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[With research assistance from John Leidy] Ray Fisher has been justly honored for his 38 seasons as head baseball coach at the University of Michigan. He was elected to Michigan’s Sports Hall of Fame in 1959, the American Association of College Baseball Coaches Hall of Fame in 1966, and the University of Michigan Hall of […]

Like Babe Ruth, he was a savior for the major leagues when the game was at risk of losing fans. Like Jackie Robinson, he was a courageous pioneer who blazed a trail and opened new doors of opportunity for others to follow. Like Fernando Valenzuela, he was the pride of a specific ethnic community, yet […]

“There is no baseball off-season in Cuba,” declares Sigfredo Barros Segrera, long-time sports journalist for the Cuban Communist Party news service Granma, available in print, in Cuba, and online versions for the rest of the world. Barros was born on November 14, 1945 in the provincial capital city of Santiago de Cuba, the second largest […]

A steady, left-handed pitcher can always find employment in baseball. Bob McClure was armed with a tremendous competitive spirit and a deceptive curveball. He turned his talent into 19 major-league seasons. “Bob Uecker told me that if I were right-handed I would have been digging ditches 10 years ago,” McClure said.1 After his playing days, […]

Prior to Edgardo Alfonzo and José Altuve, three Venezuelan second basemen stood out for their skills: Manny Trillo, Remy Hermoso, and Gustavo “Gus” Gil. Trillo was the most complete player of the trio and Hermoso was likely blessed with the most speed – but Gil was peerless with the glove. He executed split-second double plays […]

Most great players have something similar during their careers: a dominant year, a key series in which they made their name — or a signature play. Hall of Famer Enos Slaughter’s even had a nickname. His “Mad Dash” in Game Seven of the 1946 World Series took place on the brightest of stages. It’s certainly […]

In announcing the March 1921 indictments of the players and gamblers involved in the Black Sox Scandal, Cook County (Illinois) State’s Attorney Robert Crowe announced that the World Series fix originated in St. Louis, specifically with Carl Zork and Benjamin Franklin, rather than in Boston and New York by the Eastern clique of Arnold Rothstein, […]

The manager of the Hotel del Comercio in Caracas, Venezuela, summoned George Genovese for a phone call from the San Francisco Giants in November 1963. It sent Genovese’s hopes soaring. “Maybe I’m their new manager,” he said to his wife, June. When the call was completed, Genovese was crestfallen. His career as a manager was […]

In 1964 Robert Carpenter, the Philadelphia Phillies president and owner, declared, “Granny Hamner was the best clutch hitter we ever had.”1 During professional baseball’s 1969 centennial celebration, fans honored Hamner as the Phillies’ all-time greatest shortstop. These combined tributes seemingly describe a blissful, long-term relationship between player and team, but that was not to be. Gran […]

The year 2008 was supposed to be the coming-out party for Nate McLouth, then an outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He made his first All-Star team, captured his first Gold Glove, and tied for the NL lead with 46 doubles. But the party was short-lived. Due to injuries, McLouth never achieved that level of success […]

An every-other-year major leaguer, Gary Fortune was a switch-hitting pitcher – a right-hander on the mound – who wound up 0-5 in his big-league career. He pitched for the Phillies in 1916 and 1918, and for the Red Sox in 1920. His 0-5 record reflected a 6.61 career earned run average. He wasn’t any better […]

In his only season in professional baseball, Frank Bowes manned seven different positions for the Brooklyn Gladiators of the 1890 American Association. The Gladiators, however, were a hapless club, and when the tail-end (26-73-1, .262) franchise disbanded in late August, Bowes reverted to his former obscurity. His name mostly vanished from newsprint until January 1895, […]

It would be easy to mock someone with a nickname like Fothergill’s, but Fatty Fothergill couldn’t have been too fat.  Once after hitting a home run at Fenway Park for the Detroit Tigers, he rounded the bases and did a front flip landing on home plate. At 5-feet-10.5 inches he struggled with his weight and […]

From 1906 to 1911, right-handed pitcher Wallace Luther “Toots” Shultz was the most sought-after student/athlete in baseball. From his days at prep school through his college days at the University of Pennsylvania he was pursued by his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates, the Philadelphia A’s and Phillies, both Boston teams, and the New York Highlanders. In 1911, […]

Even though he preferred the comforts of home, whether in his California birthplace or his eventual hometown of Tucson, Arizona, Cam Carreon’s batting stroke never showed signs of homesickness. Reaching the majors at the age of 22, he contributed to a contending White Sox team for several seasons (1959-64) and played briefly for the Indians […]

The stage was the fifth game of the World Series, on October 15, 1970. The Baltimore Orioles had taken a three games to one Series lead over the Cincinnati Reds. Brooks Robinson had already delivered a game-winning home run in the opener, robbed Tony Perez and Johnny Bench of base hits with a pair of […]

In baseball history, few major leaguers have turned to sports writing as a full-time profession after their playing days. Sam Crane and Tim Murnane were nineteenth-century players who then wrote for, respectively, the Boston Globe and the New York Evening Journal. Charley Walters twirled in a half-dozen games for the 1969 Twins before becoming a […]

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 Mets took a road trip to play two interleague series in June 2003.1 They won two of three games against the Texas Rangers before heading to Anaheim for a series against the reigning World Series champion Anaheim Angels. The Mets were mired in fifth place in the National League East Division with […]

The Detroit Tigers were one win from their first World Series appearance in over 20 years. After 12 straight losing seasons from 1994 through 2005, the Tigers carried a commanding three-games-to-none lead over the Oakland Athletics in the 2006 American League Championship Series into a cool Saturday evening in the Motor City. They appeared unstoppable, […]

“The pitcher has to throw a strike sooner or later, so why not hit the pitch you want to hit and not the one he wants you to hit?” — Johnny Mize1 Great baseball players often write about their craft. Tony Gwynn called hitting a baseball an art in The Art of Hitting.2 Ted Williams […]

Winning 20 games in a season was once a hallmark of excellence for major-league pitchers. Jim Bouton wrote in Ball Four that if he could, he would take five years off his life for a pill that would guarantee him a 20-win season.1 Four pitchers since 1901 – Christy Mathewson, Warren Spahn, Walter Johnson, and […]

Contrary to popular belief, Frank Rooney wasn’t Irish-American. He was born on October 12, 1884, in Poděbrady, a town on the river Elbe about 25 miles east of Prague, which was at the time part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.1 His surname at birth was Rovný, although he played baseball in the United States as Rooney, […]

The Toronto Blue Jays experienced three consecutive losing seasons after back-to-back World Series championships in 1992 and 1993. General manager Gord Ash, who oversaw two of the losing seasons, decided to overhaul his roster for 1997. Among Toronto’s top acquisitions was veteran catcher Benito Santiago,1 signed to a two-year, $6.5 million contract after hitting 30 […]