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It was the first trip of the season to California for the 1968 Boston Red Sox. In 1967 they lost seven of nine games played in Anaheim against the Angels, each of those by just one run. On May 20, 1968, Boston started a 10-game road trip with three against the Angels. This game was […]

Willie Mays topped the National League in slugging percentage five times. (Photo: National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)   In 1954, few teams needed a player to return from military service during the Korean War as much as the Giants needed Willie Mays. In 1951, though he had played in only 121 games, Mays was […]

“I used to go to a game in Indianapolis once in a while, and also in Chicago, and I always enjoyed it,” said Benjamin Harrison, the newly elected U.S. president, in 1889. “I find a good deal of pleasure in watching a good game of ball.”1 On Monday, June 6, 1892, Harrison became the first […]

With baseball nearing the end of its second season of play since the United States declared war on Germany and entered World War I, the game’s continued operation was being called into question by high-ranking military officials, particularly the provost marshal of the US Army, General Enoch Crowder, who was in charge of the military […]

After his brain cramp in Game Two of the 1951 World Series, Eddie Stanky used guile to spark the New York Giants to a 6-2 triumph over the New York Yankees at the Polo Grounds in Game Three and a 2-1 Series lead. Rarely does a stolen base matter more than a three-run homer, but […]

The Cincinnati Reds and the city of Cincinnati were looking forward to the arrival of the defending National League champion Boston Beaneaters for a holiday doubleheader. A newspaper headline said: “Big Bostons. They will be here To-Day. The Two Fourth of July Battles. Can the Reds Give the Leaders Two Falls?”1 In the middle of […]

On August 26, 1887, the Baltimore Orioles started a three-game American Association series with the Cincinnati Red Stockings at Cincinnati Park.1 The second-place Red Stockings came into the contest sporting a record of 58-45, three games ahead of their visiting Baltimore opponents, who were in fourth place at 52-45, but 17 games behind the first-place […]

In 2013, eight Boston Red Sox players stopped shaving during the season as a show of team unity. “It’s a bonding element,” manager John Farrell said of his team, which was headed to a World Series title. “You have to have ways to have fun sometimes. It takes the focus off the daily grind.”1 More […]

Reaching the major leagues is the pinnacle of a baseball player’s rise through the professional ranks. A player whose uniform says “Philadelphia” rather than “Scranton” knows without being told that he is competing against the greatest players the game has to offer. For some, a long and fruitful career is in the offing. But for […]

As the 1929 season began, the Chicago Cubs were in trouble.  They were without the services of their starting catcher, 28-year-old Gabby Hartnett, whose arm had gone dead.  While Hartnett would eventually regain his throwing abilities, he played in only 25 games that year, just one as a catcher.1 Initially, 38-year-old Mike Gonzalez and Earl […]

Teammates remembered his hands — “bear claws for hands,” one said.1 Those powerful hands could pat you on the back or clamp you so hard your knees buckled. No formula can explain leadership, but Terry Moore knew the secret. As center fielder and captain of the St. Louis Cardinals in the 1940s, Moore earned the […]

Harry Eisenstat might have said it best after the conclusion of his eight-year (1935-1942) big-league career: “As long as baseball fans talk about Bob Feller, my name will probably never be forgotten.” When Feller set the modern big-league record (at the time) with 18 strikeouts in a nine-inning game in 1938, Eisenstat – in his […]

Charlie Rivera was a third baseman, second baseman, and shortstop who played with several clubs in the Negro leagues for parts of five seasons, from 1939 to 1944. He was a right-handed hitter who stood 5-feet-9 and weighed 155 pounds.1 Carlos Manuel Lavezzari y Sierra was born to Manuel Lavezzari and Trinidad Sierra on September […]

Dave Ricketts was a bespectacled catcher who looked as much like a math teacher as he did a professional athlete. Indeed, he was a schoolteacher for several years and nearly gave up baseball to teach full-time. The statistics on the back of his baseball cards may give the impression that Ricketts had little impact on […]

Life was hard for an Appalachian coal miner and his family in the 1920s and 1930s. So it was for Lloyd “Whitey” Moore. His father died when the lad was 13. He and his older brother Lester dropped out of school and found employment to support their mother and younger brother. Lloyd Albert Moore was […]

When he made his debut in a mid-August 1923 game against the Philadelphia Athletics, Chicago left-hander Paul Castner secured a line for himself in the record book of the national pastime. That entry, however, would be a slender one, as Castner made only five more big-league appearances before abandoning the game at the close of […]

“History is the essence of innumerable biographies,” wrote historian and essayist Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). Here is another contribution, a biography of William Wallace McCredie. Life teaches lessons, and here are three from his: follow your dreams; engage in public service; and don’t provoke your family into suing you. William Wallace — “W.W.” — was born […]

“There ain’t much to being a ballplayer, if you’re a ballplayer,” said the greatest player of his time, or most any other time — Honus Wagner. He may be the greatest player in National League history. One of five sons and four daughters of the former Katrina Wolf and Peter Wagner, Honus (a diminutive of […]

A bright future appeared to lie ahead for Boston Braves outfielder Max West after he became a major-league regular in 1938 at the age of 21 and was the team’s top offensive performer a year later. Following a memorable appearance in the 1940 All-Star Game, when he hit a home run to win the contest, […]

Harry Butts was a left-handed pitcher who played professional baseball from 1946 through 1953. His résumé included stints in the Negro American League, the ManDak League, the Piedmont League, winter-league play in Puerto Rico and Venezuela, and at least two starts in a Newark Eagles uniform in 1946. In the early 1950s he was one […]

Howie Fox was a right-handed pitcher who spent most of his career with the Reds during the club’s franchise-worst stretch of 11 consecutive losing seasons. By the time Cincinnati finished over .500 again, Fox had been traded, released and tragically murdered. Howard Francis Fox was born on March 1, 1921, in Coburg, Oregon — population […]

East of Puerto Rico lie the isles of Vieques and Culebra. Along with a sprinkling of cays, they are sometimes known as the Spanish Virgin Islands. As of 2018, pitcher Julio Navarro was the only viequense ever to make the majors, largely because the island is an undeveloped place with a population of only about […]

Adam DeBus was one of many “cup of coffee” major leaguers, spending about six weeks with the 1917 Pittsburgh Pirates. By all accounts he was a marginal player, having played only 2½ previous seasons of professional baseball at the Class C level. His opportunity in the big leagues was probably due more to wartime manpower […]

Tom Greenwade with Mickey Mantle during the 1952 World Series. (Courtesy of Angeline Greenwade McCroskey.)   The Mick Each scout is typically associated with his top signee, that marquee player no one else took note of but him. For Tom Greenwade that player was Mickey Mantle. How the two became forever linked has been retold […]