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Throughout his 12-year major-league career, Ted Sizemore was known for his versatility and competitiveness, as well as for his love of baseball. When he was playing youth sports, some skeptics told him he was too short to be a major leaguer (sources would later claim he was either 5-feet-9”1 or 5-feet-10”; but in high school, […]

If a young, successful major league pitcher had decided to become an outfielder in 2001, it would have been news. And if he had hit above .300 for the next five straight years, culminating in 2005 by winning the league’s batting crown with a .377 average, he would have graced magazine covers. Finally, if upon […]

“I had a gift. That’s about all there was to it.” – Bill Byrd1 A Negro League ballplayer had no greater testimonial to his individual play than selection to the annual East-West All-Star Game. Of those who were pitchers, only three appeared in seven or more games. Leon Day led the way with nine, followed […]

“That was the best play I’ve ever seen in my life.” — Happy Chandler, soon-to-be commissioner of baseball, September 18, 1945, reportedly commenting on a sparkling play by Johnnie Cowan in the 1945 Negro World Series1 From his Stockham Valves and Fittings industrial league team in Birmingham, Johnnie Cowan moved in 1940 to the Birmingham […]

“The integrity of the game is the umpires. Nobody else. The entire integrity of the game is the umpires.” — Doug Harvey1   It was the late 1980s. The Cincinnati Reds had replaced the Big Red Machine with the Nasty Boys, and the Nastiest of the Nasty Boys was Rob Dibble. In the beginning of […]

Of all those who proudly wore the uniform of the Newark Eagles of the Negro National League, Monte Irvin was one of the last surviving players. He went on to a Hall of Fame career as a pioneering African American player in the major leagues. Montford Merrill Irvin was born in Haleburg, Alabama, on February […]

Tom Parker, who also answered to the sobriquets of “Big Train” and “Country,” enjoyed a long and successful career in professional baseball. He was a pitcher and outfielder not only on the 1948 Homestead Grays, the final Negro League World Series champion, but also for an array of teams both before and after that championship […]

Dale Alexander, the hard-hitting first baseman who was Boston’s first American League batting champion, began and ended his playing career in his hometown of Greeneville, Tennessee. David Dale Alexander was born and raised on a 117-acre farm in Greene County on April 26, 1903. He had four brothers and four sisters. His two sons, Don […]

Over the years, the Red Sox have had players on their roster who were perhaps better known for the uniqueness of their name than for anything they did on the playing field. You may recall Jennings Poindexter, Carmen Fanzone, Creighton Gubanich, Gar Finnvold, Izzy Alcantara, Win Remmerswaal, Osee Schrecongost, Hipolito Pichardo, and Arquimedez Pozo, to […]

When young Jim Owens first came up with the Philadelphia Phillies in the mid-1950s, the predictions were that he would be Philadelphia’s “next Robin Roberts.”1 He had dominated hitters in the minor leagues, was voted the best pitcher in the International League for 1954, and possessed what Phillies general manager Roy Hamey called, “the best […]

Known as “Old Stone Face” for his colorless, stoic demeanor, Frank Navin controlled the destiny of the Detroit Tigers for three decades, becoming one of the game’s most influential owners and important power brokers. During his lengthy tenure as Tigers president, Navin was, at various times, an implacable foe of the American League’s strong-willed president, […]

Scott Podsednik made his money stealing bases, distracting defenses, and putting pitchers off their game, but it’s his unlikely and now legendary walk-off home run to win Game Two of the 2005 World Series that he’s most remembered for and that will forever endear him to White Sox fans. The Chicago White Sox had gone […]

Marty Krug appeared in only 20 games in 1912, his rookie season, mostly as a pinch-hitter, or a late-inning replacement. He watched the World Series from the superior but disappointing vantage of the winning team’s bench. He never once stepped onto the field against the New York Giants in those eight dramatic games. The knock […]

In January 1903 twenty-eight year old George Barclay “Win” Mercer had already played nine years in the major leagues, won 131 games, just been given his first managerial job, and was enormously popular with fans and players. He seemed to have the world in the palm of his hand. Yet, less than two weeks into […]

Michael Anthony Easler played 14 major-league seasons between 1973 and 1987. A left-handed hitter and right-handed thrower, Easler was nicknamed “The Hit Man” and “Line Drive” for his prowess at the plate. He was also sometimes referred to as Easy in reference to his last name, his graceful hitting stroke, and his quiet demeanor.1 The […]

This article appears in SABR’s “When the Monarchs Reigned: Kansas City’s 1942 Negro League Champions” (2021), edited by Frederick C. Bush and Bill Nowlin.   By the fall of 1938 Kansas City Monarchs owner J.L. Wilkinson was well aware of the marketing potential of Leroy “Satchel” Paige. The Monarchs had seen the talented pitcher on […]

Here are the full SABR Defensive Index™ rankings, through games of August 17, 2014. The SABR Defensive Index draws on and aggregates two types of existing defensive metrics: those derived from batted ball location-based data and those collected from play-by-play accounts. The three metrics representing batted ball data include Defensive Runs Saved from Baseball Info […]

Baseball is a game of inches, but it is also a game of numbers. On April 8, 1974, Number 44 hit Number 715. Every baseball fan in America knew what that meant: Hank Aaron had just surpassed Babe Ruth to claim the career home-run record. The Atlanta Constitution showcased Aaron’s feat on its front page, […]

Ohio Governor and Republican candidate for vice president John W. Bricker posed for photographers before the game with two fellow Buckeyes, Cardinals manager Billy Southworth and Browns skipper Luke Sewell. Pressed by a reporter for a series prediction, Bricker simply grinned and said, “I hope St. Louis wins.”1 The first intracity World Series outside of […]

Less than a week before he boiled over on an umpire and caused his team to forfeit a game, Napoleon Lajoie was queried by a Chicago sportswriter about the toils of being among the finest ballplayers in the country. “Being a headliner in this game is all right, but it has its drawbacks and the […]

It was a warm spring day in Pittsburgh as 2,861 fans filed into Forbes Field to watch two struggling teams, their hometown Pirates and the visiting Boston Braves. They were witness to the National League debut of an exceptional talent whose arrival was delayed by segregation: 37-year-old shortstop James “Buster” Clarkson of the Braves.1 Born […]

Thomas F. McCullough, business manager of the Southern Association’s Memphis team, was fed up with postponements due to wet grounds at Red Elm Park, the local ballpark. So he came up with a solution: Elevate the diamond so that rainwater drained from it. His innovation was unveiled in the spring of 1907.1 From the summit […]

On August 22, 1959, Cincinnati manager Fred Hutchinson finished writing out his lineup card for the Saturday afternoon tilt versus St. Louis. Hutch was familiar with the Cardinals’ personnel since he had piloted them for nearly all of the previous three seasons. Now, as the relatively new skipper of the Redlegs, he felt that his […]

On May 30, 2013, Boston Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury seemingly ran wild, stealing a franchise-record five bases against the Philadelphia Phillies – yet not one of them featured in the game’s scoring.1 Still, the Red Sox racked up nine runs and held on to first place in the American League East Division with […]