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Editor’s note: This article first appeared in SABR’s “Unions to Royals: The Story of Professional Baseball in Kansas City,” the 1996 SABR convention journal. For a multimedia history of SABR conventions, click here. Long forgotten by most Kansas Citians, the 1915 Federal League gave the city its first real major-league pennant race, and still it […]

To Milwaukee fandom, the 1964 home opener represented a potential turning point for their baseball franchise. After back-to-back World Series appearances in 1957 and ’58, the Braves had settled into a string of lackluster campaigns, finishing generally in the middle of the pack. More critically, attendance at County Stadium had declined in the post-Series years, […]

On a pheasant-hunting trip during the offseason, Fergie Jenkins said he would try to win 20 games again. His teammate, Billy Williams, stated that he would try to hit 40 home runs for the first time in his career.1 The 26-year-old Jenkins had won at least 20 games for three consecutive seasons coming into 1970. […]

There was no lack of fan interest in the pennant races in 1908. Baseball fans were immersed in two of the great pennant races in modern history. As the curtain came down on September, no fewer than six teams, three in each league, had a shot at the league pennant in 1908. In the NL, […]

As if the 2020 season wasn’t strange enough, an unusual incident occurred at Fenway Park during a late-season Sunday afternoon game against the visiting New York Yankees. The announced attendance for the game was 0 – yes, zero – as it was for every game all season long at the Boston ballpark. The COVID-19 pandemic […]

It had been something like feast or famine for the Boston Red Sox for the six years leading up to the 2018 season. From 1998 through 2011, the Red Sox were consistently competitive, never finishing below third in the American League East Division while making the postseason eight times. Having not won a World Series […]

The last time the Boston Red Sox had played a game in Buffalo was on July 6, 1917 – and that was an exhibition game. In the first two decades of the twentieth century, the team played four exhibition games there, all against local minor-league teams: April 18, 1903: Boston 8, Buffalo 7 April 13, […]

When the Kansas City Packers began a 26-game road trip in the first week of August 1915, they sat atop the Federal League standings with a record of 57-40, 2½ games ahead of second-place Chicago. Within a week, however, it was the Packers looking up from the lower berth at the Chifeds, as they first […]

Between 1901 and 2000, there were 165 major leaguers who both struck out four times in a game and hit three home runs in a game.1 None did both in the same game, but on July 9, 2000, Tyler Houston of the Milwaukee Brewers became the first to hit those marks in back-to-back games.2 Yet […]

One of the California Angels’ shortcomings in 1992 was a lack of production from their cleanup hitters. As the season trudged into August and the Angels sat 12 games below .500, interim manager John Wathan thought of a new way to try to get some production from the fourth slot in the lineup—bring up the […]

The 1912 season was the first for the newly named International League. The eight-team league, formerly known as the Eastern League, the six-team Pacific Coast League, and the eight-team American Association had just been accorded Double-A status, representing the top level of minor-league professional baseball at the time. The Toronto Maple Leafs held their spring […]

The Atlanta Braves’ offense wasn’t exactly feeble in the first month of the 1985 season. When they began a three-game series against the Montreal Expos on May 10, they had scored the third-most runs in the National League.1 Braves center fielder Dale Murphy, a two-time league MVP and baseball’s hottest hitter, boasted a .365 batting […]

The Brooklyn Tip-Tops were very much still in the hunt for the Federal League flag, one of five teams within five games of first place. Visiting St. Louis was in seventh place, 14 games behind the league-leading Indianapolis Hoosiers. Manager Bill Bradley named Bill Chappelle (1-2) to start for Brooklyn; Fielder Jones — who had […]

Brock Holt admits he was swinging to hit a home run. And why not? It was the top of the ninth inning and the Red Sox already had a 14-1 lead in Game Three of the American League Division Series. Yankees manager Aaron Boone had conceded the game, inserting a position player – backup catcher […]

Cal Ripken Jr. homers on September 6, 1995, during his record-breaking 2,131st consecutive game. (Courtesy of the Baltimore Orioles)   The outcome of this game was of little importance to the fans of two cities separated by less than 200 miles. The New York Yankees’ record was mediocre, a pedestrian 60-61, only slightly better than […]

The brief major-league career of Reading, Pennsylvania, native Franklin “Heck” Heifer consisted of 17 appearances (15 as a position player and 2 as a pitcher) with the 1875 Boston Red Stockings of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players. After his time with Boston, Heifer’s professional career consisted of playing for a number of […]

“A real man is Bill Tuttle – someone who will stand up and tell the truth.” – Joe Garagiola, 1998[1] Bill Tuttle was a capable journeyman outfielder who played during 11 seasons in the American League (1952; 1954-63). He had his best year at age 25, manning center field for the 1955 Detroit Tigers. He appeared […]

Among the classic baseball records, Ty Cobb’s 4,191 hits and Babe Ruth’s 714 home runs have fallen, but Cy Young’s 511 victories remain ingrained in the pantheon. And yet, many modern-day fans have shed their fascination with pitchers’ wins, understanding that the sport is a team-wide effort, rather than an individual competition. However, when a […]

For a player who appeared in only 19 games during part of a nineteenth-century season, Daniel Albion Jones Jr. received an inordinate amount of notoriety. Among the many cameo players who flitted briefly across the major-league scene, Jones was perhaps the most unique. He was a Yale man who sang in the college’s glee club. […]

Dike Varney’s major league career was more than a cup of coffee but not quite a potful — three games — flashing by like the 20th Century Limited express train that débuted in 1902. It’s the same year that Varney took the hill for the Cleveland Blues/Bluebirds/Bronchos of the American League. Varney’s baseball journey took […]

He was a left-handed hitter who batted .285 over the course of 16 seasons, and Clark Griffith called him Washington’s greatest centerfielder, claiming that he played the position more shallow than any man in baseball. Yet Clyde “Deerfoot” Milan achieved his greatest fame as a base stealer. After Milan supplanted Ty Cobb as the American […]

Garry Hancock was a strong-armed, good-hitting outfielder who did not earn a regular place in the star-studded Red Sox outfield of Jim Rice, Fred Lynn, and Dwight Evans. Instead, Hancock filled in for the outfield trio during the heartbreaking roller coaster ride that was Boston’s 1978 campaign. Ronald Garry Hancock was born on January 23, […]

“Studley made a powerful and reliable hand at the bat; was agile and prompt in the field, and a good runner…”1 In the 1860s and 1870s, Seymour (Sy) Studley was a member of Rochester, New York’s and Washington D.C.’s pioneer amateur and professional baseball clubs. He briefly played with the Washington Nationals of the National […]

Roy Leslie set a professional baseball season record with 73 doubles in 1924 for the Salt Lake Bees of the Class AA Pacific Coast League.1 The next season, Leslie nestled into the lineup on most days in the rarefied Utah air between 60-homer Tony Lazzeri and 309-hit Lefty O’Doul. These PCL years were the highlights […]