first-place Chicago Cubs take on the San Francisco Giants. The game’s attendance was small by the summer standard set by the first place team. Only 9,439 patrons attended, largely due to the fact that this contest was not […]

Monday, August 10, may well have been the most important day of the entire 1981 baseball season. This was the day that regular season play would resume after a two-month players strike had wiped out more than one-third of the schedule. Furthermore, in Philadelphia that night, Pete Rose would become the all-time National League hits […]

The New York Yankees, arriving in Cleveland for a two-game series against the Indians, had just lost two of three games in Baltimore but remained three games ahead of the Orioles. Only 3,895 fans showed up on a chilly night at Cleveland Stadium hoping to see their team gain ground on the division leader. The […]

Oh, those New York Mets! In the first three seasons since the National League returned to New York in 1962, the Mets finished in last place. Would the 1965 season be their time to abandon last place for higher ground? To answer the question, manager Casey Stengel could be direct without resorting to some form […]

The iconic main entry of Ebbets Field was located at the intersection of Sullivan Place and Cedar Street (later renamed McKeever Place). (Photo: SABR-Rucker Archive)   On an October afternoon in the 1950s, while the Dodgers prepared for the first game of the World Series, an elderly man walked into Ebbets Field. On the surface […]