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When the Philadelphia Phillies signed a pitcher from the Class-D Texas-Oklahoma League in August of 1913, it caused a sensation in Philadelphia newspapers. While it was rare for a major-league team to sign a player from Class D, what created the stir was the player’s background. One Philadelphia newspaper raised two points in its story […]

Pitcher Joe Berry was variously described as little, skinny, slight, bandy-legged, and pint-sized. Berry was officially listed as 5-feet-10 and 145 pounds, but Jim Coleman of The Sporting News wrote that “he was only 135 pounds and looks as harmless as a dead moth.”1 So small was Joe that in 1942 during an exhibition game […]

In 1957 The Sporting News selected Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Jack Sanford the National League’s Rookie of the Year by an overwhelming margin. The “Baseball Bible” provided an in-depth analysis of the abundant freshman class with kudos extended to players who received little to no votes. When the breakdown reached Cal Neeman, the weekly post raved, […]

Nate Colbert wasn’t supposed to play on August 1, 1972. The San Diego slugger had injured his knee in a collision at home plate the night before and was listed as doubtful against the Atlanta Braves. Looking forward to hitting in Atlanta Stadium, known as the Launching Pad, Colbert decided to tough out the pain. […]

Al Richter had a memorable debut, though it wasn’t the kind anyone would want to remember: He was asked to pinch-hit for Les Moss in the bottom of the ninth inning. It was September 23, 1951, facing the New York Yankees. Richter hit into a double play. The Red Sox lost the game, 6-1, to […]

For a brief time in the summer of 1961, Ken Hunt was mentioned in the same sentence with Sandy Koufax as the top two young pitchers in the National League. The 1961 Cincinnati Reds were expected to finish no higher than sixth in the eight-team National League.1 However, on the last day of June, Cincinnati […]

Ruth Kramer Hartman played for the Fort Wayne Daisies of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League during the 1946 and 1947 regular seasons, then with the Grand Rapids Chicks in the 1947 league playoffs. Before playing in the AAGPBL, Ruth was one of the top softball pitchers in her hometown of Reading, Pennsylvania. After baseball […]

Baseball has yet to take firm hold in the island of Jamaica, even though it is surrounded by other nations with a strong tradition in the sport. As the 2018 season ended, four men of Jamaican birth have made it to the majors, all of whom learned the game in the United States. The first […]

At the close of the 1890 season, the Cincinnati Reds had high hopes for rookie backstop Jerry Harrington. The 21-year-old had proved a major asset for the fourth-place (77-55-2, .583) ball club – an able handler of pitchers; a sure-handed receiver with a powerful and accurate throwing arm, and a decent enough batter for any […]

Native Philadelphian Monte Cross played short for the Phillies and Athletics during a particularly successful era in his city’s baseball history. After several earlier major-league stops, he manned the position for the slugging, first-division Phillies from 1898 to 1901. Then, jumping to the American League in 1902, Cross helped the Athletics to two pennants over […]

Raised in “the tenements of Hartford,”1 Walter “Monk” Dubiel rose from hardscrabble roots to  seven-year career in the major leagues that began during World War II after he was declared 4-F because of an eye ailment. It ended eight years later after a series of injuries. His memorable nickname, “Monk,” had a colorful but perhaps […]

Mel McGaha’s life was part Frank Merriwell, part Greek tragedy. Like Merriwell, the fictional athlete popularized in dime novels, McGaha (pronounced mŭ-GAY-hay) was a clean-cut, handsome figure who excelled in multiple sports as a collegian. A University of Arkansas graduate, he was a basketballer drafted by the New York Knickerbockers, a two-way football player signed […]

Sam Rice broke into the major leagues in August of 1915 as a 25-year-old pitcher with the Washington Nationals. After moving to the outfield midway through the following season, he became one of the leading hitters in the American League. Over the course of a 20-year career, most of which he spent in Washington, Rice […]

Early in 1966, when it was still unclear whether the Braves would take root in Atlanta or return to Milwaukee because of a pending court ruling, Ken Johnson was not worried. “If we have to go back to Milwaukee, it will be all right with me,” Johnson said. “I liked it there. I like anyplace […]

James Lee “Jimmie” Newberry was a starting pitcher for the Birmingham Black Barons from 1942 to 1950. Most newspapers and historical sources refer to “Jimmy” as the diminutive of Newberry’s first name. However, the best evidence, which includes two autographs, signed “Jimmie Newberry,” is that he preferred to use the variant “Jimmie.”1 Newberry was born […]

On October 10, 1924, Virgil “Zeke” Barnes stood on the mound in Griffith Stadium, poised within tantalizing reach of a rare and coveted prize, just four outs shy of a Game 7 World Series win. Palpably close, but it was not to be. His moment of reckoning came with an improbable, aberrant bounce of the […]

Before and after his two years in the major leagues, when he was one of the most successful batters for the Federal League’s Kansas City Packers, Bill Kenworthy was both a pitcher and second baseman. He led the Packers in slugging in both 1914 and 1915, and led the team in home runs and RBIs […]

“I’m nobody’s caddy. I should be playing somewhere,” Larry Biittner insisted. “I don’t want to be stereotyped. … Once you get the label you can’t play every day, it sticks. I’ve seen too many careers ruined that way, and I don’t want it to happen to mine.”1 These frustrations were expressed in 1979 as the […]

In 1964 Robert Carpenter, the Philadelphia Phillies president and owner, declared, “Granny Hamner was the best clutch hitter we ever had.”1 During professional baseball’s 1969 centennial celebration, fans honored Hamner as the Phillies’ all-time greatest shortstop. These combined tributes seemingly describe a blissful, long-term relationship between player and team, but that was not to be. Gran […]

Mark S. Polhemus, known as “Humpty Dumpty,” was a gifted right-handed batter who performed for clubs in several minor leagues in the 19th century with a brief appearance in the National League.i He was born on October 4, 1860, in Brooklyn, New York, the younger of two sons of Garret G. Polhemus, a livery-stable keeper, […]

The man the Boston Globe called the “ultimate utility man,” Randy Kutcher, played from 1986 through 1990 for the San Francisco Giants and the Boston Red Sox.1 Primarily an outfielder, he played every position on the field except for first base and pitcher, though his time at catching was limited to the final three innings […]

On a road trip in 1954 with the Philadelphia Phillies, Stan Lopata, called “Big Stash” in the press and Lop by his teammates, was having trouble making contact with the ball. He and his roommate on the Phillies, outfielder Johnny Wyrostek, had just finished eating breakfast at the Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. While Lopata […]

Hub Walker and his younger brother Gee debuted for the Detroit Tigers in 1931. While Gee became a standout hitter and one of the most popular Tigers in the 1930s, Hub, a scrappy, hard-nosed journeyman center fielder, played in just 297 big-league games in parts of five seasons with the Tigers and Cincinnati Reds. A […]

In a region noted for its rich baseball history, one of the Philadelphia area’s most precious treasures was surely a man named Whitey Witt, a big leaguer whose career began with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1916. The quiet country street that bears his name provides the only conspicuous testimony to Witt’s his former presence there. […]