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Third baseman Andy Carey had a turbulent Yankee career as one of Casey Stengel’s chosen whipping boys and an equally turbulent personal life. The most famous story about Carey, repeated in many books on Stengel’s dynasty, involves his “called shot.” In his favorite place to hit, Fenway Park, the Yankees were trailing the Red Sox […]

If you page through the annals of Black baseball, you will come across watershed moments – the “First Colored World Series,” Yankee Stadium’s first game between Black ball clubs, Satchel Paige’s first professional no-hitter – and you will find a single face peering across the ages. Historic moments seemed to cling to Clint “The Hawk” […]

“Harvey” McClellan didn’t get much respect — especially from the press. Often characterized as a good-field, no-hit infielder, he managed to last six seasons with the Chicago White Sox despite often being derided in the press. Worse, Harvey wasn’t his first name or even his nickname. It was a simple misspelling by the press. Because […]

Right-hander John Leister (pronounced Lister) worked in 10 major-league games for the Boston Red Sox: eight in 1987 and two in 1990. He’d been considered for a career in professional football — but baseball proved to be his calling. After his six-year pro career (1984-90) ended, he became a college coach. John William Leister was […]

Andy Seminick was a rock-solid catcher who had a career year in 1950 and had a lot to do with the Phillies winning their first pennant in 35 years. He was the antithesis of bonus babies like Curt Simmons, Robin Roberts, Richie Ashburn, and Stan Lopata because he was anything but highly sought after. He […]

Tabbed “the best young catching prospect to try for a major league berth in many years” in the spring of 1948 by Pirates rookie manager Billy Meyer, Ed Fitz Gerald went on to have a 12-year major-league career as a backup catcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Senators, and Cleveland Indians.1 The gangly, six-foot, 170-pound […]

A 1 1/3-inning stint with the 1938 Boston Bees was the only major-league action that pitcher Mike Balas achieved during a professional baseball career that spanned a dozen years, from 1929 through 1940. His greater legacy to baseball, though, was his conscientious objector status during World War II. Unlike the majority of his ballplaying brethren […]

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 […]

Monty Pfyl’s career began and ended with his “ultimate sacrifice.” In the left-handed first baseman’s only major league at bat, he followed instructions from John McGraw and laid down a sacrifice bunt. This event occurred before Pfyl had ever played an inning in the minor leagues. He later committed one of the Deadball Era’s ultimate […]

“Just call me Hank,” said Henry “Prince” Oana. He didn’t really come from Hawaiian royalty, but there was still a certain mystique about this outfielder-turned-pitcher. In a time when mainstream baseball lacked diversity, Oana was something exotic. When this story was originally published in 2009, there weren’t many men alive who knew Hank Oana during […]

John Mahlon “Jack” Ogden played in the major leagues for fewer than five unremarkable seasons but he left his mark on baseball in other capacities: as the pitcher with the most victories in International League history and as an executive and scout for four decades. In an era when unaffiliated minor-league teams paid their star […]

Joe Black helped lead the Brooklyn Dodgers to the 1952 pennant, going 15-4 with 15 saves, and a 2.15 ERA. He won the NL’s Rookie of the Year Award and became the first African American pitcher to win a World Series game. “Let’s put it this way,” Dodgers manager Chuck Dressen told reporters, “Where would […]

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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. […]

Both the Washington Nationals (18-16, second in the NL East, 2½ games behind the New York Mets) and the Arizona Diamondbacks (15-17, fourth in the NL West, seven games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers) entered this game looking for a series win. The first game of the three-game series had been a blowout for […]

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 […]

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 […]