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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 […]

A month into the 2008 season, the top two teams in the American League’s Central Division battled in the second game of a three-game series. The 16-15 Minnesota Twins held a one-game lead over the 15-16 Chicago White Sox. The Wednesday-night contest before a crowd of 21,092 fans at U.S. Cellular Field was delayed by […]

The New York Giants and St. Louis Cardinals had scheduled a doubleheader to close out the 1904 season at the Polo Grounds.1 Unfortunately, a series of events made this a day to forget. The Giants lost both games. Despite an historic performance by Sam Mertes, New York dropped the first game due to “poor fielding […]

In the first game of the season played in Philadelphia between two cross-state rivals, the Athletics trounced the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, 14-1. A crowd of approximately 2,000 witnessed the home team’s 20 base hits and saw Philadelphia’s center fielder Henry Larkin become the first player in major-league history to hit for a reverse natural cycle. With […]

Before the 2020 baseball season got underway, the national pastime was rocked by scandal. An investigation by Major League Baseball revealed that both the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox, World Series winners in 2017 and 2018, respectively, were involved in using technology to steal opponents’ signs and gain an illegal advantage. As a result, […]

“He looms over the batter, brings his hands up over his head and down violently as if he were ringing a church bell, down and back behind him as far as they can go, then up to his head again and then he throws, violently, falling off the mound a little toward first base as […]

In July of 1918, during World War I, American servicemen were sent to Europe at a rate of 10,000 per day.1 Meanwhile, major-league baseball continued at home, but team owners were urged to suspend operations and ballplayers were pressured to “work or fight”: Either work at an “essential” civilian job that directly aided the war […]

When Pat Gosney shipped off for US Army duty in the summer of 1952, he left with a good story to tell his buddies: Just before entering military service, he’d pitched a three-hit shutout against a major-league team. The story came with a few caveats, which Gosney no doubt admitted by and by. The shutout […]

At 6:30 A.M. on July 14, 1969, Bill Stoneman was a private first class in the Vermont National Guard, fulfilling military obligations to his country at Camp Johnson in Colchester, just north of Burlington. At 4 P.M., with the day’s duties complete, Stoneman got into his car and headed to another job in another nation […]

George Pfister spent 56 years in Organized Baseball. However, he played just once in the majors, with the 1941 Brooklyn Dodgers. It came on September 27, in the second to last game of the NL pennant-winners’ season. Pfister, then 23 years old, came in for the last five innings – but there was just one […]

When a reader sees the nickname “Wild Bill” associated with a pitcher, the first thought is that the fellow suffered with awful control. For example, Wild Bill Donovan debuted in 1898 and walked 69 in only 88 innings. Wild Bill Hallahan led his league in walks every season he pitched over 200 innings. In more […]

It was the kind of trade that barely got noticed. A few lines buried within the stories of the daily newspaper and perhaps mentioned in the “transactions” column in the back of the sports section. During the season it might have been mentioned on the local sportscast, with some statistics mixed in. But the news […]

In his lifetime Herman Bell was a highly regarded defensive catcher for the Birmingham Black Barons, but one who could not catch a break. His career in the Negro Leagues was marred by untimely injuries and complicated by unexpected happenstances and the harsh reality of being an African-American baseball player in the Jim Crow South. […]

It almost seems as if everyone is short-changing Bibb Falk. Many articles describe him as “the man who replaced Joe Jackson.” Author William A. Cook used that same description when he wrote Falk’s biography in 2015. There are very few players who could literally replace Shoeless Joe. Falk should be recalled as a player who […]

Helen Dettweiler was “The Girl of Summer” in 1938 when she became the first woman to broadcast professional baseball, according to The Sporting News. A promotional stunt for a radio sponsor, it was just one stop in a life of adventure. She served as a World War II code-breaker and military pilot, and was one […]

Eddie Boyd was a little-known player who had brief stints with the Detroit Stars and Chicago American Giants in 1920, the first year of the Negro National League’s existence. After his time with those two franchises, Boyd became a jack of all trades for the barnstorming Winnipeg Giants team that served as a developmental squad […]

“Baseball had always been in my blood,” said versatile infielder Frankie Gustine, who signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates as a 16-year-old athletic prodigy in 1936. One of the most popular Pirates of his era, Gustine debuted as a September call-up in 1939 and was named to three consecutive NL All-Star teams (1946-1948) as a second […]

This native of Providence, Rhode Island, attended Brown University in his hometown. He was one of the first men in the majors from the university. Clarke graduated from Williams College in 1889, however, and became the first big-leaguer at all from that school. The utilityman – his main position was catcher – played in 149 […]

Outfielder Andy Gilbert’s time in the majors was very brief, bracketing the World War II years. He played in six games for the Boston Red Sox in September 1942 and two games in the first few weeks of the 1946 season. In between, he served in the Army Air Corps for three full years. During […]

Johnny Couch, a proud Montana native, was a fan favorite of the San Francisco Seals following World War I. He reinvented himself multiple times during a 15-year professional pitching career (1914-29). Known as a “gentleman scholar” in baseball circles because of his studies at Stanford University, he entered law enforcement after his playing career, retiring […]

Left-handed reliever Craig Skok pitched for three major-league ballclubs — the Red Sox, the Rangers, and the Braves — during the 1970s, throwing 150 innings in 107 games. He might have had some baseball in his blood. Craig’s father Joe was mistakenly reported at one point as having been a player in the Red Sox […]

Flamboyant, visionary, ego — or monomaniacal, tempestuous, alcoholic, and self-destructive — the words approach but do not satisfactorily explain Larry MacPhail. His innovative approach to the game brought about night baseball and baseball on the radio. He was a mover and shaker in the world of Major League baseball until in a fury he catapulted […]

Here are the SABR Defensive Index™ rankings through games of August 13, 2023. The SDI is used to help select the winners of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award and Rawlings Platinum Glove Award™, presented by SABR. The SABR Defensive Index accounts for approximately 25 percent of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award selection process which are […]

Here are the SABR Defensive Index™ rankings through games of June 4, 2023. The SDI is used to help select the winners of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award and Rawlings Platinum Glove Award™, presented by SABR. The SABR Defensive Index accounts for approximately 25 percent of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award selection process which are […]