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Although his playing days were not without accomplishment, Brooklyn Dodgers outfielder Len Koenecke is remembered only for his bizarre and violent death late in the 1935 season. While aloft in midnight skies, he was beaten to death by the pilot of the six-passenger airplane that a berserk Koenecke had attempted to commandeer in mid-flight. The […]

Playing his entire major-league career in the Federal League, Donald George Marion, known in baseball as Dan or Rube, was born on July 31, 1889, in Bowling Green, Ohio. He was a right-handed pitcher, tall for the time at 6-feet-1 and 187 pounds. Nothing is known about his early life other than his birthplace. When […]

Imagine a sudden official statement that George Washington was not, in fact, elected the first President of the United States. For followers of Puerto Rican baseball, such was the magnitude of the announcement that José “El Gacho” Torres, not Hiram Bithorn, was the first man born on the island to play in baseball’s “major leagues.” […]

Like a multitude of others, right-handed pitcher John Fitzgerald owed his ascension to the major leagues to the turmoil of the 1890 season. Among the consequences of the arrival on scene of the upstart Players League was the enlistment of previously minor league clubs into the major league American Association. Among those so elevated was […]

For nearly 80 years, this stumpy catcher was the only man from the Hawaiian island of Maui to make it to the majors. Even more curious is that Tony Rego was born during the brief period (1894-1898) when Hawaii was an independent republic. The “active little pepperbox” (as the Los Angeles Times described him) got […]

Two relief appearances for the 1950 Brooklyn Dodgers were the extent of left-handed pitcher Mal Mallette’s major-league career. An Air Force captain during World War II before entering professional baseball, he became an esteemed journalist after leaving the game. Malcolm Francis “Mal” Mallette was born on January 30, 1922, in Syracuse, New York, and grew […]

Injury has curtailed the career of major league pitchers since the beginning of the professional game. In the days before rotator cuff and Tommy John surgery, pitchers had to hope for recovery or look for another line of work. Theodore A. Kennedy was one of those pitchers, but he was much more than a couple […]

Erv Palica, a laconic Californian, was little more than a bit player during the 1947 season, but four years later he was at the epicenter of a midseason controversy that may have cost the Dodgers the 1951 pennant. Palica was born on February 9, 1928, in Lomita, California, a small town west of Long Beach. […]

If it were not for bad luck, Creepy Crespi may not have had any luck at all. The infielder with one of baseball’s great alliterative nicknames played parts of five seasons in the big leagues, all with his hometown Cardinals, including the World Series title club of 1942. An ankle fracture sustained while playing baseball […]

Whenever the subject of best baseball names comes up, Scipio Spinks is sure to be on the short list. A classic wild flamethrower, Spinks was breaking through to success in 1972. If he hadn’t torn up his knee in a collision with Johnny Bench, he would have more to show than a career record of […]

At the close of his maiden season in 1917, right-hander Oscar Horstmann loomed large in the plans of the St. Louis Cardinals. Effective as both a starter and reliever, the young hurler displayed an excellent fastball, an outstanding overhand curve, and exemplary work habits for the long-downtrodden Cards who were finally making some progress in […]

Through the first three games of the 1918 World Series, the Boston Red Sox had scored a total of just four runs – but won two of the three. After those games in Chicago, the Cubs and Red Sox took the same Sunday train back to Boston to resume play.1 Game One winner Babe Ruth, […]

“You have a great year, and you can run into a buzz saw. Maybe this year, we are the buzz saw.” – Stephen Strasburg1   It can’t be otherwise. You are writing a story about Washington Nationals pitcher Stephen Strasburg and your mind, filled with baseball memories, wanders back to June 8, 2010. The atmosphere […]

It was a “titanic struggle,” declared sportswriter Jack Ryder about the longest, and surely one of the most exciting, games of the 1934 major-league season.1 It featured seven lead changes, clutch hitting, sensational defense, rubber-armed pitching, and some luck. The Cincinnati Reds were having another abysmal season when they engaged the St. Louis Cardinals in […]

Lou Criger batted .211 for the Boston Americans in 1904 — which was nearly a 20-point improvement over the prior year. He managed an OPS+ greater than 100 only once in his 16-year career and never made more than 377 plate appearances. No, Criger was not in the big leagues because of his bat, but […]

The Boston Red Sox had finished 14 games ahead of the Washington Senators in the American League standings. The New York Giants had finished 10 games ahead of second-place Pittsburgh. Though the 1912 Red Sox had won 105 games, the Giants weren’t going to be pushovers. They’d won 103 themselves. They had driven in more […]

Rockford Peaches manager Bill Allington needed a starting pitcher for Game Seven of the 1950 All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (AAGPBL) championship series. The ace of his pitching staff, Lois “Flash” Florreich, was out of commission after injuring her shoulder sliding into home plate in Game Three of the series.1 Allington’s decision wasn’t difficult. Fortunately […]

July 1976 was filled with breathtaking events. Operation Sail’s parade of Tall Ships in New York Harbor marked the 200th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.1 NASA navigated the Viking 1 lander onto the surface of Mars to search for evidence of life.2 And Israeli commandos freed 103 hostages from a hijacked […]

The 2007 Washington Nationals were plodding along a dozen games under .500 when the team arrived in Minnesota late on June 7 for an interleague weekend series. The Twins were playing .500 ball, clearly a disappointment a year after they had won the division behind Most Valuable Player Justin Morneau, batting champ Joe Mauer, and […]

When the Yankees took the field at Comiskey Park on Chicago’s South Side, the question wasn’t whether the Bombers would capture their seventh pennant in eight years since Casey Stengel took over as skipper in 1949, but rather when they would clinch. Catapulted by a 27-6 run, which ended on July 30, the front-running Yankees […]

The Chicago White Sox exploded, according to sportswriter Robert Markus of the Chicago Tribune, “like so many 4th of July skyrockets” on Wednesday, July 7th, knocking off the Detroit Tigers, 7-0.1 This game signaled the emergence of a new offensive threat, 23-year-old Harold Baines. The third-year player walloped three consecutive home runs, one of which […]

A generational talent made his first postseason start in Game Two of the 2009 National League Division Series. A veteran big leaguer, extending his career for a few days, struck the game-winning hit. From beginnings to endings, Game Two between the Dodgers and St. Louis Cardinals had all the elements of a great postseason game, […]

Pete Rose’s return to the Cincinnati Reds on August 17, 1984, marked a high point in a desperately low season for the team. At 51-70, the Reds had little left to play for and only the San Francisco Giants gave the Reds a cushion from the dampness of the NL West basement. Rose, Cincinnati-born and […]

Anticipation grew with each home run. It was late summer 1998, and Roger Maris’s single-season record of 61 homers appeared in reach by not one but two players: the St. Louis Cardinals’ Mark McGwire and the Chicago Cubs’ Sammy Sosa. But throughout that two-man race to 62, few had acknowledged another milestone possibility: two perfect […]