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Ned Hanlon managed 19 seasons in the major leagues — 12 in the 19th century, when he compiled a .586 winning percentage, and seven in the Deadball Era, when his winning percentage fell to .449. “Foxy Ned” guided five National League pennant-winners, the 1894-95-96 Baltimore Orioles and the 1899-1900 Brooklyn Superbas, but never finished higher […]

Young Lee Delhi attended Santa Monica (California) High School and pitched for its baseball team 1908-10. As a pitcher for Santa Monica, he was known as Turk, Red and Demon Delhi. By 1909 Delhi had began to draw attention from the Pacific Coast League. Happy Hogan, the manager of Vernon, wanted to sign the young […]

Many early ballplayers who were foreign-born, or first-generation immigrants, Americanized their names. Usually the new last name they took bore some resemblance to their original surname. Hall of Fame outfielder Al Simmons was born Aloysius Szymanski and his manager with the Philadelphia Athletics, Connie Mack, started out as Cornelius McGillicuddy. One Deadball Era spitball pitcher […]

Clyde Melno Hatter, whose baseball career was ended by his premature death, was born to Claude Melnow Hatter (the father’s middle name had a “w” at the end while the son’s did not) and Tressie Lay Hatter in Poplar Hills, Jefferson County, Kentucky, on August 7, 1908. He was the last of three children, with […]

Lew Riggs played parts of ten seasons in the major leagues, debuting with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1934 at the age of 24. Riggs appeared in only two games with the Cardinals that year and on November 3 he was sold to the Cincinnati Reds for $30,000. Cincinnati was where Riggs played his best […]

When and where someone happened upon a young infielder named Jim West is imprecise. It may very well have been in 1929, when he played for the Birmingham Negro Industrial League.1 Although lacking details of West’s early life and baseball career, his fine play at first base – perhaps noted by Bill Gatewood – prompted […]

Outfielder Chaney White had a 17-year career in the Negro major leagues from 1920 through 1936. During that time, he was a member of numerous championship teams that included squads in various Negro Leagues, the Cuban Winter League, the Florida Hotel League, and the California Winter League. In 1934, at age 40, he was still […]

If Andy Kosco’s baseball career could be described in a song, it might be the old Hank Snow classic “I’ve Been Everywhere.” Australian country music artist Geoff Mack wrote the song; in the original version a man hitches a ride with a truck driver and proceeds to tell him that he has visited every town, […]

A tall, slender 6″2″, 175 pounds, Bob Groom possessed an athleticism, cunning, and tenacity that bespoke his roots in the southern Illinois coal fields, where his grandfather and father had found success as mine owner-operators. Born on September 12, 1884 in Belleville, Illinois, to John and Mary Catherine Dickinson Groom, he was named Robert for […]

Third baseman Andy Carey had a turbulent Yankee career as one of Casey Stengel’s chosen whipping boys and an equally turbulent personal life. The most famous story about Carey, repeated in many books on Stengel’s dynasty, involves his “called shot.” In his favorite place to hit, Fenway Park, the Yankees were trailing the Red Sox […]

Nicknames in baseball are tricky, especially in the Deadball Era, because the name a player carried while he was active may be different from the one he carries now. James Callahan was seldom referred to as “Nixey,” pitcher William Kennedy was called “Roaring Bill” much more often than “Brickyard,” and William S. Wright of the […]

“Some people say he was the greatest African American player ever. That may be so — I don’t know — but what seems clear is that he was the best black player of his time.” — Monte Irvin   The story of John Henry “Pop” Lloyd has many facets. It is a story of communities […]

Before Pedro Martinez arrived, scout Danny Doyle could laugh that he had signed every Red Sox Cy Young winner: Jim Lonborg and Roger Clemens. In 1988, Danny Doyle was named Midwest Scout of the Year by the Scout of the Year Foundation. Danny Doyle was a catcher, called up to the major leagues right at […]

Baseball is no stranger to big personalities. The game has seen colorful characters ranging from Mark Fidrych and his strange mound antics in the 1970s to Adrian Beltre simply being his ridiculous self after the turn of the century. On the opposite end of the spectrum, players like Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens are better […]

On August 2, 1912, Harry Niles of the Toledo Mud Hens led off the first inning by drawing a walk from pitcher Bill Lelivelt of the Minneapolis Millers, but Niles was quickly erased by a double play. That walk was the only blemish on Lelivelt’s performance, as he pitched a no-hitter and faced 27 batters […]

The 32,040 fans who came to Royals Stadium for a Monday night game in late June were in for a treat, as they saw California’s 39-year-old Dave Winfield become the oldest major leaguer to hit for the cycle. In addition, Kansas City’s Bill Pecota was involved in a few rare occurrences of his own. While […]

Mop-up duty and long relief. They are two of the most thankless and unenviable tasks for a pitcher. For Cincinnati Reds 30-year-old journeyman Tom Sheehan, it was another chance to prove that he belonged in the major leagues. He had broken in with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1915, but after compiling an unsightly 5-25 record […]

Earmarked for greatness during his rapid rise through the Pirates’ farm system, Aramis Ramirez mixed promise with struggle for three seasons after reaching the major leagues as a teenager in 1998. On the first Sunday of the 2001 season, Ramirez’s career countdown hit liftoff with a three-home-run barrage at Houston’s Enron Field, igniting his breakthrough […]

The 1944 baseball season in St. Louis was the same as it had been the last few years, and remarkably different at the same time. The Cardinals won 105 games for second straight year and captured the flag by a comfortable 14½ games. That the Browns were able to win the 1944 pennant — regardless […]

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in 2021 as part of the SABR Century 1921 Project. New York Yankees captain Roger Peckinpaugh, second from left, and New York Giants captain Dave Bancroft, far right, pose with the umpires at home plate before Game One of the 1921 World Series at the Polo Grounds in […]

This article was originally published in The 1939 Baltimore Elite Giants (SABR, 2024), edited by Frederick C. Bush, Thomas Kern, and Bill Nowlin.   In 1938 the Baltimore Elite Giants had taken part in the Negro National League II playoffs and were looking forward to the 1939 season under a new manager. George Scales had […]

This article was originally published in “The First Negro League Champion: The 1920 Chicago American Giants” (SABR, 2022).   As witnessed during commemorations in 2020 celebrating a century of Negro League baseball, the foundation of the Negro National League in 1920 provides a generally accepted starting point for Black baseball’s league era. Black baseball, through […]