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Understanding is shrouded by the passage of more than a century, but it is still difficult to figure out what the St. Louis Cardinals saw in minor-league outfielder Ody Abbott. During five professional seasons, Abbott had established himself as a capable fly-catcher, but had proved unable to hit even Class C-level pitching. Still, in August […]

Baseball and baseball players need people like Grover Resinger — those who dedicate their lives to the sport so that others may achieve the success they never had. “People say I do nothing but talk baseball,” said baseball lifer Resinger. “Is there anything else?”[fn]Tom Loomis, “Grover Resinger – Another Bit of Tigers Class,” Toledo (Ohio) […]

Somewhere, back in the swirling mists of time, there existed a magical and wondrous age when aspiring athletes did not commit their lives to the fanatical and single-minded pursuit of one sport by the time they were five years old. Take, for instance, the 1968 Detroit Tigers, who were notable for having a number of […]

A league pennant was squarely on the line under the brutal Mexican sun on September 5, 1938. A team known as Agrario, led by the legendary Satchel Paige, battled Aguila for the championship of the summertime Mexican circuit, a league recently strengthened by the importation of such frontline Negro League stars as Josh Gibson, Ray […]

Marvin Eugene Rackley was born on July 25, 1921, in Seneca, South Carolina, a mill town just up the road from Clemson University in the northwestern corner of the state. (Like many professional players of his time, Rackley would later take a “baseball age,” claiming to have been born in 1922). Marv’s parents were Thomas […]

Over a major-league career that lasted 10 seasons, Elden Auker played for Hall of Fame managers Bucky Harris, Mickey Cochrane (who called him “Mule Ears”), and Joe Cronin (who severely limited Auker’s effectiveness by calling, from his shortstop position, each pitch Auker was to throw). Auker was a teammate of Hall of Famers Hank Greenberg, Charlie […]

From 1902 through 1911, Walter Schlichter owned the Philadelphia Giants, the finest African American team of the era. Schlichter was white, the Philadelphia Item’s sporting editor, and had previously managed boxers, not ballplayers. Yet with Sol White he formed a persevering, successful partnership. Competition, alignment with more powerful forces, an ill-advised secondary baseball venture, and finally a break […]

Buddy Hassett was a New York boy who played for two of his hometown teams and almost made the trifecta. The first baseman had two distinctions: his ability to put the bat on the ball and his tenor voice. “The Bronx Thrush” would sing “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling” at the drop of a leprechaun. […]

Bunny Brief started his professional career in 1910 as a 17-year-old playing in his hometown of Traverse City, Michigan. The first-year Resorters finished second in the Class D West Michigan League. Brief gave notice that he was a hitter to be reckoned with by leading the league with 10 triples. During his 19-year career, Brief […]

Four years before Bobby Bonner and Cal Ripken, Jr. appeared on their first Topps baseball card together — a 1982 Orioles Future Stars issue — they stood side by side at shortstop in Bluefield, West Virginia, after signing with the Baltimore organization on the same day. “I took ground balls with him and watched him […]

Joe Burke broke into baseball with help from his wife, and spent the rest of his life in the game. He was involved in the business side of the game in both the minor and major leagues, and is best remembered as general manager and president of the Kansas City Royals teams that won six […]

The 2021 All-Star Game shined a national spotlight on the Los Angeles Angels’ Shohei Ohtani, who not only was the American League’s starting pitcher, but also led the major leagues in home runs going into the game, with 33. Comparisons have been made to Babe Ruth, who won 89 games as a pitcher with the […]

The New York Mets were hosting the Miami Marlins for their home opener. Both teams had won only one game in the young season, although the Marlins had lost five and the Mets two.1 After a 2020 season of fanless games with piped-in crowd noise, even a limited-capacity crowd of 8,4922 fans was a welcome […]

The Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in downtown Minneapolis became the home for the Minnesota Twins in 1982. The multipurpose stadium, whose main professional tenants were the Twins and the National Football League’s Minnesota Vikings, replaced Metropolitan Stadium in suburban Bloomington, where both teams had played since 1961. The first Metrodome event was an exhibition game […]

Twice, the Cardinals took the lead in Game Three. Twice, the Red Sox rallied to tie it up. Finally, in the bottom of the ninth inning, St. Louis scored one more run and won the game. A St. Louis Post-Dispatch sportswriter summed up: “After an evening that spun out of control, the Cardinals took control […]

From Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale to Sam McDowell, Bob Veale, and Jim Bunning, baseball in the 1960s witnessed some of the hardest-throwing and most intimidating pitchers in the sport’s history. Included in that fraternity of strikeout artists was Jim Maloney, who broke in with the Cincinnati Reds as a 20-year-old rookie in 1960. Four […]

When Paul Molitor crushed a solo home run in the bottom of the fifth inning to give the Toronto Blue Jays a four-run lead, 52,195 fans in a delirious SkyDome were certain the Blue Jays would coast to a Game Six victory and a second straight World Series title. After postseason veteran ace Dave Stewart […]

It was nailbiting time in Cincinnati when the Reds met the Pittsburgh Pirates for the second game of a three-game set at Crosley Field. The Reds unexpectedly found themselves in one of the most contested pennant races in history and appeared headed to an unprecedented three-way with the St. Louis Cardinals and Philadelphia Phillies. Just […]

When the Baltimore Orioles and the New York Mets met in Game Four of the 1969 World Series, the sports world was watching closely. The Mets had taken the lead in the Series after winning Game Three, 5-0, behind the pitching of Gary Gentry and Nolan Ryan. When the teams took the field on the […]

Fenway Park’s first major-league game was played on April 20, 1912, an exciting 11-inning 7-6 win for the Boston Red Sox against the visiting New York Highlanders.1 It took almost three full seasons before any Boston player hit a grand slam at the park. But it wasn’t a Red Sox player who hit the grand […]

A standing-room crowd of 48,013 showed up at Camden Yards for Baltimore’s final home game of the 1998 season. When the gates opened, the scoreboard showed a lineup that was familiar to them. It included Cal Ripken, batting sixth and playing third base, the position he had occupied for the past three years. But unbeknownst […]

After splitting the first two contests of the 1935 World Series in Detroit, the Tigers and Cubs trekked westward to Wrigley Field for Game Three. With no travel day scheduled, the players struggled to catch up on their rest, with a few of them dozing off as their trains caromed around the southern shore of […]

The Chicago White Stockings were struggling in their return to the National Association after a two-year absence precipitated by the Great Fire in the Windy City which destroyed much of the city, including the team’s ballpark. The Chicago nine were 8-14, and were preparing to play the Boston Red Stockings in their first home game […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in “A Palace in the Nation’s Capital: Griffith Stadium, Home of the Washington Senators” (SABR, 2021), edited by Gregory H. Wolf. I grew up at Griffith Stadium and have great memories of mammoth home runs by Mickey Mantle, Johnny Mize, and Larry Doby, great catches by Mantle and […]