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At 6-feet-2 and 225 pounds, Jeff Tesreau was big and strong, just the way John McGraw liked his pitchers. With a steady personality and solid work ethic, Tesreau quickly leaped to stardom after developing a devastating spitball, which he threw with the speed of a top fastball. Over the course of his seven-year career he […]

Rollie Fingers was clearly excited as he caught a leaping Ted Simmons, his catcher, after Fingers struck out Detroit’s Lou Whitaker to nail down the victory and the second-half American League East title for his Milwaukee Brewers in 1981. (The unprecedented split season was devised after the players’ two-month strike was settled.) The Brewers were […]

Goro Mikami, aka Jap Mikado, was the first known Japanese national to play professional baseball in the United States. He first played in the US in 1911 when Tokyo’s Waseda University club barnstormed the country. Two years later, Mikami returned to the U.S. as a graduate student at Knox College in Illinois. He starred at […]

A lifetime .500 hitter in the major leagues, flawless in the field, Kim Darrell Andrew had a couple of sips of coffee early in the season with the pennant-winning 1975 Red Sox but two years later found himself playing professional baseball in Italy. Andrew was a Californian, born to Elbert L. Andrew and Frances Schandel […]

When it comes to two-way players, Babe Ruth was the archetype. Martín Dihigo, Bullet Joe Rogan, and Leon Day became Hall of Famers. Another Negro Leaguer, Ted Radcliffe, was renowned as “Double Duty.” In recent years, Shohei Ohtani has also attracted widespread attention. A lesser-known example of the breed is Joe Pactwa. The lefty reached […]

During the Deadball Era, luck and persistence were nearly as important as talent in determining the ultimate success of a young player. In The Glory of Their Times, Al Bridwell spoke about the breaks that helped him reach the major leagues. Others of more modest talent reached the major leagues through persistence. Dale Porter’s career […]

Before Curt Schilling and the bloody sock in 2004, one player who personified toughness in a Boston Red Sox uniform was Butch Hobson. Hobson’s legacy is that of a power-hitting third baseman who brought a football mentality to the diamond in the way he played through pain and gave every ounce of effort on the […]

Once described by Baseball Digest as the “Rodney Dangerfield of baseball,” Cecil Cooper was a great player who didn’t get the respect he deserved.1 An introverted Texan, Cecil Cooper remained in the shadows for much of his 17-year playing career. The left-handed first baseman spent his major-league years with Boston and Milwaukee from 1971 to […]

Ray Chapman is remembered as the only player to have died as the result of being hit by a pitch during a major-league baseball game. Chapman’s death in 1920 did not, however, make him the first major-league alumnus to suffer such a mortal injury. Infielder John Dodge, who played 97 games in the majors in […]

“That McKinnis is one of the best pitchers I have ever seen,” said future Hall of Famer Alex Pompez, owner of the New York Cubans, in mid-1943. Pompez had experience dating back to 1916, and the Hall of Fame describes him as an “adroit talent evaluator.”1 Therefore, his was high praise indeed for 29-year-old lefty […]

A run-scoring-machine leadoff hitter with great speed (408 career steals) and good power (235 homers), Johnny Damon had “good range defensively but … one of the worst outfield arms in the big leagues.” 1 Offensively, Damon had his best years with Kansas City in 2000 and Boston in 2004, and won World Series titles with […]

Although Ransom “Randy” Jackson later suggested with tongue somewhat in cheek that he went into professional baseball “for lack of anything better to do; I had to earn money somehow,”1 he in fact had options in 1947 when he caught the attention of the Chicago Cubs. Set to graduate from the University of Texas, he […]

Tom Butts stood 5-feet-8 and weighed just 142 pounds, but his size was not the reason he acquired the nickname Pee Wee. Rather, the strong-armed shortstop’s defensive prowess reminded observers of his White contemporary, Pee Wee Reese.1 “I’d compare Butts with Reese or [Phil] Rizzuto or anyone I’ve seen in the big leagues,” opined Roy […]

Right-handed pitcher Jim Dorsey spent 11 years in professional baseball, six years in the Angels system and five in the Red Sox system. Both Los Angeles teams had been after him as a prospect. The Angels drafted him out of Grover Cleveland High School in Reseda (California) in the 21st round (486th overall) in June […]

Steve Lyons was a utility player who spent nine years in the major leagues, including four stints with the Boston Red Sox; a left-handed hitter, he batted .252. But while that number might not seem impressive, it doesn’t tell the whole story. In fact, throughout his major-league career, Lyons frequently got people talking. Fans, sports […]

From 1895 through 1905, a pitcher known as Skel Roach racked up 133 wins in professional baseball, including a single victory for the 1899 Chicago Orphans of the National League. German immigrant Rudolph Weichbrodt was the recipient of a baseball name change in the early 1890s, while hurling semipro ball in a Chicago prairie league. […]

Joe Sommer was a Kentuckian through and through: born in Covington, raised in Covington, retired to Covington, and buried near Covington. In order to play professional baseball he left the Bluegrass State temporarily to ply his trade in large cities, such as Cincinnati, Baltimore, and Cleveland, and in smaller cities like New Haven, Rochester, and […]

It took the dual attractions of a Jackie Robinson number-retirement ceremony and a postgame fireworks show to lure the Pirates’ first non-Opening Day sellout crowd since June 5, 1977, to Three Rivers Stadium on July 12, 1997.1 The surprising Bucs, who had been dubbed “The Freak Show” by announcer Greg Brown because of their unexpected […]

David Wells positively reeks of New York Yankees history. During one game he wore a game-used Babe Ruth cap he had purchased for $35,000. He wore number 33 when he played in the Bronx as a tribute to the Babe’s iconic number 3, which was retired, and because they wouldn’t let him wear the number […]

The New York Yankees did their best to intimidate the umpires and the opposition St. Louis Cardinals throughout the 1942 World Series. The Yanks saved some of their best rattling for Game Five. As the teams swapped lineups at home plate before the game, New York coach Art Fletcher told home-plate umpire Bill Summers that […]

The 1915 Red Sox won 101 games and the American League pennant, and needed only five games to beat the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series, but they didn’t really get going until June. They had a losing record in April and were 15-15 entering the final day of May. The Red Sox were 3-3 […]

It was a Saturday afternoon game at Cleveland Stadium. The Cleveland Indians (37-29) were in first place in the American League, one game ahead of the Baltimore Orioles and two games ahead of both the Chicago White Sox and New York Yankees. The 30-37 Boston Red Sox were just a half-game above the last-place Kansas […]

As their 1954 season staggered toward its conclusion, the Philadelphia Athletics would host the New York Yankees in the home finale at Connie Mack Stadium. The game, however, was bereft of suspense for either team. For the Yankees, winners of the previous five World Series, their dethroning by the Cleveland Indians was complete. The day […]

Signed as an 18-year-old amateur free agent by the Twins in 1964, Rod Carew became the Twins’ second baseman in 1967 and was named Rookie of Year and an American League All-Star. He won seven batting titles as a Twin from 1969 through 1978, and in 1977, when he flirted with the .400 mark and […]