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If charted, the seven-season American Association career of shortstop Frank Fennelly would present an intriguing picture: a slightly above-average baseline with peaks of circuit-best and valleys of circuit-worst performance. When he broke into the major leagues in 1884, Fennelly had a live bat. His .311 batting average placed him in the AA’s top ten. The […]

It simply should not have taken six years for Gary Carter to get into the Hall of Fame. He was one of the best catchers of his era, and many observers put him in the top ten in major-league history. He was an outstanding defender with a strong arm who did all the other things […]

A small memorial park is all that remains of Lane Field, home of the Pacific Coast League’s San Diego Padres from 1936 until 1957.1 Wind glyphs fly from three poles in the small park, each depicting a player from Padres history, a fielder, a batter and a pitcher. Ted Williams is both the batter and […]

During an eastern road trip in the middle of the 1912 season, Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey made two moves to strengthen his thin pitching staff. One was the purchase of Eddie Cicotte from the Boston Red Sox. The other was the acquisition of a hard-throwing youngster from the Burlington, Iowa club of the […]

 Fa’a Samoa – The Samoan Way – is an ethic that embraces a community. Its central tenets are respect for elders, religious faith, and unshakable family loyalty. Aiga, perhaps best translated as clan, guided the life of Samoa’s sole major-leaguer: Tolia “Tony” Solaita. Tolia was born in the village of Nu’uuli, on the main American […]

Charles Richard “Charlie” Maxwell, the popular outfielder of the Tigers from 1955 to 1962, often called “Paw Paw” by fans, writers, and broadcasters, was one of Detroit’s best power hitters. A lefthanded batter who averaged .264 lifetime, Charlie hit 148 home runs and batted in 532 runs in a major league career lasting from 1950 […]

Effective as a leadoff man or in the middle of the lineup, Hy (or “Hi”) Myers was a speedy center fielder whose unique running style made him popular with fans wherever he played. “Myers galloped with his long arms held straight down by his sides, like a man running for a train with a heavy […]

When Ned Garver won his 20th game on the last day of the 1951 season for the lowly St. Louis Browns in 1951, he became the first pitcher in major league history to win 20 games for a team which lost 100. One of the most durable pitchers of his era, the right-handed Garver led […]

Tried and convicted of murder in a court of law, Ralph “Blackie” Schwamb hurled his best pitches from behind prison walls. The tall, lanky right-hander with a nasty temper and a taste for booze won just a single game as a major leaguer. He won 131 games while playing for teams based at the San […]

Apparently young Powel Crosley Jr. had little interest in America’s pastime. Although he grew up in a baseball town, there is no evidence that he ever played the game. His favorite sports were hunting and fishing. His passions were automobiles, airplanes, and yachts. The restless energy, fertile imagination, and adventurous spirit that inspired his multiple […]

Sometime after World War II, Woody Guthrie wrote a song called “Joe DiMaggio Done It Again.” Praising DiMaggio’s baseball exploits, the title could also refer to the fact that when Joltin’ Joe married Marilyn Monroe in 1954, it was his second marriage to a glamorous blonde actress. DiMaggio married Dorothy Arnold of Duluth, Minnesota, on […]

Though he played ten years in the majors, when people look back at Ossie Vitt’s career, they tend to remember the player mutiny against him by the team called the “Cleveland Crybabies” when he was manager of the Indians in 1940. He managed the Indians from 1938 through 1940, and 18 seasons in the minor […]

“Moe was just scary. The whole league was afraid of him.” – Terry Ryan, future Minnesota Twins GM and teammate of Moe Hill’s in 19731 “A living legend, the Hank Aaron of Class A ball.” – Rick Wolff, a Midwest League opponent of Hill’s in 19742   If ever a player personified minor-league baseball, it […]

Inspired in part by his older cousin José Uribe, who returned every winter to the Dominican Republic with tales of his life in major-league baseball, Juan Uribe from an early age aspired to play in the big leagues. That dream ultimately became a reality as Uribe crafted a 16-season major-league career that saw him playing […]

Charles Wayne Vaughan was born the third son of Gene and Judy Vaughan of Weslaco, Texas, on October 6, 1947 in the nearby hospital at Mercedes. Married in 1941, Judy gave birth to their first son, Richard, in 1944 and bore a second son, Eddie, in 1946. Gene was successful in sales for Burton Auto […]

There are only seven players in baseball history who have earned both an Olympic gold medal and a World Series ring. One of these men also has a Gold Glove on his mantel — Doug Mientkiewicz. Mientkiewicz, a 12-year major-league baseball veteran. finished with a .271 career batting average. He played for seven different teams […]

Julio “Monchy” de Arcos (1922-1966) was a Cuban executive and scout. He was associated with the major leagues as early as 1941, when the Brooklyn Dodgers trained in Cuba’s capital, La Habana. Thanks to his friendship with Leo Durocher, then Brooklyn’s manager, he was the Dodgers’ interpreter and batboy. In the mid-1940s, de Arcos became […]

One of the stellar college pitchers at the turn of the 20th century, Walter Clarkson of Harvard University played parts of five seasons in major-league baseball from 1904 to 1908, and compiled an ordinary 18-16 lifetime record in 78 games pitched. Clarkson gained lasting notoriety as a symbol of amateur athletics gone awry in college […]

Skipper Roberts became the third man born in the state of Idaho to make the big leagues when he appeared in 26 games with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1913. The catcher suited up for 56 Federal League games the following summer with the Pittsburgh Rebels and Chicago Feds before a barroom fistfight finished his […]

Lou Finney was a tough man to strike out. A fast, feisty left-handed hitter with line-drive power, Finney made contact often enough and was versatile enough in the field to play an important role first for Connie Mack’s Depression-era Philadelphia Athletics and later for Joe Cronin’s World War II-era Boston Red Sox. A scrappy, curly-haired Alabaman […]

Gonzalo Márquez, one of the earlier Venezuelans in the majors, never played a full year in “The Show.” From 1972 through 1974, he got into just 76 regular-season games with Oakland and the Chicago Cubs. Márquez’s primary position was first base, and he was a good fielder — but he lacked power. Across his entire […]

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 […]

The 1969 expansion of the major leagues and the splitting of leagues into two divisions worked well for the Minnesota Twins, even though the front office was concerned about the impact on attendance by getting fewer games against popular teams like Detroit, Baltimore, New York, and Boston. However, the Twins were being placed in a […]

This article appears in SABR’s “Go-Go to Glory: The 1959 Chicago White Sox” (2019), edited by Don Zminda.   As a franchise, the Chicago White Sox have had a colorful history. With all the organization has endured over the years, some may consider them the most literary of professional baseball teams. Great 20th century writers […]