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Juan González played in the American League during an era of power hitters like Cal Ripken Jr., Albert Belle, Cecil Fielder, Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas, and Rafael Palmeiro. Among them, Igor, as he was nicknamed in his native Puerto Rico, excelled, with the high point of his 17-year career in 1998, when he was […]

For a player who appeared in only 19 games during part of a nineteenth-century season, Daniel Albion Jones Jr. received an inordinate amount of notoriety. Among the many cameo players who flitted briefly across the major-league scene, Jones was perhaps the most unique. He was a Yale man who sang in the college’s glee club. […]

Tenacity and zeal were hallmarks of Gail Henley’s game, which along with stellar baseball skills fueled a rapid rise to the major leagues and engendered high regard from renowned talent evaluators. That tenacity and zeal also played a part in making his big-league career much shorter than expected. The native of Wichita, Kansas, developed a […]

It was early in the evening on March 9, 1934, as the City Light truck made its way down Fourth Avenue South in downtown Seattle. The driver saw a rotund older man step from the curb to cross the street a short distance ahead. The truck slowed to allow him to cross, but when he […]

John Francis Hayden was the youngest of five children born to Irish immigrant William Hayden and Mary Buckley Hayden, from Maryland. He’s listed in baseball records as being born on October 21, 1880, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, near Philadelphia, though census forms all say he was born in October 1877. His father may have died […]

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 […]

The Miracle Mets of 1969 rode their powerful young pitching to an improbable World Series championship, and the man who developed and nurtured that staff was an easygoing ex-catcher named Rube Walker. Despite not being a pitcher himself, he had an innate sense of the mental side of pitching and he used this to help […]

The long and the short of it is that Zack Taylor was the manager who sent 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel to the plate to pinch-hit for the St. Louis Browns against the Detroit Tigers in 1951.  But Taylor was not simply a straight man in an owner’s stunt, for he spent 58 years in professional baseball […]

Tris Speaker of the world champion 1915 Boston Red Sox declared Carl Weilman of the St. Louis Browns to be one of the six best pitchers he ever faced.1 “If you ask the Detroit Tigers,” said sportswriter L.C. Davis, “the six best pitchers in the American League are Carl Weilman.”2 The Tigers were the best […]

A shortstop by trade, Bob Bailor could also play the outfield quite well. In fact, he played every position but first base and catcher during his 11 big-league seasons. Bob Murphy, the late New York Mets radio announcer, said, “He’s not a heavy hitter, but he is a tough competitor.” Like Rex Hudler and Joe […]

Suggest today to Costen Shockley that judging by the newspaper headlines of 50 years ago he must have been quite a high-school baseball player, and he replies with a prideful chuckle that conveys barely a trace of conceit, “Yeah, I was pretty good.” Indeed he must have been. After dominating on the baseball diamond for […]

When 25-year-old Humberto Robinson appeared on the mound for the Milwaukee Braves on April 20, 1955, he became the first Panamanian ever to play in the major leagues.1 A quick glance through the statistics he compiled in the majors would indicate the oft-told story of the journeyman just hanging on in the majors for parts […]

One week in June 1988. Zach Crouch’s major league debut was on June 4, 1988. The young pitcher came into a game at Fenway Park, with the Toronto Blue Jays leading the Red Sox, 7-2, in the top of the ninth. The Jays had already scored four runs in the inning, off ace reliever Lee […]

Ellis Clary played in the majors for nearly four seasons during World War II, and he had an at-bat during the St. Louis Browns’ only World Series appearance in 1944. Once his playing career ended, he spent six years as a coach with the Washington Senators and more than three decades as a scout for […]

Even for serious fans of early baseball, it can be difficult to know what to make of Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame member Arthur “Foxy” Irwin. On one hand, Irwin popularized the baseball glove, inspired a character in a Zane Grey novel, and served as a team captain, player-manager, manager, scout and minor-league owner during […]

How long does the average “indefinite suspension” last? With all the statistics baseball fans accumulate, no one seems to have tabulated that average. In the case of Ken Holloway in 1926, the answer was about a week. Holloway, in his fourth full season with the Tigers, had begun the year in the starting rotation. On […]

The Brooklyn Dodgers had great teams in the immediate post-war years, teams that would win pennants or fight for them until the last day of the season (and sometimes beyond). No team can be successful, though, without a significant presence behind the plate. In the early part of the 1946 season, the Dodgers were struggling […]

“Flint and Corcoran had funny signals for changes of curves,” recalled Tommy Burns, a teammate of catcher Frank “Silver” Flint and pitcher Larry Corcoran of the Chicago White Stockings of the 1880s. “(Corcoran) invariably carried a mammoth chew of tobacco in his mouth, and when he chewed he shifted it about with a movement that […]

In various ways, the life of right-handed pitcher George Pechiney typified the existence of the late-nineteenth-century journeyman player. Pechiney’s abilities were modest, and his major-league career was a relatively brief one, abbreviated by abuse of alcohol. Once his playing days were over, Pechiney returned to the arduous everyday working life from which he had sprung, […]

Hall of Fame catcher Roger Bresnahan claimed that Slim Sallee “had the best control of any southpaw that ever curved a ball over the plate.” Pitcher Dutch Ruether said, “He [Sallee] is a wonderful pitcher. If I ever begin to learn all he knows about baseball I shall be satisfied.” Baseball Magazine attributed Sallee’s success […]

Todd Cruz spent parts of six seasons from 1978 to 1984 as a rifle-armed infielder for six teams. Originally a shortstop, he made two Opening Day starts at that position for the Mariners. After the Orioles converted him to third base, Cruz played every post-season game there for Baltimore’s 1983 World Series champions. Todd Ruben […]

This article appears in SABR’s “Go-Go to Glory: The 1959 Chicago White Sox” (2019), edited by Don Zminda.   On May 7, 2000, Dodgers announcer Vin Scully gave Fordham University’s 155th commencement speech. “Don’t let the winds blow away your dreams or your faith in God,” he said. “And remember, sometimes your wildest dreams come […]

“We shall surprise a good many people this summer,” Rochester manager Pat Powers shared with Sporting Life reporter W.L. Harris on the eve of the American Association’s 1890 season.1 New to the Association, the team incorporated as the “Rochesters Limited” had already shocked the National League’s New York Giants, defeating the reigning World’s Series champions […]

Pete Rose started there. Bernice Gera, professional baseball’s first female umpire, started and finished there. Television dramatist Rod Serling relaxed there. Kenny Shepard, general manager of the local baseball team, slept there. And a young player with a chance to make the majors could be taking the field there today. “There” is McDonough Park, a […]