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An Ottawa Lynx pitcher delivers a pitch during a Triple-A game. (SeregaI / Dreamstime.com)   The freshly minted Ottawa Lynx were to make their debut March 20, 1993 in a preseason game against the Albuquerque Dukes in Dodgertown. The mixture of prospects and borderline major leaguers who made up the new Triple-A International League affiliate […]

Milwaukee County Stadium was in its third season as home of the National League’s Braves when it hosted the inaugural Global World Series in 1955. (Courtesy of the Milwaukee Brewers)   Half a century before there was a World Baseball Classic, there was the Global World Series. The scars of World War II had not […]

Major League Baseball implemented a package of rule changes for the 2023 season designed to address complaints that the game had become tedious to watch.1 Those complaints centered on pace of play and lack of action, with fans and media noting fewer balls in play and stolen bases and more strikeouts and home runs.2 Some […]

This appendix accompanies the article “Player Win Averages” written by Pete Palmer and published in the Spring 2016 Baseball Research Journal. To scroll down to pitchers, click here.   Player Win Averages-Batters Player Games PW RW Barry Bonds 2986 120.3 123.2 Henry Aaron 3298 97.2 94.6 Willie Mays 2992 95.7 87.5 Mickey Mantle 2401 92.4 […]

  With Connie Mack’s election as president of the Athletics in January 1937, the Mack family now controlled all of the senior leadership positions in the club’s front office. From left: Earle, Connie, and Roy Mack in 1937. (Courtesy of Robert D. Warrington)   The outlook wasn’t brilliant for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1954. In […]

This material was gathered and re-typed from the original newspaper stories by Bill Nowlin, in 2016, to accompany publication of the SABR book Boston’s First Nine: The 1871-75 Boston Red Stockings.   Some Newspaper Coverage of the 1874 European Tour of the Red Stockings and Athletics The bulk of the material presented here is comprised […]

The October 1, 1950, doubleheader between the Chicago White Sox and St. Louis Browns didn’t have much to offer fans in its pregame billing. Both teams were ending dismal seasons in the second division of the American League. These final games of the season didn’t have any consequence for the 1950 campaign in terms of […]

It was a Wednesday afternoon in May. The Chicago White Sox were in Boston. The season was young. Chicago (14-13) was in fourth place. The Red Sox were 11-13, in seventh place, but only five games behind the league-leading Yankees. The season was full of possibilities for both teams. The Red Sox had lost the […]

Early in the 1952 season, the Philadelphia Athletics were struggling against the three-time defending World Series champion New York Yankees. The Yankees’ 3-2 win over the Athletics on May 29, in the opener of a two-day, three-game series at Yankee Stadium, was their fifth over Philadelphia in six games. Yogi Berra scored the winning run […]

No one knew it was the Athletics’ last home opener in Philadelphia, though if you looked closely you could see the writing on the peeling walls of recently rechristened Connie Mack Stadium. But Opening Day 1954 felt less like the end of an era and more like the beginning of one. The uniforms were new, […]

Things weren’t looking that good for the Red Sox heading into the bottom of the ninth. It was the home opener of the 1952 season at Boston’s Fenway Park. Jimmy Dykes and his Philadelphia Athletics held a 4-1 lead. Right-hander Bob Hooper was dealing. He’d allowed seven scattered hits and walked three, but the Red […]

Before the 1953 season, pitcher Alva “Bobo” Holloman predicted great things for himself. Acquired by the St. Louis Browns from the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs the previous October, he immediately started a campaign to assure himself a spot as a starter, telling team owner Bill Veeck that he would be his number-one pitcher and asking, “Am […]

Born in Slovakia and an immigrant to the United States a child, Elmer Valo was better known for drawing walks and making contact than hitting for power in his 20-season major-league career. In more than 1,800 games with six different clubs, Valo walked 942 times but hit just 58 home runs, topping out at 10 […]

Ted Williams went on a bit of a homer-hitting spree over a 2½-week stretch early in the 1950 season. He homered twice on April 30 (both of them three-run homers), hit six more from May 2 to 13, and had another two-home run game on May 16. Twelve more homers followed in June. By midseason, […]

Both starters worked into the ninth inning, and it seemed like a game the Red Sox didn’t want to let get away. Three times they had to take the lead, even in those first nine frames. And then they had to do it once again in the 12th, with one swing from their venerable left […]

On the eve of the 1952 season, 26-year-old Bobby Shantz was already the Philadelphia Athletics’ southpaw ace. In 1951, his second full season in the major-league rotation, he had won 18 games, including 10 of his last 12, and had made the American League All-Star team. With an assortment of breaking balls, including a new […]

As their 1954 season staggered toward its conclusion, the Philadelphia Athletics would host the New York Yankees in the home finale at Connie Mack Stadium. The game, however, was bereft of suspense for either team. For the Yankees, winners of the previous five World Series, their dethroning by the Cleveland Indians was complete. The day […]

In the first game of a twi-night doubleheader on July 17, 1956, Tom Brewer of the Boston Red Sox shut out the visiting Kansas City Athletics when he allowed just four base hits. In so doing, he ran his scoreless innings streak against the Athletics to 38 innings and his record against them to 6-0. […]

New York Yankees infielder Billy Martin celebrated his 29th birthday on May 15, 1957,1 at Manhattan’s Copacabana club. Celebrating with him were teammates Mickey Mantle, Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra, Hank Bauer, and Johnny Kucks. What happened that night has become a part of baseball lore. Exact details of the alcohol-fueled fight involving the Yankees players […]

In 1970, Bill Melton became the first player in Chicago White Sox history to hit 30 or more home runs (33) in a season. One year later, he was the first Chisox player to lead the American League in homers (again with 33). In more than a half-century since then, only Dick Allen has accomplished […]

His name was John Edward Robinson, and his nickname was Jack. Jack E. Robinson? A Red Sox player? Jack Robinson was a right-handed pitcher from New Jersey, not the Jackie Robinson rejected by the Red Sox at an April 1945 Fenway Park tryout. He appeared in three games in eight days for the Red Sox […]

A five-year veteran of the Negro Leagues, Ernesto Vibert Clarke was a one-hit wonder who followed the adage If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. The phrase may be a cliché, but in Clarke’s case it’s an accurate one.  The native of Panama recorded his first and only hit in the major leagues […]

At five feet seven and 158 pounds, Vic Lombardi was hardly an imposing figure on the mound. But the left-hander had enough talent and guile to pitch in 509 games over a seventeen-year professional career, including six seasons in the majors with two starts in the legendary 1947 World Series. He was also a good […]

Elmer William Valo was born in Slovakia but lived the American dream during nearly sixty years in professional baseball. He insisted he was not a “natural athlete,” saying, “Being a baseball player is not a glamorous job, it’s hard work.”1 In twenty years as a major league player, he reached base as often as Joe […]