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It was the “best pitching in my career,” exclaimed an elated Johnny Kucks after the struggling pitcher’s improbable three-hit shutout in Game Seven of the 1956 World Series.1 After losing the first two games of the Series, the New York Yankees’ 9-0 thrashing of the reigning title-holding Dodgers in Brooklyn was a “loud and emphatic […]

When the St. Louis Browns relocated to Baltimore in 1954, the new Baltimore Orioles played their home games in Memorial Stadium, a multipurpose facility located north of downtown. Thirty-eight years later the Orioles moved to Oriole Park at Camden Yards, a trail-blazing ballpark situated by the waterfront in the heart of downtown. From its opening, […]

The 1970 Boston Red Sox had a trio of avid anglers—Reggie Smith, Carl Yastrzemski, and Gary Peters—who carried fishing tackle on road trips. An August swing through Minnesota gave the trio a chance to relax on a lake in Spicer, about 100 miles from Bloomington, Minnesota, where they would start a three-game series against the […]

On September 4, 1949, the fourth-place Philadelphia Phillies and the third-place Boston Braves faced off in a Sunday doubleheader at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The Braves were one year removed from winning the 1948 National League pennant and the Phillies were one year away from capturing the 1950 pennant. On this day, however, the teams […]

Pitcher Troy Herriage’s big-league career was notable for both its duration and its difficulty. The Kansas City Athletics, who selected Herriage in the Rule 5 minor-league draft in November 1955, were required to either keep him on their roster for the entire 1956 season or return him to his old club.1 They not only kept […]

The Baltimore Orioles entered the 1983 World Series on an absolute roll. They took the AL East by six games and dispatched the Chicago White Sox four games to one in the ALCS. The White Sox were a very good team — they had won the AL West by a margin of 20 games — […]

Exciting, well-played baseball action was in limited supply for fans of the expansion Montreal Expos and San Diego Padres in 1969. The two newcomers to the National League posted identical 52-110 records in their first seasons, finishing a combined 89 games out of first place. Late in the season, though, teams of Expos and Padres […]

Playoff baseball in the wild-card era is unpredictable. Teams that dominate during the summer routinely get ousted early in October by teams with less impressive regular-season records. Perhaps no franchise has benefited from expanded playoffs more than the Miami Marlins. Since they entered the National League as an expansion team in 1993, when they were […]

New York Mets pitcher David Cone was back on the mound facing the St. Louis Cardinals for the second time in a week. Six days earlier in St. Louis, on September 14, Cone and reliever Jeff Innis had combined for the 19th one-hitter in the Mets’ 30-season history, but the Cardinals beat the Mets, 2-1, […]

The Boston Red Sox had the opportunity to sign Jackie Robinson at a supposed tryout at Fenway Park in April 1945.1 Instead, it was more than 14 years later – after every one of the other 15 teams in the American and National leagues had integrated, and after Robinson himself had been retired for nearly […]

The 1997 American League Championship Series between the Baltimore Orioles and the Cleveland Indians was tied at one game apiece. The first two games, at Camden Yards, were tightly contested. Scott Erickson pitched the Orioles to a 3-0 victory in Game One. The right-handed hurler went eight innings, scattered four hits, and struck out three. […]

He was a slender Venezuelan outfielder whose defensive skill and joie de vivre earned him a 21-year professional career, highlighted by one of the postseason’s all-time most memorable plays. A reminder of Endy Chávez‘s magnificent catch in Game Six of the 2006 National League Championship Series greets entrants to the left-field gate at Citi Field […]

Shortstop Humberto “Chico” Fernández played the game with flair. It was a flair that endeared him to fans and fellow players, but often saw him at odds with his many managers. He was a daring, some would say reckless, baserunner. Playing for the Detroit Tigers, he showed that special flair in the second game of […]

A “flashy infielder” known for his fancy defensive work rather than his bat, Tom Carey played eight major-league seasons with the St. Louis Browns and the Boston Red Sox, retiring with a .275 batting average, 2 home runs, and a .972 fielding percentage in 466 games. According to St. Louis sportswriter J. Roy Stockton, the infielder […]

“Whoosh … budap … snap … whoosh … budap … snap.” Vern Duncan’s earliest memory of baseball was of throwing a ball against the brick wall of a neighboring store in his back yard.1 His childhood efforts led him on a long baseball career highlighted by three seasons at the highest professional level, one in […]

At age 24, Johnny Broaca had seemingly limitless potential. His multiple athletic skills and academic prowess had lifted him from first-generation American working-class beginnings through a prestigious preparatory school to a Yale degree and a vital spot on the Ruth-Gehrig Yankees’ pitching staff. But a defiant, self-destructive temperament, more than a year voluntarily absent from […]

In the sizzling summer heat of the 1957 National League pennant race, Fred Hutchinson turned philosophical. “Baseball doesn’t have many naturals, a lot less than you might imagine,” said the Seattle-born-and-bred skipper of the St. Louis Cardinals. “The ones who work the hardest are the ones who make it, the ones who win. Sometimes that’’s […]

“I’ve seen a lot of powerful hitters in my time but for sheer ability to knock a ball great distances, I’ve never seen anybody better than Easter — and I’m not excepting Babe Ruth.” — Del Baker1   Luscious “Luke” Easter was born August 4, 1915 at 8:15 PM in Jonestown, Mississippi. During his playing […]

Bronson Arroyo played 16 years of major-league baseball and helped the Boston Red Sox end the Curse of the Bambino with the 2004 World Series championship. His controversial tag of Álex Rodríguez in Game Six of the ALCS, when the umpires reversed their original call, spurred the Red Sox on to a victory. Boston closed […]

In sports, college or professional, individual or team, nothing captures a fan’s interest quite like a streak. This is especially true with baseball. Whether it is a team’s winning or losing streak or a player’s performance within the chalked lines, the fanfare and pressure may build each day. The fervent fan or even the uninformed […]

“I like to be aggressive, and I like for batters to know I’m in charge out there – but off the field I’m quiet. I’d like to think I don’t have even one enemy.”1 — Ron Musselman, 1983   On August 18, 1982 – a cloudy but comfortable night in Detroit – the Seattle Mariners […]

Jim Brewer called himself a screwball, and he threw one. It saved his career. After three years of trying, the left-hander mastered the delivery with help from a Hall of Famer. Beginning when he was 30 years old, he fashioned a six-year run as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ late-inning fireman. Brewer became most famous for […]

Jersey City, squeezed between Newark Bay and the Hudson River, is a prime metropolis for a ballpark. For 50 years, it had one, an Art Deco edifice débuting in the Depression, thriving for the first half of its life, fading into deep neglect in the 1970s, and succumbing to eventual nullity in the 1980s. Within […]

High and Inside The Newsletter of the BioProject Committee Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) September 2020 Past newsletters Editor: Andrea Long From the Directors The BioProject on Social Media Update on BioProject Submissions From the Editor Local Connections & Chance Encounters, by Jack Zerby Hometown Holmes, by Niall Adler Project Team From the Co-Directors […]