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Jan Dukes was a left-handed pitcher who pitched in 16 games for the Washington Senators (1969-70) and the Rangers (1972) between 1969 and 1972. Exclusively a reliever in the major leaguers, Dukes had been a highly touted pitcher at Santa Clara College, where he remains a fixture in the schools’ baseball record book. The Washington […]

Duke Maas pitched in the American League during seven seasons from 1955 to 1961, most notably with the New York Yankees. He appeared in relief in the 1958 and 1960 World Series. Maas won the game that clinched the 1958 pennant for New York. In 1959 he started 21 games, fashioning a 14-8 won-loss record […]

Hopelessly out of contention in the 1889 National League pennant chase, the Indianapolis Hoosiers devoted their September schedule to auditioning new talent. Among the club’s recruits was Jack Fee, a 21-year-old pitching prospect with little previous professional experience. In seven late-season appearances, Fee posted two victories and showed enough promise to be placed on the […]

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.” […]

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 […]

Bill Stoneman wasn’t intimidated by the Big Red Machine. On June 19, 1972, in his previous start against the powerhouse Reds, Stoneman tossed a stellar four-hit shutout in a 2-0 Montreal victory. Considering that the Expos had one of the weakest offenses in the major leagues, he needed to continue putting zeroes up on the […]

When Clark Griffith’s Washington Senators — often called the “Griffs”1 — met Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics — the “Macks” — at Philadelphia’s Shibe Park on June 21, 1921, it was a contest between a Washington club on the rise, featuring three future Hall of Famers (Walter Johnson, Bucky Harris, and Sam Rice) and a youthful […]

In more than 200,000 games in major-league history through the 2021 season, only 15 unassisted triple plays have been recorded. Just 35 games have ended on a steal of home. These extremely rare occurrences have never happened in the same major-league game.1 One minor-league game, however, did feature both an unassisted triple play and a […]

Described as a “dazzling performance,” by sportswriter Joseph Durso, St. Louis Cardinals rookie John Stuper overcame two rain delays to toss a complete-game four-hitter, beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 13-1, and force Game Seven of the World Series.1 “For him to pitch nine innings was one of the most impressive performances I’ve ever see under the […]

In 1992 the Houston Astros finished fourth in the National League Western Division, with an 81-81 record. Determined to upgrade its starting pitching, the team made two major free-agent signings within a three-day span in December. First, on December 1, the Astros landed a former Cy Young award winner, right-hander Doug Drabek, for $4.25 million; […]

Vermont is one of the least-represented states on Baseball-Reference’s state-by-state register of minor-league and independent teams. At the end of the 2020 season, the Green Mountain State had hosted just 62 professional teams, trailing only Alaska, Wyoming, and Hawaii among US states.1 You can imagine, then, that the arrival of a new pro team in […]

Inconsistency is not usually a recipe for success in baseball, but you couldn’t tell that to the 2000 Oakland Athletics. After starting the season with a lackluster 25-26 record, their young hitters, led by Ben Grieve and Terrence Long, went on a tear, and the A’s won 20 of their next 24 games. The club […]

The staggering, awe-inspiring numbers point to an era in baseball that seems unfathomable from a modern perspective. Ted Lyons of the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers’ George Uhle combined to toss 41 innings, face 164 batters, and surrender 41 hits, as well as fashion streaks of 14 and 15⅓ scoreless innings, respectively, 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 […]