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The one year he ventured to the East Coast to play, Charlie Graham suffered through one of the worst seasons any Boston baseball team has ever experienced. Graham spent the rest of his lifelong baseball career in the West, and transitioned from player to manager to become a very prominent and successful team owner. Charles […]

Although Ransom “Randy” Jackson later suggested with tongue somewhat in cheek that he went into professional baseball “for lack of anything better to do; I had to earn money somehow,”1 he in fact had options in 1947 when he caught the attention of the Chicago Cubs. Set to graduate from the University of Texas, he […]

Terry Hughes was a ballyhooed prospect. “I wanted to sign Hughes more than any boy I’ve ever seen,” said Boston Red Sox scout Mace Brown. “He’s got all the equipment.”1 After the Chicago Cubs made Hughes the second overall pick in the June 1967 draft, their manager, Leo Durocher, said, “All I know is that […]

A fiercely independent individual, Heinie Meine had a curious career in organized baseball. Starting off in the Texas League in 1921 as a spitballer after the major leagues had banned the pitch, the right-handed Meine made one uneventful appearance for the St. Louis Browns in 1922, then waited seven years for his next shot in […]

Patsy Tebeau was a pugnacious competitor from the mean streets of St. Louis who sought any advantage he thought he could gain. His tactics delivered a brand of baseball that clearly was much dirtier than you see in the modern game. Bill James has written about 19th century baseball: “The tactics of the eighties were […]

Was it fate that placed infielder Mel Hoderlein with the 1948 Boston Red Sox rather than the Philadelphia Athletics? Writing in Sports Collectors Digest, Brent Kelley makes the point that Hoderlein probably would have had a much longer big-league career had he been signed to an Athletics contract (that team’s 1948 infield had an average […]

Tom Hayes is a footnote in baseball history. To the extent that he is remembered at all, it is for selling 19-year-old Willie Mays to the New York Giants and setting him on his path to immortality. However, in his time, this shrewd, gruff man was a towering figure, a pioneer whose impact in the […]

Remembered for his blazing fastball, Monty Kennedy had an abbreviated minor-league baseball career that was quickly interrupted by military service. Perhaps because of this lack of development time, Kennedy struggled constantly with his control during his time with the Giants and the club eventually ran out of patience with him. However, Kennedy displayed flashes of […]

There have been countless cosmetic changes in how baseball has been played during the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, but the tools and rules of the game — and of the professional sport — have not been radically altered. A spectator from 1901 would recognize the game in 2021. The revolutionary advances occurred in the 19th […]

It’s ironic that a player who’s best remembered for the slogan “We’ll win plenty with Sam Dente” would have played almost half his career for two organizations synonymous with losing, the St. Louis Browns and the Washington Senators. It was during his three-year Senators tenure from 1949 through 1951 that the slogan was first seen […]

An outstanding three-sport high school athlete from Lima, Ohio, Bill Sharp earned a football scholarship from powerhouse Ohio State before entering professional baseball. With the Chicago White Sox and Milwaukee Brewers, Sharp was a spray-hitting swinger and a skilled defensive outfielder for parts of four major-league seasons (1973-1976) before knee problems ended his career. William […]

Don Leshnock finished his big-league pitching career with the enviable statistics of a 0.00 earned run average and 18.0 strikeouts per nine innings pitched. Although his “cup of coffee” Major League Baseball career only lasted all of one game, Leshnock was a stellar college baseball player and also enjoyed several successful minor-league seasons. Donald Lee […]

Before the term “walk-off” homer became a cliché, a Huck Finn–like figure from Pennsylvania coal country, Tom Matchick, hit a dramatic two-run homer off Moe Drabowsky in the ninth inning with two out to beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5–4 on July 19, 1968. Many longtime Detroit Tigers fans have claimed they were at that game, […]

Roland Gladu was a major sports figure in Quebec for decades. His career as a professional baseball player lasted over 20 years, mainly in the outfield and at first and third base. He played as a pro in five different countries – Canada, the United States, Mexico, Cuba, and even Great Britain – and hit […]

Former Army drillmaster Clyde Barfoot, a tall, husky, brown-haired and blue-eyed pitcher, relied on a “twisting fadeaway” called a “screw ball,” much like Christy Mathewson before and Carl Hubbell after him.1 His three seasons in the majors were sandwiched around his most successful professional campaign, winning 26 games in the Pacific Coast League in 1925 […]

Throughout the 20th century and to the present, numerous luminary figures have gained everlasting fame as members of the storied New York Yankee franchise. Starting with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the 1920s, icons like Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford became household names during their illustrious careers. Every decade produced […]

How many teams sign a pitcher who was 22-2 in high school with the plan of making him a third baseman? And then write him a signing bonus of $35,000 – and accept him writing in the figure “1” on the check to convert it into $135,000? The Kansas City Athletics did both, all without […]

As a ballplayer, Judy Gans is a bit of an enigma. On the one hand, his official statistics paint him as a good, but not great, player. On the other, acknowledgment of his greatness by newspaper writers and his peers can be found scattered throughout the early pantheon of Black baseball history. Hall of Fame […]

Estalella was a pudgy, happy-go-lucky sort of a guy who struck people the right way.” — Ossie Bluege1   The 12th player among those in Dave Frishberg’s “Van Lingle Mungo” lyrics lineup is Roberto Estalella, and he is united by rhyme with Danny Gardella, the song’s sixth man.2 There may not have been anything intentional […]

Twenty-four-year-old Milt Nielsen was surprised when his wife, Marilyn, handed him his father’s phone in late September 1949. “Some guy says he is calling from the Cleveland Indians,” she said.1 They had just returned home with their young son to Windom, Minnesota, after Milt finished a very successful season with the Oklahoma City Indians of […]

Ron Hassey is the only catcher to have been behind the plate for two perfect games in the major leagues. Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Mike Piazza, Mickey Cochrane, Carlton Fisk, Gary Carter, and Roy Campanella did not catch any. Buster Posey, Yogi Berra, and Iván Rodríguez have “only” one to their name. In fact, […]

A perennial International League All Star, this “firebrand…of the Eddie Stanky mold”1 made only five plate appearances in the major leagues. Blocked from advancement by notables such as Bill Mazeroski and Dick Groat, Jack Damaska spent 17 years toiling in the minor leagues earning accolades from both teammates and opponents alike while also mentoring other […]

This article appears in SABR’s “Pride of Smoketown: The 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords” (2020), edited by Frederick C. Bush and Bill Nowlin.   As the 1935 baseball season approached, Pittsburgh Crawfords owner Gus Greenlee had every reason to be optimistic about his team’s chances to win the Negro National League championship. Although the 1934 squad had […]

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in SABR’s “The National Pastime,” Vol. 6, No. 1, Winter 1987. To read more from the TNP archives, click here. Cincinnati Reds GM Larry MacPhail and manager Chuck Dressen watch a spring training game in the mid-1930s. (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)   Just over fifty years ago, on March 5, 1936, […]