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Prologue In 1877, the Columbus (Ohio) Buckeyes joined with six other teams to form the International Association, as a rival to the National League. The Buckeyes played more games, 20, than any other IA team, but managed only a 9-11 record. Two other professional leagues operated in 1877 – the League Alliance and the New […]

There was nothing on the line as the Washington Senators hosted the Boston Red Sox on October 4, 1913, in the final game of the season for both teams. The Philadelphia Athletics already had won the American League; Washington had clinched second place, and Boston fourth, by splitting a doubleheader the day before. The Boston […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers opened their 1955 season against the Pittsburgh Pirates on a chilly and drizzly weekday afternoon at Ebbets Field. One newspaper account reported, “The thermometer hung in the 40’s; the thin, cutting spray hung like a gray sheet over the field.”1 Brooklyn wanted to atone for the previous year’s second-place finish to their […]

A superior defensive catcher, the well-traveled Leon Ruffin was a member of the 1946 Newark Eagles and a Negro League all-star that same year. Ruffin’s defensive skills were legendary. He was noted for his ability to handle pitching staffs and to detect a batter’s weakness. He had a strong throwing arm that was considered one […]

From internment camps to universal respect in the scouting community, it was quite a journey for Hatsuo Omachi. He picked up the American name George and was nicknamed Hats. George’s parents came to the United States from Hiroshima, Japan, sometime between 1912 and 1915 after working for a while in pineapple fields in Hawaii. After […]

The first thing one might note in glancing at the major-league baseball record of left-handed pitcher Tom Borland is that his career line was 0-4, with a 6.75 earned run average. Was it a burden he bore for the rest of his life? Regardless of anything else, he accomplished something that tens of millions only […]

During a five-season career (1963-1967) spent mostly with the Washington Senators, right-hander Buster Narum tossed shutouts at Yankee Stadium and White Sox Park, and he struck out six future Hall of Famers.1 But Narum, owner of a .059 career batting average, is perhaps better remembered for homering in his first major-league at-bat. He was just […]

For nearly eighty years, Hub Kittle loved and studied pitching. He first realized that this was his calling when he was eight years old. He could outthrow all the neighborhood kids. “Something clicked there, that I had something the good Lord must have gave me. I don’t know why, I couldn’t outfight ’em and I […]

Words cannot contain Mike Burke. A man of boundless courage and matchless charm, by the time he became president of the New York Yankees in 1966, he had already fought the Nazis with the French Resistance, tried to overthrow communist governments for the CIA, served as the model for a movie spy, and run the […]

Skipper Roberts became the third man born in the state of Idaho to make the big leagues when he appeared in 26 games with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1913. The catcher suited up for 56 Federal League games the following summer with the Pittsburgh Rebels and Chicago Feds before a barroom fistfight finished his […]

Scholar-athlete George “Iron” Davis was the secret weapon of the Miracle Braves’ pitching staff. Manager George Stallings had used the 24-year-old right-hander just three times during the first five months of the 1914 season, but when he turned Davis loose, the Harvard Law School student responded with his career highlight: a no-hitter, on September 9, […]

Michael Thomas “Mike” Roarke grew up playing ball in West Warwick, Rhode Island, starred in football and baseball at Boston College before graduating in 1952, built a reputation as a stellar catcher and handler of pitchers in the minor leagues in the 1950s, came to the Detroit Tigers in a multi-player trade with the Milwaukee […]

In June 1950 Jimmy Bloodworth, one of the oldest players on the Philadelphia Phillies youthful roster, quipped, “It took me 34 years to become a Whiz Kid.”1 In truth, Jimmy was soon to turn only 33 but that didn’t prevent him from another of the many wisecracks that endeared him to fans and teammates alike. […]

Fred Koster’s major-league career consisted of only 76 games for the 1931 Philadelphia Phillies as a back-up outfielder. But for years any conversation around the greatest athletes from Louisville, Kentucky, often started with his name. Decades after Koster graduated from the University of Louisville he was still heralded as the best all-around athlete to come […]

Frank E. Bradley, a fireballing right-handed pitcher who played in six seasons for the Kansas City Monarchs before suffering a career-ending wound in World War II, was born on February 3, 1918, in Benton, Bossier Parish, Louisiana. He was the son of June and Adline (Gates) Bradley. If Frank had any siblings, no mention of […]

Any ballplayer named Rhodes is bound to attract the nickname “Dusty,” and that was true with John Gordon Rhodes as well. A right-handed pitcher who stood an even six feet tall and is listed at 187 pounds, he pitched in an even 200 major-league ballgames with a career record of 43-74 and an earned run […]

Arthur “Rube” DeGroff appeared in only 16 major-league games, but he made his mark in the minor leagues from 1903 to 1916. He was a powerful hitter, a speedy baserunner, and a fine outfielder with a rifle arm. He was also “a comedian of much delight to the fans,”1 a boisterous character who enlivened the […]

The 1934 Washington Senators, defending American League champions, were out of the playoff race by August after being decimated by injuries. Thus, team owner Clark Griffith was willing to take a chance on Reese Diggs, a hard-throwing 18-year-old who caught the eye of one of his scouts while pitching on the sandlots of Baltimore. Starved […]

Among the last generation of legendary ivory hunters who covered Southern California in the 1960s to 1980s, no name inspired more fear, trepidation, intimidation, antagonism, and grudging respect than that of Bob Zuk. The cigar-chomping son of Russian immigrants who fashioned a 46-year professional scouting career out of little more than energy, intellect, hustle, and […]

Luther Clifford grew up in an atypical town for the Depression-era United States, a suburban melting pot largely free from racial tensions. What’s more, he could draw inspiration from noteworthy ancestors dating back to the early days of the Civil War. His baseball career may not have been as remarkable, but there’s little reason to […]

This French-Canadian pitcher roamed widely but played just three big-league games in his career. During that one adventurous year, 1946, Roy hopscotched around Cuba, Mexico, Brooklyn — and his birthplace, Montréal. There Jackie Robinson played behind him as Branch Rickey’s “Great Experiment” moved forward. Then came a repercussion from Jorge Pasquel’s flashy raids. Roy jumped […]

Kevin Collins was a hard-nosed infielder who stood up for his teammates and whose teammates stood up for him. He rose through the ranks with the Miracle Mets of 1969 only to be traded for the final piece of that championship puzzle. “When people say I wasn’t an important part of the 1969 Mets, I […]

St. George Grounds began as a paradise, created alongside the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty, in what became the city that never sleeps.1 The centerpiece of developer Erastus Wiman’s resort on the northeast prow of Staten Island, New York, the Grounds were, variously, the last home of the American Association Metropolitans, the setting […]

Baseball traveled through rough waters beginning in the late 1960s, as it navigated increasing player unrest and the growing power of their union. Court cases, strikes, hearings, lawsuits—it was challenging to follow baseball in this period without a law degree. The off-field headliners—Curt Flood, Bowie Kuhn, Marvin Miller, Andy Messersmith, Charlie Finley—are as famous as […]