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When Steve Finley came to bat with one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning on the afternoon of October 2, 2004, he had 35 home runs, tying a career high, and his Los Angeles Dodgers had just rallied to a 3-3 tie with their longtime rivals, the San Francisco […]

As the Tip-Tops and Peppers traveled from Brooklyn to Harrison, New Jersey, for the second game of their two states/same-day twin bill, they may have been delayed by the estimated 15,000 fans also on their way to the Newark team’s ballpark.1 Even if inflated, the number suggested that Federal League baseball was far more popular […]

When the New York Yankees won the first two games of the 1947 World Series, many fans started calling it the “worst World Series in history.”1 After Brooklyn beat the Yankees 9-8 in Game Three, Dodgers fans showed up at Ebbets Field hoping to see their team even the Series. History-minded Brooklyn fans might have […]

The game on Thursday, May 1, 1958, pitting the Pirates against the née Brooklynites, came in the midst of the Bucs’ first visit to Los Angeles after the Dodgers’ relocation. In the first two games of the five-game series, the Pirates prevailed, and would do so again in the third contest. Indeed, the game itself […]

On Sunday, October 9, 1921, the sporting world was obsessed with one question: Would Babe Ruth play in Game Four of the World Series? Three days earlier, the Yankees slugger seriously injured his left forearm, gashing it below the elbow while sliding into third base in the eighth inning of his team’s second consecutive 3-0 […]

It is not always that a star player gets to “come back” to his original team, to finish his career and take his final at-bats to the admiration of his hometown fans. In 2018, after spending six years away from the Seattle Mariners, including the last three with the Florida Marlins, Ichiro Suzuki was unsigned […]

It was a “Veeck” of a ballgame for the St. Louis Browns and their 1,115 managers in the stands at Sportsman’s Park on August 24, 1951, in yet another amazing stunt pulled by the Browns’ legendary owner Bill Veeck Jr. Since winning the American League pennant in 1944 and finishing third in 1945, the only […]

Hugh Duffy strode to home plate in the bottom of the ninth inning. His Bostons trailed 12-11 but Bobby Lowe stood on third and Herman Long was on second after his clutch double. It was another roller-coaster thrill ride for the 2,100 fans in attendance but this was special, as it would be the last […]

The Pittsburgh Rebels made it three in a row over the pennant-contending Indianapolis Hoosiers before a crowd of 1,700 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh on July 24, 1914. The Hoosiers were in the midst of a tight Federal League pennant race with Chicago, Baltimore, and Brooklyn. The win allowed the lowly Rebels to escape the […]

Right-handed pitcher Roy Wilkinson reached the pinnacle of his modest baseball career in only his second major-league game. A capable seven-year minor-league veteran, Wilkinson had been acquired by the Chicago White Sox late in the 1919 pennant chase to provide some respite for a strained pitching corps. Given a September start against the Philadelphia A’s, […]

A switch-hitter with speed and the patience to draw walks, Pete Stanicek appeared to be an ideal leadoff hitter when he debuted with the Baltimore Orioles. A succession of injuries limited the second baseman/outfielder to parts of two big league seasons (1987-1988), however, and he played his final professional game at 27. Peter Louis Stanicek […]

Louis Leroy was a Native American who almost became a charter player for the Boston Red Sox franchise. Leroy was born on February 18, 1879, in Omro, Wisconsin, as a Stockbridge-Munsee Indian, a group of Mohicans who relocated from New York’s Hudson River Valley and Delaware to Wisconsin at the beginning of the nineteenth century. […]

Former major leaguer Ralph Edward “Hap” Myers faced a possible death sentence for armed robbery in El Paso the year after he left the game, but later went on to serve as the director of a number of companies and retired as vice president of Laurentide Finance Corp. He was acquitted of the alleged crime […]

A vital rookie starter for one of the best Pittsburgh Pirates rotations of all time, a PGA-caliber professional, and a recognized expert angler, the “Avondale Blossom” — Charley “Whitey” Glazner — was a talented and multifaceted sportsman in the truest sense of the word. Add in a veteran of the Great War, one who pitched […]

Joe Collins was a winning ballplayer. Known for his smooth fielding and timely pull hitting, the left-handed first baseman/outfielder played in seven World Series – five for the winning side – during his 10-year career (1948-1957) with the New York Yankees. After baseball, he built a strong family and community legacy. Born Joseph Edward Kollonige […]

Grant Johnson, baseball historian Gary Ashwill argues, “was the best everyday player in Black baseball from 1895 to 1909.”1 After slugging his way to a legend with a hometown Findlay, Ohio, club in 1894, “Home Run” Johnson’s career mapped the finest Black teams of the era. He starred at shortstop for the Page Fence Giants, […]

To many major leaguers, their baseball career and the statistics attached to it form their life’s work. To others it’s a steppingstone to a productive life beyond the game. Frank Carpin is one of the latter. The lefty pitched in 49 big-league games in 1965 and 1966 but went on to many decades of success […]

Late-1880s pitcher Billy George was a flame-throwing but incurably wild left-hander, an early prototype of the Steve Dalkowski model.1 In his rookie season with the 1887 New York Giants, George established an ignominious major-league pitching record that stands to this day – most walks issued by a pitcher in a single game: 16.2 Years later, […]

Always willing to entertain the crowd, Germany Schaefer’s antics as a player and coach helped pave the way for later baseball clowns. An infielder with decent range and an average bat, Schaefer had impeccable timing, and more than once delighted fans with clutch performances, including legendary homers off Rube Waddell and Doc White. He gained […]

The Woodman surname has a distinguished history in the string of coastal suburbs north of Boston known as the North Shore. A local restaurateur named Lawrence “Chubby” Woodman claimed to have invented the fried clam there in July 1916. Whether Woodman was truly the first to fry clams is open to debate. What’s certain is […]

A nimble catcher before becoming one of the finest defensive third basemen of his era, Lave Cross spent most of his long career with four Philadelphia franchises.1 First came stints with the American Association’s Athletics and Players’ League’s Quakers, before a half-dozen seasons with the talented but underachieving mid-1890s National League Phillies. His fortunes then […]

Texan lefthander Cliff Hill overcame family tragedy to become a stalwart minor league starter from the late 1910s into the early 1920s. He once won 14 straight games, as well as a 20-inning complete game. Hill pitched in one game in the major leagues, for the cellar-dwelling Philadelphia A’s of 1917. Clifford Joseph Hill was […]

For an obscure two-season pitcher, mid-1880s left-hander Cyclone Miller had a disproportionate effect on the major league record book. For example, without Miller and his contribution to the troubles of the 1884 Providence Grays, it is improbable that teammate Hoss Radbourn would have won 60 games that year, the all-time major league single-season record. Nor […]

Editor’s note: This article first appeared in the Business of Baseball Committee’s Fall 2010 newsletter, “Outside the Lines”. Beirne, a retired Rhode Island priest and active member of the Boston Braves Historical Society, presented this paper at SABR 40 in Atlanta. “Shocking! I am shocked that there is gambling in this place!” One of the […]