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National League umpire Cy Rigler was a model of restraint in confrontations involving disputed calls, earning a reputation as the “least thin-skinned” of his contemporaries. The genial arbiter chose the role of peacemaker, refraining from profanity and seldom ejecting a player or manager, and it’s a good thing that he did——Rigler stood nearly 6’0″ and […]

Reuben Stephenson was nicknamed “Dummy” by the fans and scribes because of his deafness. In baseball, friends, teammates, and opponents usually just called him “Steve” or “Stevey.” He grew up catching at the New Jersey School for the Deaf but landed with the Camden semi-pro club in 1892 as a center fielder, much to his […]

Casey Stengel, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1934 to 1936, was impressed with New York Giants left fielder Jo-Jo Moore. “Every time we play the Giants, Moore is robbing one of our hitters of an extra-base hit with a great catch,” said Stengel. “Every time I look up from the bench Moore is rounding […]

In February of 2006, Orestes “Minnie” Miñoso was preparing himself for the day he had anticipated for many years. Considered by a significant group of historians, statisticians, and old-time fans to be among the best baseball players not enshrined in the Hall of Fame, Miñoso awaited the voting results of the Committee on African-American Baseball, […]

If “Who was Joe Tipton?” was the answer on Jeopardy!, the writers might have struggled to provide the clue. Perhaps only the savviest of baseball fans would be able to recall the backup catcher of seven seasons in the majors. Tipton’s seven years, all in the American League, were highlighted by 1948. In his rookie […]

Mike Blyzka was part of one of major-league baseball’s biggest trades – a 17-player mega-swap between the Orioles and Yankees in the fall of 1954. Headlining New York’s acquisitions were future Cy Young Award winner Bob Turley and Don Larsen – the pitcher who later twirled the only (as of 2022) perfect game in World […]

Harry Byrd Highway runs west from US 401 for about five miles along South Carolina Route 34/151, and past Darlington Raceway, NASCAR’s first paved superspeedway. The 1.25-mile egg-shaped oval, built in 1950, is a shrine for stock-car racing comparable to what Wrigley Field is for baseball. Many racing fans visiting the Darlington Raceway Stock Car […]

Gene Autry was the kind of man who paid the bills for old friends in their old age, rode in the front seat beside his chauffeur, and showed up in the bar of his resort hotel to lead guests in a sing-along. During his heyday as a singing cowboy, his fans ranged from the obvious […]

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 […]

Equally at home rounding the bases or rounding up cattle, Dave Philley played major-league baseball with the same no-nonsense efficiency he successfully utilized in operating his 557-acre ranch and managing his other business enterprises. David Earl Philley was born on May 16, 1920, in Garret’s Bluff, a suburb of Paris, Texas, in the northeastern part […]

Al Aber’s money pitch was the sinker. When he executed it to his full potential, American League hitters flailed at his offerings. Al Rosen, a fine hitter in his day and one of Aber’s teammates in Cleveland, remarked that “he’s a left-handed Bob Lemon.”1  Neither Aber, a southpaw, nor Lemon, a right-hander, could hurl a […]

Jim Dyck’s major-league career was relatively short and undistinguished. It spanned six years, four of which involved stints in the minors, only one season with more than 400 at-bats and a mediocre .246 average. In his brief stint with the 1954 Indians, Dyck had only two plate appearances. Yet during his career Dyck helped set […]

Howie Fox was a right-handed pitcher who spent most of his career with the Reds during the club’s franchise-worst stretch of 11 consecutive losing seasons. By the time Cincinnati finished over .500 again, Fox had been traded, released and tragically murdered. Howard Francis Fox was born on March 1, 1921, in Coburg, Oregon — population […]

As organizer and nonplaying manager of the hapless 1890 Brooklyn Gladiators of the American Association, Jim Kennedy barely rates a footnote in the annals of major-league baseball. But during his turn-of-the-century heyday, Kennedy was a prominent actor in the sporting life of New York. As a young man he covered the National League New York […]

The Chicago Cubs have had some outstanding second basemen in their long history. Four of them are enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame: Johnny Evers, Rogers Hornsby, Billy Herman, and Ryne Sandberg. There were some who thought that Ken Hubbs might take his place next to them in Cooperstown. “Kenny would have been […]

America as a land of immigrants sometimes produces unexpected surprises. One of them was a Croatian nicknamed Catfish. The outfielder/first baseman George Michael Metkovich played in over 1,000 major-league games from 1943-54, with a career batting average of .261 working for six different big-league teams. He was dubbed “a meteor — never a star.”1 Metkovich […]

Hector Headley Lopez, the Panamanian-born third baseman for the Kansas City Athletics, saw his solid career shift to a better team when the A’s traded him to the New York Yankees on May 26, 1959. After more than four seasons in Kansas City as a regular infielder, mostly at third base, Lopez continued to play […]

Ted Wills lived in 2009 at the end of a quiet cul-de-sac in a planned community on the outskirts of Clovis, California, near Fresno in the central park of the state. His house overlooks seasonal wetlands protected by the Department of Reclamation, a setting that suggests a lifelong love of hunting and fishing. Wills’s cheerful greeting at […]

The first one didn’t count. If you want to get technical about it, the Astros’ first victory in the Astrodome was a 2-1 win in a 12-inning exhibition game against the New York Yankees that inaugurated the stadium on April 9, 1965. And according to Rusty Staub, that game had a Game Seven air about […]

Entering the 1958 season, only two major-league teams – the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox – had never employed a Black player. Controversy in each city guaranteed that the first player across the line would play under extra attention and pressure. The Tigers acted first, introducing their first Black player in June.1 The […]

“Any time they cut into your arm, you’re going to worry, but I think I’ve proved I’m all right,” said Nolan Ryan, the California Angels’ flamethrower, after fanning 18 Chicago White Sox.1 The White Sox’ Ralph Garr, a former batting champ with the Atlanta Braves, agreed, gushing that Ryan “threw better than anyone I’ve seen […]

On June 19, 1977, theatrical rock singer Alice Cooper played his first live concert in almost two years, headlining a five-performer bill at California’s Anaheim Stadium before 40,000 fans. Cooper focused on songs from his recently released Lace and Whiskey album, on which he portrayed a hard-drinking private detective named Maurice Escargot.1 It was Cooper’s […]

When the Washington Senators suited up for the final game of the season on October 2, 1960, they didn’t know it would be the last one for the storied franchise in the nation’s capital. In what appeared to be a hasty action by the American League only a few weeks after the season ended, Senators […]

Greenlee Field, located in the 2500 block of Bedford Avenue, had its official opening on April 29, 1932, when the Crawfords hosted the New York Black Yankees and lost a tough 1-0 game. (NOIRTECH RESEARCH, INC.)   In 1931 the United States economy was drowning in the sea of the Great Depression, which brought nearly […]