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Jeff Heath was 33 years old and in his 13th big-league season in 1948 when he surprised his critics and helped lead the Boston Braves to the National League pennant. Playing in just 115 games under manager Billy Southworth’s platoon system, he hit 20 home runs, drove in 76 runs, and batted a resounding .319. […]

From manager Don Heffner’s perspective, hurler John Tsitouris drew favorable comparisons to Hall of Famer Red Ruffing because “when you sent him out to the mound, you knew he was going to give you a good job.”1 Splendid likeness for a pitcher with a lifetime 34-38 record. Tsitouris’s tantalizing ability caused teams to continually try […]

Here’s how the story goes: a young lefty pitcher in the 1910s breaks into the big leagues but as time goes on, his hitting is too good to leave him out of the lineup in between starts. He eventually blossoms into an exceptional hitting outfielder on baseball’s biggest stage, New York City. If you thought […]

A generation after Johnny Bench’s last game, he remains the gold standard for baseball catchers of any era. By the age of 20 he had redefined how to play the position, and by 22 he was the biggest star, at any position, in all of baseball. Catching eventually took its toll, moving him to the […]

Left-handed all the way, Elmer Sutcliffe ranks 4th in games caught by a southpaw and 10th in games played by a lefty shortstop. The classic hayseed when he arrived in the majors, he was immediately dubbed “Old Sy” because he looked like a New England farmer. Eight years later he departed the game in disgrace […]

In the estimation of nineteenth-century baseball historian David Nemec, Pittsburgh pitcher “Billy Gumbert may have been more talented than his younger brother Ad,”1 a 123-game major-league winner. But Billy’s disinclination to journey far from a budding career in local business restricted his ballplaying opportunities. He pitched only home games at Recreation Park after a morning […]

None other than noted baseball statistics guru Bill James observed and commented, “At the age of 21, Tuck Turner hit .416 and scored 91 runs in 80 games; he also drove in 82 runs.” His career degenerated quickly after that. “I can’t remember that I ever read anything about him, and I have no idea […]

For one generation of Pittsburghers, Pie Traynor was that tanned, silver-haired old man on Studio Wrestling. For another generation, he was the monotone voice that came out of the radio every evening to talk about sports. But for an older generation — and for most baseball fans outside the Pittsburgh area — he was the […]

Ozzie Guillén was born to compete. The competition and motivation to win were the forces that drove the 5-foot-11 shortstop and future manager to put on the uniform every day. The fiery and combative personality was on display every game. He often vocalized his opinions; making controversial statements to the press became his trademark, much […]

“He was what could be classified as a crazy ball player. You could never defense him well or pitch him certain kinds of pitches because he was so unpredictable. If you were nine runs down, Holloway might try to steal home if he thought it might help to motivate the team in their comeback effort.” […]

Growing up in downstate Illinois, between Chicago and St. Louis, a midcentury youth was blessed by time and place. By radio, born in 1920, and television’s relatively new wonderwork, baseball could be followed through the art of play-by-play. If you grasped the pastime’s rhythm, the Voices often became as arresting as being at the park. […]

Pitchers have nightmares about a bullet back to the mound. Imagine having sight in just one eye to snare the ball. That was Howie Judson’s reality in his seven-year major-league career. Howard Kolls Judson was born on February 16, 1925, in Hebron, a village of about 600 residents in McHenry County, 75 miles northwest of […]

Except for two games in the 1890 Players League, Fred Doe devoted his entire baseball career to the minor leagues in New England. On the diamond, Doe quickly progressed from player to manager during the period 1885 to 1888. In the 1890s, Doe became a non-playing manager and in the early 1900s he moved up […]

A preview of the pitching staff of the 1902 Chicago White Sox included a brief profile of right-hander “John Katoll, known to his teammates as ‘Big Jack’ … a blacksmith from Detroit … who has been a steady and reliable man if not brilliant in his work. He has great speed with fair control, and […]

When it comes to two-way players, Babe Ruth was the archetype. Martín Dihigo, Bullet Joe Rogan, and Leon Day became Hall of Famers. Another Negro Leaguer, Ted Radcliffe, was renowned as “Double Duty.” In recent years, Shohei Ohtani has also attracted widespread attention. A lesser-known example of the breed is Joe Pactwa. The lefty reached […]

From 1906 to 1911, right-handed pitcher Wallace Luther “Toots” Shultz was the most sought-after student/athlete in baseball. From his days at prep school through his college days at the University of Pennsylvania he was pursued by his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates, the Philadelphia A’s and Phillies, both Boston teams, and the New York Highlanders. In 1911, […]

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 […]

Jimmy Johnston piled up record-setting stolen-base numbers in the minors, played every outfield and infield position, and contributed to the first two Brooklyn World Series teams. In 1920 he battled brother Doc Johnston of Cleveland as part of the first World Series sibling rivalry.1 Rooted in Tennessee, Johnston’s ancestors farmed, prayed, and played baseball. His […]

Aquino Abreu was a diminutive righty who pitched for a decade and a half during the formative years of the modern-era post-revolution Cuban League. That Abreu’s triumphs fell entirely outside the realm of professional Organized Baseball may be a prime reason he remains virtually unknown to North American and Asian baseball fanatics. Few know anything […]

By the close of the 1905 season, first baseman Joe Nealon was the most highly coveted minor league prospect on the West Coast. Young (not yet 21), large (at least 6-foot-2, 200-plus pounds),1 and athletically gifted, his services became the object of an intense bidding war among major league clubs ultimately won by the Pittsburgh […]

Left-hander Ted Bowsfield spent seven seasons in the big leagues, initially signing with the Red Sox but later becoming arguably the best pitcher in the first year of Los Angeles Angels baseball. He later became director of stadium operations and team travel for the Angels, then head of the Kingdome in Seattle. Bowsfield was born […]

Infielder Albert Roberge played portions of three seasons with the Boston Braves during the 1940s. He appeared in 177 games and compiled a lifetime .220 batting average. Three years of military service during World War II interrupted his baseball career. After playing a brief period in the majors on his return from the war, Roberge […]

Going in, the game had the makings of one of the all-time-great pitching duels in big-league history, pitting two fireballing Texans against each other. One was a veteran seeking his 300th career win to further burnish his Hall of Fame credentials; the other, an upstart off to the kind of career launch that might have […]