Search Results

In St. Louis, where baseball is in the blood, many a boy fantasizes about growing up to play for their hometown team. Only a select number really pursue the ambition and even fewer achieve it. Lonnie Lee Maclin III fulfilled this aspiration. Born to Lonnie Maclin Jr. and June (Garner) Maclin on February 17, 1967, […]

Dick Gordon got his start by breaking a national story when he was in college, and parlayed that into a long career as a Minnesota sportswriter. His prodigious memory enabled him to recall facts long after the event happened, and his writing, while factual, contained enough embellishment to make it entertaining for the reader. Charles […]

The obstacles a rookie follows to become a major leaguer are daunting. Add to that the pressure of being described as a can’t-miss prospect or the next Joe DiMaggio and that process can be overwhelming. Johnny Groth faced such a situation with the Detroit Tigers in the spring of 1949. He would become and remain […]

Though standing just 5′ 6″ and weighing as little as 135 pounds at the start of his career, “Wee” Tommie Leach was nonetheless one of the better “power” hitters of the first decade of the 20th century. Over the course of a 19-year career in the National League, Leach finished in the top ten six […]

As a big leaguer, Ed Charles was perhaps the most accomplished player in the brief history of the ill-fated Kansas City Athletics, and he achieved fame as a baseball poet, reciting his poetry on television a few times per year and mailing verse to young fans with requested autographs. But he is best remembered today […]

Homer Simpson may live forever in baseball history as the man who pinch hit for Darryl Strawberry—who had already hit nine home runs (four-base hits often dubbed “homers”)—in the 1992 City Championship game between Springfield and Shelbyville. It was Simpson who knocked in the winning run, being knocked out in the process, and gave victory […]

When the curtain rose on the New York Yankees’ 1929 season, for the first time in team history each ballplayer wore a numbered jersey. Catching for New York that day was John Grabowski, the large block 8 on his back signifying his spot in the batting order. One of three backstops that Yankee manager Miller […]

His name was Clarence Charles Isreal. That’s Isreal, not Israel. His name should not be conflated with the country of the Middle East. Most of the newspapers of his time did not grasp that distinction. Consequently, often the misspelling has carried over into subsequent baseball records. In his six-year professional baseball career, Clarence Isreal spent […]

Ray Herbert entered professional baseball at the age of 19 with the sinking fastball that major-league franchises dream of, but lacked the knowledge and skill to convert his great “stuff” into immediate success. For 11 years he toiled with mostly second-division teams, both in the majors and minors, rarely winning more than he lost, surrounded […]

In September 1976 Hall of Fame inductees Yogi Berra and Warren Spahn were only the two most prominent names among a large field of managerial candidates available to the expansion Toronto Blue Jays. But the Jays startled the baseball world by selecting the hardly-household-name Roy Hartsfield as the franchise’s first skipper. But the surprise may […]

The year 1962 saw National League baseball return to New York City with a new expansion team, the New York Mets. From its origin, the Mets were very fortunate in that it had a very enthusiastic fan base. While enthusiastic, these fans suffered significant frustration in 1962 as the Mets lost 120 games. Sharing that […]

“No one, and I mean no one, knows the game better than Jimy,” said Hall of Fame executive Pat Gillick.1   Jimy Williams became a baseball lifer, signed to his first professional contract by the Boston Red Sox. After a brief big-league playing career, he won a world championship ring as the third-base coach for […]

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” During his 18-year career in the Major Leagues, John Phalen “Stuffy” McInnis’ teams finished in first place six times, winning five World Series, and in last place four times. He started his career by becoming the youngest member of Connie Mack’s famed “$100,000 […]

William Cornelius Bryan, Jr. was a minor league player and manager from 1884 to 1888 in the Southern, Northwestern, and Western Leagues, and the Western Association. He was also a war hero, world-class sprinter, a coach and athletic director at various universities, and a promoter of baseball in both the United States and Great Britain. […]

In just three big-league seasons, right-handed pitcher Rankin Johnson pitched for five big-league teams: the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Chi-Feds, Chicago Whales, Baltimore Terrapins, and the St. Louis Cardinals. Experienced historians will recognize three of Johnson’s teams as Federal League teams, and thus can pin down the era as primarily 1914 and 1915. He came […]

In 1965 sportswriter Jerry Izenberg reflected, “When you think of the anatomy which kept Bob Swift active as a major league catcher for so many years, you look at the hands.” Not the legs, suggested Izenberg, because Swift wasn’t a fast runner, or the wrists, because he wasn’t known for his hitting. “The hands kept […]

As a rookie in the season that he turned 21, Paul Dean threw a no-hitter and helped lead the St. Louis Cardinals to the 1934 National League pennant. He then won two games to help the Cardinals win the World Series that year. The younger and less talkative brother of Dizzy Dean, Paul Dee “Daffy” […]

Big right-hander Sig Jakucki was once described as having a “$100,000 arm and a million-dollar thirst.”1 Converted to a pitcher while a minor leaguer, Jakucki had a cup of coffee as a 27-year-old with the St. Louis Browns in 1936. Out of Organized Baseball for almost six years, Jakucki returned to the Browns in 1944, […]

In a career spanning more than 40 years, Curt Gowdy became recognized as one of the top sportscasters in broadcasting history. Broadcaster Red Barber wrote in 1970, “In my measured opinion, the greatest television sports announcer of today is Curt Gowdy. He is the best man on football, baseball, basketball, track, winter or summer Olympics, […]

Tom McGuire must have found it odd to be on the mound for the first-place Chicago White Sox on August 9, 1919, at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. The spitballing McGuire had never made an appearance in Organized Baseball. His professional baseball career had been played entirely in independent, “outlaw” leagues like the United States […]

Bobby Reeves entered the major leagues like a comet, a famous collegiate star in two sports who skipped the minor leagues entirely. He did not have the career many expected of him, partly due to injuries and circumstances, but also possibly because the talent evaluators of the time might have been overly optimistic about his […]

On Thursday afternoon, March 31, 1938, the Pittsburgh Pirates played an exhibition game against the Pacific Coast League’s Portland Beavers at Amerige Park in Fullerton, California. Bob Ross, a 9-year-old student at Ford School, just a few blocks from the baseball field, was given permission by his mother, Louisa Ross, to attend the game. “From […]

Philadelphia Athletics left-hander Bobby Shantz – just 5-feet-6 in height and 139 pounds – led the American League with 24 wins, and a .774 winning percentage in 1952; he was the runaway choice as the league’s Most Valuable Player, receiving 16 of 24 first-place votes. But in 1953 a shoulder injury limited Shantz to 16 […]

The Chicago White Stockings were struggling in their return to the National Association after a two-year absence precipitated by the Great Fire in the Windy City which destroyed much of the city, including the team’s ballpark. The Chicago nine were 8-14, and were preparing to play the Boston Red Stockings in their first home game […]