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The 1906 season opened for the Boston Beaneaters in Brooklyn on April 12. Making his major-league debut that day with Boston was outfielder Johnny Bates, a compact left-handed swinger (5-feet-7 inches and around 170 pounds). Batting fifth in the lineup, Bates strode to the plate to face Harry McIntire in the second inning. The 22-year-old […]

A left-handed batting rookie who averaged .322 for Pittsburgh during the second half of the 1949 season, speedy outfielder Tommy Saffell–often a leadoff hitter–figured that he would be in good shape with the Pirates in 1950. Saffell, who spent six years working his way up in the minor league system, knew that he could hit […]

Dick Sisler, who hit the most famous home run in Phillies history, came from a baseball family. His older brother, George, played in the minors, later forging a distinguished career as a minor-league executive. Dick’s younger brother, Dave, pitched in the majors. Their father, George Harold Sisler, was a Hall of Famer whose playing accomplishments […]

llReal Cubs fans never called him Swish. To them he was Big Bill, or Nick. The Swish nickname originated in Brooklyn. The big left-handed hitter always leveled his bat across the plate several times when stepping in to face an opposing pitcher. Dodgers fans would yell, “Swish, swish, swish,” in unison with his practice swings. […]

George Crowe was Indiana’s first Mr. Basketball and became a “Big Daddy” to early black players in major league baseball. “Crowe was the most articulate and far-sighted Negro then in the majors,” Jackie Robinson wrote. “Young Negroes turned to him for advice.”1 Yet this splendid athlete and respected leader chose to spend one-third of his […]

Mention brothers from the Dominican Republic who were major-league outfielders in the 1960s, and most people will understandably think of Felipe, Matty, and Jesús Alou. But Manny and Elvio Jiménez also fit the description. While Elvio appeared in just one game, Manny Jiménez spent all or parts of seven seasons (1962-1964, 1966-1969) with the Kansas […]

Manny Mota never seemed to age. “He’s scary,” said Steve Garvey, his teammate with the Los Angeles Dodgers. “I wish just one spring he would show up with one gray hair.”1 That was in June 1979, a couple of months before the Dominican set the career record for pinch hits. Mota wound up with 150 […]

Imposing, confident, complex, charismatic, and controversial, Dave Winfield ranks as the greatest multisport athlete to emerge from the state of Minnesota. Drafted by five teams in five leagues in three major sports, Winfield chose baseball and compiled a first-ballot Hall of Fame career. At 6-feet-6 and 220 pounds, the powerfully-built right-hander wielded a menacing black […]

From 1960 through 1964, Cuban righty Ed Bauta pitched in one full major-league season and parts of four others with the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Mets. Bauta wasn’t a strikeout artist, averaging between five and six K’s per nine innings throughout his recorded pro baseball career. He relied on a sinker, thrown from […]

For the first half of the 1970 season, Cincinnati rookie pitcher Wayne Simpson had the National League by the tail. He won 13 of his first 14 decisions in the majors, making the All-Star team. “He was tough,” remembered Al Oliver, then an opponent with the Pittsburgh Pirates. “Outstanding. I’d have to rate him right […]

All right up there, drop down the ladder from your clubhouse. A new member is joining you. Henry, show him the secret handshake. Willie, educate him on the secret password. Babe, don’t hog all those s’mores. Junior, slide over a bit. Gentlemen, please welcome Jim Thome to the 600 Home Run Club. It may seem […]

“GAMER 1. A player who approaches the game with a tenacious, spirited attack and continues to play even when hurt; a competitor; a player who doesn’t make excuses. The term is a compliment, most especially when it comes from another player.”1 Bill Buckner was a gamer. He played the game of baseball as hard as […]

With a major-league career that comprised only 39 games, Herbert Harrison Hunter still managed to play in baseball’s four biggest markets: New York, Chicago, Boston, and St. Louis. After 1920, in which he played in four games for the Boston Red Sox, Hunter became a baseball tour impresario of sorts, leading a group of major […]

In 1976, Dennis Martínez became the first Nicaraguan to play in the big leagues – and he remains by far the most successful. Indeed, his 245 major-league wins stood for more than 20 years as the most by any Latino pitcher, two ahead of Juan Marichal. (Bartolo Colón finally broke that record in August 2018.) […]

“But the first time Howard came to bat … he hit a ball that if it ever came down, would be one of the longest home runs in RFK Stadium. It did, and it was.” — Shirley Povich1   Nearly 50 years before Bryce Harper won the 2018 Home Run Derby2in front of the hometown fans […]

Like inbound and outbound trains, they were two pitchers headed in opposite directions. One was making his 471st start, the other, only his fourth. One was winding down a magnificent career that would eventually lead him to Cooperstown. The other was the reigning Minor League Player of the Year, so honored by The Sporting News […]

Plummeting through a disastrous homestand in 1950, the onset of an eight-season purgatory in the lowest rungs of the National League standings, the Pittsburgh Pirates called up Vern Law from their Double-A affiliate in New Orleans. In Law’s first big-league start, on June 11 at Forbes Field, the 20-year-old right-hander outlasted Philadelphia Phillies ace Robin […]

Marcia Haddix was at home — on a Clark County, Ohio, farm — when her mother-in-law called to tell her to turn on the radio — her husband was pitching a pretty good game in Milwaukee. The reception of Pittsburgh’s KDKA was poor so she got in her car and drove a few miles to […]

A World Series berth was 161 games and an NL playoff away. Coming off a third-place finish in 1972 with an 83-73 record – 13½ games out of first place – the Mets began ’73 with a 3-0 shutout against the Phillies and a declaration of power from a beloved member of the blue-and-orange squad. […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers and Milwaukee Braves were battling down to the wire for the National League crown in 1956 and both teams were having trouble winning on a consistent basis at the end of September. The St. Louis Cardinals gave Brooklyn an opening to move into the pennant lead when they defeated Milwaukee, 5-4, on […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers and Pittsburgh Pirates were heading in opposite directions on Memorial Day 1955. Entering the day, the National League-leading Dodgers claimed the majors’ best record at 30-10, six games ahead of the Chicago Cubs. The cellar-dwelling Pirates were tied with the Baltimore Orioles for the majors’ worst record at 13-29. The Dodgers opened […]

Minor-league power hitting, solid play as an injury fill-in, and Dave Parker’s departure in free agency thrust Doug Frobel into right field for the Pittsburgh Pirates on Opening Day 1984. Frobel’s struggles – beginning with an ignominious encounter with Hall of Fame-bound San Diego Padres reliever Rich Gossage in the season opener – soon reduced […]

Forbes Field, as seen from the top of the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning tower during the 1960 World Series (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)   Baseball can link rivalry and geography. In 1908 the Philadelphia Phillies built the sport’s first concrete and steel double-decked field, Shibe Park. Three hundred miles to the […]

Index for Bill James’s Baseball Analyst Nos. 1-40, 1982-1989 Read Rob Neyer’s introduction of the Baseball Analyst archives “Baseball Analyst,” a Bill James creation that he self-published from 1982 to 1989, was one of the first publications to feature articles devoted to sabermetrics — a phrase he coined in part to honor SABR. “Baseball Analyst” […]