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The Saskatoon Quakers welcomed a new catcher in 1913, 20-year-old Roxy Walters. He was never a large man; his listed playing height when he reached the majors was 5-feet-8 and he weighed 160 pounds, a stature at which he might have proved a target for a baserunner who confronted him blocking the plate. But he […]

Jon Matlack was one of the most underrated and unappreciated New York Mets pitchers in their first half-century of existence. Matlack’s baseball records are one of the best examples of why won-lost records may not be the best way to measure a pitcher’s efforts. Jonathan Trumpbour Matlack was born on January 19, 1950, in West […]

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 […]

Philip Henry Niekro Jr. was born in Blaine, Ohio, on April Fools’ Day — April 1, 1939. That was appropriate, for he spent much of his career fooling batters with a pitch that most other pitchers wanted no part of. The first of the Niekro family in America were Jozef Niekra, from Slodkow, Polish Russia, […]

“George Crable Batting .400 in the Harmony League.” — Brooklyn Daily Eagle, January 24, 19111   Nebraskan left-hander George Crable parlayed two games with the Brooklyn Superbas in August 1910 into a nearly two-decade baseball-themed vaudeville stage career. Sadly, he lost all of his sports and theater memorabilia in a 1931 fire at his cigar […]

In one sense he did it all, playing for four big league teams and in a World Series. But it was the summer after he spiraled all the way from the majors to a middling minor league that gave Joe Wilhoit an enduring place in baseball. There he set a record threatened seriously only by […]

As the leadoff or number-two batter for some of the highest-scoring teams in baseball history, Woody English scored 400 runs from 1929 through 1931 while playing shortstop or third base for the Chicago Cubs. As noted by Bill James, “English in 1930 had 214 hits and 100 walks, which enabled him to score 152 runs, […]

Tod Sloan batted left-handed and earned the reputation in the minors of being able to handle lefty pitchers better than righties. He only played 143 major-league games, but his statistics bear out those beliefs. According to Baseball-Reference he batted .257 in games with a left-handed starter and .227 when a righty started.1 He was also […]

He was known as “The Tall Tactician” and was baseball’s grand old gentleman for more than a generation. Statuesque, stately, and slim, he clutched a rolled-up scorecard as he sat or stood ramrod straight in the dugout, attired in a business suit rather than a uniform, a derby or bowler in place of a baseball […]

Eddie Ainsmith punched above his weight – both in terms of the accolades he received during and after his playing days as a light-hitting backstop who never appeared in the postseason…and as a fierce fighter. His career raises the question of how much credit a player should get for partnering with a legend of the […]

Corner outfielder Phil Plantier spent most of the 1990s playing major-league baseball, for five different teams. He played 383 games in left field and 126 in right; he was also deployed occasionally as a designated hitter and pinch-hitter. Plantier’s best year by far was in 1993, when he homered 34 times and drove in 100 […]

Almost. That’s Larry Jackson’s career in a word. He almost led his junior college football team to an undefeated season. In baseball’s major leagues, he won almost 200 games, almost pitched a perfect game, and almost won a Cy Young Award. Jackson was one of the National League’s top pitchers for almost a decade. His […]

One of only a relative few major league players born in Nevada — perhaps fittingly given his surname — John Gamble had a very brief big-league career. Appearing in only 13 games, he still was nonetheless able to cement his legacy in the annals of baseball as a member of an exclusive club of players […]

He is Dick Culler in the baseball encyclopedias, but at home in High Point, North Carolina, he was Broadus Culler, star athlete, schoolteacher, basketball referee, entrepreneur and civic leader. Richard Broadus Culler was born on January 15, 1915, in High Point, a community in the state’s central Piedmont region that today calls itself “the Home […]

A five-time All-Star, catcher Frankie Hayes had a lengthy career spanning the years 1934 through 1946, with three games in 1933 and five games in 1947 bookending his work behind the plate. Eleven of those 14 seasons were spent with the Philadelphia Athletics. At one point, he set an “iron man” record for catchers, appearing […]

James Bradley “Brad” Mills was born on January 19, 1957, in Exeter, California, in the state’s Central Valley. As a young boy, he and his three brothers took frequent trips with their father, a cattle rancher and orange farmer, to San Francisco or Oakland to see the Giants or Athletics. The car rides were often filled […]

Reuben Stephenson was nicknamed “Dummy” by the fans and scribes because of his deafness. In baseball, friends, teammates, and opponents usually just called him “Steve” or “Stevey.” He grew up catching at the New Jersey School for the Deaf but landed with the Camden semi-pro club in 1892 as a center fielder, much to his […]

When the legendary University of Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant was growing up in Arkansas in the 1920s, he and his friends eagerly followed the exploits of quarterback Carey Selph of Ouachita Baptist College in Arkadelphia.1 Then called “the greatest football player in Arkansas,”2 Selph was a fierce competitor who “simply believed no team […]

Quincy Trouppe’s passion for baseball led to a long career as player, manager, and scout. An exceptional catcher and switch-hitter, “Big Train” played on Negro League teams including the St. Louis Stars, Kansas City Monarchs, and the Homestead Grays. He also played for and managed the Cleveland Buckeyes, twice leading them to the Negro American […]

Best known as the principal owner of the New England Patriots football team from 1960 to 1988, Billy Sullivan began his career in professional sports in baseball when Boston was a two-team city. As publicity director for the Boston Braves from 1946 to 1952, Sullivan crafted numerous ideas to encourage baseball fans to patronize the […]

When baseball’s stars convened in Pittsburgh for the 1994 All-Star Game, emerging pennant races and milestone quests shared headlines with labor-management discord. A strike shuttered the majors a month later, relegating the unfinished campaign to an ignominious place in the game’s history, but the National League’s 8-7 win over the American League in 10 innings […]

Taking the field May 6, 1925, for the third game in a four-game set against the St. Louis Browns, the Detroit Tigers had reason to feel optimistic. Though still in the American League cellar with a 5-14 record, a 14-8 victory the day before – thanks in large part to the six-hit, three-homer barrage of […]

“We’re just a couple of natural born pitchers from down Texas way,” bantered Paul “Daffy” Dean about himself and his famous brother Dizzy. “Two good natured ordinary fellers who God gave perfect pitchin’ bodies.”1 After Dizzy worked on a no-hitter for 7⅓ innings in the first game of a doubleheader, Daffy upstaged his loquacious older […]

The Pittsburgh Federal League club (known in many newspapers as the Rebels or Pittfeds) was mired in last place as the calendar neared the waning days of July 1914. The promise exhibited by 20,000 fans showing up for the season opener back in April1 led to very little but a subpar record and a 15-game […]