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Jocko Conlan always wanted to be a ballplayer. He never dreamed about becoming an umpire until the opportunity presented itself by accident. He parlayed that chance into a Hall of Fame career that spanned 25 big-league seasons. A Sporting News book once wrote of Conlan, “He was a master psychologist in the charged-up world of […]

Albert Anthony “Albie” Lopez, of Mexican heritage, was born in Mesa, Arizona, on August 18, 1971, the oldest child of Albert and Gloria Lopez. The elder Albert owned a construction business. Although Albie learned the basic skills of his father’s trade, he showed little interest in pursuing it. His love and focus was always baseball. […]

“The Shooting of Dan McGrew” is a famous poem written by Robert W. Service in 1907 about two men who end up shooting each other in a bar during the Yukon gold rush. The title character, one of the victims, was known as Dangerous Dan. McGrew may have been Canada’s first Dangerous Dan, but he […]

Red Smith, a small, shy man with a commonplace name, was an uncommonly stylish writer. Amid the purple bombast of the sports pages, “he was the first who gave us a license to really write English,” a colleague, Jerry Izenberg, said.1 “He was not just a great sports writer,” fellow Pulitzer Prize winner Dave Anderson […]

As a minority-stake member of the Metropolitan Exhibition Company (MEC), Walter S. Appleton played a modest role in the establishment of professional baseball in New York City. Appleton was on the scene shortly after cigar maker John B. Day, the founder and dominant member of the MEC, moved the home games of the Metropolitan Base […]

Becoming a major-league baseball player if you were born in Rhode Island is a difficult task for a number of reasons, among them the lack of outdoor playing time as a result of the fickle New England climate. Despite the odds, Jim Siwy, a native Rhode Islander, who pitched for the only high school in […]

The well-traveled right-handed pitcher Bobby Locke spent the month of September 1964 on the Phillies roster after a call-up from Little Rock. He pitched in eight games, three of them during the team’s fatal ten-game losing streak, including the one in which Chico Ruiz’s steal of home launched the losing streak. (Art Mahaffey was on […]

“(For Dykstra) no dare was too bold, no drink too strong, no car too fast, no poker hand too big.”  — Jeff Pearlman, author of The Bad Guys Won!1 “The Dude would be an experience even if it had nothing to do with baseball. You could meet the Dude away from the field and come […]

A.L. “Shorty” Hardman, the late sports editor of the Charleston (WV) Gazette, extolled Ray Washburn just as the lanky right-hander was to attend his first major-league spring training camp in 1962: “… Ray must be considered the best investment the Cards have made since they signed Stan Musial to a contract back in the late […]

Even for serious fans of early baseball, it can be difficult to know what to make of Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame member Arthur “Foxy” Irwin. On one hand, Irwin popularized the baseball glove, inspired a character in a Zane Grey novel, and served as a team captain, player-manager, manager, scout and minor-league owner during […]

In 1956, the fall of my freshman year at Ohio State, I went out for the frosh basketball team. (Freshmen then were still not eligible for varsity sports at major colleges.) I had no great expectations considering my modest portfolio of high school hoops exploits. My primary motivation was to meet the head freshman coach, […]

Pittsburgh’s historic Ammon Field was renamed Josh Gibson Field in 2008 to honor the Baseball Hall of Famer who started his semipro career there in 1928. Harold “Hooks” Tinker, the Ammon Field regular who signed Gibson while player-manager of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, once spoke very fondly of a mutual teammate, middle infielder Charlie Hughes: The […]

A scrappy outfielder, Nemo Leibold had a 13-year major-league career and played on four World Series teams, winning a championship with the Chicago White Sox in 1917 and another with the Washington Senators in 1924. Later a distinguished manager in the minor leagues from 1928 to 1948, Leibold is best known for passing through the […]

It had been over 28 years – from May 1983 to until September 2011 – since a man from the Bahamas had played in the major leagues. When the Atlanta Braves called up Antoan Richardson, it brought another Bahamian outfielder back into the news. Wil Culmer’s name remains prominent at home, but in the United […]

“The D is silent.” — Jamie Foxx as “Django” in “Django Unchained”   Joe Zdeb probably smiled when he first heard that line because he’s been saying it his entire life. Rare is the article in Zdeb’s early career that doesn’t include some reference to his name. Writers, or Zdeb himself, would typically settle on […]

A manager remembered for trying to convert Christy Mathewson to a first baseman. A sportswriter considered “a loudmouthed front-runner with little-to-no credibility.”1 A team president banned from his league. Such is Horace Fogel’s place in baseball history, with much of this colorful reputation well deserved.2 Yet Fogel is also a tragic figure, led to heights […]

Unlike Leo Durocher, the man he replaced as Brooklyn Dodgers manager for the 1947 season, Burt Shotton was no gruff, umpire-baiting field general. He was instead a calm, serious baseball lifer who, like the more illustrious Connie Mack, wore his street clothes in the dugout during his tenure in Brooklyn. His quiet demeanor did not […]

“Missed train by a hare!” – Familiar refrain in Rabbitt’s wires to Beaumont Exporters manager Al Bernsen during the 1924 Texas League season, explaining why he didn’t accompany the team1   Well, of course Joe Rabbitt led various minor leagues in stolen bases – six times altogether. It’s also not every day that a player […]

“Errors of the hands, mind, feet and errors of omission followed one another in such rapid succession that only a mental genius could keep a record of them,” reported the Detroit Free Press of the Cleveland Naps’ exceedingly poor play in their blowout loss to the Detroit Tigers on August 16, 1914.1 Making the most […]

The life of Ken Caminiti parallels the path of a classic Greek tragedy. He was an athlete blessed with extraordinary physical abilities who diligently worked to develop those gifts and dedicated himself to achieving excellence. A tough, tireless leader on the field, he climbed to the highest levels of the baseball world. Then, at the […]

“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 […]

When New York Giants announcer Russ Hodges uttered the immortal words “The Giants win the pennant!” the legacy of Bobby Thomson was indelibly etched into baseball history. Despite modest career stats, Thomson’s October 3, 1951, home run off Ralph Branca was, in 1999, ranked number one on The Sporting News’ Greatest Baseball Moments.1 The “Shot […]

The defending world champion Cleveland Indians and challenger New York Yankees waged a razor’s-edge, too-close-to-call campaign for the American League pennant in 1921. In the final game of their pivotal late-September series at New York’s Polo Grounds, Babe Ruth’s power, Waite Hoyt and Carl Mays’s clutch relief, and Elmer Miller’s heart-stopping defense enabled the Yankees […]

Heading into the 1993 season, the July 2 game between the Philadelphia Phillies and San Diego Padres at Veterans Stadium seemed like an unexciting item. The Phillies had finished last in the National League East Division in 1992, 26 games out; the Padres were third in the NL West, 16 games out. The Phillies promotions […]