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To his contemporaries, he was a hard-nosed player, a throwback to earlier days, when players like Ty Cobb played the game as if their lives depended on it. Opponents labeled him “hard-headed” and “red-nosed.” Latinos had their own title for him: El Divino Loco or the Divine Madman. But it was Pittsburgh Pirates broadcaster Bob […]

Drafted out of high school, Don Aase began his professional baseball career with what might have seemed like something of a nightmare season for a pitcher — he was 0-10. When he made it to the major leagues five years later, he was hailed as almost the Second Coming for his debut year with the […]

In the 1970s Gary Holle was a dual-sport phenom (baseball and basketball) from upstate New York who had a six-year minor-league baseball career and a two-week stay with the Texas Rangers in 1979. Born in Watervliet, New York, on August 11, 1954, to Charles and Jean Holle, Gary carved out a successful business career after […]

Jimmy Walsh was among the last natives of Ireland to play in the major leagues. He appeared in 541 games from 1912 to 1917, batting .232 with six homers. He was a member of two American League pennant winners with the Philadelphia Athletics, including the 1913 World Series winners, and he joined the Boston Red […]

A strong, quiet leader. Steady and determined. One of the best minds in baseball. All apt descriptions of the often-overlooked player, coach, and manager Bob Lillis. In 1928, Perry Reed Lillis, born in Michigan, married Lillian Pearl Porterfield, from Oklahoma. The couple had two sons: Jack Howard Lillis, born in 1928, and Robert Perry “Bob” […]

The New York Yankees won three straight American League pennants from 1976 to 1978, becoming World Series champions in the latter two years. Yet even devoted fans might have trouble recalling which pitcher got the most victories for the Bronx Bombers over this period. It wasn’t Catfish Hunter or Ron Guidry — it was Ed […]

Many early ballplayers who were foreign-born, or first-generation immigrants, Americanized their names. Usually the new last name they took bore some resemblance to their original surname. Hall of Fame outfielder Al Simmons was born Aloysius Szymanski and his manager with the Philadelphia Athletics, Connie Mack, started out as Cornelius McGillicuddy. One Deadball Era spitball pitcher […]

Right-hander Joel Finch had an excellent minor-league career, building toward a major-league debut the year after the Red Sox were eliminated by the New York Yankees in the 1978 single-game playoff that closed Boston’s season that year. During the 15 games in which he worked in the majors — all for the Red Sox and […]

Albert Spalding’s life story could have been written by Horatio Alger. He had three careers – as a baseball pitcher, a club owner, and a sporting-goods tycoon – and was very successful at all of them. A fourth career, in politics, was just getting under way when he died. And despite an initial setback, ultimately […]

Curt Gowdy was the Cowboy behind the mike. Ned Martin quoted Ted Williams and Eudora Welty. Ken Coleman meant the Jimmy Fund. Bob Starr had a gentle lummox William Bendix kind of charm. In evaluating the Red Sox during the mid-to late 20th century, all helped baseball bewitch. Ken Harrelson was the Red Sox’ Southern-fried […]

A fastball pitcher who spent his 15-year major-league career playing for five teams, Ed Whitson was an All-Star in 1980 and amassed a 126-123 career record in 2,240 innings pitched. The 6-foot-3 right-hander was a starter for the first half of the Pirates’ 1979 championship team, but he might best be remembered for his temper […]

Three Rivers Stadium was Dave Parker’s home field for the first 11 seasons of his Hall of Fame career, until he left the Pittsburgh Pirates and signed with the Cincinnati Reds in December 1983. Parker’s first home run as a visitor to Pittsburgh came in his second season with Cincinnati. As the Reds and Pirates […]

When baseball returned to Washington in 2005 after an absence of 33 seasons, RFK Stadium became the home of the transplanted Montreal Expos, now the Washington Nationals. Its cookie-cutter design was of its era — round and multipurpose.1 As this baseball finale approached, the state of RFK Stadium could best be described as leaky and […]

The 31,389 fans attending this Wednesday midday game could expect a pitcher’s duel: Two first-time All-Stars were taking the mound, both with solid 2019 performances. The White Sox and Twins had split the first two games of the series: The Twins put up seven runs in the eighth inning the night before to win 14-4. […]

The first years of the 1970s were turbulent ones on American college campuses. In some places the upheaval even invaded that seeming bastion of order and tradition, the baseball diamond. The University of Vermont was a case in point. In mid-May 1971, Edward C. Andrews Jr., president of the financially troubled flagship state university, announced […]

The Atlanta Braves fortified their bench in 1986 with a spring-training trade for Ted Simmons. As the Braves remained in contention in May and June, Simmons boosted morale among his fellow reserves, dubbed the “Bomb Squad.” He also wielded a still-vital bat in the 19th season of his Hall of Fame career, capping a bench-driven […]

The New York Giants and Chicago Cubs were “red-hot rivals for National League supremacy.”1 The Giants won the NL pennant in 1904 and 1905, but in 1906 they finished in second place behind the pennant-winning Cubs. Now, through games of June 4, 1907, the teams were neck-and-neck in the standings, the Cubs in first place […]

Talk about a spree, in which one player had a huge impact in three consecutive games. The second of the three games was the greatest comeback in Red Sox history. The Boston Red Sox entered the first game of the June 18, 1961, doubleheader with a dead-even record of 30-30. The sixth-place Washington Senators were […]

By the numbers, Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield’s start against the White Sox on June 10, 1996, looks like one of the worst games of his 19-season career. On a foggy night, Wakefield yielded a career-high 16 hits, along with eight runs, as Chicago steamrolled the struggling Red Sox 8-2 before a crowd of […]

“He did his job. He got 27 outs. … Not to put Joe Cowley down, but it wasn’t impressive.” – Wally Joyner, 0-for-2, 2 BB1   It had been nearly two years since the major leagues had seen a no-hitter.2 Just 11 days shy of the anniversary of Mike Witt tossing the 11th perfect game […]

William Edward White’s 1879 appearance for Providence made him the first Black player to play in a major league game. He played on Brown University’s 1879 championship baseball team. White is sitting directly behind the man in the suit holding the bat.   An answer commonly given to the question of who was the first […]

In what turned out to be the final win of manager Jim Leyland’s 22-season Hall of Fame career, the Detroit Tigers put this game away early and evened up the 2013 American League Championship Series at two games apiece with the Boston Red Sox. Leyland’s Tigers had won their third consecutive AL Central Division title […]

In spite of the previous night’s 5-3 loss in 10 innings, the Houston Astros were confident of victory as they prepared to face the Philadelphia Phillies on October 12 in the “winner-take-all” Game Five of the 1980 NLCS. In addition to being a battle-tested team that had already survived a one-game playoff with the Los […]

Born as the Seattle Pilots in 1969, they moved to Milwaukee the following season and became the Brewers. In the first 12 years of their existence, the team never reached the postseason. That was about to change. The 1981 Brewers were a team that had been on the rise for the three prior seasons, but […]