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Right-handed pitcher Elmer Riddle was from a mill town in Georgia, and is one of the few such players who did not enter the major leagues through the textile leagues. He was also half of a brother act in baseball, joining his brother, catcher Johnny Riddle, with Indianapolis in the minor leagues and Cincinnati and […]

David Wright, who possesses more team batting records than any New York Met,1 was arguably the team’s best position player ever. Wright finished in the top 10 in NL MVP voting four times, including 2007, when he finished fourth. He represented the Mets as a National League (NL) All-Star five consecutive years and seven times […]

Chief Johnson was a strong-armed pitcher who had great beginnings to his professional baseball career but met a tragic, untimely end. Johnson was known for hurricane speed and a slippery-elm-laced spitball that baffled batters at all levels of competition. He pitched a shutout in his first major-league start and became a controversial figure when he […]

As of 2013, Hank Wyse held the distinction of being the last Chicago Cubs player to throw a pitch in the World Series. The Cubs and Wyse enjoyed a magical season in 1945 despite losing their seventh consecutive World Series since 1910. Then in his fourth season with the North Siders, the 27-year-old Wyse recorded […]

Josh Kinney was an unlikely candidate to become a major-league ballplayer. He grew up in rural Pennsylvania and spent most of his time dreaming not of baseball, but of hunting turkeys and deer. He attended a high school that lacked a baseball program, forcing him to commute each afternoon to a neighboring school to play. […]

American League batters in the late 1960s often cited the 5-foot-8, 185-pound Tom Phoebus as one of the toughest pitchers to hit against. According to The Sporting News, Phoebus possessed an imposing arsenal of pitches: a good fastball; a slider with the break of a curveball; and a “ridiculous” curveball. Phoebus’s primary pitching challenge was […]

World War II veteran Dick Kryhoski was a lefty-hitting first baseman for seven years in the majors. The son of Polish immigrants played for five teams, including the final St. Louis Browns club and the first edition of the modern Baltimore Orioles. Richard David Kryhoski was born on March 24, 1925, in Leonia, New Jersey. […]

It took a tremendous blast to hit a home run over the 86-foot high right field roof at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field. From the time of the roof’s construction in 1925, until the stadium’s final game in June 1970, only 19 balls, hit by 10 different players[1], ever cleared the roof. Among the men who accomplished […]

Son of a great baseball man, scout and executive Mel Didier, Bob Didier has been in the game for more than five decades, almost as long as his father. He was a professional catcher from 1967 through 1976, including one full season and parts of five others in the majors. He has since served as […]

From 1883 to 1892, third baseman Joe Mulvey contributed offensively and defensively to Philadelphia teams. According to sportswriter Tim Murnane, Mulvey was one of the seven greatest third basemen of the 19th century, along with Billy Nash, Ezra Sutton, Bob Ferguson, Jerry Denny, Tom Burns, and Art Whitney.1 It takes courage to play at the hot corner in any era, but it […]

With his thunderous left-handed home-run stroke, the self-converted catcher Carl “Swish” Sawatski established a reputation as one of the most feared sluggers in Organized Baseball by leading four different leagues in round-trippers in his first five years as a professional (1945 to 1949). Despite his slugging potential, Sawatski bounced around in four different organizations struggling […]

The etymology of the term “ace” meaning the best pitcher on a team derives from the nickname of Asa Brainard, one of the top pitchers of baseball’s early years. Upon settling with the Excelsiors of Brooklyn in 1860, he was initially a second baseman and outfielder because the great James Creighton was positioned in the […]

Turn-of-the-century catcher-utilityman Joe Connor belongs to a baseball fraternity whose charter members include John Ewing, Butts Wagner, John O’Rourke, a pair of Clarkson bothers, and a quartet of Delahantys. The entry requirement is not altogether a happy one: a major-league career totally eclipsed by the accomplishments of a family member bound for Cooperstown. In Joe’s […]

A career backup outfielder, Lynn Jones had nearly a 35-year career in professional baseball as a player and well-traveled coach and manager. Jones played eight seasons in the majors – five with the Detroit Tigers and three with the Kansas City Royals – before embarking on a coaching career that touched the lives of thousands […]

A three-game sub for the 1936 Boston Bees, Andy Pilney was a member of an elite but cheerless fraternity: All-American college football players whose hopes for a similarly sterling career in pro baseball were disappointed. Pilney lands in the middling rank of this group, his diamond fortunes falling somewhere between those of major league mediocrities […]

In March 1993 Rafael Ramirez was trying to secure a bench spot on the rebuilding Oakland Athletics. He was among the first cuts, nursing a sore arm and having been outplayed by another veteran, Dale Sveum.1 The 35-year-old shortstop’s career was effectively over. He spent 13 big-league seasons fielding grounders on two of the most […]

The fourth member of the Boyle family of Cincinnati to play in the majors, Ralph “Buzz” Boyle, made a splash when he joined in the Brooklyn Dodgers at age 25 in June 1933 after brief appearances with Boston Braves in 1929 and 1930. Joining the Dodgers in midseason after some time in the minors, the […]

During the fourth game of the 1927 World Series, Pittsburgh hurler Johnny Miljus threw a wild pitch in the ninth inning that scored Earle Combs from third base, completing a sweep by the New York Yankees. Perhaps the happiest player that day was New York shortstop Mark Koenig. His .500 batting average in the Series […]

“That was the best play I’ve ever seen in my life.” — Happy Chandler, soon-to-be commissioner of baseball, September 18, 1945, reportedly commenting on a sparkling play by Johnnie Cowan in the 1945 Negro World Series1 From his Stockham Valves and Fittings industrial league team in Birmingham, Johnnie Cowan moved in 1940 to the Birmingham […]

With his poor eyesight, and notoriously poor control, flame-throwing pitcher Ryne Duren’s fastball put the fear of God into opposing hitters in the late 1950s and early 1960s. “Duren was the standard by how we ranked hard throwers,” All-Star pitcher and pitching coach Jim Kaat said. “We’d say [so-and-so] can throw almost as hard as […]

After three uncharacteristic second-place finishes in 1933, ’34, and ’35, the New York Yankees responded in decisive fashion. Changes were in order, as reported by Dan Daniel in The Sporting News: “Joe McCarthy is making every effort to win this year.”1 Significant personnel moves prior to the start of the1936 season included the signing of […]

One teammate said Brad Radke was his hero. Another said Radke had more heart than anyone he ever played with. His pitching coach — after nearly three decades in professional baseball — said Radke was the man he respected most in the game. Stoic toughness. Steady reliability. Big-game guts. Brad Radke displayed it all during […]

Nearly a half-century after its publication, one does not encounter much negative criticism of Ball Four, Jim Bouton’s 1970 journal mainly recounting his previous season pitching in the major leagues. A best-seller at the time of its publication, the book fundamentally changed sports literature and journalism, and the way we view our sports heroes. In […]

This article is part 1 of a planned multi-part series on the history of the Chicago Cubs franchise. This chapter covers the journey from the White Stockings to the Cubs from 1876 to 1919.   The 1885 National League champion Chicago White Stockings. 1-George Gore, 2-Silver Flint, 3-Cap Anson, 4-Sy Sutcliffe, 5-Mike Kelly, 6-Fred Pfeffer, […]