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Cap Anson, baseball’s first superstar, was the dominant on-field figure of nineteenth-century baseball. He was a small-town boy from Iowa who earned his fame as the playing manager of the fabled Chicago White Stockings, the National League team now known as the Cubs. A larger-than-life figure of great talents and great faults, Anson managed the […]

While the honor of having the sweetest swing in baseball may seem like it’s a subjective one, few would disagree that Ken Griffey Jr. possessed the sweetest swing there ever was. He was a natural, and his inborn abilities coupled with his youthful enthusiasm ignited an entire city’s passion for baseball. Behind the center-field wall […]

“When I’m hitting the ball,” said Héctor Villanueva, with a big smile, “people say I’m strong. When I’m not hitting, they say I’m fat.” The 6-foot-1, 240-pound catcher issued that quote on April 30, 1991, after breaking the game open for the Chicago Cubs with a three-run homer.i The very next afternoon at Wrigley Field, […]

Joe McEwing might be the most beloved .251 hitter in baseball history. Never a standout player, he nonetheless impressed teammates, coaches, and fans alike with his ability to play almost any position on the field and for his endless energy and positive attitude. “He’s a guy who doesn’t have great ability,” St. Louis Cardinals manager […]

It’s ironic that a player who’s best remembered for the slogan “We’ll win plenty with Sam Dente” would have played almost half his career for two organizations synonymous with losing, the St. Louis Browns and the Washington Senators. It was during his three-year Senators tenure from 1949 through 1951 that the slogan was first seen […]

The cover of the March 20, 1978, annual baseball preview issue of Sports Illustrated featured a picture of Kansas City Royals rookie Clint Hurdle looking ready for action, with the caption “This Year’s Phenom” in bold yellow letters right next to his smiling face. Keeping with the “phenom” theme, the article described the 20-year-old Hurdle […]

Despite having an impressive minor-league record, left-handed-hitting Jim Marshall never could crack the starting lineup on a regular basis for five major-league clubs. As a result, he served mostly as a backup first baseman/outfielder and pinch-hitter during a major-league career that started in 1958 and ended in 1962. After his playing days he became a […]

For nearly eighty years, Hub Kittle loved and studied pitching. He first realized that this was his calling when he was eight years old. He could outthrow all the neighborhood kids. “Something clicked there, that I had something the good Lord must have gave me. I don’t know why, I couldn’t outfight ’em and I […]

At the baseball field in Memorial Park, in Middletown, Maryland, a rural community about fifty miles northwest of Washington, D.C., stands a monument that townspeople erected in honor of Charlie Keller. It’s a bronze plaque affixed atop a waist-high, circular concrete pillar. Beneath a raised profile of Keller is a legend: “Charlie Keller … Middletown’s […]

Mark Baldwin could burn the ball in there. He terrorized opposing batters with his nervous tics on the mound, which were usually followed by one of the swiftest fastballs of the 19th century, if not the swiftest. His catcher at Columbus of the American Association, Jack O’Connor, certainly thought he was the fastest. O’Connor said […]

Paul Gillespie was a high school second-team catcher at 17, a minor-league all-star outfielder at 19, and a major-league catcher at 21. In a career that spanned 89 games from 1942 to 1945, he became the first big-leaguer to hit a home run in both his first and last regular season at-bat. Only one other […]

Without the benefit of hindsight, we can imagine that John Weldon Wyckoff thought himself lucky. Fresh from college at Bucknell and with a year of seasoning in the Tri-State League, he was called up to the big leagues in 1913, to the powerhouse Philadelphia Athletics no less, for which he pitched on two pennant winners. […]

“Hoot, you’re on your way. Nothing can stop you now.” — From “Ghetto to Glory”   Prophetic words indeed. The 1964 World Series was a coming-out party for Bob “Hoot” Gibson. Pitching complete-game victories in Games Five and Seven, Gibson and his teammates on the 1964 St. Louis Cardinals had just disposed of the vaunted […]

Cuban outfielder Carlos Paula parlayed an all-star tour in the United States into a full-time minor-league role in the early 1950s. With his chiseled frame and stylish flair, he became the man who integrated the Washington Senators on September 6, 1954, making the Senators the 12th of the original 16 major-league teams to do so. […]

He was a “little chap with dynamite in powerful wrists”, a ballplayer who suffered through great personal tragedy but played on for 14 major-league seasons before dying at age 39 of a heart attack. Donald Eric McNair was his name; he called himself Eric, though others called him by different nicknames — “Boob” and “Rabbit” […]

It is largely forgotten that Larry Jansen was the winning pitcher when Bobby Thomson hit his “Shot Heard Round the World” to dramatically win the 1951 pennant in the Polo Grounds. Indeed, without Jansen, it is highly unlikely that the Giants would have even been in the playoff against the Brooklyn Dodgers. With 23 victories […]

On June 22, 1990, the Cincinnati Reds hosted the Los Angeles Dodgers at Riverfront Stadium. In the bottom of the ninth inning, the Reds’ Eric Davis was rounding third base after a base hit to right field—the would-be winning run. Dodgers catcher Mike Scioscia stood at home plate as if he was not expecting a […]

Chances are if one were to poll SABR members about the greatest left-hander in the history of the Dodgers franchise, the most frequent response would be, “Sandy Koufax.” But they would be incorrect. Without a doubt, the honor of greatest southpaw in organizational history belongs to Vincent E. Scully. Since the emergence of baseball broadcasts, […]

Controversial, flamboyant, excitable, volatile, hot-headed, crazy, wild, and emotional are among the many adjectives used to describe Julián Tavárez during his 17-year major-league career spent with 11 teams. Over the course of his career, Tavárez developed a reputation as an unpredictable pitcher who was not afraid to pitch inside. The 6-foot-2, 165-pound right-handed hurler hit […]

“The bonus rule will ruin baseball if it isn’t curtailed,” proclaimed Branch Rickey, Pittsburgh Pirates general manager, in August 1952.”1 A revised rule was adopted by the major leagues that winter. Clubs were required to carry any player receiving a signing bonus of more than $4,000 on their major-league roster for a minimum of two […]

When Dave Hoskins of the visiting Dallas Eagles warmed up before his start against the Shreveport Sports on the evening of June 9, 1952, he had reason to be apprehensive. Earlier that day, Hoskins, the Texas League’s first Black player, had received three letters threatening his life. At the time Louisiana was not particularly hospitable […]

The baseball team known as the Braves makes its home in Atlanta, but traces its diamond ancestry back through Milwaukee and to Boston, where it began in 1871. In fact, the Atlanta Braves are the only baseball team that has played every season consecutively since 1871, outdating even the National League itself. While forgotten by […]

1912 Hilldale Club. Back row: Bill Anderson, Alice Robinson, Lloyd Thompson, Marian Caulk, Devere Thompson, Mark Studevan, Clara Ivory, Ed Bolden, Helen Barrett, Charles Gaskins, Mary Ricketts, Hubert Jackson, Grace Ricketts, Sam Anderson and Leon Brice. Front row: Hulett Strothers, Raymond Garner, Billy Hill, Frank “Chink” Wilson, George Kemp, Hugh “Scrappy” Mason and Clarence Porter. […]

Federal League Park in Indianapolis, looking in from the right-field fence. (Indianapolis News, January 27, 1917)   The city of Indianapolis has been home to four short-lived major-league franchises. The first two — the 1878 Indianapolis Blues of the National League and the 1884 Indianapolis Hoosiers of the American Association — were noncompetitive and disbanded […]