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“Willie Foster was the greatest left hander that I ever played with and he was a gentleman on and off the field.” — Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe If there was a signature moment for a baseball player, Willie Foster’s complete-game victories in both ends of the doubleheader for the Chicago American Giants to decide […]
“There is a catcher that any big league club would like to buy for $200,000. His name is Gibson. He can do everything. He hits the ball a mile. He catches so easy he might as well be in a rocking chair. Throws like a rifle. Too bad this Gibson is a colored fellow.” — […]
When Willie Royster debuted for the Baltimore Orioles in 1981, he was already 27. The catcher only saw action in four major league games, but he was fortunate to be able to see at all. Seven years earlier, he had been almost blinded in one eye by a bunt gone awry in Single-A ball. Willie […]
Pat Crawford was a reluctant professional baseball player. A devout Christian with a passion for baseball, Crawford objected to playing on Sundays. When he graduated from college in 1923 and accepted a position as teacher and coach at a high school in North Carolina, he anticipated that a career in baseball would be impossible to […]
Before the lumber,1 natural gas,2 and oil3 industries brought unprecedented economic growth to Louisiana in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, baseball had already established itself as a favorite pastime throughout the state, centering on the cities of New Orleans and Shreveport.4 Baseball teams, created and maintained by industrial magnates, emerged. One such team, […]
Suggesting that a player was not good enough to make the 1927 New York Yankees is hardly an insult. The original Murderers Row is widely considered the greatest club ever to take the field. Spud Davis’ first opportunity to break into the major leagues was with the ‘27 Yankees , and while he did not […]
Hugh High’s brother, Andy, himself a 13-year big leaguer, once succinctly summarized big brother Hughie’s career: “He played center field in place of Ty [Cobb] for about six weeks one year when Ty held out,” then “he went to New York to help the Yankees out, but the Yankees got to the point where they […]
“Charleston not only has the speed of a Carey, the arm of a Meusel, the brains of a McGraw and the hitting ability of a Hornsby, but he is a singer of rare ability, a writer of parts, a billiard player of more than ordinary skill and a happily married man. Charleston is a rare […]
Fittingly, pitcher Leroy Matlock was called “the Black Carl Hubbell” in press releases promoting a 1937 barnstorming tour.1 Hubbell, who entered the Hall of Fame in 1947, had completed a high-profile streak of 24 wins in a row earlier in 1937 for the pennant-winning New York Giants. Matlock, also a lefty, had 26 straight victories […]
Hall of Famer and Negro League legend Judy Johnson called Sam Bankhead “one of the greatest outfielders we had.”1 Wilmer “Red” Fields, ace pitcher and 1948 World Series-winning Homestead Grays teammate, said, “He was the greatest team player I ever saw.”2 Blessed with a cannon for an arm, a penchant for clutch hitting, and the […]
This article was originally published in “The First Negro League Champion: The 1920 Chicago American Giants” (SABR, 2022). Rube Foster’s Chicago American Giants played home games at Schorling Park in Chicago (NoirTech Research, Inc.) The arc of the history of the Chicago American Giants follows closely with the arc of Black and Negro […]
This article appears in SABR’s “Pride of Smoketown: The 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords” (2020), edited by Frederick C. Bush and Bill Nowlin. Baseball and music have a long history together. Many songs, such as “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” or “Talkin’ Baseball,” have been written specifically about the game. The National Anthem is […]
Pittsburgh’s Chief Wilson set the major league single-season triple records by stroking his 36th three-bagger during the Pirates’ final game of the season, an away contest in Cincinnati. On the same day but in St. Louis, Cleveland’s Shoeless Joe Jackson raced around the diamond for his 26th triple of the season, establishing the American League […]
“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” So said the reporter at the end of the 1962 movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.1 Upon hearing a popular politician confess that he was not the real shooter, the journalist ignored the fact to preserve the lawmaker’s legend. Thirty years earlier, baseball writers at the […]
In the twentieth century only two pitchers recorded 40 or more wins in a season. Jack Chesbro accomplished the feat for the 1904 New York Highlanders, finishing the year 41-12. Ed Walsh joined him on that plateau by tallying 40 wins for the Chicago White Sox in 1908. His 40th win was a 6-1 triumph […]
Tommie Agee had the prescience of a soothsayer. During 1970 spring training, he stated how he needed to contribute to the Mets: “I’ve got to hit for a better average, I think, and steal more bases — a lot more.”1 He succeeded on both counts, improving his batting average from .271 to .286 and his […]
An aging veteran, who had battled weight problems all season and was placed on waivers a few weeks before was an unlikely choice to hurl the Tigers’ first no-hitter. But that is what George Mullin did on his birthday, no less, as he redeemed himself and mowed down theSt. Louis Browns to make Detroit baseball […]
The New York Yankees were runaway winners of the American League East Division in 2009. Entering the final weekend of regular-season play, they had won seven of their last eight games, giving them 102 victories for the season. New York was hoping to build on its momentum for the playoffs in a three-game series against […]
Opening Day is always a time for ceremonies and celebrations. For the 41,138 fans at the Giants’ home opener in 2012, this one was memorable even before the first pitch. The Giants were celebrating the 50th anniversary of their 1962 World Series appearance. Although they lost the Series in seven games to the Yankees, the […]
Bobblehead giveaways are exceedingly popular fan attractions. Let’s face it, who doesn’t love a collectible of a player from their hometown team? Drawing 32,014 fans to a summer Wednesday night game in Cincinnati, the Reds hosted their second giveaway of the season, a Wily Mo Peña bobblehead. It was the youngster’s first-ever bobblehead night, adding […]
Who is the most valuable to a ball club – a star pitcher of the Walter Johnson type, a great infielder of the Napoleon Lajoie brand or a sensational outfielder of the Ty Cobb variety?1 At the outset of the 1911 season, Ty Cobb was considered one of the top players in baseball, coming […]
Little did the 5,098 Giants faithful assembled on September 2, 1975, in Candlestick Park know that they would witness a rarity in major-league baseball, a first-at-bat inside-the-park home run.1 But when lanky 21-year-old shortstop Johnnie LeMaster stepped up to plate, that’s just what happened, and in a most improbable way. LeMaster was drafted by the […]
For the first time in World Series history, the fall classic was coming to the Lone Star State, Texas, but things weren’t looking good for the team hosting the game. The National League champion Houston Astros came back to Minute Maid Park down two games to none to the American League champion Chicago White Sox. […]
“Just take the ball and throw it where you want to. Throw strikes. Home plate don’t move.” — Satchel Paige Three decades before Don Larsen threw his perfect game in the ’56 World Series, a 22-year-old Negro League pitcher “down the Shore” beat his big-city counterpart to the postseason punch. Claude “Red” Grier joined […]