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Given his achievements, Robert “Bobby” Marshall is one of the most underappreciated athletes of the 20th century. In 1903 Marshall became the first Black football player to play for the University of Minnesota. He also starred for the school’s baseball team and later became the first Black semipro hockey player in the nation’s history. After […]

William Edward White, from a Brown University team photo   For fans attending the June 21, 1879, game between the Providence Grays and the Cleveland Blues, there didn’t seem anything very special about the day. The only odd note was, perhaps, Providence’s first baseman. Providence’s usual starter, veteran Joe Start, had broken his finger and, […]

Paul Lehner grew up in a coal-mining family and likely was headed for a life in the mines, but a talent for baseball brought him to the big leagues and gave him the opportunity to play for five different teams over the course of seven seasons. He was a left-handed outfielder and occasional first baseman […]

Right-handed-hitting catcher Dewey Williams played in parts of five major-league seasons, including 59 games with the Chicago Cubs’ last World Series team, in 1945. He had a reputation as an outstanding defensive catcher. When he was signed by the Cubs in 1944, a newspaper reported, “Dewey Williams throws so swiftly and accurately from a squat […]

Pitcher Roy Patterson is best remembered for throwing the first pitch (and recording the first win) in American League history. The 24-year-old right-hander, who would soon become known as the “Boy Wonder,” took the mound at Chicago’s South Side Park on April 24, 1901. Nearly 10,000 fans saw Patterson and the Chicago White Stockings defeat […]

“Good field no hit” is a label that can doom any player. When that player is pushed through the system, it can stunt his natural growth into a position. And when he’s competing against several others for the same spot – people who have much more support from the team – the opportunities may just […]

In his major league debut, this man pitched a no-hit game and followed it with a one-hitter in his next start. He went on to compile a lifetime major league batting average of .362. Such exploits suggest a first-ballot Hall of Famer. In fact, George Nicol spent much of his career in the minor leagues […]

On December 12, 2018, at the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, Museum President Bob Kendrick, with historian Jay Caldwell, announced the Negro League Centennial Team. The team was a key part of the Museum’s celebration in 2020 of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro Leagues. The team of 30 […]

The St. Louis Cardinals teams that won back-to-back National League pennants in 1967 and 1968 included four future Hall of Famers (Orlando Cepeda, Lou Brock, Steve Carlton, and Bob Gibson), not to mention household names like Roger Maris, Tim McCarver, and Curt Flood. Therefore, it easy to overlook the contributions of players such as Ron […]

“Pinkey Whitney is the greatest third baseman in baseball,” said Grover Cleveland Alexander in 1930. During a 12-year career, Whitney played for two National League doormats, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Boston Braves. “It’s a shame he couldn’t have gotten with a winning club,” Alexander said. “That boy is a wonderful fielder and one of […]

If ever there were a battery that was bound together in life and in death, it was probably pitcher Rube Waddell and catcher Osee Schrecongost. They were both born in small communities in western Pennsylvania, on opposite sides of the Allegheny National Forest, and a little less than 100 miles from each other. They both […]

Victor Starffin’s life reads like a Hollywood novel and, in a way, so do his pitching statistics …” — Richard Puff   It is highly probable that no professional baseball player — from any era, country or league — ever lived a more erratic, dramatic, and in the end tragic life than did the pitcher […]

Mike Higgins was a fine player, a successful minor-league manager, a Manager of the Year in his first major-league season, and the face of the Red Sox for several years. But the fortunes of the club deteriorated during his tenure, and for many people Higgins became the face of that failure. While his team continued […]

Although many baseball fans may believe otherwise, Bill Buckner was not exiled from Boston after his infamous 1986 World Series miscue. He appeared in 75 games for the Red Sox in 1987 before the team released him, looking to rejuvenate its outfield by shifting Dwight Evans to first base, freeing up playing time for Todd […]

Until his fateful involvement in the plot to fix a World Series, Fred McMullin was known as the Chicago White Sox’ “lucky man.”1 His addition to the starting lineup coincided with late-season surges to win the American League pennant in 1917 and 1919. Today he is mostly thought of as the “forgotten man” – in […]

llReal Cubs fans never called him Swish. To them he was Big Bill, or Nick. The Swish nickname originated in Brooklyn. The big left-handed hitter always leveled his bat across the plate several times when stepping in to face an opposing pitcher. Dodgers fans would yell, “Swish, swish, swish,” in unison with his practice swings. […]

Just before Christmas 1971, Don Rose was included in what many baseball experts consider one of the worst or best trades of all time. Rose went on to play in only 19 big-league games over the next three years for three different teams. But in one of those games, he did something that very few […]

At age 24, Johnny Broaca had seemingly limitless potential. His multiple athletic skills and academic prowess had lifted him from first-generation American working-class beginnings through a prestigious preparatory school to a Yale degree and a vital spot on the Ruth-Gehrig Yankees’ pitching staff. But a defiant, self-destructive temperament, more than a year voluntarily absent from […]

When rule changes in the 1880s allowed pitchers to begin throwing overhand, and therefore much faster, a skilled catcher was a valuable commodity. The following summed up how Bill Traffley was viewed: “The one thing that makes Traffley a very desirable catcher is his indomitable will, his energy, and the desperate chances which he accepts. […]

It’s a shame that Bubba Church is mostly remembered for getting drilled below his left eye by a Ted Kluszewski line drive, because, as a 25-year-old rookie, Church was a key member of the 1950 Whiz Kids pitching staff. In fact, it is unlikely that the Phillies would have won the pennant without him. Although […]

When the Baltimore Orioles dropped their 20th straight game to open the 1988 season, they broke the post-1900 American/National League record for fewest wins before losing 20. That mark had been held by a ghost from the Orioles’ past, the 1936 St. Louis Browns. (The Browns moved to Baltimore in 1954 and renamed themselves Orioles.) […]

Editor’s note: This article was published in 2016. The popular national sport of baseball maintained and even tightened its hold on the island nation of Cuba in the aftermath of the 1959 socialist revolution. In fact the national game actually expanded in popularity and elevated in talent level during several decades immediately after Fidel Castro’s […]

Days before the start of the 1889 National League season, New York Governor David Hill vetoed legislation that would have rescued the Polo Grounds from imminent demolition by New York City officials. With his club’s ballpark lost, New York Giants principal owner John B. Day activated his fallback plan. Until Day could build a new […]

  High and Inside The Newsletter of the BioProject Committee Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) August 2016 (Special Post-Convention Issue), Volume 1, Number 5 Past newsletters Editor: Stew Thornley From the Director From the Editor Interview with Bob LeMoine Project Profile: Gregory H. Wolf Project Poobahs   From the Director I have just returned […]